This happened 30 years ago but still keeps me up at night.
I was 17 at the time, and me and my best friend John were spending the summer hanging out and getting into all kinds of trouble.
I don’t really recall who dared who, but we decided we would break into this old jelly factory that had been abandoned for over 20 years.
We met up at the front of the factory right after sunset with just a flashlight each. We went around the factory looking for a way in, the moon was out, which gave us a good view of the building. It loomed over us, 5 floors of cold gray concrete. The ground level had no windows but some of the upper levels did, most of them were broken by kids from the neighborhood throwing rocks. We were looking for a window on the first floor that was as open as possible, so we could try to lift each other in without cutting ourselves. That’s when we noticed the open doors. 2 large factory doors, just standing there, fully open.
We didn’t really think about it, we looked at each other, shrugged and went in. Inside the temperature immediately changed, it was much colder, with a soft breeze which I figured was draft, it felt like entering a cave. What stood out most was how dark it was, pitch black, I could barely see my hand in front of my eyes. Again, we didn’t think much about it, even though I felt my spine tingling. We turned on our flashlights and shone into the darkness. You couldn’t see the other side. We started walking. In the distance, we could see a small, greenish light. “That’s probably an emergency exit sign” I said, “the stairs are probably near it, let’s go there, so we can go up”. After walking for a while, we realized that the light didn’t appear to be getting any closer.
That’s when John turned around and yelped. I turned around quickly.
“The entrance, it’s gone” he said.
I tried to reassure him, he was always the one that got spooked easily. “Probably just a cloud blocking the moonlight” I replied, “nothing to worry about, come on, let’s go.”
We continued walking towards the light, but again we weren’t getting any closer. By now, John’s nerves had really gotten to him.
“Tim, I’m scared, let’s go back”, he said.
I would have tried to talk it out of him, but we never admitted to being scared to one another, so for him to say that meant that he was about to shit himself and I have to admit I was scared myself too.
“Ok” I said, we turned around and walked back the way we came. That’s when our flashlights started flickering.
“Fuck” John started hitting his flashlight in a panic, “I just charged mine today”.
“Yeah mine’s going out too” I replied.
“How can that be?!” He yelled.
“I don’t know, but let’s get moving now that we still have some light”.
We started walking, and slowly our flashlights gave up on us. I could hear John’s breathing getting heavier and heavier.
“It’s okay John”, I said, trying to comfort him, “just keep walking, I’m right here with you”.
That’s when all of a sudden it felt like something hit my head, hard. I remember going down, my ears ringing. The next thing I remember is waking up in the pitch black, laying on the floor, tasting blood. The memory of where I was flooded back in an instance and filled with adrenaline I jumped back up.
“John?!” I yelled.
“I’m right here” I heard him reply from a couple of feet away.
“Walk towards me, it’s ok”.
At least he seemed to have pulled himself together. I walked towards his voice until I bumped into him.
“I must have fainted” I said.
“That’s okay”, he replied. “Let’s get out of here”.
As he said it, a shiver of light shone through the darkness, it was the door. We ran towards it as fast as we could.
We rushed out, feeling the warmth of the summer night upon us. I was panting, hands on my knee’s from the run.
“I’m finally out” John said.
“Yeah, we made it out man, can you believe this?”.
I looked up at John, surprised at how relaxed and composed he appeared, while he was so nervous just a few minutes ago.
“How long was I out for?” I asked.
“Long enough” he replied.
“Long enough?”
That’s when I looked into his eyes and realized: this wasn’t John.
That was 30 years ago, it has lived it’s live as if it were John, no one else seems to have noticed, and I’m sure as hell not going to expose it publicly, but in case you meet John, know it’s not him.