My Fear of Warehouses

I’ve always had somewhat of a fear or several things; spiders, heights, needles. But of all the things I’ve feared, the one that I hated the most was the dark. I know, I know. A fully grown man scared of the dark? To be fair, I’m not always scared of the dark; just in places I’m not comfortable with, so things like churches, graveyards, and so on. And besides, I have my own share of reasons for fearing it.

Now, the story I’m about to tell you isn’t a creepy pasta; it’s a real situation that I experienced. As much as you can say about it being made up, I can safely guarantee you that it’s all true.

I was only 17, just a kid by most standards. Since I grew in a small country town, there wasn’t exactly much to do. Most people stick to cars, or farming, or some other boring shit like that. But me; I was always kinda nerdy, so I always stuck with computers and video games. Me being the stick of a kid that I was, I was never really athletic. Even when I tried, I could never really put on weight, and even if I did, I still looked the exact same. I never really even went outside if I could avoid it, so I was pale as a ghost. Needless to say, most people tend to avoid me, since I looked like a walking skeleton.

Most of my friends were like me, nerdy and geeky. That being said, I did have a few “rednecks” within my social circle. Like previously mentioned, there was absolutely NOTHING to do in the country. But finally, after seventeen years, my family was moving out. I couldn’t be more over-joyed to get out of the middle-of-nowhere. I was also a bit sad to be moving away from everyone that I grew to know in the small town. My friends decided to throw me a bit of a “going away party,” on my last day there.

The party consisted of a bunch of my friends renting out a cabin in the middle of the woods, and then proceeding to get utterly shit-face smashed. Half a dozen passed out guys later, there was only five left, including me. All my friends proceeded to give me gifts. Probably my closest friend, Seth, gave me a porno mag. For a slight second, I was confused. I looked at his face with a mix between cluelessness and bewilderment of mine, and I saw that he had the world’s biggest grin on his face. All of us started laughing our asses off. My other friend, Garrett, got me a new headset, so that we could still talk over Skype even after I moved away. The twin brothers, Sam and Chance, both chipped in to buy me the newest installment of a game series that I was in love with. I was happy that at least three outta my four

friends weren’t complete dumbasses.

“Oi, guys. I have an idea,” Seth said aloud, “You guys know that warehouse up near Bless Street?”

We all nodded, to affirm his question.

“How about we have a lil’ bet?” he asked, with that same stupid grin he had on his face.

“Whaddya mean a bet?” I asked the question that everyone else was wondering.

“Well, we all go in it and stay as long as we can. If Ethan is the last one staying, all the rest of us have to get him another present. If anyone else  stays the longest, we get to pick one present to take back!” Yet again, he flashed his dumb grin.

All my friends looked back at forth at each other, as to see what everyone else thought. I, however, wasn’t entirely sure. I wasn’t just hesitant because I might lose a present, but that warehouse gave me the chills just driving past it. It always seemed like the inside of it might be home to a secret cult of Satanists who sacrifice goats there or some creepy shit like that.

Somehow though, we all managed to agree to Seth’s dumb suggestion. We all grabbed out backpacks, packed some snacks and drinks, left a note the guys who passed out, and walked about half a mile to the warehouse.

We all stood in front of the warehouse, unsure of what to do. None of us wanted to be the first one in, in case there WAS actually a house of ghosts who would suck you in and kill you instantly. To put it simply, we were all paranoid.

“All right then, do we rock-paper-scissors for it?” Garrett suggested. None of us had a better idea, so we all went with it. With my luck, it was only a matter of time before I was picked to go in.

I swear to God, if I die, I’M GOING TO HAUNT THE SHIT OUT OF ALL OF YOU, I thought to myself. I sighed to myself and I walked towards the front door of the warehouse.

As I grabbed the knob, I could feel my hands shaking. I didn’t know why I was so afraid, it was just one of those things where you have a bad feeling, a preconception of the horror that one may or may not face.

