I Was Hired to Be a Night Watchman... But They Didn’t Tell Me What I Was Watching

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I needed the job. The pay was low, but the hours worked for me. The manager hired me quickly. She handed me the keys and said, “Patrol every hour. Don’t go to the lower levels after midnight. It’s not safe.”

I didn’t ask questions. The structure was huge and deserted. Every floor looked the same: quiet hallways, flickering lights, and dirty desks. My footsteps echoed. Something felt off, and the silence seemed wrong—too full.

My first night went without incident. I observed the monitors and made my rounds. The halls stayed quiet. But on the second night, I heard whispers. They were faint at first, just a soft hum. I stopped and listened, but they disappeared.

By the third night, the whispers grew stronger. They echoed faintly through the corridors, as though someone had vanished just out of sight. I called out, “Who’s there?” No one answered. The sound stopped.

Then I saw the shadows.

They moved at the edges of my vision. When I turned to look, nothing was there. I told myself I was tired, but that didn’t help. The shadows grew bolder, sliding along the walls and disappearing when I approached.

One night, the whispers didn’t fade. They called to me. Step by step, I followed them to the stairwell. The door to the lower levels was locked. My key fit.

I opened the door.

The air below was cold. My flashlight flickered. Dust coated the stairs. I descended slowly, gripping the rail. A voice broke the silence: “Why are you here?”

It wasn’t loud—it came from inside my head. I froze. My heart pounded. The voice spoke again: “You shouldn’t be here.”

Shadows gathered at the bottom of the stairs. They shifted and pulsed, growing darker. They merged into a single shape—a tall, pale figure with empty eyes. He stepped forward.

“You weren’t supposed to come down here,” he said in a distant, hollow voice.

I introduced myself as the night watchman. “I’m just doing my job.”

The figure cocked his head. His mouth curled into a grim smile. “But you’ve always been down here.”

My chest tightened. I backed away, but the shadows stretched toward me. The walls seemed to pulse, and the air grew heavier. I couldn’t move.

The figure reached out and touched my shoulder. His fingers felt like ice. “You are what you watch,” he whispered. “You belong to us now.”

My legs gave out, and darkness swallowed me. The last thing I saw was his hollow eyes.

I woke up in the security office. The clock read 7:00 AM. My head throbbed. The building looked normal, but I felt wrong.

I checked the security footage. It showed me walking the halls, but something was off. My movements were unnatural, as if I weren’t fully human.

Behind me, a shadow followed.

It looked just like me.

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