I've always been a fan of urban/suburban exploration. The town I live in happens to have a great amount of places to explore since in the past ten years everyone has had economic hardships, including big businesses. This often leads to large factories, offices, and more to end up empty. There was one day in particular which was pretty interesting and provided me with nightmare fuel for a few months.
It was about two years ago that I started hearing rumors of the 'big abandoned place behind Maid - Rite*'. Different stories from different people, as with most myths and legends. However, they remained mostly the same. Some said it was a juvenile detention center where some kids killed themselves. Other people said it was an old government office building. I didn't let these stories sway me. I had my mind set on seeing this for myself. With a friend of mine, we equipped ourselves with two knives, two flashlights, and a camera** to take some pictures with.
There were a few ways to get in, some harder than others. A window in the back led to a platform with a long jump to the bottom, a halfway covered doorway to a storage room, and a pole to climb up and into the building. We took the doorway, which was hard to spot because half of it was covered in sheet metal which was bolted to the top and side, and the open part wasn't visible because it was on a downward stairway.
Once inside, only two or three feet of the room was illuminated by the daylight coming from the door and the rest was pitch black. We flipped on our flashlights and explored the first floor, which was technically the basement. This floor was mostly empty beside a crate or some wooden boards laying around. The only interesting room was a room that was blocked off from what looked like a huge metal door and some debris and wood. Beyond the blockage was something weird, it kind of looked like a brick oven in the middle of a office.
To the second floor we went, where the spooky things began. There was a huge bright white room which was obviously much different than the rest of the building. Holes in the walls and ceiling let in tons of light, too. There were a few meat hooks hanging from the walls, and a old piece of paper taped to the large metal sliding door that talked about the rules of the meat factory***. In the middle of the floor, along with a small drain was a dead bird. It looked like it was on fire at some point, and matches were surrounding the body so I figured it was some jerk teenagers messing around. However, the blood around the bird was fresh, so these teens would have had to been inside the building around the same times of us and we didn't see or hear anything up until this point.
We both heard the all familiar sound of the sliding door rolling closed. It was going slow so I figured it was the wind but we panicked anyway and rushed to the door to prop it open with a piece of wood that was laying nearby. This didn't bother us too much so we kept exploring, and continued on into some hallways which were oddly filled with dirt. As we walked down the halls, we heard footsteps above us and when those stopped, they continued except from around the corner. When we turned the corner, there was nothing except an electric box on the wall which had it's door swaying back and forth.
After walking through the halls, we eventually made it to the third floor, which had various windows that brought light in. We checked the place out a bit, and found a file cabinet that we looked through for a bit before giving up and going back downstairs. Back on the second floor, we noticed that one of the walls was actually a huge sliding door. We broke open the lock which was some twine around a nail in the wall, and then we walked through. I looked like a cafeteria that was long emptied of tables, chairs, and what have you. The only thing that really seemed out of place was the insane amount of wiring laying about in piles all over the place, the rusted shower - like rooms with drains on the floor, and the barbed wire wrapped around the four pillars in the room.
This is where my story heats up. The sliding door we thought was a wall? It had slammed closed, and remained stationary when we tried pushing it open. After a few more tries, it finally gave and shoved open. I could swear I saw some kind of animal running across our line of seat for a mere second. Suddenly becoming a scaredy - cat, I decided my friend and I leave. He agreed on the terms we check out this floor one more time. I went ahead and followed him around the dirt - path hallways, into the rooms, and to the freezer. The dead bird was gone, but the matches, feathers, and blood remained.
After this, we started down the stairs and left through the entrance we came in. With a duck, and a swift movement, I slid underneath the sheet metal covering half of the doorway. Midway through the slide I kid you not, I saw this thing staring back at me. It was still dark, so I couldn't make out many details besides it being on all fours, anywhere around three to five feet, and with these huge black eyes. It's head was so big that it looked like the thing had cut a watermelon in half and was wearing it on it's head.
I slid back under to get another look but nothing was there so I went outside and talked it over with my friend. He thought the whole adventure was a bit weird too but didn't believe me about what I saw. I'm not saying I know what I saw or even if it was real but it still baffles me to this day and has always bothered me.
If anyone has any idea what this thing might of been, I'd appreciate a Private Message. If it helps, I'm located in Ohio. Thanks.
*Maid - Rite is a local burger place.
**I didn't get any pictures that prove this, because I had only taken pictures of the building itself and when my adrenaline had been pumping from the door it's not like I thought about the camera.
***We found files that proved it was an old meat factory and not a government office building or a juvenile detention center.
Of course, I was one of those people who was decidedly unimpressed with the scariness of Amnesia, so it might be just me...
