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Frightening Tales of Working Alone at Night · True Horror Stories

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I used to work as a night clerk in a
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: downtown condominium. The association had a lot of security concerns
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: due to the way the building was constructed back in
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the late sixties. Both levels of the parking garage were
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: accessible from street level, so there were a lot of
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: possible entry points, many of which were located in blind
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: spots of the security camera system. For that reason, I
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: was required to make two rounds around the entire building
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: during my shift to make sure no non residents had
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: found their way in. The most serious issue that we
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: had was the occasional car jacking, but what I encountered
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: most often was homeless people who had found their way
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: into the garage and were huddling in some corner for
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: a bit of shelter. Kicking them back out into the
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: street was by far my least favorite part of the job,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: but I had to do it. After working there for
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: several months, I knew all the spots that people liked
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to hide in. The building was very old and had
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: undergone many renovations in its lifetime, which created a lot
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of nooks and crannies, unnecessary concrete protusions sealed off rooms
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: and hallways and stairs that led to nowhere. The creepiest
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: spot in the whole building was so weird and potentially
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: dangerous that I took a picture of it and I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: brought it up to management. On the first floor of
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the garage, there was a door that opened up to
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: a corridor directly underneath the ramp up to the second
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: level of the garage. It was about three feet wide
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and ran about twenty to thirty feet, but it led
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: to literally nowhere. At the end of it was a
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: large water pipe with a valve, which was the only
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: reason the space existed. But in the dark, with just
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: a weak flashlight, that pipe seemed to take many other forms.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: What made it dangerous, however, was the lock on the door.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: There was no padlock or keyhole on either side, but
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: on the outside was a large sliding boat latch. There
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: was only one way in or out, and it locked
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: from the outside with no way to unlock it from
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the inside. Ever since I discovered the spot, I couldn't
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: help but imagine how easy it would be for someone
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: to get trapped in there. However, nothing I said to
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: management made any difference. They were already aware of it
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: and had no intention of doing anything about it. Unfortunately,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: that meant I would have to open the door and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: check on it every night, but I never stepped foot
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: inside of it. I was way too scared of it.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Things went on like that for months, and then one
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: day my worst fear was realized. It was about three
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: in the morning, halfway through my shift. I was doing
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: my rounds in the parking garage and everything was normal.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: It was a slow Wednesday night. There hadn't been any
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: problems or suspicious activity on the cameras, so I was
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: far from on edge at the time. But then, in
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: one moment, I was forced to go on alert. I
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: heard the sound of a door slamming across the garage.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I wasn't exactly sure where it was, so I walked
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: over to investigate. My heart sank a bit when I
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: saw that the door to the dead end hallway was
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: wide open. I looked around to see if anyone was
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: in the garage, but I appeared to be alone. I
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: shout out to intimidate any if they were hiding somewhere
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see, but I got no response and nobody appeared.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I was just worried that there was somebody hiding in
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the dead end hallway, so I walked the rest of
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: the way. I shined my flashlight down the hallway, and
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: for a moment, I was relieved to see that nobody
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: was in there. There was, however, an empty glass bottle
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: about ten feet inside. I sighed and rolled my eyes,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: thinking that somebody had been drinking in there, and they
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: ran out in a hurry once they saw me snooping around,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: accidentally making noise as they rushed. It wouldn't have been
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: that hard for somebody to climb up on the car's
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: park there, to get above the wall and hop the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: fence into the neighboring parking lot by the time I
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: got there, since the garage was partially underground in that spot.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: In fact, that's how a lot of people get in,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: because the dead end hallway happened to be in a
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: prominent blind spot of the cameras. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: to leave trash anywhere if I saw it, so I
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: knew I had to pick up that bottle. Of course,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: I felt the anxiety bubbling up inside my gut just
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: for knowing I had to walk a few steps inside
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: that hallway. I almost didn't do it, but I rationalized
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: myself into thinking there was no way somebody would pop
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: out and lock me in. I took a deep breath
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: and stepped inside, but right as I reached the bottle,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: the door slam shut. I immediately ran back to the door,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: but by the time I got there, it was already locked.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I started banging on the door and screaming for help,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: but there was nobody there. I felt like I was
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: being buried alive, like I could barely breathe. If it
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: weren't for my flashlight, I would have been in some
