# "I Was an Urban Explorer. I Should Have Turned Back at the Basement Door" Creepypasta

An episode of [CreepsMcPasta Creepypasta Radio](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1492008134), 30 Apr 2025, 34 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/65792157/i_was_an_urban_explorer_i_should_have_turned_back_at_the_basement_door_creepypasta.mp3

CREEPYPASTA STORY►by Saint Zander Creepypastas are the campfire tales of the internet. Horror stories spread through Reddit r/nosleep, forums and blogs, rather than word of mouth. Whether you believe these scary stories to be true or not is left to your own discretion and imagination. LISTEN TO CREEPYPASTAS ON THE GO- SPOTIFY► https://open.spotify.com/show/7l0iRPd... iTUNES► https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast... SUGGESTED CREEPYPASTA PLAYLISTS- ►"Good Places to Start"- • "I wasn't careful enough on the deep ... ►"Personal Favourites"- • "I sold my soul for a used dishwasher... ►"Written by me"- • "I've been Blind my Whole Life" Creep... ►"Long Stories"- • Long Stories FOLLOW ME ON- ►Twitter: / creeps_mcpasta ►Instagram: / creepsmcpasta ►Twitch: / creepsmcpasta ►Facebook: / creepsmcpasta CREEPYPASTA MUSIC/ SFX- ►http://bit.ly/Audionic ♪ ►http://bit.ly/Myuusic ♪ ►http://bit.ly/incompt ♪ ►http://bit.ly/EpidemicM ♪ This creepypasta is for entertainment purposes only

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: I don't remember the first time I watched an urban
[0:04] Speaker 1: exploration video. I don't think it started as a lightning
[0:08] Speaker 1: bolt moment. It just sort of crept in little by
[0:12] Speaker 1: little until it was the only thing I watched. Most
[0:17] Speaker 1: kits around me were obsessed with gaming videos and things
[0:20] Speaker 1: like prank channels, But me, I ended up on channels
[0:25] Speaker 1: where people walked through empty malls and long forgotten tunnels,
[0:29] Speaker 1: with water dripping down the walls and silence stretching for miles.
[0:35] Speaker 1: It fascinated me. These were places people had once depended on,
[0:41] Speaker 1: places that held stories without ever telling them directly. I
[0:46] Speaker 1: wondered what had happened to them, why they had left,
[0:49] Speaker 1: why no one had come back. Even at ten, I
[0:54] Speaker 1: found comfort in those silences. Something about those forgotten corners
[0:59] Speaker 1: of the world felt honest to me, raw, untouched by
[1:03] Speaker 1: the polished garbage the rest of the Internet churned out.
[1:07] Speaker 1: While my classmates were trading memes and game clips, I
[1:11] Speaker 1: was mapping out places I wanted to visit one day.
[1:15] Speaker 1: I'd dream about it at night, wondering endless concrete hallways,
[1:20] Speaker 1: no sound but my own breath and the scuff of
[1:23] Speaker 1: my shoes, flashlight beam jittering across crack tile. I wanted
[1:28] Speaker 1: to be there more than anywhere else. I didn't wait
[1:33] Speaker 1: long to try it for myself. There was a gas
[1:37] Speaker 1: station just off the interstate, a place that had shut
[1:40] Speaker 1: down five or six years earlier after a truck slammed
[1:43] Speaker 1: through its front windows. My friend Josh dared me to
[1:47] Speaker 1: go there after school one day. I told him I
[1:50] Speaker 1: had already planned to. That was a lie, but it worked.
[1:56] Speaker 1: We brought our bikes and ditched them behind the dumpsters.
[2:00] Speaker 1: The building looked small behind the road, but up close
[2:03] Speaker 1: it stretched deep. The windows were covered in faded boards,
[2:08] Speaker 1: and some one had spray painted something unreadable in green
[2:11] Speaker 1: across the siding. We stepped behind the counter and found
[2:15] Speaker 1: the freezer still half open. Inside were candy bars that
[2:19] Speaker 1: had sagged into themselves. The labels were faded, their insides bloated.
