I used to go exploring lots of abandoned buildings in and around where I live. Underground sewers, old hospitals (ultra creepy), an old tomb (not as creepy as i expected), the forts on the islands in the harbor, and various other weird places.

Yet the creepiest place I visited was the old YMCA building. It had been abandoned for years, and I always thought it would be an awesome spot to play paintball in. So me and a couple friends pried open one of the wooden boards blocking a window and crawled in. There was the usual graffiti, liquor bottles and garbage near the entrance where light still penetrated through. Beyond the darkness we couldn't see much, even in the day, not much light entered the building as all the windows were mostly boarded up.

So we took to the flashlights and started exploring, there was a huge empty swimming pool full of garbage and various furniture, various locker rooms with gym equipment and weights still laying around, posters lined the walls with activities that were going on, and rules, etc.

We were walking back towards the pool area to head downstairs and we thought we heard someone come in through a different entrance, it was kinda startling, and we figured it might have been the police or the building manager so we just stayed still and quiet till we figured it was ok. As we started to head downstairs we notice there was another set of stairs going deeper into the building, a basement level.

Just peering into the stairway you could see nothing, shining the light down we could see a bunch of garbage, old cans and raggedy old clothes. As we got to the bottom of the stairs, there was a mattress, more old cans, liquor bottles, clothes and it stunk of piss and rot. We figured some old hobos were taking refuge up in here, which is not totally uncommon for abandoned buildings. Seeing as how we were in a dark basement, possibly with some crazy hobo, the natural thing to do would be to keep going. None of us would suggest leaving, despite how much my heart was racing at this point.

We found what looked like to be the old furnace room, nothing could have prepared me for what waited for me in there. As I entered the room, it had a miserable foul odor, and as I swept the light across the floor, the ground was littered with dead cats. some were no more than skeletons, and some were in various states of decay. As the others came into the room, we all kinda got silent for a few seconds while we tried to figure out what was going on.

Leaving the room we heard what sounded like someone or something kicking cans upstairs. We were all kinda bugging out now. There was only the one way back upstairs, and after exploring this building for the last couple hours, our light was getting weak. We needed to get back out, and just hope that whatever was making that sound wasn't some deranged hobo trying to kill us.

As we got closer to the stairs we heard a scurrying and what sounded like someone walking towards the stairs. None of us moved. We waited maybe 30 seconds, that felt like hours until we heard them walk away. Running up the stairs and towards the exit I looked back into the darkness and saw someone standing there, very tall, with gangly limbs and a blank face. I just froze... staring into the darkness at this man. He just stood there standing in the corridor, I had to break my gaze and just leave.

I asked if anyone else had seen anyone in there, but they said they were too scared to look back and just got out. Since then, the place had been boarded up, fenced off and eventually torn down. None of us had ever had gone back, and have yet to figure out the mystery of all those dead cats. And I am still haunted by the visions of that tall faceless man just standing there in that hallway.