A True Ghost Story...No Joke. This is Real.

Someone in The Basement

In 2006 I took a job with a company that manufactures integrated circuits (micro chips). My responsibilities require me to go into the basement of the FAB (fabrication room) on a nightly basis. I still do this to this very day.

After working in this particular department for about a year I began to feel like someone was watching me while I did my regular route in the lower level. I felt this on several occasions and it was always in the same area, a remote corner of the basement. Sometimes I’d see a shadow zip past the corner of my eye and when I’d look to see who had walked up behind me, no one would be there. This troubled me for the longest time. The feeling was strange. I knew someone was there. I could feel a frightening, cold, electrical sensation, like eyes were crawling all over me. The feeling sent shivers down my spine.

This continued for years while I did my job, biting my tongue.

But a few months back, I was chatting with one of my co-workers about spiritual matters and he asked me if I had ever had a supernatural experience. I told him about my experience with the ghost from Nashville, Indiana. When I finished telling him about Earl and the cabin (see Ghost Story From 2010), he asked if I had experienced anything odd at work.

I was stunned.

I had been wondering if I was paranoid or if I was going crazy. When he asked me, I told him that I wasn’t sure and then asked if he had experienced anything. He said yes, and proceeded to tell me that he feels like there is something or someone in the basement, watching him, standing near him in the same remote corner that I’ve experienced the entity.

Upon hearing my co-workers story, I revealed what I had been through. We went to the basement to confirm our experiences and sure enough, we were talking about the same place and the exact same sensations.

After I revealed this to my coworker, I had another experience, but I’ll reveal that in a moment.

•••

A month or two later, a female coworker from a different shift approached me. She was new to our area and was assigned to the basement. We had never talked before but she knew I worked in the basement at night and asked if I had witnessed anything unusual. Like always, I asked her why and listened to her story before revealing what I knew.

She told me that from her first day, she felt something down there. Then as time went on, she began to get a sense of who it was. She told me that she believes that the entity is a spirit who had died during the construction of the facility or who had recently died and had worked there in the past. Her experience has been much richer than mine. She claims to have seen a full body apparition and believes that he dresses like a construction worker, and that he is not malevolent, but feels a need to watch over the basement.

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And now I’ll tell you about my other encounter with this ghost.

I was having an especially strong feeling one night that I was being watched as I traversed the basement. When I approached the area where I usually experience those creepy feelings I bent down to make an adjustment to a valve that's near floor level. I made the adjustment, but when I lifted my head, I could see a set of work boots and jeans as clear as day standing directly in front of me and I was the only employee present. As I lifted my eyes, I could see what appeared to be a full set of legs, then the apparition suddenly disappeared.

As you can imagine, this totally freaked me out. I ran around the corner and headed toward the exit. When I continued to feel the entity’s presence, I turned and rebuked whatever it was and went upstairs.

I didn’t sense anything for a couple weeks after that, but he, if it really is a he, has returned since then. I have also heard from a third employee on a different shift report that he has experienced similar disturbances in the area in question among others.

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It’s experiences like this that have confirmed my belief that there is more to this universe than we know, and that some form of life continues after we die. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, your time here on earth is short in terms of forever. 

Of all the stories I’ve heard, and from my own experience, wandering spirits aren’t always the happiest. They seem to have a longing. They seem to be lost. They seem to be ruled by regrets, pain, and unresolved words. I’ve never heard of a ghost story where the spirit in question communicates the overwhelming joys of death—mostly sorrows.

These are my questions. Perhaps you have your own. Perhaps you’ll ponder them as well. One day, we will know for sure. Until then, I’ll keep writing stories about the supernatural and I hope you’ll join me.

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If you enjoy reading frightening stories, you can check out my full-length novels, Reunion (Amazon, bestselling ghost story and one of Goodread’s Best Books of the Year), The Rumblin', Murdoch's Eyes and my forthcoming thriller, Twisted Vengeance (coming Fall 2011).
Watch for my soon to be released book, Spookify Me, a collection of scary stories - coming next week!    ~ Jeff Bennington