I opened the door with a creak that would put horror movie clichés to shame. Not even joking, I just about crapped myself from the door opening itself. The door slammed against the wall with a loud bang, giving me a chance to scare my friends.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” I yelled as I pretended to fall into the doorway.

I could hear the sounds – or should I say, lack of sounds- that came from my friends. It was dead silent for at least thirty seconds. I sat behind the wall, waiting for one of my friends to pass through the door so I could scare the shit out of them. But that was it; I waited, and waited, and waited.

I checked my watch. It had been at least ten minutes since I pulled that stunt, and no one was coming to check on him.

Wow, my friends are dicks, I couldn’t help but think. I sighed, and looked through the open door way. But no one was there. In fact, it didn’t even seem it was the same street.

“What the hell?...” I whispered to myself. For a slight second, I thought to myself that my friends were playing a prank on me. But I realized that it was impossible. After all, how could you change a street?

I tried to reason with myself about what I was seeing. Was I asleep? Did I actually get knocked out when I jumped into here? Did I accidentally die and now I’m in hell for being an absolute asshole? My mind jumped all over the place, not able to  make rational decisions.

I attempted to walk through the door,  but I couldn’t. I literally couldn’t. It felt like there was invisible wall there, keeping me in this new jail. I felt my legs start to shake uncontrollably, showing my fear.

“This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening,” I whispered to myself. I was freaking out, having a nervous breakdown. I could feel my heart racing, my face contorting into a look of horror.

Then I heard something that shook me to my very core.

“Hey kid, you shouldn’t be in here,” a voice whispered to me, only inches in front of me.

I looked up through my teary eyes, and saw nothing. But that’s what terrified me the most; the lack of anything. It was pitch black, much darker then it was when I walked into the warehouse. I put my hand in front of my face to see just how blind I had become. To my horror, I hit something.

I remember touching something that felt similar to dried leather, and I screamed and pulled it back immediately, and scrambled back towards the wall.

“Jeez kid, ya really need to calm down,” another soft voice, penetrating the darkness and entering my ears. Needless to say, I was still scared shitless.

I felt something touch my arms, like they were needles scraping them. I screamed again, into the darkness. I was met with my scream by even more of the same feeling on my arms, except harder. It felt like there were several needles on each of my hands, running up my arms, lightly penetrating my skin.

I screamed louder, making the pain even worse. I could feel several arms grabbing each of my limbs, pulling in all different directions, and grabbing my head trying to twist it and pull it in every way possible, fingers being stuffed into my mouth, muffling my screams. I could feel tears flowing down my cheeks, and heard laughs that sounded unhuman.

I clenched my eyes down as hard as I could, the only thoughts going through my head were my imminent death and the overwhelming desire that I would just live to see my family again. I felt the arms pulling me down, possibly even through the floorboards.

The next thing I realized, I was back in the cabin with all my passed out friends. I jumped out of the bed, practically falling over my drunken friends. I lay on the ground, gasping for air, trying to calm myself.

Oh thank God, it was all a dream. Thank fucking God.

My friends opened the door to the cabin, and all started at me, like they had seen a ghost.

“Ethan?! Thank God dude, where the hell did you go?” Sam questioned me.

“What? What do you mean?”

I didn’t understand what he meant. I had been asleep in the cabin.

“After you dived into that warehouse, we all went to go check on you, but you weren’t there!” he answered.

I felt my mind collapsing on itself. What the literal fuck had I experienced then? I couldn’t have been a dream if they remembered me going into the warehouse. Just what the hell had happened?

“Guys…let’s just…forget all about this,” I said to them. They nodded, beams of sweet going down their foreheads.

To this day, I still have no idea what happened. And frankly, I don’t want to know, I couldn’t give a damn less. I swear to God, this story isn’t made up. I’m 23 now, and I still haven’t told anyone except my friends who were involved in the story. Needless to say, I’m still afraid of the dark. And warehouses.