Paranormal Story Archives
April 2001 – Page 12

The Haunted Factory
by Lee

Just a freaky story from a former skeptic. I'm a 27-year-old foreman for a small crew at an industrial manufacturing company. I've been here about six years, and when I first started here as just a general laborer, I'd wander around the building on my coffee breaks. The building itself doesn't have a good reputation. As with most industrial factories, the place isn't exactly clean. Sawdust is everywhere, as well as grease from the many old machines we still use to keep ourselves in business. You don't have to look far for lots of cobwebs, and I've seen some big spiders hangin' out there too. Apart from a big bay door used for deliveries, the only good source of light in the building are four rows of track lighting form the high ceilings, and two rows of windows on the top of the building, so it's usually fairly dark in there.

The whole place has a scary reputation among the workers, and people would talk occasionally. As I said, I used to wander around on my coffee breaks, looking for a quiet place to get away from the noise for a few minutes. I walked into the carpentry area and saw a stairway leading up. I had heard the stories, but I wasn't all that concerned until one of the older carpenters stopped me on my way up. He said, "What are you doin'?" in a dialect suggesting I was stupid. "You're goin' up there?" he gestured with his eyes. I told him that I just wanted some peace and quiet to have my coffee. He just walked away. That was that. I wandered up stairs thinking "Anyway..."

When I got upstairs, I thought I understood his cause for concern; the place looked like it hadn't seen the light of day in centuries. There was enough light coming in from a window, that I could make out everything, and that was freaky enough. Along with some old scrap iron and broken chairs, the only other piece of equipment up there was just a conveyor belt. I can't even begin to stress how many spider webs there were. Everywhere - almost from floor to ceiling, covering just about everything. I found a light switch, but it didn't work, as I expected. In any case, I dragged an old wooden crate over to the middle of the room and sat down to drink my coffee. I heard noise from downstairs, but I heard something different as well. Kind of a growling noise, almost the way a big dog would growl. The growling was so quiet at first that I just assumed it was one of the saws or an air filter, but then it became louder. It seemed to be coming from the wall furthest away form me, so as my heart started thumping, I strained my eyes to see what the %$#&! it was. As I did so, I got the fright of my life! The noise seemed to be coming from a corner where some tall fixtures of some sort were leaned up against a wall, giving off shadows, and one of them moved. In my direction.

I had my coffee in one hand and nothing in the other to defend myself with. I was beside myself with fear. I had never seen anything like this in my life! The next second or two are a little bit hazy, because I was so scared, but I think I just turned around and walked to the stairway, and ran back down. Somewhere in between, I must've dropped my coffee. When I got to the bottom, back in the carpentry area, I stopped at the bottom to evaluate what had just happened. I looked over to my left and saw the same old co-worker looking at me, wearing a you-know-what-eating grin. I was angry and a bit humiliated, but more than anything, glad to be out of there.

As a fitting end to the story, last year an arsonist tried to burn the place down. The only areas of the building that were destroyed were the carpentry area, and the room above it. For now, the company has no plans to rebuild those areas. I'm glad.

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