[2:26] Speaker 1: Being in one of these places felt amazing, more so
[2:30] Speaker 1: than I'd ever imagined. It felt like I was stepping
[2:34] Speaker 1: into a memory I was never supposed to be a
[2:36] Speaker 1: part of. It was one thing to walk through a
[2:39] Speaker 1: place and wonder who used to be there. It was
[2:43] Speaker 1: another to be a piece of them. I remember Josh
[2:47] Speaker 1: making a joke something stupid about ghosts. But I wasn't
[2:51] Speaker 1: really listening to what he had to say, and that
[2:55] Speaker 1: was the moment it clicked. I wasn't just breaking into places.
[3:00] Speaker 1: I was doing the closest thing to time traveling as possible,
[3:04] Speaker 1: stepping sideways into someone else's story. We left after that,
[3:11] Speaker 1: but I came back alone a few times. Never told
[3:15] Speaker 1: Josh I didn't need his or any one's company. A
[3:23] Speaker 1: couple years later, I'd find Grace and Vance. His videos
[3:28] Speaker 1: were really simple. He'd start with a quiet drone shot
[3:32] Speaker 1: over a deserted property, then ease in to narration. He
[3:37] Speaker 1: felt more like a documentary than a vlog. I'd never
[3:41] Speaker 1: seen him try to do that whole ghost story cliche
[3:44] Speaker 1: that most content creators seemed to try nowadays. His camera
[3:48] Speaker 1: did the talking. I found his channel late one night,
[3:53] Speaker 1: or watching a video about an abandoned power station in
[3:55] Speaker 1: the Balkans. YouTube AutoPlay kicked in and landed me on
[4:00] Speaker 1: Grayson's tour of a sunken hotel off the coast of Italy.
[4:05] Speaker 1: The whole thing was underwater at high tide, and he'd
[4:08] Speaker 1: gone at dusk, wading through flooded hallways with his camera
[4:12] Speaker 1: above the waterline, narrating it like it was a love letter.
[4:18] Speaker 1: I binged watched his entire catalog that week. He explored
[4:22] Speaker 1: old prisons in Iceland, war bunkers and Belgium, collap schools
[4:26] Speaker 1: in the deserts of Chile. He never acted like it
[4:30] Speaker 1: was braver than anyone else. He moved through every place
[4:34] Speaker 1: with respect. I wanted to do that, too, wanted to
[4:40] Speaker 1: be that. I started practicing with a phone camera in
[4:44] Speaker 1: empty parking garages, trying to mimic his pacing. I studied
[4:49] Speaker 1: his videos, replayed them over and over, tried to figure
[4:54] Speaker 1: out what he looked for. I followed every platform he
[4:58] Speaker 1: posted on, commented on everything, hoping one day he'd notice.
[5:04] Speaker 1: I didn't even feel like a fan of his. If
[5:06] Speaker 1: I'm being honest, he felt more of a teacher to me,
[5:10] Speaker 1: guiding me to a future I was destined to reach.
[5:16] Speaker 1: It was a Tuesday night. If I remember correctly, I
[5:20] Speaker 1: should have been working on a lab write up for chemistry,
[5:23] Speaker 1: but I'd already convinced myself it could wait. I had
[5:27] Speaker 1: my phone propped against a glass of water on my desk,
[5:30] Speaker 1: headphones in my lamp, the only thing keeping the room
[5:34] Speaker 1: from going black. I was scrolling through video suggestions in
[5:38] Speaker 1: that half focused trance I always seemed to fall into.
[5:43] Speaker 1: That was when I saw it. Grayson Vance abandoned a hospital.
[5:50] Speaker 1: As per usual, a simple title and thumbnail. Grayson's voice
[5:56] Speaker 1: came on almost immediately, wasted the same way with a
[6:01] Speaker 1: brief intro, a few quiet cuts of him walking the perimeter,
[6:06] Speaker 1: showing the outside before slipping inside. I felt my chest
[6:11] Speaker 1: tightened with excitement as I realized I recognized that place.
[6:17] Speaker 1: I knew those gates, the vines climbing the outer brick wall,
[6:21] Speaker 1: the sign half swallowed by overgrowth. I paused the video,
[6:26] Speaker 1: dragged the time bar back, and looked again. Then I
[6:31] Speaker 1: opened a tab and searched for images of old Florence
[6:35] Speaker 1: Hill Hospital. It matched. My mom would always drive past
[6:42] Speaker 1: it when I was younger. The place had been locked
[6:45] Speaker 1: up for decades, bordered tight and fenced off, though rumors
[6:50] Speaker 1: always floated around about kids getting in through a loose fence.
