Don't worry, I am drawing and crafting and running around having fun, but today I remembered something that happened while in college and thought it was the perfect type of story to share during this time of year:
The professors warned me about the fine arts building once… it was a
vague warning that didn’t go past a: “You don’t want to be here alone at
night”, said in slightly hurried and furtive tone.
I dismissed
it, I was just on my second year of college, working two jobs and with a
full load of classes, I didn’t have the time nor patience for silly
ghost stories, overall with finals looming and about 5 large and
extremely complex art pieces left to finish.
If I had to make a
nest out of discarded canvases, discarded cloth and sponges, so help me I
would and I would sleep an hour or so in it to finish my projects.
Juvenile silly superstitions and stories weren’t going to even bother me a bit.
And
so, after my second job I walked back into the building, hours after
the sun had set and classes had ended. I had my very own key, (the only
student with one at the time), and so I made sure the doors were locked,
put on my headphones and started to work on silk screen prints…
One
hour into things I decided to take a short break, the prints needed to
dry between color passes, and I was starting to get sore feet.
I
stopped my MP3 player and heard voices coming from the hallway. I was
happy, finally some company! Maybe one or two of my classmates had come
by to work.
I waited, the voices came closer to the room I was
in, I could hear footsteps… they were by the door, I could hear them
clear as day, but then… silence…
Odd… I stood up and walked on over to say hi. I pushed the door open, and found no-one there.
Then
I remembered I had locked the doors, maybe it was a professor? I walked
around the building, checked the doors, all still locked, nobody was
there at all.
I felt so silly, I shrugged and went back to work,
before I could start again my phone rang, my husband wanted to come over
and keep me company, he would be there shortly with food. So I went
ahead and unlocked a back door.
I cheered up and pushed through more work.
Another hour passed, I was messing with water and chemicals, so my player sat turned off on a table.
I heard the main door open… I didn’t give it much thought, I was on a roll with my prints and expecting company after all.
I started to clean my hands as I heard someone coming up the main staircase, I was hungry and looking forward to dinner.
The footsteps got all the way to the door, the doorknob made the sound of it turning, and then… nothing.
Had my husband turned around? Did he forget something in the car?
I went over to check, but again, nothing, and then I remembered the main door was still locked.
Maybe I was too tired and hungry and hearing what I wanted to hear.
Still, I went about quietly and sneaking about to make sure nobody was
in the building and trying to play a prank on me.
Nothing, and all doors were still locked, save the back one I had unlocked before.
I shook it off and turned around to go back upstairs… but as I opened
the door I heard someone running up the stairs, then stop and shuffle
in the first landing.
"HAHA! Very funny! I got you now!" I said triumphantly
I bolted up the stairs, but nobody was there and the door to the second floor never flew open to let anyone out.
"OK… that was a bit weird…" I said to myself.
And then, the voices started again. Clear as day, two people were
having a conversation down the hallway and walking away casually.
I peeked through the small window in the door, but the hallway was empty. I opened the door, the sound stopped again.
I looked out the windows, walked out onto the connector between
buildings outside, not a soul was walking around, I could only hear the
wind and a distant car passing by in the middle of the night.
There had to be an explanation, I tried to forget it, but was careful
walking back to the print making room, just in case a stranger had
weaseled his way into the building.
I turned all the lights on on the hallways as I went and sat down for a second, listening.
Nothing… but then… laughter… someone was laughing somewhere, then a cough, and walking again.
I looked at my phone and wondered where my husband had gone off to and why wasn’t he there yet.
Things were getting rather creepy, I didn’t feel safe.
And suddenly, the sound of the main door slammed open and shut, and a
set of footsteps furiously ran up the main stair case, the stair case
door flung open violently, the footsteps ran towards my door and I
stopped breathing for several seconds.
BAM!! Something slammed against the door, and at the same time, the back door opened.
I gasped, I couldn’t move from my chair, the door knob rattled, then stopped, and suddenly it flew open.
"Hi!" said my husband walking in casually.
"Holy freaking cow man! You scared the poop out of me!"
"Huh? What? Why?" he said half laughing at me.
"Was the main
door open? Why did you run up the staircase? Did you smack yourself
against the door? What the hell man?! It is too late at night for that!"
I barked.
"Wow… what?! I came through the back door and just walked in… what are you talking about?" he answered in an annoyed tone.
We argued for a bit, I explained to him what been happening all
night, he laughed at me, we went around and checked all the doors again
and inspected the place. All the doors had been locked the whole time,
nobody was around.
I worked for several more hours, we talked, played music and I tried
to stop being freaked out about it, but I never worked there alone at
night again.
On time to time classmates would try and stay there alone, but they
had the same experience, some would hear screaming and crying, if we had
to stay late we would come in as a group and play loud music, because
you could still hear voices and footsteps even if you weren’t alone.
