Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: Kat’s Tale

We've all experienced some strange occurrences... something that left us feeling scared, creeped out, or otherwise just uncomfortable. I want to tell you my tale...

I ran across an article on The Thought Catalog titled "50 OMG Stories from People on the Internet," and I read through from beginning to end, finding myself literally on the edge of my seat at times. Some of the stories are personal accounts, others are recounts of a story told to the writer, They got me thinking about my own personal creepy experiences, and of course that got me thinking that I bet you have some great scary hair-standing-on-end stories too! I am going to tell you about an experience that I had about 8 years ago, and then you're going to find a form where you can tell me your story. I hope to put together a collective of local scary stories.

I'll start...

Back around 2005, I was a full-time mom & wife, a full-time college student, and I tended bar 3 nights a week in a little hole-in-the-wall bar that has since been closed. The bar was made up of 2 very old adjoining buildings. One of them was originally a bank that had been built in 1913, this building housed a dance floor and DJ booth, once a doorway had been knocked out to make a passage between the 2 buildings. The other building, where the bar itself was located, had been a bar for many, many years. I am unsure of the original use of the building or really any history on the building at all.

What I can tell you is that in the Winter time, to save on the electric bill, the owner of the bar turned off the furnace at the end of the night. When I would come in on my nights to work, usually around 5pm, it was always very cold in the bar. Unfortunately, the thermostat on the wall didn't work. In fact, I'm not even sure that the thermostat was even attached to the furnace. To turn the furnace on, I had to get a key from behind the bar that unlocked the rickety door leading down a less than stable set of stairs to the basement of a building that is more than 100 years old. The furnace sat about 40-50 feet from the last stair riser. I had gone down more times than I can count, flipped the switch on the furnace, and came back up stairs, unscathed.

One night I grabbed the key, unlocked the door, and made my way begrudgingly down the stairs. I may or may not have been cussing the owner for being too cheap to just install a working thermostat... As I get to the furnace to flip the switch, I was overcome with a very ominous feeling - almost as though I was being watched. As I started walking back toward the stairs, still at least 20-30 feet away from me, I heard an urgent voice inside my head (yes inside my head, but not my own voice) say "Get. Out. Now!" It was not threatening. It was almost as if it were a warning trying to keep me safe. That was all I needed! The hair on the back of my neck was standing up as I bolted up the treacherous flight of stairs. I slammed the door behind me and in a blind panic, I managed to get the padlock on the door and get it locked without dropping it. I ran back to the bar area, heart pounding, goosebumped, and panicked. I do not know what was in that basement. I do not want to know what was in that basement. That was enough for me!

I had a customer who would always come in early, before it would get really busy, and from that night on, he would escort me to the basement to turn on the furnace. I wouldn't even turn it on until someone else got in the building and could go down there with me. I'd rather it be cold!

I still don't know the history of the place, or what exactly I experienced that night, but I believe that inside all of us is something that wants us to survive. I believe that, whatever that survival mechanism is, it kicks in sometimes when we are not even aware of it. I also believe that I am not the only one to experience something unusual or just plain scary. I'd love to hear your scary stories!