[6:55] Speaker 1: MO said he was used as a psych word. Some
[6:58] Speaker 1: claimed it was a treatment scent of a violent to fenders.
[7:01] Speaker 1: But regardless, Grayson was inside. He moved through it, slowly,
[7:08] Speaker 1: panning across doorways and peeling walls. The audio picked up
[7:13] Speaker 1: the creak of his boots on the tile, the quiet
[7:16] Speaker 1: drip of water hitting metals somewhere in the distance. I
[7:21] Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. He was only thirty minutes from where
[7:25] Speaker 1: I lived. Grayson reached the hallway. One of the walls
[7:31] Speaker 1: had collapsed inward, but he edged around it, ducking under
[7:35] Speaker 1: reebarre and dry wall to step into a room that
[7:38] Speaker 1: looked like an old kitchen or freezer storage. A row
[7:42] Speaker 1: of broken industrial shelves leaned against the wall behind them,
[7:47] Speaker 1: half hidden by a stack of topple boxes with something
[7:51] Speaker 1: metallic embedded in the floor. He adjusted the focus, stepped closer,
[7:57] Speaker 1: and knelt beside it. A hatch bolted down on one side,
[8:03] Speaker 1: though the rust made it impossible to tell if it
[8:06] Speaker 1: was still sealed properly. The camerangle dipped as he brushed
[8:10] Speaker 1: dirt away with his sleeve. Then his voice came through again.
[8:17] Speaker 1: What do we have here, he said, huh could be
[8:21] Speaker 1: some runoff tunnel or a different section of the hospital.
[8:26] Speaker 1: He tapped it once with a knuckle. Tell you what, guys,
[8:31] Speaker 1: If this video hits a thousand likes within twenty four hours,
[8:34] Speaker 1: I'll come back and go down there. He stood up.
[8:40] Speaker 1: The video cut a few seconds later, replaced by his
[8:43] Speaker 1: usual closing title card. I paused the screen, open the
[8:49] Speaker 1: comment section, then scrolled back to the like counter one
[8:54] Speaker 1: point two K. I refreshed the page. No new video.
[9:01] Speaker 1: I checked his Twitter, No new announcements. Where was the video?
[9:10] Speaker 1: I kept thinking about how close it was. How many
[9:14] Speaker 1: years I'd spent watching videos of buildings in countries I'd
[9:18] Speaker 1: never afford to visit, and now the biggest one of
[9:21] Speaker 1: all might be sitting right outside my town waiting for
[9:25] Speaker 1: someone to explore it. I was almost mad at myself
[9:29] Speaker 1: for not thinking to go there. But if Grayson was
[9:33] Speaker 1: taking his sweet time, maybe I could go first, maybe
[9:39] Speaker 1: even catch him there in the middle of filming. The
[9:42] Speaker 1: thoughts started as a fantasy, but it didn't stay one
[9:46] Speaker 1: for long. Just a few minutes later, I had dug
[9:52] Speaker 1: out my dad's old camcorder from the top of the closet.
[9:56] Speaker 1: The battery was swollen, but it had a backup pack
[9:59] Speaker 1: from a second and I used once for a film project.
[10:03] Speaker 1: I charged them both and tested the mic in my room.
[10:06] Speaker 1: The flashlight needed fresh batteries, too, so I biked to
[10:10] Speaker 1: the gas station near the highway and picked up a
[10:13] Speaker 1: six pack. I wrote a note and left it on
[10:17] Speaker 1: the fridge so my mum wouldn't be worried. Something about
[10:21] Speaker 1: group study. Every few minutes, I would imagine running into
[10:27] Speaker 1: Grayson down there. What I would say, How I'd play
[10:30] Speaker 1: it cool, maybe help him film, maybe even scare him
[10:34] Speaker 1: a little and record his reaction. He'd laugh, we'd talk gear,
[10:40] Speaker 1: He'd realize I was serious about this stuff, that I
[10:43] Speaker 1: wasn't just another fan trying to leach off of his name.
[10:47] Speaker 1: I packed everything into my school bag and zipped it tight.
