Christmas Horror Story Competition Winner! George Turner

George Turner became interested in writing short stories, essays and articles since he attended a very colorful and enthusiastic college professor’s English class. Since then George has had enumerable articles and essays published in two print publications and published one book entitled Of Sovereignty. George has also, briefly, owned his own bi-weekly print publication and severed as its editor. George’s current literary projects include working on a compilation of short horror stories to be published in his second book. George is also toying with the idea of starting a print magazine for horror enthusiasts. George has been described as a horror aficionado by his close friends. You can visit George’s book review website at:


https://sites.google.com/site/bookreviewsbycolonelgaturner/ or email George at gaturner.mail@gmail.com . Follow George on twitter, @GeorgeTurner15.


Here is another story by George Turner!

Work

By George Turner

            Work may not be a place where you think of haunted places. For some it is the first thing that pops into their minds. This is a story of one such haunted workplace.

The patients were all in bed. The lights were all off with the exception of the ones necessary to see while walking the halls and making log entries. The thermostat was set at a cool seventy two degrees.

The night sky would light up with flashes of lightning. Claps of thunder seemed to shake the building. The wind and rain seemed as though it was trying to punish anyone who was out in it.

The weather alarm radio would sound every ten minutes. The alarm annoyed Margaret who asked Jason to unplug it and put it in the desk drawer after returning from making a security check. Cathy just laughed at her coworker and continued to surf the internet. “Sure is a bad storm isn’t it girls?” asked Jason.

 His two coworkers simultaneously replied, “Hell yes!”  Suddenly the trio heard something coming from the stairs which was only twelve feet from their office door. “Oh crap, Fred is at it again.” said Margaret. “Who is Fred?” inquired Jason. “Fred is our resident ghost; everything strange that happens here is pinned on Fred.” said Cathy.

Jason had not been with the company very long and this was his first night shift. Jason had heard the other staff tell stories of the unexplainable things that happen in the building at night. They told him about hearing the sound of marbles rolling down the stairs at night and the sound of scratching on the floor above them.  The stories didn’t scare Jason though. Jason was a self-proclaimed skeptic. He laughed at the stories the other workers would tell him. He even laughed when they warned him to not disturb Fred when he was making his noises.

“Do we have any patients up stairs tonight?” asked Jason. “No.” said Cathy. “So what was that noise then?” inquired Jason. With no warning, the loudest thunder they had ever heard rolled just above the building. Then the power went out and instantly the scarcely located emergency lights came on.  Thump, thump, thump rang out from upstairs. A faint whisper could be heard from the stairwell but, none of the three could make out what the words were. Jason, Cathy and Margaret all three moved franticly back into their office.

“Where are the flash lights?” asked Jason as he was rummaging through some desk drawers. “Why?” asked Cathy. “You aren’t going up there are you?” asked Margaret. “There is no need in going up there, we have no clients up there and besides, Fred is on the prowl.” She continued.

Determined to go and investigate, Jason grabbed a flashlight and the master set of keys. Gently he made his way up the stairs. Back downstairs, the two workers who stayed behind could hear scratching on the floor right above their office. The scratching kept getting worse. It was like something was trying to come through the ceiling.

Thirty minutes had gone by since Jason went upstairs. The two women were becoming extremely concerned for him. They were considering going to look for him when he appeared. Jason had found an object that looked like a homemade spirit board. Jason said, “I found this in an empty client room; it was in the middle of the floor. I have seen these in scary movies and stuff.” “What room number was it?” asked Cathy. “Room number 26.” replied Jason.

The three hastily went to the archive room and looked through the dead files in an attempt to see who was in room 26 last. After a few minutes of digging they found out that Walter Fuld was the last occupant of 26. His chart had references from the psychiatrist that Mr. Fuld was paranoid and obsessed with the occult. At one time Mr. Fuld was a professor at the local college. Then one day he just lost it. His family has kept him locked up in institutions ever since.

After returning to their first floor office the three friends sat down and were discussing the creepy history of the building and pondering on Mr. Fuld’s file notes. Without provocation Jason stood up from his seat and asked, “Do you two hear that? Someone is saying my name!” The two women assured Jason that no one was saying his name and he needed to calm down.  

Jason ran back upstairs with his flashlight in hand yelling, “what do you want?!” A loud blood curling scream erupted from the stairwell. The sound of marbles rolling down the stairs soon followed the silence after the scream. Jason’s flashlight could be seen flickering off and on. Cathy ran to the phone and called 911.

When the police and EMTs arrived they found Jason laying in the fetal position on the 3^rd floor landing. His face was deathly white. His eyes were wide open. When asked what happened he said he saw what he was never supposed to see. Those were his last words, ever.

Jason’s Family had him committed to a long term psychiatric facility and his former employer soon went out of business due to the news reports and rumors of what happened at one of their facilities. Jason and his employer never recovered from that night. I suppose those marbles they heard rolling down the stairs was Jason’s.