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: deep trouble. I wouldn't have been able to see a thing.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Once I realized I wasn't getting out anytime soon, I
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: reached for my phone so my utter heartbreak. However, there
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: was no service at all. The walls were made of
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: cinder blocks and the door was made of metal. Plus
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the entire six story building was on top of me.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: No matter what I tried, I couldn't call nine one one.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: There was absolutely nothing I could do. I was completely stuck.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: The only way I was getting out was if somebody
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: opened the door from the outside. But it was three
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: in the morning, and it would be hours before anybody
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: left for work in the morning, and during that time,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: whoever trapped me was doing whatever they pleased in the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: parking garage. Heard several car alarms go off, and I
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: knew what was happening. Somehow, they all turned off after
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: a few minutes. I kept banging on the door and shouting,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: but nobody came. After a while. If I'm being completely honest,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I gave up that I would be free anytime soon,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: and I just focused on staying calm. I sat down
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: against the wall and I turned off my flashlight to
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: save the battery, but only after making sure I was
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: completely alone. Every few minutes, I banged on the door
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: a bunch of times. It took me like two hours,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: but finally I managed to get the attention of somebody
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: going to work early in the morning. I thank them
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: as they let me out, but unfortunately, the next thing
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I had to do was call the cops because I
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: quickly noticed that a dozen cars had been broken into.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: There was broken glass all over the parking lot from
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: all the windows that had been shattered. Whoever it was
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: knew exactly what they were doing. They knew how to
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: trap me in there, and they knew how to silence
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: the alarms of the cars they were breaking into. We
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: only have security guards on the weekends, and it left
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: us vulnerable on a seemingly benin Wednesday. All in all,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: there were tens of thousands of dollars done in damages
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: and theft, and I was fired from my job. Not
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: like I would want to go back anyway. Culprit was
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: never identified on the cameras and it was never caught.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: During the summer last year, I chose to not take
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: any classes and I got a job at a gas
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: station right next to my college campus. I was sort
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: of delusioned with school and wanted to make some money
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: while I had time off. The gas station was one
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: of the first places I'd tried applying to, and it
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: turned out to be the last. When they hired me
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: on the spot, I thought it was a little weird,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: but I didn't question it. Unfortunately, they said they only
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: wanted me for the night shift, which was from eleven
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: PM to seven AM. I knew it would wreck I
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: already messed up sleep schedule, but I decided to go
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: for and just see how it went. To my surprise,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: most of the time it wasn't that bad. The first
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: few hours of the shift were pretty busy and it
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: would get crazy, but then it would always get really
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: slow until about five in the morning, which gave me
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: plenty of time to clean, stock the shelves and chill
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: out until the morning rush. Occasionally somebody suspicious or problematic
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: would wander in, but I never had anything get too
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: out of hand with hours of course, until something did happen.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: It was a Thursday, which wasn't usually a busy night.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: I had a coworker until about midnight, then they went
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: home and I was left alone. Time went by pretty fast,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: and before I knew it, it was almost two am. That's
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: around the time a man walked in and I immediately
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: had a bad feeling about him. He had a shaved
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: head and a bunch of tattoos of weird symbols, so
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I was pretty sure he was a skinhead. I noticed
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: he had parked his dirty, old lifted pickup truck in
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: the handicap spot, too, but I didn't want to get
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: on his case about it, and I ended up getting
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: called slurs because I looked Jewish to him. It was
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: one p fifty eight when he walked in, and he
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: spent a few minutes wandering around the store. In the end,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: though all he brought up to buy was a case
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: of beer. However, by then it was two oh one,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: and my county has a law that says all call
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: can't be purchased between two am and six am. I
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: told the man that and politely and apologetically as I could,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: that he couldn't buy the beer. He immediately became agitated
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: and went off on a rant about how it was
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: a free country and that was a stupid law. I
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: tried my best to reason with him, and I said
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: that I was just trying to do my job, but
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: this only made him start to criticize me, like I
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: was some kind of spineless pond for my boss. That's
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: when I asked him to leave if he was going
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: to be that way. Then he suddenly changed his tone again,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: acting all chummy and saying it wasn't a big deal
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: and that I should bend the rules for just a
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: few minutes since it was before two when he walked in.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, he kind of did make a good point,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: so I eventually a cave just so he would get out.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: I sold him in the case of beer, and then