[10:52] Speaker 1: Before I left the house, I stood in front of
[10:54] Speaker 1: my mirror, held the camera up to my eye, and
[10:58] Speaker 1: practiced an intro. The words felt weird in my mouth,
[11:03] Speaker 1: but I got through it. This could be the start
[11:07] Speaker 1: of everything I'd ever dreamed of. The sun was starting
[11:14] Speaker 1: to set when I got there. It hung behind a
[11:17] Speaker 1: screen of clouds, turning the sky into the color of
[11:20] Speaker 1: copper tarnish. I left my bike stashed beneath a clutter
[11:24] Speaker 1: of dog woods across the road and crossed the gravel
[11:27] Speaker 1: shoulder on foot. The outer gate had collapsed inward, its
[11:33] Speaker 1: posts bend and the chains slack enough to dug beneath
[11:38] Speaker 1: the hospital loomed ahead. The windows had been busted out,
[11:43] Speaker 1: while remained of the glass clung to the frames in
[11:46] Speaker 1: jagged patterns, catching the last light and reflecting it. I
[11:51] Speaker 1: pulled out the camcorder and switched it on the battery,
[11:57] Speaker 1: held steady the light on the side to life, casting
[12:01] Speaker 1: a small circle ahead of me. I hit record and
[12:05] Speaker 1: held it at chest level. All right, I said, I'm
[12:11] Speaker 1: standing just outside Florence Hill Hospital. I'm here to see
[12:16] Speaker 1: if I can find the spark Grace and Vance filmed
[12:18] Speaker 1: in his latest video. There's supposed to be a hatch
[12:21] Speaker 1: in the basement or storage wing. He said he'd go
[12:24] Speaker 1: down next time BN. I figured, I wait. The intro
[12:32] Speaker 1: came out stiff, but it felt good. I stepped inside
[12:37] Speaker 1: through a doorway where both doors had been torn off.
[12:41] Speaker 1: The floor inside had walked from years of neglect. Dust
[12:45] Speaker 1: and leaves had gathered into piles along the edges, and
[12:49] Speaker 1: most of the tiles had cracked. The air hit me
[12:53] Speaker 1: at once, wet, stagnant, and full of mildew. It clung
[12:59] Speaker 1: to the inside of my nose and sat heavy in
[13:02] Speaker 1: the back of my throat. Graffiti covered the walls in
[13:07] Speaker 1: bursts of neon and black marker. A lot of it
[13:11] Speaker 1: was nonsense tags, cartoonish faces, crude jokes, but a few
[13:17] Speaker 1: names repeated across different wings. I used those to orient
[13:22] Speaker 1: myself checking Grayson's video game following where the camera panneda
[13:26] Speaker 1: crossed doorways or the way light had come in through
[13:29] Speaker 1: broken window panes. I stopped every few minutes to get
[13:34] Speaker 1: my bearings and film another few seconds of commentary, though
[13:39] Speaker 1: my voice kept slipping into whispers without meaning to the
[13:45] Speaker 1: deeper I moved, the darker it got. Most of the
[13:49] Speaker 1: corridors were blocked by fallen ceiling panels or crossed furniture,
[13:54] Speaker 1: but the root from the video matched just enough for
[13:57] Speaker 1: me to follow it. After fifteen minutes, I started to
[14:02] Speaker 1: recognize the pattern of damage from his footage, the water
[14:06] Speaker 1: marks and the ceiling. I was close the hallway at
[14:12] Speaker 1: the end of the service wing, curved slightly to the
[14:15] Speaker 1: left and kept going until I hit a dead end.
[14:19] Speaker 1: I had to double back and rewatch part of the
[14:22] Speaker 1: video again. Grayson had veered off behind a broken freezer
[14:26] Speaker 1: unit next to a side door labeled storage three C.
[14:33] Speaker 1: I retraced my steps and found it. This time, the
[14:37] Speaker 1: freezer door had rusted off its hinges, and now leaned
[14:40] Speaker 1: sideways into the wall behind it, past the tangle of
[14:44] Speaker 1: old shelving and a disassembled mop sinc sat the hatch.
[14:51] Speaker 1: It already stood open, which fuelled me with excitement. The
[14:57] Speaker 1: hatch itself was round, heavy looking, with a series of
[15:00] Speaker 1: bolts plunged into one side and scorch marks fanned out
[15:04] Speaker 1: across the floor. I angled the camera toward it and whispered,
[15:10] Speaker 1: this is it. This is the hatch from the video.
