Great story

Hiding in plain sight. I never paid much attention to that phrase before I started my new job.

‘Wanted: nighttime security guard’

That’s all the ad said, along with a phone number.

The town I live in isn’t very big, barely a dot on the map on the way to somewhere else. But for whatever reason we have a museum. I have no idea how it’s still in business. I can’t recall ever seeing a single person walk through their doors. But when I called the number the man who answered told me to come to this address this evening for my interview.

He seemed a little over-excited that I had answered the ad. When I asked him about the job, he said, “Oh, you know, the usual thing for a security guard.”

I’ve read some pretty unusual things about security guards in subreddits. But I’m sure those stories are made up.

Walking up the wide stone steps built to accommodate crowds of people was a little intimidating and creepy with no one for company besides the glowing lamps mounted on the sides of the railings. The whole thing gave off a very dystopian/ghost town/zombie apocalypse vibe. I guess the stone gargoyles staring down at me didn’t help much. I gazed into their eyes, half expecting them to jump down and carry me off to be sacrificed to Gozer.

If I hadn’t already discussed my hourly wage, I would’ve turned and high-tailed it home. But the wage was more than acceptable for a security guard. It was downright generous. I was wondering why he would pay so much, but walking up those desolate stairs gave me a clue.

Nobody wanted to go near this place. The word ‘haunted’ had been mentioned more than once.

Looking up at the front of the building the sporadic lights made shadows fall all around and gave it an intimidating presence.

I paused at the top of the stairs, thinking about every horror movie I’ve ever seen. There’s always that one moment where the characters could turn back and live another day, but they never do.

The wind whipped up, blowing against me, threatening to push me back down the stairs, almost as if warning me not to go inside. For a moment, I considered heeding the warning and climbing back down the stairs.

Knowing that my rent and car payment were due made me re-evaluate that decision.

I stepped up and opened the door, wondering if I would ever come out.

Fully expecting the door to creak on its hinges, I was pleasantly surprised when it opened silently and with little effort, despite feeling quite heavy.

The ornate decorations and beautiful décor took my breath away. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but I found myself regretting that this was the first time I had ever visited this museum.

I hadn’t made it two steps until an elegantly dressed man appeared and smiled at me. He didn’t so much as walk up to me, rather he glided, showing an air of dignity bordering on royalty.

“Mr. Whelton, I presume,” he said, wearing a warm smile.

“Yes, sir,” I said offering my hand.

He glanced at it with an amused look.

“Right, then, follow me and I’ll show you your duties,” he said turning on his heels and gliding away.

I pretended to smooth my hair as I followed, feeling like an idiot for offering my hand.

He glided past several works of art, toward a small desk.

“Right then,” he said. “You’ll be in charge of checking the doors so nothing gets in,” he paused. “Or out.”

“You mean stolen?” I said.

“Yes,” he said slowly. “Stolen.”

“So, I got the job?”

He stared at me blankly.

“Did you show up?”

I nodded.

“You got the job.”

“Do I need a uniform or anything?”

“Let’s see how your first night goes,” he said. “There’s a set of rules on the paper on your desk, please adhere to them. You must do at least one round per night through every room and check every door.”

“One round? That’s it?”

“This place is rather large and… challenging.”

I looked around with a hint of hesitation. Maybe there was a reason why it paid so much.

He smiled.

“If you have any problems, just call the number on the paper.”

“That’s it?”

“I believe so. I’ll lock the door on my way out and unlock it again at nine o’clock on my way back in.”

I stepped over to the desk and began reading the paper.

“What does this mean?” I said turning around, but he was gone.

“Hello?” I called but only my voice echoed back to me.

I looked at the puzzling paper again and read the rules.

‘rule number one: There are no rules.’

‘rule number two: tHere arE no rules.’

“What is this, fight club?” I said to myself.

‘everY time you bReak a rulE, return to rule number one.’