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: of course he asked for a pack of cigarettes to
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: go with it. I let him have it, as there
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: was no rule against tobacco sales. He smiled at me
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: and then left the store, and I breathed a sigh
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: of relief. But that relief was short lived. However, thought
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: he would get in his truck and leave, but instead
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: he opened the tailgate and sat down in the truck bed,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: cracked open a can of beer and started drinking it. Now,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: I had a feeling that this was far from over,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: and that was exactly the case, because a few minutes later,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: another truck pulled up right next to his, and a
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: couple of guys got out, both of them with shaved
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: heads and tattoos. They stood around the back of the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: first guy's truck, just smoking and drinking. I knew I
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: had to go out there and tell them that they
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: couldn't loiter in front of the store, and that it
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: was illegal to drink out in the open like that anyway,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: especially that close to a car. But I was a
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: little scared already. They kept looking in the window at me.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: It's just smirking as if they knew what I was thinking,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: and they were challenging me to try to try it
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: before I could find the courage. Though, another car, this
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: time an SUV, pulled in next to the two of them,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and two more guys got out and joined the others.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: They were all a part of the same skinhead group
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: without a doubt. My guess is they were coming from
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: a bar that had just closed and didn't want to
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: end the night yet. That was the most reasonable and
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: most likely explanation, but my paranoid thoughts made me think
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: they were about to get together and burn down the store.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: His owner's wife was Mexican. And then the first guy
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: came back into the store. He was drunker than before
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: and all smiles, but then he came back to the
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: register with another case of beer. I was about to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: tell him he definitely couldn't buy at that time, but
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: before I could even open my mouth, he looked at
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: me all smug and said I really wouldn't want to
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: disappoint him and all of his friends. I took that
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: as a pretty solid threat, and I let him do
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: what he wanted again. My hands were shaking and I
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: was dreading having to count change in front of him,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: But then he told me to keep the change, like
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: he was giving me some kind of big tip. He
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: walked back outside and all the skinheads cheered at the
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: fresh case of beer. Apparently they had worked together and
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: finished all twenty four cans of the previous one, and
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: then I realized that they had been tossing the empty
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: cans all over the ground and kicking them around. It
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: felt like I was completely stuck with these pricks, and
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I knew I would get in trouble over it at
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: the best, or get literally ganged up on and have
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: any manner of horrible things done to me just for
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: saying no to them. What normal person would see the
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: meeting of a bunch of drunk skinheads smoking cheap cigarettes
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: on top of their pickup trucks in front of a
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: store in the middle of the night and still want
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: to walk past them to get in. Pretty much nobody,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: not a single person except more of the skinheads. Finally,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: I couldn't take it anymore. I walked up and I
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: locked the door so they couldn't get back in. Then
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I walked back in the office and called the police.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Several minutes later, a cruiser showed up and told him
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to screw off. There was some shouting outside that I
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: couldn't quite make out, but I was worried for a
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: few minutes that things would escalate. Thankfully, they left without
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: causing too much of a scene. But I have no
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: idea how close it got. The cop waited for them
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: to leave before doing so himself. Right before he got
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: in his way, I came out and asked him to
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: stay awhile while I cleaned up their mess case. I
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: decided to show up and kick my ass for ruing
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: their little party. The next day, I unfortunately had to
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: quit that job. There was nothing more terrifying to me
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: than the thought of being stuck behind that register. Those guys, ever,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: decided to come back. Still, I kind of get worried
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: that one of them will see me around town and
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: recognize me. Don't know what those people are all capable of.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: All I know is my town is full of dudes
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: like that, and they're always causing problems. Years ago, I
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: worked as a barista at a locally owned coffee shop
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: that doubles as a popular venue for local artists and
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: musicians to host all sorts of small time gigs. Even today,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: it gets most of its business in the evenings during
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the open mics, and it stays open until two in
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the morning. However, when I worked there pre twenty twenty,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: they were open twenty four to seven from Thursday to Sunday.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: For the most part, everyone that worked there hated the
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: graveyard shift. It was easy hours, but the tips were abysmal,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: as barely anyone came in. As far as myself was considered, however,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't mind the lower pay. What I hated was
