The office building in which we have our offices is frequently mentioned in books about haunted locations in my hometown as being,<\/p>\n
In fact,<\/p>\n
Haunted.<\/p>\n
The history of the building itself lends credence to such speculation …<\/p>\n
It is an older building, first built in the mid-1800’s;<\/p>\n
There was a fire in the building in the early 1900’s;<\/p>\n
And,<\/p>\n
People died in the building.<\/p>\n
Allegedly.<\/p>\n
We have had our offices in the building for almost 2 decades,<\/p>\n
And I must say that if it is really one of the more active haunted locations in my hometown,<\/p>\n
Then we really don’t have that much haunted activity in my hometown.<\/p>\n
It is fairly quiet here.<\/p>\n
But that doesn’t mean there is no activity in the building,<\/p>\n
Or odd stuff happening.<\/p>\n
However, for the most part,<\/p>\n
It takes very little effort to rationalize away 99.8% of any curious happenings.<\/p>\n
Over all these years,<\/p>\n
I have personally only had three incidents which though I have rationalized away,<\/p>\n
Fully appreciate the rationalization is sketchy,<\/p>\n
Or at least leaves a bit of doubt.<\/p>\n
This is the story of my most recent,<\/p>\n
Odd event happening,<\/p>\n
Which I still haven’t completely sold myself on the debunking,<\/p>\n
Not that there isn’t a viable explanation,<\/p>\n
But that the one I have sold myself on just hasn’t completely convinced me yet.<\/p>\n
Like my second experience,<\/p>\n
This one happened in broad daylight.<\/p>\n
Mid<\/p>\n
Afternoon.<\/p>\n
Which certainly reduces the spooky scariness of the incident,<\/p>\n
But elevates the quantity of WTFness present as your brain processes what it thought it experienced.<\/p>\n
This event happened on a Thursday.<\/p>\n
The day of the week means absolutely nothing,<\/p>\n
We have one women’s restroom on our floor,<\/p>\n
And at the time …<\/p>\n
Three women working on our floor.<\/p>\n
And though it was never discussed,<\/p>\n
Or planned,<\/p>\n
It sort of was like we all had our own stall.<\/p>\n
Mine is the middle one.<\/p>\n
An extended-size stall was on my toilet left.<\/p>\n
And a duplicate stall in size on my toilet right.<\/p>\n
I walked into the restroom,<\/p>\n
Turned the light on,<\/p>\n
Entered the middle stall,<\/p>\n
And properly positioned myself for toilet usage.<\/p>\n
Having brought my phone,<\/p>\n
I started to check the Twitter,<\/p>\n
It was at that moment when it happened …<\/p>\n
FLLAPFLLLAASSTAPLAHSSSHTTTPPPA PA PA PA FFFFFFFFFFA<\/p>\n
No, it wasn’t me.<\/p>\n
But,<\/p>\n
Yes, that’s as close as I can write a very vocal discharge of gas.<\/p>\n
Upon hearing such coming from the stall toilet left,<\/p>\n
I laughed a bit as my inner monologue wondered what grandpa was doing in the women’s restroom.<\/p>\n
Krap,<\/p>\n
Literally,<\/p>\n
I actually did laugh out loud and<\/p>\n
Hoped the next stall occupant didn’t hear me.<\/p>\n
Then seconds later I not so immediately thought,<\/p>\n
Wait,<\/p>\n
I’m pretty sure I am alone in the restroom.<\/p>\n
Yeah,<\/p>\n
I am.<\/p>\n
So I did the curiousity killed the cat thing,<\/p>\n
And leaned down to look under the stall to see if I could recognize the shoes of my neighbor,<\/p>\n
To identify who was Edmund Fitzgeralding that bowl.<\/p>\n
Which is when I became confused,<\/p>\n
Because I didn’t see any legs or feet in the stall …<\/p>\n
Toilet Left.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
So I turned my head and looked under the stall to my right,<\/p>\n
And likewise saw no legs.<\/p>\n
Or feet.<\/p>\n
I leaned back and looked up at the ceiling wondering if somehow the noise I heard could have come from the restroom above me.<\/p>\n
Unlikely.<\/p>\n
But … I decided that was the explanation.<\/p>\n
No one to the left of me,<\/p>\n
No one to the right,<\/p>\n
And it definitely wasn’t me.<\/p>\n
So back to Twitter.<\/p>\n
FLLAPFLLLAASSTAPLAHSSSHTTTPPPA PA PA PA FFFFFFFFFFA<\/p>\n
This time I was sure.<\/p>\n
The sounds definitely came from the stall to my left.<\/p>\n
So I looked down again to see if there were feet …<\/p>\n
And …<\/p>\n
There were not.<\/p>\n
And no plops of anything in the toilet water,<\/p>\n
Either.<\/p>\n
So it must have just been gas.<\/p>\n
And lots of it.<\/p>\n