“Wait a minute, how can I break a rule when there are no rules?”

‘rule number three: hoW you follow the rules is As imporTant as why you follow the rules.’

“That made no sense at all.”

‘rule number four: if you are CaugHt breakING the rules, the penalties may be severe.’

“Ok, there’s something wrong here. This is just talking in circles.”

I read back over the rules and they looked strange. More than just the strangeness of the rules/non rules themselves, it was the way they were written. I went back and looked at each letter. Then I paid attention to the letters that were capitalized. It looked like some hidden message.

‘THEYRE WATCHING.’

I hesitated.

“Who’s watching?”

I decided to keep reading in hopes that this would begin to make some sense.

‘rule number five: DO NoT, under any circumstances, Make nOise eVery timE you do a round.’

Message received. ‘DONT MOVE.’

I stood there, immobile, wondering how long I was meant to play this game and if someone would come by and tag me to unfreeze me and allow me to start my round.

As I waited, chuckling to myself at the ludicrousness of this insane game of freeze tag, I felt the air grow cold. Clouds chugged out of my mouth like an old steamtrain as I fought the urge to rub my arms.

A chill that had little to do with the sudden temperature drop ran down my spine as I felt a presence in the room. It crept up behind me, silent as the grave. I could feel its hot breath wash over me as it sniffed.

Instead of enjoying the sudden warmth, my temperature plummeted. My heart hammered in my chest. It was all I could do to keep from running away in sheer terror.

As it passed by, I was overwhelmed by the stench of death. This thing was every nightmare I’ve ever had, personified. I refused to open my eyes and see its hideous form for fear of passing out. Instead, I focused on imitating a statue. Which was nearly impossible with my freezing body aching to shiver in frozen dread.

The nameless terror passed to the far side of the room, taking some of the cold with it, and then as suddenly as it came, it was gone.

The room returned to normal temperature, but I waited a few moments before moving, just to be sure.

Once I felt it was safe, I nearly collapsed to the floor in relief. After giving myself a moment to recover, I glanced at the paper with a newfound fear. Was this a harbinger of doom or a warning label meant to keep me safe?

Unsure if I wanted to read the rest, I took a moment to re-evaluate my current career choice. Could I just walk out and say I quit?

After a brief internal debate, I decided it wasn’t worth the money if I was about to be dragged through a portal to hell.

Just a short time ago, I would’ve considered that thought laughably ludicrous, but it was seeming more plausible by the moment.

I started toward the exit door with every intention of calling and telling my boss I wouldn’t be finishing the shift. Unfortunately, the door had other plans.

When I pushed on the crash bar, nothing happened. I tried turning the deadbolt, but it refused to move. After a few minutes of futility, I gave up, frustrated and determined to just sit in this room until morning came around.

Sitting at the desk, I spun around in the chair, waiting for the next nine hours and thirteen minutes to pass quickly. Five minutes later, out of sheer boredom, I glanced at the paper.

‘rule number Six: yoU Can’t just sit at the desK and waIT for the door to open UPon the ending of your shift.’

‘SUCK IT UP.’

“Are you serious?” I said in frustration. “Someone thinks they’re funny, huh?”

Glancing back at the paper, below rule six, was three letters. ‘yes’.

I backed away and got up to do my round, if nothing else to get away from this all-seeing sheet of paper that I had grown afraid to look at.

Hesitating, I reached for the door to the room where the nightmare had disappeared.

Glancing up, I saw a slip of paper taped to the door. It said, ‘The only way out is through.’

Sighing heavily, my trembling hand turned the knob and slowly opened the door. As I closed it, on the other side was another slip of paper, this one said, ‘Avoid eye contact and you’ll be fine.’

Confused by the cryptic statement, I turned and realized what it meant.

