escargot
Disciple of Marduk
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2001
- Messages
- 43,403
- Location
- HM The Tower of London
It was, wasn't it! The chairs rattled noisily before the top one lifted off. So weird.Found it. That's one freaky incident.
It was, wasn't it! The chairs rattled noisily before the top one lifted off. So weird.Found it. That's one freaky incident.
Is there any chance they've installed a timer on the corridor lights' circuit - e.g., as an energy-saving measure?
(I'm assuming you've worked there long enough to have noticed it by now if it had always been so.)
Rehashing my suggestion in post 207 re taping light switches in position..
@Naughty_Felid
I find myself in something of a moral quandary with you posts on this thread: I very much look forward to new instalments - and miss them when there's a gap. But I also realise that the experiences involved might mean that some of your night shifts are maybe not the most comfortable of experiences.
I think the secret is (counter to suggestions from others) not to use recording devices of any type, and thereby avoid the whole found footage scenario; those buggers clearly love larging it up for the camera.
Ditto. I feel a little guilty in wanting more posts from you, NaughtyFelid, since these experiences sound uncomfortable, and also because you have to be very discreet as to not reveal where they take place, which takes extra care and thought in writing them up.Naughty_Felid
I find myself in something of a moral quandary with you posts on this thread: I very much look forward to new instalments - and miss them when there's a gap. But I also realise that the experiences involved might mean that some of your night shifts are maybe not the most comfortable of experiences.
Ditto. I feel a little guilty in wanting more posts from you, NaughtyFelid, since these experiences sound uncomfortable, and also because you have to be very discreet as to not reveal where they take place, which takes extra care and thought in writing them up.
If I die and come back as a ghost, I'm not spending one more day at the office!Hi NF how many members of staff have died over the years I wonder and can’t leave the old place of work alone!!
Hi NF how many members of staff have died over the years I wonder and can’t leave the old place of work alone!!
I don't care which thread you post them in, I love reading about your experiences!
...On arrival, my overwhelming impression of the apartment was that of darkness. Not just because it was late in the year and overcast outside; there seemed to be almost a darkening filter over everything in the place. I've seen a few other references here to 'brown light', and that's what it seemed like. The apartment was clean and neatly decorated, but I still didn’t feel comfortable at all...
...on entering the building I almost immediately felt something was very wrong about the place. If I had to put it into words I would say that my overriding impression was that the corners of the rooms were actively sucking the light out of the house; in fact, I think I later described it to my ex as a 'house that eats light'...
There is a darkness which is simply the result of an absence of light - and then there is a darkness which appears to be an active destroyer of light. In real terms there may be no difference - in emotional, psychological terms, I've often felt the difference, real or not.
...The same glow permeated the whole house, and everything looked 'wrong' - just really dark, brooding and repellent, and I felt like I wanted to get out. However, after about ten minutes, the sensation lifted, and suddenly everything looked bright and normal again.
Nothing to do with evil entities being chased away - the whole house had been fitted with quite primitive energy-saving lightbulbs by the previous owner, and they took about ten minutes to warm up to full strength. My friend agreed that the light produced was awful-looking until they'd warmed up, but they did make the money on the electricity card last a lot longer...
Well now, here's a interesting development which you may wish to hear about regarding this tale.Weirdly, I thought I'd posted the following story in this thread (hence the opening sentence) - but when I came back to check, it wasn't there.
Instead, it had appeared in one of the IHTM threads on Unhappy Houses & Odd Happenings - but I'm going to chalk that one up to my own general inattentiveness, rather than anything spooky.
I've come across a few places with bad atmospheres, but only one really nasty house. I think it must have been late 2001, October or November maybe. I had a day off work, and I’d arranged to visit a friend in his new home on the outskirts of North Belfast.
It was a new-ish maisonette apartment, situated on the upper floor of the building, built maybe ten years previously. My friend had moved in with his partner and their baby daughter a few months before, and it looked like a good starter home, with two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen-diner and bathroom.
The main drawback was the staircase – a steep, narrow flight of stairs leading from the front door at street level up to the apartment, with a 180-degree return a third of the way up, and then opening out onto a small landing beside the kitchen door. Not great for getting a pram up and down, anyway.
The main bedroom was beside the kitchen, looking out the back of the building, and a short corridor then led towards the smaller bedroom at the front, with doors to the bathroom and the living room branching off on opposite sides.
On arrival, my overwhelming impression of the apartment was that of darkness. Not just because it was late in the year and overcast outside; there seemed to be almost a darkening filter over everything in the place. I've seen a few other references here to 'brown light', and that's what it seemed like. The apartment was clean and neatly decorated, but I still didn’t feel comfortable at all.
