Speaker 1: It was just past eleven PM, and I was in
the back room of our building moving boxes around. It
was just a regular hardware store and I was an
overnight stocker there. My other coworker that I usually work
with was on vacation, so it was just me for
the night. I didn't mind, though, because people always expect
less from you when you're left alone to do all
the work, so if anything didn't get done, it wouldn't
really matter. I was working slowly, taking my time. All
the deliveries that came in during the day needed to
be put by the aisles where they belonged, so I
was just breaking down the pallettes and putting boxes on
carts that I would then roll into the main shopping
area and stock the boxes from there. Once I had
filled a few carts, I grabbed one and pushed it
to the aisle on the far left. It was raining
or maybe even storming pretty heavily outside. Though through the rain,
I thought I heard something from the front of the building.
I didn't really care, not even crossing my mind for
a second that it was anything other than the building
making noises. I took a few boxes and started stocking,
humming to myself to save me from the boredom. But
then again I thought I heard something. I walked down
to the front of the store and looked all the
way at the other end, where the front door was.
There didn't seem to be anything or anyone. I stayed
there for a little bit, again in no rush to work,
and then it happened again. I could have sworn this
time that I saw something moving by the front door,
and that was where the sounds seemed to come from.
Being in my place of work with all the doors locked,
I wasn't really afraid of anything, but more just wanted
to make sure nothing strange was going on outside. I
went up to the front door and looked out the glass,
which I noticed had huge smudges and scratches on them.
Nothing was outside, no cars or people, just heavy rain
pouring down. I turned and started walking away back to
where I was working. It was quiet for a while,
maybe a whole hour even, but then the sound came
again from the front door. I dropped what I was
doing immediately and walked back to the front, and from
across the store I could for sure make out a
figure moving around outside the door. I began walking closer
before the figure stopped, stood still for a second, then
ran away. I ran up to the door, trying to
catch a glimpse of the person, but it was too
dark and rainy. Looking at the door, though there were
definitely more marks on it than there was before, I
was confident that this person was trying to break in.
I pulled out my phone, still standing by the door,
and called the police. The operator said it wouldn't be
too long, just a few minutes. I put my phone
back in my pocket and waited by the door, looking around.
The parking lot was still empty. But then I turned
my head to look against the building, and on the
very side was that same figure. I backed away quickly,
worried that he may have seen me. I took several
steps back and tried to be quiet. Not even ten
seconds later, the figure appeared right outside the door. While
the glass was somewhat foggy and had rain drops all
over it, I could tell he was looking at me.
He slammed something against the window. He looked like maybe
a large rock. Then he hit it again and again,
trying to break the glass. I backed away quicker and
ran to the back of the store, locking myself in
the office through the building. I heard the glass shatter
and the alarm by the door go off. I waited
in fear, hearing nothing else. A few minutes of silence passed,
and I was growing more and more nervous, until the
police finally showed up. I heard them call out, then
walk around searching the place before they got to the office,
where I identified myself and told them what I knew.
The guy wasn't in the store, so I guess after
he broke the glass, he just left. It seems really
weird and doesn't make any sense. Part of me even
wishes that he had actually stolen something, so that i'd
at least know that that was what he was after.
But given he didn't do anything after breaking down the door,
I don't know what he wanted, and that is what
still scares me to this day. I used to be
a bus driver for the local suburban kindergarten and elementary schools.
After nearly fifteen years, I retired from that job and
started driving for the buses in the city where I lived.
I loved my job driving kids around, but as I
got older, it became more difficult for me to put
on a smiling face every day and interact with energetic
and chaotic children driving in the city. The bus lot
was only a ten minute walk from my apartment, and
the passengers would mostly just get in and out. While
the actual driving part of the job was more stressful,
I still felt a sense of relief compared to before. Anyway,
the city bus company I worked for had buses running
twenty four to seven, though at night they only have
a few buses out and they would just run longer routes.
Few drivers actually one of these shifts, so all of
us day drivers were forced to do two night shifts
every other week. It wasn't horrible aside from it messing
up my sleep schedule. They were less passengers and the
roads were more empty, so the job was much more
relaxing than it was during the day. It was somewhere
between two and three am this night, and nobody was out.
I drove my normal route several times over the course
of an hour, and not a single person needed a ride.
I maybe only saw four or five people total, even
walking outside. I pulled up to the last stop of
the route and parked, not to pick anyone up, but
just to take a quick break. While it wasn't busy,
I leaned my head on the back of the seat
and closed my eyes to rest them. I was being
sure not to fall asleep, but soon a knock came
at the door. My eyes shot open as I was
startled by the sudden noise. An older man was standing
at the door looking at me. I made a nervous
and awkward smile, then opened the door. He stepped in
and scanned his bus pass, then went to the very
back of the bus and sat down. Nobody else is out,
so I can drop you off wherever you need, I yelled,
turning my head slightly towards the back. There was a
really awkward few seconds before I turned back forward and
started on the road again. I thought he might have
had earbuds in or something, so I was just going
to do it the hard way and stop at every
bus stop along the route like I was supposed to.
Over the course of the drive, I constantly checked the mirror,
seeing the man just sitting in the back staring ahead.
It was odd behavior, but who knows what these people
have on their minds. At three am, I pulled up
to every stop on the route and was approaching the
last two, wondering when this man was going to get off.
After these, it just loops back around to where I
picked him up. When I stopped at the next spot,
I put the bus in park and looked at the
man in the mirror. After a second, he got up.