The room was full of stuffed creatures of many shapes and sizes. Most of them seemed to be mythical in nature of the cryptid variety. There was a bigfoot, skinwalker, dogman, jersey devil, wendigo, and many others. As my eyes scanned the room I noticed movement.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough. The skinwalker turned its head, just slightly to look right at me. I quickly darted my eyes away in fear and disbelief when the dogman turned its head to stare at me.

As panic coursed through my veins, I turned to go back through the door, remembering what the piece of paper on both sides of the door said.

‘The only way out is through’, and ‘Avoid eye contact and you’ll be fine’.

I felt the last statement was akin to saying, ‘If you hold on tight enough on a roller coaster, you won’t need the safety harness.’

Aiming my eyes at the floor, I turned and started toward the far side of the room.

I hoped that all they would do was watch. That hope was dashed. I heard growls and footsteps from all around the room. Hesitating, I wondered if I would need a clean pair of pants by the time I reached the far side, that is, if I survived.

The sounds of footsteps grew louder behind me when suddenly, there was a pair of hairy legs blocking my path. I stopped as a low growl made the air vibrate.

“Oh dear God,” I whispered, knowing that my life was about to end horribly and painfully.

Fighting the urge to look up, I sidestepped and went around the legs, hoping to pass unnoticed.

I counted my footsteps, hoping each one wouldn’t be my last.

Silently praying, I continued toward the door with my eyes aimed down, watching nothing more than my feet. It seemed like the longest walk of my life listening to the mythical creatures behind me come to life and sounding every bit like they were following me, just waiting for the right moment to grab me and turn me into a late-night snack.

It came as a surprise when I bumped my head into the far wall.

Shocked not only that I had made it, but that I had missed the door, I glanced over and found my glorious escape route.

As I opened the door, I accidentally glanced back into the room and made eye contact with the Wendigo. Its roar of rage is something I’ll never forget.

It charged at me with blinding speed and claws unsheathed, fangs ready to tear me to shreds as I dove through the door in the nick of time, slamming it behind me.

The impact on the other side of the wall made dust settle to the floor, causing me to sneeze.

I stood and saw another piece of paper taped to the door.

‘Whatever you do, don’t make a sound,’ it said.

As I was about to make a comment about it being too late, a giant set of fangs flew at me from the semi-darkness. Attached to them was the biggest snake I’d ever seen or heard of.

It shook off the impact with the door as my legs took over and sprinted for the far side of the room. The dim lighting made it impossible to see the far door as well as rocks and other obstacles littering the floor as I made my desperate dash to safety.

I swear the rock that tripped me moved into my path on its own.

Instead of a death sentence, it saved my life as the snake flew over my prone body, having tracked me down. Had I not tripped, its massive fangs would’ve gone straight through me.

Not waiting around to celebrate my accidental good fortune, I jumped up and raced toward the door again. It was now within sight, but so was the snake. It had recovered and was coiling for another strike.

Running around a large boulder to make myself a harder target, I aimed for a spot five feet from the door. When I was almost to the door, I dove just as the snake passed over me, slamming into the wall as I jumped up and opened the door.

Closing the door behind me, I took a moment to catch my breath and think about asking a lot more questions when I interview for my next job.

I tried to open my eyes but realized they were already open. The room was engulfed in total darkness. Pulling out my flashlight, I shone it around, but couldn’t see anything aside from the door and the floor in front of me. There was no sign of anything in the room, not even a ceiling. It was as if the darkness sucked the light into itself, never to escape.

Being robbed of sight, I relied on hearing. Taking a long listen, I waited to hear any growls or slithers, anything to give me a hint of what I might have to deal with, but there was nothing, only soul crushing silence.

Having scanned the room the best I could, I set out to find the far door. Nothing seemed strange. Even the echo sounded like a normal large room, it was just devoid of light.

The normalness of it terrified me.

All I could find out of place was a slight scent of disinfectant. I wasn’t sure if that was because whatever horrible creature that called this room its home had killed people here and they wanted to cover the smell, or if the creature itself had passed away, leaving some poor janitor to clean up the mess.

