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Speaker 1: Short Haunts Welcome, dear listeners, to our series of short
Speaker 1: haunts A shot of scary just for you, So grab
Speaker 1: a hot chocolate, may be a tea, maybe something stronger.
Speaker 1: Because this is Haunted UK Podcasts Short Haunts the second building.
Speaker 1: Now let's turn this over to our listener. Hi, my
Speaker 1: name is Darren and I've really enjoyed listening to the show.
Speaker 1: I'd like to share an experience I had in two
Speaker 1: thousand and six in Glasgow, Scotland. A bit of background
Speaker 1: on myself. I'm a skeptic and feel that there are
Speaker 1: rational explanations for most people's experiences. However, after a frightening
Speaker 1: and inexplicable experience of my own, I developed a deeper
Speaker 1: interest in the paranormal. As a child, I enjoyed watching
Speaker 1: strange but true and my father often teased me that
Speaker 1: the creaking floors in our old house were the footsteps
Speaker 1: of the previous owner who had died there, but I
Speaker 1: never took any such things to heart. I should note
Speaker 1: that for about a decade now I have worked as
Speaker 1: a tour guide in the Edinburgh Bolts and the Greyfriars
Speaker 1: kirk Yard, both reportedly very haunted locations. I've been in
Speaker 1: the vaults hundreds of times, and though colleagues have reported
Speaker 1: experiences that range from cold spots to having small items
Speaker 1: thrown at them and seeing or hearing things they can't explain,
Speaker 1: I haven't had any experiences of note, at least nothing
Speaker 1: that couldn't be relatively easily explained away. But I can't
Speaker 1: say the same for the job I had in my
Speaker 1: early twenties. I was working reception and security in two
Speaker 1: Scottish government buildings in Glasgow Cities Enter. The larger of
Speaker 1: the two buildings stood about five stories tall and dated
Speaker 1: back from the late nineteen seventies, while the other, smaller
Speaker 1: buildings stood approximately three stories tall and had been built
Speaker 1: in the nineteen nineties. Both buildings were in busy areas
Speaker 1: of the city, with lots of traffic and the hustle
Speaker 1: and bustle of nightlife, but the smaller building, for some reason,
Speaker 1: always had a strange atmosphere, remaining quiet even during the day,
Speaker 1: as though no one dared to have anything more than
Speaker 1: a hushed conversation within its walls. I worked over night
Speaker 1: shifts as a security guard in both buildings. Regular patrols
Speaker 1: in the larger building were always uneventful and simply consisted
Speaker 1: of making the rounds in a s large empty building.
Speaker 1: The smaller of the two buildings, however, was a different
Speaker 1: story entirely. I had a few daytime shifts to get
Speaker 1: my bearings before beginning the night shifts. From the first
Speaker 1: overnight shift I worked, I felt uneasy. I can't pinpoint
Speaker 1: anything specific, just the general heavy loaded feeling, the impression
Speaker 1: that something was there with me, and a feeling of
Speaker 1: being watched. I didn't pay too much attention at first,
Speaker 1: but increasingly over time something just didn't feel right, so
Speaker 1: I spent most of my time in the security office
Speaker 1: behind the locked door. The building was well equipped with CCTV,
Speaker 1: which I could view from the security office. On several occasions,
Speaker 1: I would see misty white figures pass in front of
Speaker 1: the screen. I would check the cameras and sometimes would
Speaker 1: find a cobweb that could be to blame, but oftentimes
Speaker 1: the smoky white apparitions went unexplained. My colleagues mostly consisted
Speaker 1: of older men, and I didn't feel comfortable approaching them
Speaker 1: with my unexplained feelings and sightings. But one day, while
Speaker 1: out for a drink with a co worker named David,
Speaker 1: I worked up the courage to ask if he'd ever
Speaker 1: had any strange experiences working the night shift. He grinned
Speaker 1: and said, oh ay, then proceeded to tell me that
Speaker 1: one night, while at work, he found his wife from
Speaker 1: the security office. His wife suddenly got rather upset, asking
Speaker 1: if he had another woman there with him. He replied
Speaker 1: that he was alone, but she kept insisting she could
Speaker 1: hear a woman's voice also on the line. David swore
Speaker 1: to his wife that he was alone, but she persisted,
Speaker 1: saying she could now hear the woman laughing. He eventually
Speaker 1: managed to convince her that he was indeed alone, and
Speaker 1: the issue was never mentioned again. Did you have the
Speaker 1: TV on or the radio? I asked David, already knowing
Speaker 1: the source of the noise couldn't have come from outside
Speaker 1: since the security office was void of windows. He assured
Speaker 1: me that he did not, and to this day he
Speaker 1: had no idea who the woman was that his wife
Speaker 1: was hearing through the phone. I sat back, slightly unnerved,
Speaker 1: taking in the story he just told me. He hardly
Speaker 1: skipped a beat before launching into another. This time, the
Speaker 1: incident occurred in the break area, which consisted of a
Speaker 1: small room with a bench, kettle, and a little fridge.