[15:13] Speaker 1: Grayson is probably down there as we speak. The hatch
[15:17] Speaker 1: is even still open. I reached forward and brushed my
[15:21] Speaker 1: fingers across the handle. It was worn from the heat
[15:25] Speaker 1: trapped in the room. Let's do this. I pointed my
[15:32] Speaker 1: flashlight down. The beams struggled to touch the floor. Only
[15:38] Speaker 1: part of it was visible through the narrow gap in
[15:40] Speaker 1: the concrete, just enough to show a ladder mounted to
[15:44] Speaker 1: the far wall, stretching into shadows. The rungs were metal
[15:50] Speaker 1: and bolted into place, though half of them looked eaten
[15:54] Speaker 1: by rust. Several bolts had sheered away from the surrounding concrete.
[16:00] Speaker 1: One side of the ladder swayed freely when I tapped
[16:03] Speaker 1: it with my foot. I stared at it for a while.
[16:09] Speaker 1: The camcorder was still recording. I brought it up and
[16:13] Speaker 1: whispered to the mic, this thing is barely holding on.
[16:18] Speaker 1: If it snaps, I'm screwed. I turned the flashlight between
[16:25] Speaker 1: my teeth and lowered myself down. The metal flakes beneath
[16:30] Speaker 1: my hands. Each rung felt slick and uncertain. The bolts
[16:35] Speaker 1: moaned with even the slightest shift of weight. A few
[16:39] Speaker 1: crumbled around the edges when I grabbed them. My fingers
[16:43] Speaker 1: burned from holding on so tightly. Half way down, I
[16:49] Speaker 1: paused to a just the camera angle, but I nearly
[16:52] Speaker 1: slipped doing it, so I just let it dangle on
[16:56] Speaker 1: its strap instead. I could hear my breath echoing off
[17:01] Speaker 1: the walls. When I reached the floor, my boots hit
[17:05] Speaker 1: uneven concrete. The walls on either side stretched into opposite directions.
[17:12] Speaker 1: The flashlight beam bounced off metal shelving and fragments of
[17:16] Speaker 1: painted wall. I took a slow breath and turned slowly.
[17:24] Speaker 1: I was in the room was enormous concrete stretched beneath
[17:39] Speaker 1: me in long, uneven slabs. Some sections had sunken, leaving
[17:44] Speaker 1: shallow dips filled with stagnant water, rusted shelving units leaned
[17:49] Speaker 1: against the brick walls, their contents either collapsed or covered
[17:54] Speaker 1: in sheets of decomposing plastic. A gurney rested upside down
[17:59] Speaker 1: near the center, one of his wheels spinning slowly before
[18:03] Speaker 1: locking in place with a soft metallic click. I whispered
[18:08] Speaker 1: into the camera. Bigger than I expected. Definitely not a
[18:13] Speaker 1: storage closet. Let's see where Grayson is. My light followed
[18:20] Speaker 1: a long pipe overhead, thick with corrosion and patched with
[18:25] Speaker 1: what looked like duct tape and rubber fittings. Below it,
[18:29] Speaker 1: the moisture had pulled into a discolored stain, slick and
[18:33] Speaker 1: pulsing with slow drops. Each one landed with a clip
[18:39] Speaker 1: at the far wall. Something caught my attention. I walked
[18:44] Speaker 1: toward it slowly. My boots sent wet crunches into the dark,
[18:50] Speaker 1: echoing back against the walls. The beam of my light
[18:54] Speaker 1: lit up the last stretch of space with the concrete
[18:57] Speaker 1: gave way to alder brick. The transition was uneven, almost
[19:03] Speaker 1: as though the building had been expanded downward after the
[19:06] Speaker 1: original structure had already been built. The wallpaper here peeled
[19:11] Speaker 1: away in thick, soft curls behind it. Water stained plaster
[19:17] Speaker 1: gave way to a painted mural. Blue clouds, yellow suns,
[19:22] Speaker 1: animals drawn in past those shapes. A lion with cartoon
[19:26] Speaker 1: eyes stood next to a duck wearing a nurse's cap.