In either case, I was on full alert.

They say that when one of your senses falters, the others become more acute to make up for it. The same thing was happening with my paranoia.

I imagined shadows moving around in the total pitch of darkness. My steps were small and slow as my arms waved in front of me acting as my eyes, searching for any obstacles.

It took what seemed like an eternity to get to the far side walking so slow. I guess that’s the price of being careful.

As I approached the wall, the flashlight and vision became useful once again. I must’ve gotten off track as I walked because the door was far off to the side. I had to walk a good fifty feet along the wall to find it.

When I opened the door, I was greeted by a horrible sight. The snake was coiled up in front of it. I quickly shut the door as it prepared to strike.

Why would they have two snake rooms?

But then why wasn’t much of a relevant question in this place.

My mind came up with a terrible answer. It wasn’t a second snake; it was the same one. I must’ve gotten turned around in the darkness and done a circle.

As my brain had a go-around with denial, I tried to figure out a way to get across this room without unintentionally doubling back. Keeping in mind that even though I had yet to see or hear anything in this room, didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

Searching for any ideas, I looked down at my flashlight, then squared my shoulders against the wall to regain my bearings, and tossed the flashlight straight in front of me. It landed with a loud clatter then rolled around in a playful circle before coming to rest.

If there was anything in the room, most likely I’d just woken it up and showed it exactly where I was.

I stood still and listened.

After a few minutes, I didn’t hear any movement. It seemed safe to walk to my flashlight, pick it up, and toss it another fifteen feet, hopefully in a straight line.

I did this the whole way across the room, still listening for sounds, but becoming more confident with each step that I wouldn’t hear any.

The door was just a few feet to the side of where I’d aimed. Somehow, I’d gone in a straight line.

Grabbing the doorknob, I slowly turned it so as not to alert the snake if by some trick I ended up back in that room.

But there was no trick and no snake. The door opened to blinding light. I covered my eyes to give them time to adjust.

Once they had acclimated, I looked around at a beautiful room full of clouds. There were even clouds on the floor. It was disconcerting at first and almost made me lose my balance because they were so well painted that it literally looked like I was walking on clouds.

I took a tentative step into the room, making sure that it was an illusion and I wasn’t about to fall thousands of feet to my death.

Holding my breath, I stepped onto the first cloud and let go of the door frame. It was firm like a floor should be. My second and third steps were more confident as I realized how effective the illusion was.

Once I acclimated, walking on clouds was fun. This was turning out to be the easiest room I’d been in so far.

That’s when I heard the scream.

It was deafening and seemed to come from everywhere at once. I dove to the floor only to realize there was nowhere to hide from whatever it was. I stood out like a sore thumb against the blue sky and white fluffy clouds painted on every surface of the room.

The scream sounded again, and I began to run, having no idea which way I was going or where the screaming was coming from. For all I knew, I was running toward whatever it was. I just knew it didn’t sound human, and I had no desire to find out what it was.

Soon the choice was taken out of my hands. I saw a dark spot appear against the clouds that quickly became larger. It was almost on me when I dove to the floor, feeling something sharp rake my back.

Pain shot through me as I reached around and found the back of my shirt in shreds. Not only that but my hand was covered in blood. Whatever it was had sliced my back open and I was bleeding.

Adrenaline kicked in and I ran faster than I ever have. The problem was, I didn’t know where I was running to or what I was running from. I was just running.

I heard wings flapping and I looked back just in time to see the largest bird of prey I’ve ever seen. It looked like a golden eagle, only the thing was massive. The wingspan was easily twenty feet.

As I was running, I turned to get a closer look at this thing at the same time I was trying to get away from it. My feet got tangled up and I fell backward just as the razor-sharp talons passed over mere inches away from my face.

I jumped up and started running again. As I glanced back to find my attacker I was met with the strangest sight. There was a smear of blood on the floor where I had just been lying. It looked like someone had wiped blood on a cloud.

