Teenagers living in small towns without a ton to do all share one distinct quality: they love abandoned buildings.
16-year-old punks also carry another key trait. They are bold as hell. Combine those two and scary things will come their way.
Now, those same teenagers have become slightly more fearful adults, and can look back on those experiences from behind the comfort of their computer, understanding how dumb and risky they were.
But the adolescent feeling of assumed invincibility sure makes for some good stories.
u/Halyndon asked, "Urban Explorers: What is the creepiest 'We're not alone' experience(s) you've had?"
Thanks for Cleaning the Place Up
GiphySo there's a moderately well-known abandoned mental hospital close to my town, a few months back a few friends and I went to explore a bit.
We found this setup of a few folding chairs and a couple of old mattresses with blankets and whatever else you'd imagine on them. We chilled there for about 10 minutes and then went on with our adventure upwards.
When we were coming back down we passed through the room and all the chairs were folded up and neatly stacked against the wall and the beds were made.
Those Eyes
The area I'm currently in is a touristy beach place so being winter it's completely devoid of life, there's a lot of apartments/hotels around that are just shells, no windows or doors.
I was walking past one such building when I felt like I was being watched, I looked up and around but I couldn't hear or see anything.
Suddenly every single dog around just went crazy barking, like dead silence to deafening barking in a second. Made me jump 10ft, looked up and on the 3rd floor of a apartment that got no windows or doors put in yet is a single dog just staring at me.
Doesn't Have to be Supernatural
GiphySo I take a lot of time lapses of nature and stuff. I found a lake that seemed like a cool spot to shoot and set up.
About 20 minutes in I hear a noise and sure enough a drone is right above me just hovering. It freaked me out so I booked it out of there.
A Whole Grain Nightmare
There's an old flour mill on Harbor Island, in Seattle. It's been abandoned and locked up for awhile.
Inside this flour mill we're working our through some of the regular block areas, and our buddy swears he heard something. We all stop dead in our tracks, lights pointed down, just listening.
Then I start to hear it, it was shuffling, with the sound of somebody dragging something across concrete.
One of my other friends, looking back down the factory area we came through gets startled and yells "F*CK" at the sound of stepping on a water bottle. We immediately heard the most chilling, deep, scream.
Hell of a Way to Teach a Lesson
My house has a double door / split door, so the top can open independently of the bottom. I often leave the top open when the weather's nice.
It's nighttime, I'm reading, and the door's more or less directly in front of me.
Then my eyes or brain recognizes it: the outline of a hoodie, drawstrings, hood up. In that instant I am frozen and my heart is pounding--someone is literally standing right there, hood up, holding my door open.
I can't see his face, but he sees me noticing because he says, "You should keep your doors locked." MOTHERFU**ING WHAT?
In Their Sights
GiphyI explored part of an old Nike or Atlas missile site one night with a few friends. As we were leaving, someone started shining a laser pointer at us from the woods.
I still wonder if it was just a laser pointer and not a laser sight instead.
Only Minutes Ago
There was a decommissioned Naval Base in the town I grew up in. We used to sneak into the old barracks and one time i turned the corner into the hallway and found a lit cigarette on the ground.
There was nobody around from what I could see or hear. We noped the f*ck out pretty shortly after that.
Maybe Time to Cut Your Losses
My friends and I explored an abandoned psych hospital in Suffolk County, Long Island. After checking out the building with the cafeteria and bowling alley, we decided to leave by exiting through the patient room window that we entered in.
I realized I had left my flashlight back in an adjacent patient room.
When I went to the other patient room to retrieve it, I noticed that the door was closed and a light flicker was occurring on the other side of it.
"Guys I'm No Detective But We Are Screwed"
GiphyI was exploring an abandoned rehab near my house with two of my friends and it had just freshly snowed, literally while we were exploring.
I was approaching one building there when I looked down and saw a very large set of obviously men's footprints in the snow, heading into the building.
We never saw anyone but I haven't been back since, it creeped me out far too much.
Bad Time for Cults
When I was in high school, my girlfriend live in Topanga Canyon. One night I was leaving her house and I had to walk down the "road" to get to my car.
I get to my car and get in, it's pitch black. I sit there for a moment and before I turn my car on, I hear a noise. I switch on my headlights and drive the rest of the way down the hill.
That's when I saw them. As I turned onto a wider road, I see two people with black cloths draped over their entire bodies, no shoes, walking slowly down the road in the direction I'm driving. The cloths must have been velvet or similar, because they were pitch black even as my headlights passed across.
Just a Couple Nerds With Their Wires
I was on the other end of this.
There was an abandoned nunnery on the coast behind a suburban development, a very creepy but beautiful place. It had an entirely stone chapel, and any sound you made inside had true reverb- an echo a second long almost.
I brought a friend in to make some recordings in the dead of night, as we're leaving a group of laughing neighborhood kids came in on us crouched in the dark over a bunch of electronics. They ran faster than I've seen anyone run before.
At Least He Grooms
GiphyMy friends and I were exploring an abandoned restaurant in this beach town one winter night.
We wander into this room off one of the hallways, and shine our flashlight in the corner, and we see an unmade bed / cot, with all of the trappings of someone currently living there (a safety razor next to the mirror, random other belongings).
It's Always a Cat
I was at an abandoned medical school in a pretty bad city with my friend.
We were then in this room and heard a louder noise and look over to see a cat just chillin'. We assumed it was a stray and wanted to get it help, so we agreed that if it followed us out we'll take it somewhere or to someone who will care for it.
Then this like 6ft+ dude walked out and yelled at me "Yall f*ckin wit my cat?"
Gotta Occupy Yourself SOMEHOW When You're Alone in 40 Acres
There's this building in my city that has been abandoned for over a decade. The building itself covers over 40 acres so it's pretty well know by explorers.
We come across this section of the building that was a large outdoor amphitheater. We walked down to the center and went up to the boarded up windows, and ever so faintly on the other side of the wood you could hear someone talking.. to themselves...
Guy Was Just Tryin' to Sleep
GiphyI spent 2004-2009 living in a dilapidated warehouse that had a space over it converted into an apartment.
A buddy of mine and I were discussing how the place smelled and was haunted when something shattered on the wall near us.
We were seriously startled and contemplating what it could have been when when someone shouts "Shut the f*ck up!" and there's a homeless man throwing what I assume is a second bottle at us from across the space.
Not That Creepy, But Certainly Illegal
I decided to climb a tree with a friend in the middle of a large college campus at 2am. Then a car pulled up and parked nearly right below us.
One guy gets out. Driver stays put with the engine running. 5 minutes pass.
A whistle comes from behind a nearby building. And one is returned from the guy below us.
A few minutes later someone walks up. There's a short exchange, we can hear and see everything. The guy walks away and the car leaves.
Technically those guys should have felt "not alone", but instead we did for weeks.
