The office next to me has been empty for the last five years until ten days ago. I work in the information technology department at a small hospital. My office sits at the end of a very long hallway with only one other office next to it. Like I said, it has been empty for the last five years. So, you can imagine how shocked I was when I heard someone sneeze through the wall. I responded out of habit, “Bless you!” Then I sat straight up in my chair and turned to the wall with a look of shock written all over my face. I rolled my chair closer to the wall and listened for a response. When no one responded back I picked up my office phone and called my supervisor.
After speaking with her for a good five minutes, she convinced me that no one was hired recently nor had anyone been placed in that office. She stated that the office next to mine has been unoccupied for so long because of a water pipe leak in the ceiling. I immediately looked up to make sure that no such leak was spreading over to my office. Once I assured myself that a ton of dirty ceiling water was not about to crash down on to me, I got off the phone with her. I guess I was hearing things now. I rolled back over to the wall and listened again for a noise. Nothing but my own breathing was heard.
I decided that I needed to get out of my office and go get some fresh air, and when I say fresh air I mean a smoke break. I have to walk past the office next to mine to get to the exit. The door was closed as it always has been for the last five years, but now there was light creeping out from under the door. I stopped outside of the door and just stared, like a deer caught in headlights. After a few seconds I saw a shadow pass by the bottom of the door. I instinctively reached my arm out and knocked on the door. The next thing I know the handle of the door is being twisted open and this man is standing in front of me.
He was dressed all in black from head to toe. His eyes were sunk deep into his sockets and he wore a look of anger for being disturbed. “Hello”, I said. He continued to stare at me like I never said a word. “My name is Seth, my office is next door.” “I was not aware that we hired anyone new or that this office was being occupied.” This man just continued to stare at me like I did not exist and he could care less about who I was or where my office was located. “Okay, well I just wanted to say hello and welcome you to the hospital, I work for the I.T. department, so if you need help getting your computer set up give me a call.” He continued to stare so I took that as my cue to leave.
After I finished my smoke break I walked back up to my office. My mysterious neighbor had his door shut again. I shut and locked my door and called my supervisor to fill her in on my strange encounter. She was as thoroughly confused as I was to who this guy was or what he was doing there. She played it off that HR must have hired someone and she was not in the loop to be made aware of who he was. I got off the phone with her and went about my day as I normally do.
A few hours went by and I started to hear some strange noises through the wall. I rolled my chair back over there and started listening. This was a mistake. At first it sounded like someone was humming, but it was muffled. The longer I sat there and listened the more aware I became that it was not humming but some sort of moaning. Not the sexual kind either, this was the kind of moaning you would expect to hear from someone that was in a great deal of pain. I immediately was creeped out but could not keep myself from trying to listen. As I moved closer to the wall I accidentally knocked off a picture. As it clattered to the floor the moaning immediately stopped. “Oh shit”, I said out loud.
As quietly as I could I picked up my displaced picture and hung it back up and quickly rolled my chair back to my desk. A minute later someone was knocking on my door. Normally I don’t panic when someone is at my office door but for the life of me I could not get the feeling of dread out of my mind that the man in black was outside of my door.
I slowly made my way to the door and asked who it was while staring intently at the lock on my door to make sure that it was still locked. No one answered. I waited about five seconds and started to walk back to my desk when a loud knock about made me wet myself from fear. I gathered all the courage I had and unlocked my door and flung it open. The hallway was completely empty and as I poked my head out of my doorway and looked around the corner I caught my neighbors door shutting. For whatever reason this scared the hell out of me.
I quickly closed my door and re locked it. I walked back to my desk and sat down and tried to regain some kind of composer to my shaking limbs. “This is ridiculous”, I thought to myself. He is just a man, nothing more, nothing less. I decided to go over and see what he needed. Perhaps he didn’t hear me earlier when he knocked on my door and I did tell him if he needed anything to let me know and I would help him out. So off I went.
I walked over to his door and noticed the lights were out this time in his office. I proceeded to knock and wait for an answer. No one answered but the door did slowly open. Looking in all you could see was darkness. The blinds on the back window were closed tight allowing very little to no light inside. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness before I went any closer to his office. Slowly shapes started forming in my vision. I could see the outline of an old desk and a filing cabinet to the left. When I turned my vision to the right I about screamed. Sitting next to the wall was what appeared to be a woman tied up to a chair. Her head was hanging down at an impossible angle to her body and she was not moving. With all the courage that I had I took a step into this office and quickly fumbled for the light switch that I was praying was on the side of the wall. Sure enough my fingers found the switch and once the light was on I wished I would have kept it off.
Sitting in the chair to my right was my supervisor Cindy. Her chin was almost touching her belly. There was a massive amount of blood covering her chest, stomach, lap, and the floor beyond her. It looked as though there was a large wad of bloody meat sitting next to her on the floor. As my eyes took this sight in my mind came to the conclusion that this must be the missing part of her neck which is why her chin was able to touch almost to her stomach. The moment my mind made this connection my stomach decided that it had enough and I projectile vomited straight forward. Lucky for me my stomach was weak to such gory sights and that it also possessed a sort of ESP. For as my stomach forcibly shot my breakfast straight out of me the man in black at the same time was jumping up from behind the desk from where he was hiding. My puke filled breakfast hit him straight in the face and luckily stopped him in his tracks. That was just enough time for me to notice that he was standing in front of me with a long blood dripping knife! I turned on my heels faster than any former band geek should be able to and took off running back to my office. I slammed the door shut and locked it as fast as humanly possible.
I ran to my desk phone and punched in 911. I waited for the operator to answer. Nothing. There was no dial tone. That man is slamming himself into my office door and there is no way that my cheap lock is going to hold him much longer. The only other way out is through the window but it is housing a humongous out of date air conditioner at the moment. I quickly pushed my spare desk up against the door to hold this maniac off for a little bit longer. I picked up my office chair and smashed it through the top part of my window. At this point the man slamming into my door stopped.
I waited about five seconds and decided that I was not about to open my door. I made it to the window and cleared some of the broken glass out of the way. I climbed through it and placed my feet on the ledge of the building. The only way to safety was to the right of my office towards the helicopter landing zone, which just happened to be right past the office I was trying to avoid. I slowly gripped the side of the building and made my way towards the landing. As I got to the window I noticed that the blinds that were once closed were now open. With the day light streaming in I could see Cindy’s mutilated body in more detail then I had previously. My stomach clinched at the sight of her again and I almost puked all over the window. I was able to hold it in and forced myself to keep moving. I had just made it past the window when it felt like something had pierced my leg. I looked down and there was the man in black with his hand attached to my right calf muscle. It felt as if he was transferring something in to me. The next thing I know I felt weightless.
I woke up ten days later in the very hospital that I was so desperately trying to escape. My family was all gathered around my bed and could not believe it when I opened my eyes. Long story short, they found my supervisors body in the office next to mine and found me laying in the back alley surrounded by broken glass. I broke several bones and crushed a good portion of the back of my skull, resulting in me having issues with being able to speak. I kept trying to tell them it was the man in black but nothing would come out of my mouth but blubbered noises. They told me that the police pulled up the security footage of that day and most of it was erased. There was one clip of my boss and myself entering the office next to mine and then the tape goes blank. Everyone thinks I killed her and then tried to kill myself over the guilt of it. The whole time I am being told this story I can’t help but take my eyes off the far corner of the room where there is a huge mirror reflecting my image back at me. I am dressed all in black laying in a bed of white sheets. My eyes are sunken into my head and I can’t stop smiling.
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