The wings flapped again. I knew it was close. I had run out of luck. It would be ready for anything this time. Its razor-sharp talons would rip me to pieces, there was no doubt about it. There was only one option. I jumped and whipped around in midair, throwing my flashlight as hard as I could. It connected with its head that was mere feet away.

It screamed and dove off to the side, impacting with the floor so hard I felt the vibration, and landing in a heap.

I didn’t stop to check on it. The door loomed ahead of me, and I pushed myself for every ounce of speed my body could muster.

Turning the knob and opening the door in one smooth motion, I dove through and slammed it shut.

Laying on the floor, breathing hard, trying to catch my breath, I knew I was a sitting duck for whatever monster lurked in this room.

I rolled over to get in some defensive position for whatever was about to attack when I saw I was back in the main hall. I had somehow survived my first, and as far as I was concerned, last, round.

I stumbled my way to the restroom, in the back of my mind wondering what kind of insanity I would find in there.

Would I have to crawl through the mirror into another dimension to get a roll of toilet paper?

Fortunately, the restroom held no surprises. I took off my destroyed shirt and ran water over it to clean up my back as best I could. When I was done, I put some paper towels on the wound and put my jacket on top of it.

The desk and chair were where I spent the rest of the night. Surprisingly, it had taken me almost an hour to complete the round. As I sat there, pondering if I could survive another night at this job, I saw a dark spot form on the wall and detach itself only to float over toward me.

I closed my eyes and sat perfectly still, ignoring the sudden drop in temperature. The stench of death surrounded me, but I refused to move. For a moment I thought I heard a sound like sniffing, and then it seemed to diminish. Once the temperature rose again, I opened my eyes, and the apparition was gone.

As bored as I was for the next few hours, I wasn’t tempted to do another round, not even in the slightest.

When nine o’clock rolled around, the boss/curator appeared and glided over to me wearing a little grin.

“I see you managed to make it through,” he said. “Congratulations, you’re the first one in some time.”

“The first one to make it through a single round?”

He nodded.

“How many others have there been?” I said with a haunted look in my eyes.

He shook his head.

“Let’s not worry about that shall we?” he said. “Here is the amount we agreed upon.”

He handed me a stack of bills and I gladly took them.

“Would you be interested in staying on and being my permanent nighttime guard?”

I looked at the money and sighed.

“As much as I’d like to, I don’t see how this job could be called permanent when the mortal danger is so real.”

“It is a challenge, I’ll admit, however, you rose to it last night,” he said. “I’m prepared to offer you twice the amount I gave you if you agreed to stay on.”

I stared at the fistful of money and imagined not having to struggle with bills or any other expenses. Then I turned a little and my back painfully reminded me of the dangers.

“I’d have to think about it,” I said.

“While you’re thinking, consider this, you have yet to see the basement.”

“Basement?”

He nodded.

“It’s considerably more challenging.”

“I’ll let you know.”

“Very well, you can see yourself out. I recommend getting that back tended to.”

With that, he vanished into thin air right in front of my eyes.

I looked at the money, wondering if it would vanish as well. Fortunately, it remained firmly in my grasp as I walked toward the front door.

For some reason, I felt hesitant to open it and leave. It was as if some force was exerting itself against me like the museum didn’t want me to go. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling. More like a dog losing its favorite toy.

I pushed the doors open and left.

This whole ordeal made me ponder my concepts of reality as well as being terrified of the day when the things in the building would escape somehow. The big question was, did I need the money that badly?

Was I willing to put myself in mortal peril just for a few measly dollars?

I turned and looked back at the museum. In the daylight, it looked innocent. None of the terrors that lay within showed on the outside.

As I turned to head home, I swore I saw a fleeting glimpse of the apparition. It seemed to be following me. I looked again and it was gone.

Must’ve been my imagination.