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: being alone and running the only place that was still
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: open for miles. The shop was in a good part
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: of town, if not a little close to a bad part,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: But the fact of the matter is that there's really
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: no such thing as a good side of town during
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: these overnight hours. That is, if we're being completely honest.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I was advised to never keep more than fifty dollars
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: in the drawer during the graveyard shift. For a reason,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I was always afraid that somebody would drag me into
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the back of the store. So every time I was
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: scheduled for the overnight shift, I asked one of my
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: male friends to come hang out with me. The one
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: guy that would help me more than anyone else was
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: named Nick. It usually turned out to be a good time.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I made some money and I slipped him some beers
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: under the table, and of course I felt much more
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: comfortable not being a woman on her own Nick would
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: work on his laptop while I was busy, and we
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: would talk when things were slow. We had been friends
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: for a while, but we became close after spending a
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: lot of time together. It was always platonic, though Nick
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: was also friends with many of my co workers, and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: lots of us joked that Nick knew so much about
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the coffee shop that he might as well work there himself,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: but he always laughed it off and said his career
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: in photography was more important, which we always gave him
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: a hard time for. I didn't really think there would
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: ever be any bad blood between us, and if there was,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: I was sure it would be because we slipped up
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and had an awkward one night stand. But then came
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: a slow Saturday night in the summer of twenty nineteen,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I was working the last overnight shift of the weekend.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: I had worked the last two nights in a row
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: without Nick because he had bailed on me to go
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: to a wedding for one of his family members. I
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: managed to get another friend of mine to fill in
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: for him for Thursday and Friday, but on Saturday night
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: they were too tired and never showed up. I was
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: anxious about being alone in the shop, but I knew
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I could manage. Thankfully, it was surprisingly so that night
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: for some reason, and by three I had only made
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: ten dollars in tips, but I was glad I didn't
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: have to deal with any crazy people. Unfortunately, that's when
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: things took a dark turn. Shop was completely empty except
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: for me. I was putting a batch of coffee into
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: the roaster when out of the corner of my eye,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: I saw a figure walk past the front window. I
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: glanced over, but there was nobody there. I waited for
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: someone to come around to the back door, which customers
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: could also use, but a full minute had passed now
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: and nobody came. Stuck around by the register for a
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: few more minutes, but after nobody showed up for a while,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I decided it was time to mount the floors. I
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: went into the back to fill up the mop bucket,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: and of course, as soon as I turned the faucet on,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: I heard somebody come in through the front door. I
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: shadowed that I would be with him in just a minute.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Then I finished filling up the bucket and rolled it
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: out behind the counter. When I got there, whoever came
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: in had disappeared. I shrugged it off just figuring they
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: had gone straight to the bathroom, and then I started
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: mopping behind the counter. The strangers feeling hovered over me,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: though I couldn't place what it was, but I knew
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: something was wrong. The first thing I looked at was
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the drawer, but it hadn't been broken into. Even then
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: that would have been loud enough for me to hear
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: over the running water. I leaned over the bar and
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: checked to the bathroom doors. The men's room door was
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: closed and the light was on, so I knew somebody
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: was in there. My stomach churned slightly as I knew
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: it was a man in there, but so far I
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: had no real reason to think anything was wrong, so
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I just kept on mopping. When I finally got finished
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: beare behind the counter, the bathroom door opened in To
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: my surprise, Nick walked out. I immediately felt a sense
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: of relief, but I had to ask him what he
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: was doing there. He explained that he just got home
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: from the wedding and thought he'd stop buy and say hi.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I was grateful that he decided to show up, so
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: I told him he could have whatever he wanted on
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the house. So I got behind the espresso machine and
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: got to work pulling a shot. I packed the grounds
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: into the portafilter and locked it into the machine, then
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: looked over to say something to Nick. But whatever I
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: was thinking of saying was immediately forgotten, and his facial
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: expression had gone from friendly to devilish in just a
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: moment of time. And suddenly a wave of chills went
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: through my body. What are you doing? I asked, fighting
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: back trembling. Nick grinned like a psychopath and pulled a
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: knife out from behind his back. I'm finally going to
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: bang the barista, he said, as he started to laugh.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Don't be crazy, I shouted, We're friends. What about the cameras?
