Up until about a year ago, I was a mortician. Many know that morgues are more of a family business, and it is inherited by family members. My situation was no different. But there were a few rules that had to be followed.
Rule #1: No prepping the bodies from 12am-5am. This rule made it to where there was nobody at the morgue past 11:30 at night. On the few occasions that a person arrived at the morgue at those times, the only person who would prepare them would be my grandmother. Nowadays some morgues no longer have a night shift and ours follows that suit except with my grandmother. If someone needed to be prepped she’d be the one to do it no matter the hour of night.
Rule #2: When entering or leaving any room or even the morgue itself you are supposed to say “Hello” and “Goodbye”. I never understood this rule but I never dared to question.
Rule #3: Never forget to wear your family protection amulet. This rule was the most important and stressed rule. These amulets were passed down in my family to any who worked at the morgue. My grandmother always said that they protect us from the unnatural world.
While I never really had much belief in the unnatural world, I never went against the rules. My grandmother also stressed I had to believe in the amulet so it’d work. For her, I did believe in it a bit. During the time I worked at the morgue, I noticed that I was the only one who ever had stuff happen to them. It was nothing too serious; just the misplacement of an item or my car keys.
It never bothered me and I brushed it off as my family members pulling a prank on me. That was until about 2 weeks before I quit. A person had come in at night past 12am and my grandmother who usually prepared them was in the hospital. No one else who worked there wanted to go so I did. I know I know, they sounded highly unprofessional, but everyone in my family stuck to rules very religiously.
I came in and immediately noticed something off about the morgue. It looked the same as it does in the day but it didn’t feel the same. I shivered at the cold that surrounded me and just focused on getting the person prepped. As I worked, I felt something stare me down, but I never saw anything. Things I needed would get misplaced and I had to go search for them.
This made it take longer to get done. By 3am I had finally finished. I placed the body in the refrigerated mortuary cabinet and got ready to leave. I was walking back to the lobby when the lights shut off. They came back on after about 3 minutes and the morgue now looked more old and rundown. I tried looking out the window but it was completely black, no sign of the street lamp. It was almost like an alternate version of itself.
I felt sick to my stomach and brushed the thought aside as I hurriedly headed for the door. I tried to open it but it was locked. I kept turning it until I heard the sounds of nails scraping against the wall behind me. I turned around slowly and there stood a humanoid entity. There wasn’t much I could see of it since it was covered in a swirling black mist.
With it came the smell of death and sulfur. I gagged at the smell. It started walking closer, scraping its nails against the wall. I tried the door again but it wouldn’t budge. Feeling hopeless, I grabbed the amulet and started praying.
It laughed, “That won’t work, you don’t truly believe”.
It’s laugh and voice were awful. Like metal being crushed together and it sounded like multiple people were speaking at once at different octaves. As it passed by the windows, they cracked and shattered, spraying me with the glass. I began to cry as I felt like my life was going to end.
I held the amulet tighter and prayed harder. It rushed at me and grabbed me, “Like I said, that won’t work. You’re in my world now”.
I struggled through the fear and sobs, “W-what do y-you mean?”
“This place has been a portal to hell before it was ever a morgue. Why do you think there were those stupid rules?,” It laughed
I had turned completely cold. It raised its clawed hand up and stabbed it into my stomach. I shuddered as I felt the pain burn through my body. I felt my body go limp as I passed out.
When I woke, I was where I was previously but the morgue looked the same as it does in the day. It no longer looked rundown and off. There were no signs of that entity, just the shards of glass on the floor. I went to get up but a sharp pain shot through me. I looked down and on my stomach were 3 claw marks seared into my skin. My skin was a weird charcoal black color and it smoldered where the entity had stabbed me.
The glass from the windows was embedded into my arms as well. Slight blood trickled from some of the cuts but they were nothing compared to nasty seared black scars on my stomach.
I got up and went into the lobby. I checked the clock and it was 5:01am. I had been out for about 2 hours. I quickly got my car keys and left. When I got home I first cleaned my seared stomach and wrapped it and then pulled the embedded glass from my arms. I cleaned the cuts and wrapped them and went to my room and fell asleep on my bed. After that I was sick for 2 weeks. When I was sick, I refused to see any of my family members.
I didn’t know how they would react if they knew I had gotten sick after I had gone to the morgue after 12am. My grandmother had recovered and she was the one who tried to contact me the most. The 3 claw marks were still on my skin. They looked like black burn scars. I could barely sleep at night from the recurring nightmares of that entity.
Once I felt better, I visited my grandmother and told her I was quitting. She didn’t ask any questions and it almost seemed like she already knew why. The only thing she said was, “When you are ready, I’ll listen.”
I left her house in tears, I’m sure she knew I had an encounter with that entity. Did she ever encounter it? Or did her belief keep her safe? I didn’t know the answer. But I am convinced that the entity was the reasoning for the weird rules at the morgue.
About 3 months ago I told my grandmother what had happened and she consoled me and placed what she called a protection prayer over me. After everything that happened, I hold a strong belief in the unnatural world or the unseen world or whatever you wanna call it. I still have night terrors very often and suffer from insomnia due to the night terrors but I’m getting help with that. Stay safe out there people and don’t assume that everything is as it appears.