[19:30] Speaker 1: A giraffe was curled into a bed with a thermometer
[19:33] Speaker 1: in its mouth. I scanned across the floor in front
[19:38] Speaker 1: of it. The dust of the floor was scattered around,
[19:43] Speaker 1: revealing footprints and what looked to be drag marks. Grayson
[19:49] Speaker 1: was definitely here. I moved through the corridor as quietly
[19:55] Speaker 1: as I could. The walls here narrowed, there were fewer
[20:00] Speaker 1: open rooms. The hall turned left and then again to
[20:04] Speaker 1: the right, forming a horseshoe path around a closed off
[20:08] Speaker 1: surgery wing. At least that's what the faded lettering said
[20:12] Speaker 1: and the signs overhead. I kept imagining. I would turn
[20:16] Speaker 1: a corner and seemed crouched over a tripod. Eventually I'd
[20:23] Speaker 1: find his camera in a break room. It sat on
[20:27] Speaker 1: a metal cart near a vending machine. The camera's glass
[20:31] Speaker 1: had been cracked, but it still functioned. The logo blinked once,
[20:36] Speaker 1: then faded. I could still navigate the video menu. I
[20:42] Speaker 1: leaned closer and whispered into my own camcorder, barely containing myself.
[20:48] Speaker 1: It's his. Let's see what I can find on it.
[20:52] Speaker 1: He probably got spooked by some rat and dropped it.
[20:55] Speaker 1: Poor guy. I smiled at the lens. My fingers hovered
[21:01] Speaker 1: over the playback button before I was able to hit play,
[21:06] Speaker 1: and alert popped up, letting me know the battery was low.
[21:11] Speaker 1: Navigating the menu was slow, the button stuck. A couple
[21:16] Speaker 1: of video files sat in the memory. I selected the
[21:20] Speaker 1: most recent one and hit play. The footage opened with
[21:26] Speaker 1: Grayson already exploring the basement, but the screen was entirely black.
[21:33] Speaker 1: I thought maybe the file had corrupted, but the audio continued.
[21:39] Speaker 1: A wet, slithering sound dragged across the speakers, something heavy
[21:44] Speaker 1: scraping against concrete, then something else. Shallow breathing metal clattered
[21:54] Speaker 1: in the background, followed by a wet cough, then gurgling.
[22:00] Speaker 1: It sounded close to the mic. I leaned in. I
[22:06] Speaker 1: moved to rewind. I was curious as to what had happened,
[22:11] Speaker 1: but the display blinked once, then shut off. The battery
[22:16] Speaker 1: died in my hands. I could have left then and there,
[22:24] Speaker 1: maybe even should have, but I didn't. Grayson was down
[22:30] Speaker 1: here somewhere. Maybe something has spooked him into hiding. But
[22:34] Speaker 1: I just imagined myself doing something that scared even the
[22:38] Speaker 1: most popular urban explorers. I saw an opportunity. This was
[22:45] Speaker 1: my one and only chance to be a part of it.
[22:51] Speaker 1: So I walked. Dust turned to grime. Drawings on the
[22:57] Speaker 1: wall transitioned to a pale green beneath the layers of
[23:00] Speaker 1: peeling white. I passed a rusted wheelchair with two broken
[23:04] Speaker 1: foot rests and a dried smear along the cushion. Beyond that,
[23:10] Speaker 1: a row of cracked observation windows stared out into padded cells.
[23:15] Speaker 1: The batting had been torn open, foam exposed. Some of
[23:19] Speaker 1: it was darkened with rot. I stepped carefully, trying to
[23:24] Speaker 1: keep my breathing. Even the camera picked up everything. I
[23:30] Speaker 1: made sure of it. The hallway ahead sloped slightly to
[23:35] Speaker 1: the left, its walls warped from years of water damage.
[23:40] Speaker 1: I moved slow, careful. Where I stepped, my boots sank
[23:45] Speaker 1: into patches of soggy paper that had melted into the tile.
[23:49] Speaker 1: The beam of my flashlight shook across chipped paint and
[23:53] Speaker 1: empty door frames. I turned the corner. That was when
[24:00] Speaker 1: I saw him. A figure stood at the far end
[24:04] Speaker 1: of the corridor, motionless back to me, feet spread apart,
[24:09] Speaker 1: shoulders squared. He didn't move. I froze the light from
[24:17] Speaker 1: my flashlight sat on his back. He was too far
[24:21] Speaker 1: away to make out detail, but his silhouette was visible enough.
[24:27] Speaker 1: My first thought, without hesitation, was that it was Grayson.
[24:34] Speaker 1: I whispered into my camera. I think I just found him.
[24:40] Speaker 1: The figure remained completely still. I switched off the flashlight,
[24:46] Speaker 1: swallowed the tightness in my throat, and crouched behind an
[24:50] Speaker 1: overturned gurney. The glow from my camera screen cast a
[24:54] Speaker 1: dull blue over my hands. I angled it toward my face.