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Nick began walking forward, forcing me to backpedal. We are friends,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: he said, and nobody will believe you because the cameras
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: aren't even on. They never are. How do you not
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: know that? I knew. At this point, I was being
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: pushed into the back of the shop, and my throat
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: started to close up. It was also in that moment,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: when I looked for an exit that I realized he
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: had locked both the doors and turned the open sign off,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: keeping anybody from coming in. Your boss already thinks we
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: do this every night. Nick pressed on, inching closer and closer.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Stop it, I shouted in desperation, looking for something to
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: defend myself, trying to not slip on the wet floor.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Shut up, he screamed. You should have been giving this
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: to me for months already, not know how much time
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: I wasted on you. I was pleading and about to
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: be cornered. The last hope I had was something on
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the sandwich counter. The last moment before he pushed me
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: out of sight into the back of a shop, I
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: grabbed for the panini press and ripped it off the table,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: slamming the corner of the metal against the side of
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: his head. He tried to block me and sliced open
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: my arm, but I connected the hit and combined with
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the water on the floor, the blow knocked him off
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: of his feet. I wasted zero seconds and climbing over
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the counter and rushing out of the back door and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: into my car while I locked myself in and called
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: to the police. It wasn't until I thought about driving
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: off that I realized Nick had parked his car in
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: front of mine to deliberately keep me from getting away.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Moments later, while I was on the phone with the operator,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: he came outside and attempted to break his way into
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: my car. After he failed to do so for several minutes,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: he gave up and drove off not long before the
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: police arrived. I was treated for my wound, and I
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: gave my statement about what happened. I didn't leave out
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: a single detail. I was too much in a state
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: of shock to be even in disbelief. As it turns out,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: he was right about the cameras inside the shop just
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: being for show. However, nobody thought I was lying about
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: what he did. Unfortunately, though, due to civil liabilities on
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: the part of my employer, and more importantly the fact
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: that Nick completely up and disappeared after posting bell, I
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: decided to drop the charges. Came to the conclusion not
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: long after that he'd already ruined his life sufficiently and
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: I simply didn't care enough to do anything else about it.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Nobody has seen or heard from Nick and years, and
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the coffee shop has since stopped staying open overnight. People
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: might think I quit because of what happened, but I
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: actually continued to work there until just a few months ago.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Before I moved out of my hometown, I was working
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: as a waiter at waffle house. Chose to work the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: third shift because I had the best hourly pay and
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: brought in pretty good tips due to us being the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: only twenty four to seven diner in the entire town.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: It took me about a year to save up enough money,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: though to rent a place in the city and get
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: out of the middle of nowhere. But in that time
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: I saw quite a few things that still stick with
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: me to this day. By and large, most of the
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: customers I had were truckers and other random people traveling
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: on the Interstate through the middle of the night. The
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: town was just a stopover point, not a destination as much.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: The quote unquote locals consisted of farmers and ranchers from
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the surrounding area and anyone else like me worked in
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the fast food and hotel chains clustered around the interstate exit,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: the final one yet the most characteristic residents of that
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: depressing cesspit of a town where the vagrants, hitchhikers, tweakers,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: and destitute opportunists that had been strand with us. They
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: could be stuck there from anywhere to a few days
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: to several years, clinging to the parking lots and awnings
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: that were the only meager shelter for dozens of miles
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: in any direction, panhandling for whatever they could until they
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: got lucky enough to get a ride to somewhere else. Really,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: the only stressful part of my job was dealing with
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: these people. In the beginning, I tried to be empathetic,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: after all, they are human. However, it didn't take long
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: to end up like my usual coworker, the cook that
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: had been there for fifteen years and had seen just
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: about everything. His name was Carl, and the only thing
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: separating him from them was a steady position at the grill.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Nobody ever got a chair thrown at them, as far
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: as I know, but Karl was prone to throwing turners
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: and other utensils at anyone who got in his bad side.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: I usually followed his lead based on his body language.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: He knew who was trouble and who wasn't. However, even
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: with Carl as reliable backup, things sometimes got out of hand.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: There there was this one night that I'll never forget.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I don't remember what day of the week it was,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: but all I know was that I had been unusually
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: slow that night. It was around four o'clock in the
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: morning when this guy walked in, and even I knew
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: something was not right about him. He was wearing soiled
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: clothes and a completely torn up jacket, covered head to
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: toe and dust, and he was in a completely panicked
