My life is boring. I’m a student at a boring university in a boring town. In my free time, I usually sit in my tiny boring student room with my boring computer, having to listen to my boring roommate and her boring boyfriend’s loud conversations. For a long while, I have felt that my life is too routine. I do the same boring shit every single day. I felt a need for more excitement in my life.
Since I was 15 I have always been interested in places that most people do not really know of. Places that have stood abandoned for many years. Places that, if you enter them, you stand the risk of getting arrested. Reading about these places on Reddit always excited me. I wanted to go to them, I wanted the adrenaline and fear that came with them. Watching other people on YouTube exploring old hotels, warehouses, malls or even bowling alleys made me jealous. I watched people getting chased by dogs or cops, people finding creepy items or encountering homeless addicts, and that only made me want to visit an abandoned place more. Because my life was so boring, the adrenaline was very alluring to me. And so I did some research.
I had only been a student at my university for a couple of months. I was in a new town, with new places to explore. After doing some googling I found out that there in fact was an abandoned place where I live, not too far from me. Of course, I was intrigued. I needed to spice up my life, and unlike other people my age I did not want to do that by partying or hooking up. I wanted to spice my life up by adding some danger to it. From what I read the place did not seem that special. It was not an entire hotel or some mall, it was only an old underground tunnel that used to be a passage for car traffic. It felt like the perfect place for a beginner to explore. It had not been in use for over 20 years, and it seemed that not that many urban explorers had been there before me.
I have some friends but none of them would ever be interested in putting themselves in danger just to seek some thrill (understandable, but boring). My friends are the kind of people who like to sit in a circle while drinking and playing games. That can be fun, of course, but it is not very exciting. So, I went alone. Stupid decision, I know. I am a young and short female who decided to go to an abandoned place after dark on my own. I was naive and thought that nothing could ever happen to me, but something did. And after my experience, you best believe that I will not explore alone, or at all, ever again.
It was a Saturday night when I decided to take my bike and go to the tunnel. With me, I brought a flashlight, an army knife, pepper spray and my camera. At least I brought some protection, right? But that did not help me from getting traumatized, maybe for life. It had already gotten dark out and before leaving I checked the time on my computer monitor. It was 22:04, so not that late. This was during autumn though, so the natural light had run out for the day. I left my room and locked the door after me. My roommate is a nice girl but I don’t fully trust her yet, hence locking it. When I left she had the door to her room open, as always, and therefore saw me leaving. I did not tell her where I was going, only that I was taking a walk.
Once I got out of my apartment building I unlocked my bike and started my journey towards the tunnel. I had found the coordinates online and was finding my way to them with the help of google maps on my phone. To get there, I had to bike thru a wooded area. The path was not lit up, the only reason that I could see anything was because of my bike light. It was scary, but I enjoyed the fear. At least I was feeling something. I thought it was great, I already felt more alive and I had not even reached my destination yet. Suddenly, my GPS said to turn left, into the woods. It would have been impossible to take my bike because there was no path and the terrain did not seem friendly. Therefore, I left my bike on the path and locked it. I turned my bike light off and suddenly, I was standing in complete darkness. The only sound was the wind blowing the leaves, and some ruffling of trees from a deer or something. I took a deep breath and turned on the flashlight that I had brought with me. It was a cheap flashlight, and the light it emitted was far from satisfactory. I could really only see a couple of meters in front of me. Nothing scary had really happened yet but I still felt uneasy. I started to regret coming there but thought that I might as well get to the tunnel. Quickly, I started to make my way thru the forest. I felt scared and sort of observed. In reality, I knew that no one was out there. It was half past ten at night in the middle of the forest on a Saturday. No one was crazy enough to take a stroll at this time, except for me I guess.
Eventually, I reached the tunnel. If I wasn’t scared before I definitely was now. The inside of the tunnel was dark and seemed to go on forever. The outside was covered with demonic symbols and, of course, phallic objects spray painted on the wall. Above the tunnel, someone had written ‘Stay out, or die’ in red paint. None of this made me want to leave though. I just figured that some bored teenagers from the town had painted it all. To be fair, there was not a lot to do around here. With that, I entered the tunnel. The ground in there was slightly moist, and I could hear dripping sounds around me. Stupidly enough I was wearing sneakers, and the dirty liquid from the ground made them soaked right away. I still kept going, I would just clean the shoes later. The graffiti from outside the tunnel continued on the tunnel walls, with more cryptic symbols and warnings. I kept going, knowing that this was something that was common in abandoned places.
The tunnel was not that interesting, to be honest. Sure, it was thrilling being there at night, but there were not a lot of things to discover. A pit started to form in my stomach. I did not really know why, nothing had happened to make me scared but something just did not feel right. I shined my light on one of the tunnel walls and immediately jumped back and, I am embarrassed to say, let out a high-pitched scream, which echoed thru the tunnel. I thought I had seen a ghost or something, but after looking at the wall I could see that it was just a demonic-looking face painted on there. I chuckled a little to myself. How could something so stupid have scared me like that? I must have really been on edge. My momentary relief was quickly gone when I shined my flashlight on the ground in front of the face. There, on the ground, I could see some dirty blankets and a pillow. At the time I couldn’t understand why it was there, but it definitely freaked me out a bit. Was someone living in this tunnel? I started to feel very uneasy again and wanted to leave. I took a photo of the face and the bed, just to document that I had been there, and started to walk towards the exit. That is when I heard footsteps coming into the tunnel. That was scary enough, but what made it worse was that they came from the direction I had come from, the direction which was my way out. I froze for a second, not knowing what to do. Eventually, before the person could get any closer, I snapped out of my haze and started running the other way, further into the tunnel. This seemed like my best option at the time, and knowing what I know now I can confirm that it was.
When I started running, so did the other person. I could hear the footsteps speeding up behind me. While running I started to take my army knife out of my pocket. I know that running with a knife in itself is dangerous, but at least I could protect myself if the person caught up to me. The tunnel was not as long as I thought and eventually, I reached its other end. In my panicked state, I had not noticed that the footsteps behind me had prevailed. But once I had left the tunnel, I noticed it. Still, I kept running. At that moment I thought that I had to get back to my bike, so I started going thru the forest, running beside the hill which the tunnel went thru. During my run, at various moments, I could swear that I heard branches breaking around me. It might have been paranoia though because it would not have been possible for the person to catch up to me at this point. When I found the path where my bike stood again I felt a small sense of relief. Once I reached the bike, I quickly unlocked it and raced home. Not until I reached my apartment building did I start to calm down slightly. That is when I noticed a note in my bicycle basket. I put my bike away and ran into my dorm room, with the note in hand.
Once I had locked the door behind me, I sat down. I was still in a state of shock at this point. Had someone really just chased me? Why did I put myself in such danger? Slowly I opened up the note. The contents of it was short, but terrifying:
“Hello pretty girl. I have not met you yet but I am excited to do so.”
The fact that this was left in my bicycle basket means that this person must have been somewhere in the forest, observing me while I left my bike. If not, how did they know that I was a girl? The note was not exactly threatening, but with context it was definitely yarring. This person had been by themselves, in the forest at night, observing me and then following me. Thank God I noticed their footsteps in time, otherwise I might not have been writing this right now.
I still don’t know who chased me that night, and I will not be going back to find out. I assume that the person who chased me is the same person who lives in the tunnel. Just think about what kind of state you must be in to find shelter in such a place. Either this person was on drugs or in a very bad mental state, probably both.
After this experience, I am definitely not going anywhere be myself at night. And to the person who might be reading this, do NOT go to abandoned places alone. No matter how thrilling or enticing it might seem, it is not worth the risks.