[25:00] Speaker 1: All right, I whispered, I'm getting the scare and camera.
[25:04] Speaker 1: He probably has no clue I'm even down here. I
[25:09] Speaker 1: stood slowly, careful not to let my shoes drag. I
[25:15] Speaker 1: inched forward, heart hammering in my ribs. The silence stretched,
[25:21] Speaker 1: my mouth had gone dry. I kept one hand steady
[25:25] Speaker 1: on the camcorder, the other clenched in my chest. I
[25:30] Speaker 1: crept behind him, close enough now to make out the
[25:34] Speaker 1: seams on his jacket. Then I jumped yo. The figure
[25:45] Speaker 1: whipped round faster than anything I had ever seen. I
[25:49] Speaker 1: caught a glimpse of the bandages, thick strips, yellowed with
[25:53] Speaker 1: age and grime, wrapped tightly across his head. Only his
[25:58] Speaker 1: eyes were visible, and bursting from blood vessels that had
[26:02] Speaker 1: ruptured beneath the lids. Before I could step back, he
[26:07] Speaker 1: slammed into me. His forehead cracked against my cheek bone
[26:12] Speaker 1: with a thud. I hit the floor. My camera had
[26:15] Speaker 1: tumbled across the tile, pouncing into a pile of torn insulation.
[26:20] Speaker 1: My flashlight clattered near my hand. I gasped and rolled,
[26:25] Speaker 1: grabbing for the light. When I found it, I twisted
[26:29] Speaker 1: the switch until it clicked back on. He stood only
[26:34] Speaker 1: a few feet away, swaying slightly, the folds of his
[26:38] Speaker 1: straight jacket heavy with sweat and filth. The straps wound
[26:43] Speaker 1: tight across his chest, soaked through. His face was covered
[26:47] Speaker 1: in bandages that had melted away around the mouth, exposing
[26:51] Speaker 1: jagged teeth and gums coated in black rot. Dark puss
[26:56] Speaker 1: clung to his lips and dripped into the collar of
[26:59] Speaker 1: his chair. His breath wheezed through clenched teeth. The sound
[27:05] Speaker 1: reminded me of water caught in a clogged drain. I
[27:09] Speaker 1: launched myself upright and ran my boots slipped on the
[27:16] Speaker 1: slick floor. I nearly lost my footing at the first
[27:19] Speaker 1: corner behind me, I heard him or it scream, wet shrill,
[27:26] Speaker 1: cracked in the middle, and then the crash of his
[27:29] Speaker 1: body slamming into metal. He was chasing me. Gurney shattered
[27:37] Speaker 1: as he ran through them. I heard wheels spinning, furniture
[27:42] Speaker 1: scraping across the floor, something heavy hitting the wall. He
[27:47] Speaker 1: made no effort to move around anything, just slammed through them,
[27:51] Speaker 1: tearing it and himself apart in the process. Every corner turned,
[27:57] Speaker 1: I expected him to cut me off. I heard him gag,
[28:01] Speaker 1: thin cough, then dragging another breath through mucus and bile.
[28:06] Speaker 1: His body slammed against the corner I had just cleared,
[28:09] Speaker 1: and he recovered fast. Another screech, this one higher, almost animal.
[28:15] Speaker 1: I barrowed through a doorway and nearly tripped over a table,
[28:18] Speaker 1: flipped on its side, and vaulted it behind me. I
[28:23] Speaker 1: heard his body hit the edge and roll across it.
[28:26] Speaker 1: The screech of nails or teeth or something sharp dragging
[28:29] Speaker 1: over the surface, followed by a thump, then more footsteps.
[28:36] Speaker 1: I glanced over my shoulder just once bent forward face.
[28:42] Speaker 1: Slack drewel mixed with black fluid trailing behind him in globs.
[28:47] Speaker 1: His shoulders rocked with each step, but his legs kept moving.
[28:52] Speaker 1: Foam lined his jaw. Now I ran harder. Upperhead lights
[28:59] Speaker 1: spilled in from the sh after above the hatch the ladder.
[29:05] Speaker 1: I was almost there. It still dangled from its rusted bolts,
[29:10] Speaker 1: swaying slightly. The top half clung to the concrete wall,
[29:14] Speaker 1: the bottom half hung loose. The screws along the right
[29:18] Speaker 1: side bent nearly to the point of snapping. I jumped.