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: state of mind. The weird thing was that he said
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: nothing as he ran past us, clutching his right arm
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: to his chest and immediately locking himself in the bathroom.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Carl and I rolled our eyes at the same time.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Here we go again, we thought, although I think we
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: both had a feeling this wasn't a regular hobo bathroom
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: emergency or a tweaker looking for a private place to
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: do their thing. That's when I asked Carl, doesn't he
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: kind of look familiar. He brushed it off at first,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: but then after a short conversation, we realized that he
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: had been inside about two hours ago, desperately asking all
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the customers for rides, until eventually we had to kick
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: him out for being a disturbance. It seemed he obviously
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: hadn't have any luck on getting a ride, but something
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: else had happened to him too. I became worried if
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: that guy needed help, it would be a while before
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: an ambulance could get to him, and even longer for
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: them to take him to a hospital. Carl told me
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: to take care of it, so I ran the check
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: for the only customer we had in the store at
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: the time and got them on their way. When I
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: took to bathroom keys and went to check on our
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: stranger in distress, I knocked on the door prey loud
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: and asked if everything was okay. There was a pause,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: then finally a distraught voice answered me. I think I'm
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: really hurt. I just need a ride. Suddenly I knew
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: something was seriously wrong. The sound of his voice made
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: I fumbled with the key ring as I told him
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I was about to open the door. Sir, if you
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: need help, I have to come in there. I shouted, no,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: The stranger screamed, you have to come get me. I
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: stopped for a second, confused, but then I snapped out
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: of it and shoved the key in the lock and
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: turned it. Then opened the door to a terrifying sight.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: The bathroom was empty, completely empty, no injured man, no blood,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: no dust, just nothing. It was as clean as it
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: had been since I last cleaned it, as if nobody
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: had been in there at all. In fact, it even
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: looked cleaner than that. What's going on in there, Karl
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: shouted from the kitchen. I was just at a loss.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: I let the bathroom door close and I stepped back.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: I looked at Carl and told him the truth. There's
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: nobody in there, I said, don't give me that. Carl shouted,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: see for yourself, I told him, and he did. He
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: stormed over and barge to the bathroom door. I saw
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: him go blank, just like I did when he saw it,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the impossible absence of a person. He turned around and
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: looked inside the woman's room too, but again nothing nobody.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: In raw disbelief, we gathered ourselves behind the counter. We
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: interrogated each other uselessly, thinking one of us must have
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: let him slip by unnoticed. However, we both knew we
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: had been on high alert since the second he came in.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: There was no way neither of us would have not
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: noticed him leaving. With then a fraction of a second,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: our conversation ended as we both saw the same thing
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: out of the corner of our eyes. Stranger was somehow
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: outside looking at us through the window. He still had
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: his right arm stuffed out of sight, but Now as
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: we got more of an eye full of his face
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: than we ever wanted to, he saw that wasn't his
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: only problem. His face was bloody, like he had been
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: hit with a brick. His nose was broken into and
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: lip was split and missing a piece, showing us his
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: cracked and missing teeth. One of his eyes seemed completely
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: swollen over, but the one that was open was gushing blood.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Karl and I didn't move a muscle. He didn't even
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: breathe for a second. After a few horrible seconds of
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: realizing what was happening, I finally thought to call nine
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: one one, But as soon as the idea occurred to me,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: the man started to move. He turned to the side
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: and started to limp across the big front window. We
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: watched him in silence. He made it all the way
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: to the corner of the window, where it wrapped around
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: to the other side. On the hell, I whispered, only
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: for Karl to quickly shush me. Was at that moment
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: I saw he had gone pale and wide eyed, which
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: only terrified me even more. Something about this man had
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: gotten through Karl's defenses, and that meant we were not prepared.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Before we could say anything, else, we heard a crash
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: from the back room. We both ran inside and searched
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: for the source of the noise. It was coming from
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: the walk in freezer. Somebody was tearing things up and
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: freaking out. Karl ran up there and threw open the door,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: and there he was that guy. He had ripped open
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: a box of burger patties and was clutching a handful
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: of meat, pressing it to his right arm like an iceback.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: When he saw us, he froze, the patties, dropped from
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: his hand and revealed the condition of his arm. His
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: hand was stuck in a thumbs up position, but his
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: wrist had been snapped clean off, and his hand was
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: dangling from the rest of his arm by a thread
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: of skin. After a terrifying moment of deer and headlights stairs,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the stranger bolted from the freezer, crashed through both me
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: and Carl. He sprinted outside, screaming before we had a
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: chance to react. I stumbled to my feet as Karl
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: ran out to the dining area and locked the front