He began walking down the aisle, but the way he
was staring at the floor was really unusual. As he
got closer, I turned my body around and could see
his face. It was full of anger and rage. I
tried to act normal, turning my face to the road again,
but the guy stopped right next to me. I looked
over and he was staring down at me. Is everything okay?
The man continued staring, but then he looked away and
walked back down the aisle and sat down. This was
the point where I knew something was very wrong, and
I started to worry. After a moment, I put the
bus back in drive and headed to the next and
final stop. When we arrived, I put it in park
and waited. There was a sort of tension in this
moment that was hard to describe. I looked ahead at
the empty roads and sidewalks. Then the man got up
and walked quickly down the aisle. He approached me, but
this time he shoved me against the side window and
held a gun against my head, looking him in the eyes.
He had that same look as before, crazed, anger and
ra I didn't know why or what he wanted from me,
but I was sure he was going to pull that trigger.
The man didn't say anything, He just tensed up and
pushed the gun against my head even harder, still staring
me in the eyes. Then he opened his mouth wide
and screamed right in my face, just a painfully loud,
angry scream. Then he let go, backed up and walked out.
I closed the door quickly and drove away. I called
the police as soon as possible, knowing that his bus
pass would have his identity in the system. An officer
was sent to where I dropped the man off, while
one came to where I was to get more information.
A couple days later, they showed me a picture of
the man who was on the bus pass that the
stranger had used, but it was a completely different person.
I don't know, oh what kind of sick mind that
man had or what he wanted from me, but that
was the most unusual, disturbing and creepy encounter I've ever had,
and we'll probably ever have I worked at a library.
In my mid twenties up until my early thirties, I
worked over night shifts there as a stocker and reorganizer.
When I applied, I was told i'd be working midshifts,
but a few months later they decided to open a
new overnight position. This place was huge and was an
old stone building in the center of town repurposed into
a library. Being so large, though, stocking and reorganizing the
books became too much for US employees to do consistently
throughout the day. Nobody wanted to do the night shift, though,
mainly because they only opened a single position, meaning whoever
it was would be alone all night. I really didn't
I want to do it either, but they offered to
increase pay by two dollars per hour for overnight shifts.
That was a big deal for me at the time,
so I took it. A few months in everything was
going well. Even though I was technically doing the same
job as I was when I worked midshifts, it was
a completely different job. I didn't have to interact with customers,
waste time helping them or anything. I just did my work,
listen to music, and nobody bothered me. Over the following months, though,
I strangely started to become less and less comfortable while working.
It was weird because I figured I should be getting
more comfortable as time went on, but I began thinking
about how old the building was, and it kind of
creeped me out. Sometimes I'd look up from the bookshelf
and see the empty dark room with what felt like
hundreds of aals where anything could be hiding. I'd pull
my headphones out and listen, hearing nothing but silence, which
for some reason made me feel even more creeped out.
But then one night, when I was doing my usual
listening to music and stocking, I heard something from the
other side of the large room. I stopped moving for
a moment as it registered in my head that I
did actually hear something. Then I pulled out my headphones
and looked up. I kind of just stood there for
a few minutes, scared to move. I was waiting for
something else to happen, but nothing ever did, so I
went back to my work. This time I left my
headphones out though I finished rearranging the shelf. Then I
rolled my cart to the back to grab all the
book returns. But that's when I heard it again, this
time with my headphones away. I could confirm it was
inside the building, and I could tell it was the
sound of something falling on the ground. It might have
sounded just like a small book hitting the floor, but
in such a large, quiet room it echoed loudly. Again,
I froze and just stared in the direction I heard
the sound coming from. Considering the building was full of books,
it didn't seem unlikely for a couple books to fall
down randomly, But that didn't really make me feel any
more comfort. Something felt off, like I was being watched.
My head started doing that thing again, going through every
reason to be scared of the place, and I was
trying really hard not to panic. I knew the likelihood
of it just being a book falling off the shelf
was high, and I also knew that I'd often get
into my head and scare myself for no reason. So
I got myself to walk over in check. I walked
slowly through the aisles of bookshelves, looking down each one.
I got to the very last aisle. There was nothing,
not a book or anything down any of the aisles.
The panic started to come up in my head again.
I turned around and my heart stopped. Someone was standing
by the door leading to the back storage room. They
were in the far corner, as if trying to hide
against the wall, but I could tell they were watching me.
I resisted every urge in my body to scream and run.
I looked away, walked back down the aisles, unlocked the
front door, and walked out. As soon as the door
closed behind me, I sprinted around the back of the
building to my car and locked myself inside, then called
the police. I was shaking and crying when they arrived.
I came to the front of the building and waited
while two of them searched inside, but they came out alone.
Apparently they didn't find anyone. My mind immediately thought of
how I should have locked the front door after I
got out, but I was so afraid I didn't even
think about it. My manager had us do a stock
count and everything in the following days, but nothing seemed
to be out of the ordinary, no large amounts of
stock missing. It made everyone question why the person was
in the building, or if there even was a person
at all. It really sucks because a lot of my
coworkers thought that it was just some weird trick to
get me out of working night shifts. I know what
I heard though there was no mistake, and I know
what I saw too. Despite that horrifying night, I still
kept my job. They were nice enough to let me
do midshifts for a month before going back to nights.
After that, though nothing else ever happened, I'm just left
with the mystery of what that man was trying to do.