[29:24] Speaker 1: My hands caught a rung near my chest, and I
[29:27] Speaker 1: hauled myself upward, my boots slamming against the wall. As
[29:31] Speaker 1: I found a foothold, the metal rattled under my weight.
[29:35] Speaker 1: The rung shifted beneath my palms, slipping half an inch
[29:39] Speaker 1: before catching again Below me, I heard him. His feet
[29:46] Speaker 1: slapped the tile. Then something heavier his full body, probably
[29:53] Speaker 1: thrown itself forward. A choking gargle echoed upward, long and strained.
[30:00] Speaker 1: When I glanced down, I saw him burst through the corridor,
[30:04] Speaker 1: head tangled across his face, the bandages flaring outward as
[30:08] Speaker 1: his jaws widened, his arms still bound in the jacket
[30:13] Speaker 1: thrashed at his sides. He shouldn't have been able to climb.
[30:18] Speaker 1: I thought I was safe, but he jumped. His head
[30:25] Speaker 1: snapped upward, mouth opening wide. He sank his teeth into
[30:29] Speaker 1: the rung just below my foot. His jaw clenched. Then
[30:35] Speaker 1: his legs kicked off the floor, and he began to swing.
[30:39] Speaker 1: He glanped on tight, using his molars, and cracked in
[30:42] Speaker 1: sizors to hold himself steady. His feet scraped against the wall,
[30:47] Speaker 1: searching for traction. Somehow impossibly, he started to pull himself
[30:54] Speaker 1: higher by his mouth. The ladder shook hard. I screamed
[31:03] Speaker 1: and climbed faster. My knees struck the wrungs. My shoulders
[31:07] Speaker 1: scraped the edge of the hatch. I could hear the
[31:09] Speaker 1: metal wrenching below, one of the supports, snapping with a
[31:14] Speaker 1: sharp twang. I looked down once more. He was inches
[31:20] Speaker 1: from my boots. Lips peeled back, blood leaking from his
[31:23] Speaker 1: gums where metal had cut into his jaw. His eyes
[31:27] Speaker 1: rolled upward, wide and straining. I swung my foot out
[31:32] Speaker 1: and kicked hard. The ladder gave the top bolt snapped free.
[31:39] Speaker 1: The structure lurched to the side. He fell I pulled
[31:45] Speaker 1: myself through the hatch as the ladder tore away, crashing
[31:49] Speaker 1: down into the dark. The impact echoed to the shaft,
[31:53] Speaker 1: shaking the walls beneath it. I heard a wet, snapping
[31:59] Speaker 1: sound and something low and guttural, a moan maybe, or
[32:05] Speaker 1: a final breath. I didn't stay to find out. I
[32:11] Speaker 1: ran until I couldn't feel my legs. The hospital doors
[32:15] Speaker 1: passed in a blur. The light outside had shifted to
[32:18] Speaker 1: blue just before dawn. The air stung my lungs as
[32:24] Speaker 1: I pushed past the crumbling fence, falling to my knees
[32:27] Speaker 1: in the weeds before crawling through the gap and stumbling
[32:31] Speaker 1: on to the road. I made it half way down
[32:35] Speaker 1: the road before my legs finally gave out completely. I
[32:40] Speaker 1: collapsed on to a patch of gravel beside a rusted
[32:42] Speaker 1: mar marker and lay there until my heart stopped hammering.
[32:47] Speaker 1: At some point I reached the bus stop near the
[32:50] Speaker 1: edge of town. I sat on the bench, hand shaking,
[32:55] Speaker 1: shirt soaked through with sweat. I thought about calling someone.
[33:02] Speaker 1: I thought about telling the police, leading them to the hatch.
[33:07] Speaker 1: I even pulled out my phone and started the dial.
[33:12] Speaker 1: Then I stopped. They'd ask why I was there, why
[33:16] Speaker 1: I didn't call earlier, why I didn't stop when I
[33:19] Speaker 1: first heard something they'd touched the hospital. It would all
[33:24] Speaker 1: come back to me. Whether that thing in the strait
[33:27] Speaker 1: jacket was human or not, I killed it, and so
[33:35] Speaker 1: I just went back home. Grayson never posted again. His
[33:42] Speaker 1: channel remained untouched. Comments slowed over time, then stopped completely.
[33:48] Speaker 1: People moved on. New explorers took his place, and I
[33:54] Speaker 1: never when urban exploring again

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