Anonymous
My office is a regular office. Nothing obviously spooky about it. The spookiest thing is how many cubicles there are and how terrible the lighting is. A lot of us work with overseas clients, so there's always at least one of us working late most nights. Usually a few. I've been at the office until midnight on more than one occasion.
I should say something about the building itself. The office floor plan is pretty regular, but the building, at least the exterior of the structure is that Brutalist architecture from the 1950s that's all concrete and right angles. The building just looks imposing. The thing I've heard is that no business can stay open for long in my office building. I've heard people say that since the 1950s over 100 businesses have tried to survive in this dark building but none can. My company has been open for 8 years, we take up two floors, so maybe we are breaking the curse. But it does feel cursed. I like my job but I don't like my office building.
My cubicle is on the outer edge of the cluster of cubes. There are about 15 cubicles on my floor. From where I am, I can easily turn my head a bit and see the elevator doors and the director's corner office. I can also see a short hallway leading to the restrooms.
Whenever I have to work late, I try to convince my office buddies to hang with me as long as they can. If anything weird happens we can laugh it off. Like when we've heard voices from the bathroom and nobody's in there.
Sometimes it's just me and one other person who I don't really talk to all that much, so we work in silence, but it's still nice to know someone else is seeing and hearing stuff.
But a few nights ago, I was alone. Alone alone. My friends had gone to a happy hour earlier (those bastards) and I had no choice but to work late, past 9pm. It was very quiet, all but the hum of computers and air conditioning to keep me company. Everybody had gone home for the night and all the lights were off in the bosses' offices.
As I typed away and waited for responses and emails, I swear I felt the temperature change in my cubicle. Like the air conditioning had been turned colder. Much, much colder. I tried to ignore it and tell myself I was just tired and letting my imagination get the best of me.
As the clock turned over to 9:45pm, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. Near the director's office.
Was it a shadow? Did something flicker?
I put my head down and prayed I'd finish soon. When my phone rang I almost peed my pants!
As I talked to our client, I kept shivering and glancing over toward the director's office. Did I see her light flicker on and off? Or was there a janitor in there? I hadn't heard anyone come in, plus I'd have seen anyone come out of the elevator. My call ended and I walked over to the office and peeked in.
Nothing.
I went back to my cube and typed up emails as fast as I could. I heard the elevator doors open and I relaxed a bit, happy to have the cleaning person as company. I turned my head and saw the elevator doors standing open wide. Nobody in the elevator. Just frozen.
I got goosebumps all over.
I stood up on my tiptoes and looked over the top of all the cubicles and at the offices. Their doors open. Nobody was around. The elevator doors just stood open.
"Hello?" I said. No response.
I sat down again and typed like my life depended on it. Finally around 10:30pm I packed up my bags and stood up to leave.
What I saw made me want to throw up.
All the lights in all the bosses' offices were on. The elevator door stood open. I might have seen the bathroom door swinging a little, but I didn't go to find out.
I just ran. Somehow I found the courage to go right into that elevator and press the ground floor button. The elevator immediately responded and as the doors closed I swear I saw an office light turn off. Once in the lobby I booked it out of there.
I haven't worked late since that happened, but I know I will have to again at some point. I don't know how I'll handle it. There's something really wrong with my office building.
Image: "Old School Seattle Urban Farm" by JoeInSouthernCA is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0