Let's Not Meet Again

We Never Made It Inside...

It started several years ago--my and my friend's interest in Urban exploration. I was a junior in high school at the time, which was when everyone started to earn a lot more freedom, so we took the chance to be out late whenever we could.

Now, keep in mind that I live in a major city in central Colorado, so the nightlife is never lacking. We could always find something to do, and were especially drawn if there was an element of danger. We wouldn't always plan these trips, but we made sure as hell that if we were going into any old building in the dark, we would have a knife and a flashlight for safety. We never really had to defend ourselves, but we came very close one evening.

It must have been around November, because there wasn't yet snow on the ground, but it was a chilly evening. Directly across the street from the abandoned hospital, which we have hypothesized is still around from the TB era, is a hospital that is newer and in use. The two are connected by an underground tunnel, which I can only assume was a way to move bodies without alerting the patients (this is a common feature among old hospitals). We had been inside the hospital a few times, but never found anything strange. Only the occasional sign of others having been or lived there. What was piquing our interest that night was the abandoned library next door to that hospital. It was connected, but only by exterior walls. To get inside, you could not cut through the hospital, but instead had to hop over a tall wall and climb a very high fence.

A few of us had backpacks, containing the aforementioned safety precautions and a couple bottles of water (so, nothing too heavy or valuable that would get damaged when tossed over the obstacles before us). A little ways off the road, it was dark if you clung to the buildings. We did for a while before stepping behind a small patch of shrubbery, which we determined was an easy way over the first wall since the only other way to gain access was by a chained, unclimbable gate at the bottom of a set of stairs facing away from the lege. Both were parallel with the library, so when tucked back in that corner behind the bushes, no one could see us from the street.

I don't believe I went first, but I did not remain behind to be last over that wall. It was too high up for me to jump and haul myself over, so I resorted to stepping on a pipe jutting out somewhere lower along the wall. It gave me a bit of a needed boost, and soon I was up and over, moving into the library's courtyard. Another girl and I waited for our two other girl friends to join us.

Upon an initial glance over of the courtyard, there was no obvious way in. To our right was a dilapidated fountain, which I took joy in imagining spring forward a spray of water from its detailed stonework in the brighter summer months--people laughing and talking with the surrounding trees bringing them shade. Now, however, it had been in long disuse, and the earth at our feet was cold and hard. There were no signs of another soul for years, save the 15 foot chain link fence directly in front of us separating the courtyard in half. I could tell it hadn't seen the same weather as the rest of the courtyard, because the metal showed no signs of rust.

That must be our way in, we agreed, because with a fence like that someone obviously wanted to keep us out. We hurled our bags over the fence, hearing them clank on the ground rather silently due to their lightness. I was the third over, because I have a slight fear of climbing and it took me a bit to mentally prepare myself. I made it to the top of the fence in short time, then sat at top straddling it with a leg on either side. I had two girls on the other side in front of me, and one behind me who was telling me to hurry up. I spent a good couple minutes up there doing another mental preparation and some deep breathing, then climbed down to wait for the last girl. At the time, I was thinking that had been one of the scariest things I've done in a while, because I tend to avoid climbing at all costs. Of course this is an irrational fear, as I have never fallen, but that phobic fear didn't even compare to what happened next.

The last girl's feet hit the ground and all four of us split up in the smaller half of the courtyard, looking for any kind of entrance. We decided that breaking a window would be too loud and draw unwanted attention, not to mention we could get really cut up. So, that wasn't an option. Searching for a little longer, we didn't find anything that looked remotely plausible, until we found a grate near the base of where two walls met. I couldn't believe we hadn't noticed it before, and upon closer inspection the grate was already moved slightly from its resting place, so it would be easy to lift the rest of the way.

The smallest and least fearful of our group went first. After moving the grate there was a small drop down. It was no more than three feet down and two feet wide, but inside there was another drop down where we could see into the library basement. She hopped down into the small, square landing, only to almost immediately freeze. We looked amongst ourselves wondering what was wrong.

"There's a guy down there," she said.

"What? Where?"

"I can see his outline," she said.

I leaned forward and tried to make out a shape, but it was further down than my line of sight permitted and too dark.

"Hello?" she called out.

He responded the same, asking who we were.

"Just a couple of chicks," she spat out bluntly.

What he said next sent chills down my spine, and it was as if I could feel the darkness radiating out of that hole in the ground. All of a sudden it was very still and quiet, like that darkness had spilled out and weighed all of us down in that gloomy courtyard.

He said in what I can only describe as a lustful tone dripping with ill intent, "I'm addicted to following the sound of women's voices."

My friend looked over at us blankly, but there was nervousness underneath. Unease. Something in his voice sounded like it wasn't an empty threat, like he wasn't just saying something creepy to get us to leave. She looked back to where he was, and said lowly, "that's not cool..."

The man under that dark earth began laughing maniacally, and not in the kind of way a really good actor does. In the way that we could feel his utter insanity hit us like stale air. We looked at each other for what felt like hours in that gloomy courtyard, but I knew it was only a couple of seconds, because we all exchanged without even speaking that we had to get out of there. And NOW. I was not about to risk some nutcase coming after us, even if we did outnumber him. The friend scrambled up out of the landing, and I was never over a fence faster in my life. Fifteen foot potential fall, and I didn't even have time to think about it. We didn't stop running until we were on the street and halfway down the block out of breath.

I can still hear that laugh...

So, guy in a storm drain?? Let's NOT meet.