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: doors and switched off all the lights. Then he pushed
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: me back into the back room and started yelling at me,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: how could you leave the back door unlocked. He yelled, no, look,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: it's still locked. I pointed to the back door, and
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: sure enough it was locked. Now absolutely nothing was making sense,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: but we gave up on trying to decipher it. For
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: the rest of the night, until the sun came up
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: and the morning crew came in, we kept the doors
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: locked and stayed out of sight. When we were finally
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: freed from our nightmare of a shift and set out
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: into the world, we noticed the train of police and
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: paramedics on the freeway right outside of town. We asked around,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: only to find out that a man had been killed
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: in a hit and run right there at the off ramp,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: not even a thousand feet from the waffle house. He
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: died some time after midnight, but his body laid on
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the shoulder on Discover until daylight. This corpse was mangled,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: but his thumb was still sticking straight up from trying
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: to hitch a ride. Of course, by the afternoon they
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: had scraped him off the pavement and washed away his blood,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: until the spot in which he died was cleaner than
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: night I ever seen it. I've been a night out
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: of my whole life, so I work night shifts exclusively.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: I really don't work well with other people, whether than
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: my coworkers or not, so I picked a job I
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: could do completely on my own and became a nighttime
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: janitor my local school district after I graduated from high
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: school myself. Schools have always had nightly cleaning as a
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: part of health codes in most areas, but obviously in
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: recent years it's become much more important. My first job
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: was in a fairly large k through twelve. There were
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: a couple of daytime custodians as well, but at the
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: night it was just me and one other person, splitting
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the school down the middle. My coworkers and I barely
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: ever interacted, which I appreciated a lot. Every single night,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: all the floors get mopped or vacuumed, every desk table,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: indoor handle is disinfected, and every toilet, urnal and sink
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: also gets cleaned. It takes a full eight hour shift
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: to accomplish, and for that entire time I don't talk
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: to a single person. It's great. Honestly, most of my
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: coworkers are women and they don't want me talking to
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: them either. When I tell people about my job, a
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: lot of them think the hardest part is having to
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: clean up after the messes left by the students, and
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: for the most part, I guess they are right, but
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: I always tell them I would rather plunge and clean
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: ten clogged and traumatized toilets every single night that ever
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: have to do work directly with another human being all
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: day long, especially a horde of miners these days. There's
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: one example I give of why say that. It was
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the night after Halloween. I came in from my usual
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: eight to five shift and got started without even saying
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: hello to my coworker. We start on opposite ends and
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: met in the middle, so we would only see each
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: other when we were finishing up. The first hour was
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: mostly normal, except for one obvious thing out of ordinary.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: I always keep my music at a low volume on
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: my headphones, but from outside them, I kept hearing things.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Usually all the other faculty are gone by eight o'clock,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: but sometimes there's somebody who stays late. I couldn't decide
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: what I was hearing through my music, but I wasn't
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: in the mood to turn it off, so I just
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: ignored it. A little while later, I took a break
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: from mopping to change the water in the bucket. I
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: was gone for about five minutes. But on my way
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: back to where I stopped, I walked past one of
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: the hallways I had just mopped and noticed the wet
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: floor side had fallen over. For legal reasons, I had
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: to step over the wet floor and stand it back up,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: then mop back over my tracks on the way out. Annoyed,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: I walked over to it, but I froze for a
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: moment when something else caught my eye. There was another
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: set of tracks in the water, leading to and from
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: the sun. They were little footprints, something a kid would make.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: After I stood the sign back up, I followed the tracks,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: knowing I would have to mop over those two, basically
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: redoing the whole hallway. The tracks ran all the way
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: to the end, where there was a flight of stairs
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: up the second floor. From there, they dried up pretty quickly.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I stormed up the stairs and got to the second floor,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: but nobody was there. I took my phone out of
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: my pocket and paused my music so if anyone was
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: running around I would be able to hear them. Right
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: as I looked down, I saw a flash of movement
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: at the end of the hallway. I also heard a
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: bunch of footsteps echoing across the empty school, so I
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: started making my way to the end of the hall,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: but it's how I got there. I still couldn't see anyone,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: but then I heard a little kid laughing. It felt
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: like I was in a horror movie, but at that
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: point I was more annoyed than scared. I stood there
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: looking around for a few seconds until I heard a
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: crash from the first floor. I rushed downstairs and nearly
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: flipped my lid when I saw the mop bucket I
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: had just refilled was knocked over. The water was spilling
