There's been a few times I have witnessed paranormal activity. I know it sounds pretentious, but I do think I have some sort of preclusion to these things. There's been many times in my life where I feel acutely aware of something going on around me, even when I know it is not physically possible or situationally possible. I'm never afraid of these things, as they do not give me cause to fear; but I do respect whatever it is causing these things. I'll share this story now and if others are interested, I'll share some more. I've even got a UFO story! Of course, this is the Internet, so always take everything with a pillar of salt, but these are true experiences I had that I have never been able to explain.
My first story has to deal with an obvious haunting/poltergeist. When I first began working in my school district through a contractor, I was taking every bit of overtime I could get. I had been working in the district for about 5 months. It was December and I was working a basketball tournament that our district hosted. We have an old field house that was built back in the 1930s specifically for high school basketball, and the higher ups were trying to drum up interest from the public to get much needed renovations done to the building. The tournament was small with just 4 teams, so just two games and it would be over. It was the Friday before Christmas Break, so the kids in the student section were all amped up and the atmosphere was rowdy. Anywho, the field house is connected to what used to be a middle school that the district repurposed for a preschool. Why did they do this? Well, a few years before, a 7th grade girl went into a second floor restroom and hung herself by the small coat hook on the back of a stall door. It really shocked the community and the decision was made that we would have just one middle school going forward. The building sat vacant for about 3 years before we repurposed it. At the time, the only way to get trash out from the field house was to go through the preschool, which was connected by a small hamster tunnel. Every time you made that journey, you had to pass by the restroom where this child ended her life. I originally thought nothing of it. A tragedy, yes, but one that is now in the rearview for us.
To keep people from wandering over into the preschool, I turned off all the lights to deter anybody from going in. As the night went on and trash was piling up, I kept passing by the restroom. Again, thought nothing of it because I was trying to work. But after half a dozen trips back and forth, I felt this chill at my ankles whenever I walked past the open entryway to the restroom. I thought hey, it's December, this is an old building, probably a draft. The games end and it's about 10 PM. I've got pretty much everything done, now it was just time to take out one final round of garbage, do security check, call it a night and go home for some brews. Now, when the field house lights are shut off, it gets dark. Like, dark to the point where you can't see your hand in front of your face. With the lights off and doors locked, I turn on my phone flashlight to find my way out. I hear a very dull thumping, like something is in the giant metal ventilation in the ceiling. I point my flashlight upward and try to see what it is, but am unable to find anything. Figured it was just an old building doing old building things.
I leave the field house and start walking in the preschool. To my surprise, there's a hallway light that is left on. Weird, because all the lights were off for the duration of my time there and could only be turned on by a special key. I take the short walk over, flick the switch, then turn around to find that the hallway I just came from now has its lights on. Now I'm annoyed, because my first thought was someone got in the building. Figuring it was a couple of mischievous high schoolers, I say in a friendly yet authoritative tone "Alright kids, very funny. You need to get out of the build-" and then BAM! A door that was no more 10 feet behind me slams with a mighty force. I look back and the original hallway I went to now has its lights back on. I look ahead of me and have my attention immediately drawn to the girls restroom. The light inside of it is off, but there's something different about the darkness. I feel an intense chill go through my body like a thousand tiny knives. It chills me to the bone and I physically shiver. Knowing that I was most likely not dealing with kids pulling a prank but rather a potentially harmful entity was not a pleasant feeling. So, in an attempt to lighten the mood, I calmly address whatever it is that happens to be inhabiting the building with me. I inform it that I am only here to secure the building and will be leaving as soon as I am finished. I feel a weight come off my shoulders and I go back to turning off lights. I walk a little quicker to get to the back area where the alarm panel is, but then I hear another loud slamming. I look back and I watch as classroom doors that were left open are slamming shut, one by one, towards me. Something was coming and was not happy I was there. I quickly shut the door behind me, run to the alarm panel, enter the code, and get out, all the while I hear the slamming grow louder and louder until I finally shut the security door behind me to get outside. I run to my car and as soon as my engine turns, I shift it into drive and hit the pedal. Normally it would take me 10 minutes to get from this particular area of town to my home, but I have no clue how fast I was driving. I don't even remember if I ran into any red lights. All I know is that I made it home in 4 minutes, 5 at a maximum. I pull into the drive way, hop out, and sprint inside. Only then did I feel I was safe. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well that night.
Anywho, after the holiday we went back to work and my boss asked me what the hell happened. I told him and that is when he told me this was a normal occurrence for people who never worked in that building before. The regular custodians don't have these experiences. The final conclusion I could come up with was that whatever this things was didn't recognize me and felt I was intruding on its space. Even though I had announced what I was doing and it stopped temporarily, I guess I wasn't moving fast enough for its liking. I've worked in that building numerous times since then and have not had any negative experiences. Whenever I happen to be in that building and pass that restroom, I always say a small prayer for that poor girl and the pain she went through to do such a horrible thing. Perhaps that is what wards off the spirit that clearly dwells in that school.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.