There has to be someone there,<\/p>\n
But wait …<\/p>\n
I turned the lights on when I walked into the restroom, yeah?<\/p>\n
It was dark in this windowless room,<\/p>\n
When I arrived.<\/p>\n
I know I turned on the lights.<\/p>\n
Think I’ll just finish my business and leave.<\/p>\n
So upon exiting the stall,<\/p>\n
I walked over to the sinks that were on the opposite side of the wall,<\/p>\n
While still trying to figure out the source of the loud sounds.<\/p>\n
I took the position with the sink closest to the extended stall that had been to my toilet left.<\/p>\n
It was more extended that I thought and I could tell the stool was further away from the shared common stall wall than I would have guessed,<\/p>\n
So I figured I would do one more under the stall scan for legs or feet,<\/p>\n
And that’s when I had success.<\/p>\n
Indeed,<\/p>\n
There were a pair of legs and feet in the stall.<\/p>\n
Dirty canvas, white shoes,<\/p>\n
Attached to a younger looking set of bare calfs.<\/p>\n
What was out of the norm though was the person in the stall had turned their body so the legs were positioned on the left side of the toilet seat,<\/p>\n
Meaning even had I gotten a good look under the stall when I was sitting on it,<\/p>\n
I might not have ever seen the legs.<\/p>\n
And they were maybe trying to keep their presence hidden.<\/p>\n
So,<\/p>\n
I concluded that someone from not in the building had come into the building to use the restroom,<\/p>\n
Since on our floor,<\/p>\n
The restrooms are unlocked and always open.<\/p>\n
No biggee,<\/p>\n
At least I know I wasn’t imagining the sounds.<\/p>\n
So I dried my hands,<\/p>\n
Exited the restroom,<\/p>\n
Walked away from the door as it closed,<\/p>\n
And promptly took up position in the lobby to see who exited the restroom.<\/p>\n
Don’t get me wrong,<\/p>\n
I have no problem with anyone using the restrooms on our floor,<\/p>\n
My curiosity was solely based on wanting to know who in the world belted out the boisterous volume of gas that I heard.<\/p>\n
So I waited.<\/p>\n
Glancing frequently at my phone,<\/p>\n
While keep a peripheral focus the door.<\/p>\n
Waiting for it to open.<\/p>\n
But it didn’t open.<\/p>\n
So I continued to wait.<\/p>\n
And wait.<\/p>\n
Clearly not the most efficient use of my time,<\/p>\n
Whatever.<\/p>\n
But eventually I …<\/p>\n
Walked back into the restroom.<\/p>\n
The light was still on,<\/p>\n
As I had left it,<\/p>\n
But when I looked under the stalls for feet,<\/p>\n
I didn’t see any.<\/p>\n
So I poke opened each stall,<\/p>\n
And found each empty.<\/p>\n
There was no one but me in the restroom.<\/p>\n
I rationalized the empty restroom as being the result of either the individual following me closely out of the restroom when I initially exited and before I turned back around to take up position for watch,<\/p>\n
Or maybe they left while I was on watch and my peripheral vision just sucks.<\/p>\n
I sold myself on the latter,<\/p>\n
As I don’t attribute this to paranormal,<\/p>\n
Just not normal.<\/p>\n
Regardless,<\/p>\n
I’m inspired.<\/p>\n
If upon passing I find myself hanging around there here parts,<\/p>\n
My ghost thing is going to be passing gas,<\/p>\n
And being amused when the living are blamed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This one happened in broad daylight.<\/p>\n
Mid<\/p>\n
Afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":140,"label":"Life"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/You-are-way-too-possessive-of-your-things-I-didnt-say-I-was-going-to-take-a-sheet.-Now-Get-Out-.png",350,350,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Amy","author_link":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/author\/amy\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":140,"name":"Life","slug":"life","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":144,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":48,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":140,"category_count":48,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Life","category_nicename":"life","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5263,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4771\/revisions\/5263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}