Speaker 1: One of the guards was in there making a cup
Speaker 1: of tea one night when he was pinned very hard
Speaker 1: on the ear, so hard, in fact, that it caused
Speaker 1: him to drop the cup. When he turned around to
Speaker 1: see who had played this trick on him, he found
Speaker 1: he was completely alone. It dawned on him then that
Speaker 1: the building had been clear of any other people for
Speaker 1: several hours already. I could feel a mounting sense of
Speaker 1: dread as David continued to tell me about the strange
Speaker 1: goings on in the building. He then launched into the
Speaker 1: next story, which chilled me to my core. Every few weeks,
Speaker 1: the building would be visited by contractors who would come
Speaker 1: in overnight, usually to work on IT systems and the like.
Speaker 1: These contractors were generally also government employees with their own passes.
Speaker 1: We were always made aware of when they were coming,
Speaker 1: and they would always let us know before they left.
Speaker 1: David was in the foyer one such night while a contractor,
Speaker 1: an electrician in this case, was working on the third
Speaker 1: floor of the building. It was about three a m. When,
Speaker 1: out of no where, David suddenly heard the sound of
Speaker 1: someone running down the stairs and racing toward the exit.
Speaker 1: He turned to see the electrician hammering against the glass door,
Speaker 1: shouting to be let out. Startled and bewildered, David promptly obliged.
Speaker 1: The electrician flew out at the door, offering no explanation
Speaker 1: for his dramatic departure. The next day, his boss came
Speaker 1: to gather the equipment he'd left behind in his haste
Speaker 1: to exit the building. His boss went on to explain
Speaker 1: what had happened. The electrician claimed he'd been poked hard
Speaker 1: in the back while working, and when he turned around
Speaker 1: to look, he saw a small, ghostly, pale girl standing
Speaker 1: only a few feet away, staring at him with an
Speaker 1: unwavering gaze. Jesus, that's when he bolted out of the
Speaker 1: room and never looked back. I continued to work overnight
Speaker 1: shifts without giving too much thought to these stories, and
Speaker 1: had mostly put them to the back of my mind
Speaker 1: until one particular night when I had a terrifying experience
Speaker 1: of my own. I had already done my patrols, confirming
Speaker 1: the building was empty and that the doors to the
Speaker 1: building were secure. I went to the security office and
Speaker 1: sat at the desk, where a small television was perched
Speaker 1: next to the monitor, where I could watch the CCTV
Speaker 1: feed in real time. The monitor screen was divided to
Speaker 1: show footage from all the different cameras. I knew the
Speaker 1: lights in the hallways were set up to be triggered
Speaker 1: by motion sensors, so when I noticed the light come
Speaker 1: on in the hallway on one of the cameras, it
Speaker 1: immediately caught my eye. I turned off the television to
Speaker 1: focus on it, and was astonished to see the next
Speaker 1: light down the hall turn on. Then another A shiver
Speaker 1: went down my spine as I realized the lights were
Speaker 1: turning on in sequence, as though someone was walking down
Speaker 1: the hallway, but there was no one there. I knew
Speaker 1: the building was empty and secured, as I had just
Speaker 1: done my patrol. I stood staring at the screen, transfixed,
Speaker 1: watching as the lights kept turning on, one after the other.
Speaker 1: It was at this point that I heard footsteps. My
Speaker 1: stomach dropped as I realized the lights in the hallway
Speaker 1: were leading to the security office. My heart began pounding
Speaker 1: as I turned to look at the double doors, half
Speaker 1: expecting them to swing open at any moment. The footsteps
Speaker 1: stopped just outside the security office, and almost immediately the
Speaker 1: lights started turning off, leaving the hallway empty still and
Speaker 1: dark once again. I remained frozen in place for quite
Speaker 1: some time, then sat down to regain my composure. I
Speaker 1: stayed in the office with the door locked until the
Speaker 1: sun came up and a colleague arrived to relieve me.
Speaker 1: Then I went home and never spoke of the incident
Speaker 1: to anyone. Much later I learned that the site the
Speaker 1: smaller building had been built on once housed a bus
Speaker 1: station in the Anderson area of Glasgow. Apparently several people,
Speaker 1: including children, had died in bus related accidents over the years.
Speaker 1: Some suggest these tragedies may be responsible for the paranormal
Speaker 1: events occurring there. I still questioned myself to this day.
Speaker 1: Was it just faulty electrics and an overactive imagination. I
Speaker 1: can't really say. All I know is that I felt
Speaker 1: something wrong in that building from the very first day,
Speaker 1: and I saw what I saw or it was real,
Speaker 1: and to this day, the thought of it sends a
Speaker 1: shiver down my spine. Thank you for telling my story.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed the show. I was looking for a
Speaker 1: podcast about the paranormal and was glad to find one
Speaker 1: specifically about the UK. And that is the end of
Speaker 1: our short haunt. Thank you for listening to the second building.
Speaker 1: Please let us know your thoughts. Was the building plagued
Speaker 1: by the lost souls of unfortunate victims from the bus station,
Speaker 1: or was it simply plagued with a faulty electrical system
Speaker 1: and workers with over active imaginations. Perhaps the grueling hours
Speaker 1: of overnight shifts and spending all those hours alone played
Speaker 1: tricks on their minds, or maybe there really was a
Speaker 1: ghostly little girl meandering down the hallway on the prow
Speaker 1: for loan security guards to scare. Whatever the case beyond
Speaker 1: guard next time you work a night shift or visit
Speaker 1: an empty building after hours, because perhaps the next subject
Speaker 1: of a short haunt could be you.