The usual place.
At night. In the building, on my own, place locked up, no one else allowed in, etc, etc. Everywhere is blackness apart from my office, blah, blah,blah.
Started work, nothing too unusual.
I was engrossed in writing a report. It was important to me because a colleague had f*cked up and needed some help so I was completely nailed on to get this thing done asap.
So I didn't go through my normal steps in checking the building's inner rooms just the outside ones which were locked. I also left the door separating my office open to the other side of the building which is normally the place that has the weird stuff happen.
So the door was open and I'd grabbed a drink In the kitchen before I started. This was around 0030hrs. I left the kitchen door open. Which is not far from my office.
At 0250hrs, I leaned back from the computer, stretched, and was just in the process of re-reading the last sentence I'd written when I heard the unmistakable sound of the kitchen peddle-rubbish bin open and close with its usual characteristic open and snap shut sound. It's a really loud sound even without it happening in the silence of the night.
This got my attention.
I am 50/50 thinking "Is it the haunted old building or some f*cker in the place?"
This is an old, steel kitchen bin with a rod and pedal set up. It's designed for schools, kitchens, hospitals, etc. You put your foot on the peddle, it moves a rod that opens the lid with a very distinctive sound, you put your rubbish in and let go of the peddle and it snaps shut. It needs some effort/human weight to open it.
I've used it hundreds of times and it is in perfect working order and it is designed to last forever. It is impossible to open by itself or stay open by itself.
Unlike most of the weird sounds that I attribute to my mind playing tricks or a minor ghostly experience I actually thought someone else was in the building.
I grabbed my torch, As I've written about before everywhere apart from my office is in utter darkness.
Nothing obviously, I played around with the bin. Half-conscious that whatever had made the sound might be watching me and silently laughing.
Weirdly I met a local history woman recently who told me about what was built there before and I was a little surprised. I'd been wrong about what I'd assumed and let's just say it might explain a few things.
Pick one of your top ten creepy or weird haunted tropes and it's basically one of those.