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: everywhere in a huge pool. I absolutely swarm my head
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: off as I went back to the nearest janitor's closet
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: for a dry mop and bunch of towels. It took
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: me half an hour to clean up that mess, and
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: then another fifteen minutes to redo the hallway that got
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: messed up, which meant my lunch break was down to
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. However, I was so pissed off that I
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: walked to the other side of the school and interrupted
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: my coworker to ask if she had been messing with me.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: She looked completely dumbfounded and innocent. She asked if I
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: was all right or needed any help. But to that
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: I just walked away. I set up again and got
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: back to work. Another hour passed and I managed to
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: make up some lost progress. I was angrily powering through it,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: debating in my head the whole time about what I
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: should do. I thought about reporting into the school, or
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: maybe just calling the police myself, but in the end
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: I figured I would seem crazy to everyone, just like
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: I did to my coworker. So nothing happened again until
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: eleven o'clock. Out of nowhere, the lights shut off and
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: the whole school it was pitch black for about three
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: seconds until the dim emergency lights turned on, and then
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: everything had a reddish hue to it. It came as
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: a shock to me, and to be honest, I was worried.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: I tried to tell myself it was a malfunction or
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: maybe some kids messing around, but my mind was going
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: to all sorts of possibilities. I had keys to the
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: electrical room where the light switches were, and I was
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: the closest to it, so I stopped what I was
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: doing and marched over. I was pissed off about losing
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: more time and missing out on my entire lunch break,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: but halfway there, something pushed those concerns out of my head.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: I heard the most blood curdling scream of my life,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: the panic shriek of my coworker, echoing endlessly. I stopped
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: in my tracks, feeling like I had just been hit
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: by an electric shock. Seconds later, I heard the sound
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: of a door opening really loudly, like someone was ramming
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: through it from the inside. I hoped it was my
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: coworker escaping and not somebody else making their way into
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: the school. I forced myself to keep going and finally
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: made it to the electrical room. I was right outside
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: the door, trying to find the right key when I
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: noticed that it was already cracked open. I pushed it
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: open slowly, afraid of what I might see, and the
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: shape appeared in front of me, standing unnaturally in the darkness.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: My blood ran cold. It could have been anyone. It
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: gave up on trying to turn on the lights and
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: instead reached over from my phone in my pocket. However,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: as soon as I moved, the figure bolted forward and
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: slammed the door in my face. I cursed and then
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: jumped back, stumbling until my back hit the wall behind me.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Once I regained my balance, I started running I wanted
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: to leave, but for once in my life, I thought
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: about the well being of somebody else and ran to
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: the other side of the school to find my coworker.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: After checking a few over hallways, I finally found her
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: mop boocket sitting alone in the middle of the floor
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: next to a bathroom. Without hesitation, I rushed over to it,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: hoping to not see any evidence that she had been hurt.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Nothing seemed unusual, except for the fact that she was
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: nowhere to be found. I looked all around in the
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: dim lighting, but as far as I could tell, I
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: was alone, but not completely alone. The sound of a
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: laughing child echoed in the distance, again, striking fear into
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: my chest. I clutched the handle of the mop for
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: the lack of anything else to defend myself with, and
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: I lifted it out of the bucket, holding the end
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: of the handle out like a spear. I faced the
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: direction of the laughter, looking down the hallway so intently
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: I got tunnel vision. In a moment of sheer terror,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: someone whispered hello into my ear. I turned around, and
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: without thinking, I jabbed the handle of the mop into
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: their chest with all my might. I heard a grunt
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: as the person that snuck up on me hit the
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: ground and they vomited. Only a second later, I showered
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: at them to tell me who they were, but then
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: they started to cry. I could tell they were trying
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: to hold it back, but they couldn't. Gradually, my eyes
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: made out what I was looking at, and it was
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: a student kneeled over on the floor. Suddenly, all my
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: fear of danger was replaced with the fear of losing
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: my job for hitting a student. However, as things shook
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: out over the next few days, it turned out all right.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Two twins in the ninth grade and their little brother
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: got the idea to keep the spirit of Halloween going
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: and prank the overnighters in the school by hiding in
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: the lockers. There was one set of lockers in the
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: whole building that wasn't in use and had no locks
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: or ties on them, and those kids were skinny enough
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: to fit in there and hide after doing their after
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: school activities. They managed to get out of being expelled,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: probably from crying a lot. The school district understood my
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: actions and let me keep my job, but I was
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: transferred to a different school. All in all, this is
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: why I don't like people, especially kids.