His partner was at work and the baby was being minded by her grandparents, so we had the place to ourselves. We chatted for a while in the living room, just catching up, with me trying to shake offthe feelings of unease, and then we went into the front bedroom where he kept all his music stuff – records, guitars and the like. It was eventually going to become a proper bedroom for his daughter, but for the time being she was still sleeping in a cot in the main bedroom.
My friend left me to my own devices while he went off to the kitchen to make us both some lunch, so I amused myself by flicking through his LPs and messing around with his guitars. These were exactly the kind of activities I enjoyed – yet the longer I stayed in that room by myself, the more uncomfortable I became. My surroundings seemed to be getting even darker still, and I felt somehow watched – by something that was actively hostile to my presence.
Eventually I had to set the guitar down and hurry out of the room, as the hostility was building to the point that I felt like I was being pushed out.
Slightly shaken, I went down the corridor and leaned against the kitchen doorway, talking to my friend while he was busy at the stove. I didn’t mention anything about what I was feeling.
As I was standing there, trying to act normal, I glanced back down the hallway – and caught my breath as I saw what looked like a tall, dark shadow standing just behind the doorway of the front bedroom.
It was shaped roughly like a human, and it was tall – very tall. Where the head should have been seemed to extend above the height of the doorframe, and I couldn’t see any features, or limbs, or any detail. Just a long, vertical shadow, thicker and darker around the middle section. But it hadn’t been there before, and it definitely wasn’t a trick of the light.
I felt like the figure was watching me, and the sense of hostility only grew. With a rising sense of panic, I looked round to see if my friend had also noticed it, but he was busy chopping something. I turned and looked back down the hall again – but the figure was no longer there, although the sense of being watched persisted.
I felt quite upset, and that something was badly wrong in the apartment – but didn’t know how I could even begin to broach the subject with my friend, who I knew from previous conversations to be a bit of a skeptic about such things. I didn’t want to come across as a crank, and I didn’t know what could even be done about this shadowy figure. So I tried to push it down, forget it, and make an attempt to enjoy the rest of my visit. But I didn’t go back into that front bedroom.
My friend and his family didn’t stay in the apartment for very long; they suffered a number of mishaps, including my friend being hospitalised following a motorcycle accident. A few months later, they moved out and into another house nearby.
He never really talked about exactly why they moved – but he did tell me that they didn’t feel the house was safe, after the pram suddenly fell down the stairs from the landing one day. His daughter was still in the pram at the time. She was unharmed, but no explanation was proffered about exactly how or why the accident happened – and from his expression of unease, I didn’t feel it appropriate to enquire any further.
I was vastly relieved to hear they’d moved out, but still felt horribly guilty that I hadn’t mustered the courage to tell him that afternoon about what I saw and felt.
Maybe 'X' has 'powers'?Well now, here's a interesting development which you may wish to hear about regarding this tale.
As luck would have it, I met up with the same old chum from school last weekend, for a socially distanced trek over some nearby hills. I haven't seen him properly for a couple of years now, so it was good to have a bit of a catch up.
On the return leg we happened to pass by a house he used to live in, and we lightly reminisced about the damp problems etc therein.
I hadn't planned to raise it as a topic, but as the opportunity presented itself I blithely mentioned the previous house he'd occupied, and how they weren't there for very long.
This was, of course, the house where I'd had my 'experience'.
His face fell.
"No, no we weren't there for long."
I mentioned that I'd only been there the once.
"No, and I won't forget that day in a hurry."
My ears pricked up further. Had there been further developments after I left?
"X was absolutely dying in bed with kidney stones, and every time I went in to check on her she hissed, 'Tell Quercus to go home!'"
'X' being his then-partner, now-wife, with whom I get on very well - but I can appreciate that a bout of kidney stones can be trying for even the most polished of hostesses.
A dim memory swam back... that's right... she was supposed to be in work that day, but was off sick. She was in the back bedroom; I offered to leave but was assured she was sleeping. So I stayed for an hour or so, got scared, had lunch, then left.
Well now. So I remember feeling this hostile atmosphere, trying to push me out... and all the while there was someone in a great deal of pain, willing me to leave.
Now that begs all sorts of questions...
I occasionally wonder if being a ghost might sometimes be like some monotonous repetitive dream that you just can't wake out of... Wandering into work for more drudgery, loop, repeat, ad infinitum... More horror for the haunter than the haunted...If I die and come back as a ghost, I'm not spending one more day at the office!
You should read 'how the dead live' by Will SelfI occasionally wonder if being a ghost might sometimes be like some monotonous repetitive dream that you just can't wake out of... Wandering into work for more drudgery, loop, repeat, ad infinitum... More horror for the haunter than the haunted...