3 Disturbing TRUE Janitor Horror Stories
#Horror #Story #Stories #Scary #Ghost # Haunted #Fright #Nightmare #Real #True #Paranormal
#Horror #Story #Stories #Scary #Ghost # Haunted #Fright #Nightmare #Real #True #Paranormal
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00I used to work as a custodian at a middle school for almost five years and I was usually on the
00:15overnight shift. I would clock in around 10 at night and stay until right before the sun came
00:21up when the buses started pulling in. At first I actually liked the job. I didn't have to deal
00:26with the kids running down the hallways, teachers complaining about stuff, or anyone really.
00:31The quiet didn't bother me and I liked being left alone to do my work. But as time went on I started
00:38to notice how different the school felt at night compared to during the day. It wasn't just quiet,
00:43it felt dead. The building creaked and groaned like it was breathing and when you're the only person in
00:49there even the smallest sound will set you on edge. You'd hear a locker pop open on its own or the
00:55pipes knocking in the walls and your brain would make you think it was footsteps. I learned to
01:00ignore a lot of that, but one part of the school I never really got used to was the basement.
01:06The school was old, built in the 1950s, and the basement ran underneath half of it.
01:11It wasn't finished nicely like the classrooms. It was a concrete maze of storage rooms and long
01:17narrow halls with pipes and wires hanging overhead. Some of the rooms were full of old desks,
01:22some had boxes of outdated textbooks, others had broken furniture stacked up.
01:28It always smelled damp and musty down there. The fluorescent lights buzzed and flickered when
01:33they even worked at all. A lot of the time you had to bring a flashlight just to see where you
01:37were going. When I first started, one of the older custodians told me to avoid the basement unless I
01:43absolutely had to go down there. He said it wasn't worth the trouble and joked that it was haunted.
01:48I laughed along, but even in that first week, I noticed how uneasy I felt in that part of the
01:54building. It was like stepping into a different world compared to the bright hallways upstairs.
02:00There were nights when I would pass the door to the basement and feel a chill just from looking at
02:04it, but usually I didn't have to go down there. So I avoided it whenever possible. One night,
02:10about two years into the job, I had a list of tasks taped to my cart, and one of them was to
02:15bring up a set of folding chairs for an event. I groaned as soon as I saw it, because the only
02:20place those chairs were kept was the basement. I remember standing at the top of the basement
02:25stairwell door for a good minute, just debating if I could ask my supervisor if it could wait till
02:30morning. But I didn't want to look lazy, so I grabbed my flashlight and opened the heavy door.
02:35The stairwell echoed with every step I took, like my boots were way too loud. I got to the bottom
02:42and flip the switch, but only a couple of the overhead lights came on. They left most of the
02:47hallway in darkness. I swear, it smelled like wet cement down there. I turned on my flashlight and
02:53started walking. The chairs were supposed to be in the second storage room on the left. The first room
02:59was full of old desks piled all the way to the ceiling. The second door was half-rusted, and it
03:04squealed like nails on a chalkboard when I pulled it open. Inside, the room smelled like dust and wood
03:10polish. The folding chairs were stacked against the wall in uneven piles. I bent down and started
03:16pulling them out, trying to carry as many as I could at once so I wouldn't have to make so many
03:21trips. I had just picked up four when I froze. From somewhere out in the hallway, I heard a soft
03:28dragging sound, like someone was slowly sliding their shoe across the floor. I held my breath,
03:35still bent over with the chairs in my arms, listening as hard as I could. The sound stopped.
03:40I straightened up and peeked my head out into the hallway, shining the flashlight both ways.
03:45The beam cut through the dark, but there was nothing there. My heart was thumping in my ears. I stood
03:52there for what felt like forever before finally telling myself it was probably just the pipes,
03:57or maybe I had shifted a chair without realizing it. I carried the first load out into the hallway and
04:03toward the stairs. As I walked, I suddenly felt a cold draft against my face. It was so out of place
04:10that it made me stop mid-step. The basement was always warm and stale, with no windows and no moving
04:16air. This felt like standing next to an open freezer. I shined my light up and down the hallway,
04:22but nothing looked different. I shook it off, set the chairs at the bottom of the stairs,
04:27and went back for more. When I walked into the storage room again, something felt off. The stack
04:34looked different somehow, like they had shifted while I was gone. I frowned at them, trying to
04:41remember exactly how they had been leaning. I finally told myself I was just being paranoid,
04:45and picked up another load. This time, as I turned to leave, I heard it again. A thump,
04:52followed by a scraping sound. It came from farther down the basement hallway. My flashlight beam shook
04:58in my hand as I aimed it that way. About 20 feet down, one of the classroom doors that should have
05:04been closed tight was cracked open. My stomach dropped. I knew I hadn't touched that door.
05:09The school was locked up every night, and no one was supposed to be there except me.
05:14I stood frozen in the doorway of the storage room, staring at that cracked door. Every part of me
05:21screamed to drop the chairs and run upstairs, but I just stood there. I told myself maybe the door had
05:27come loose, or maybe when I opened another door the air pressure had shifted. I clung to those
05:32excuses like a lifeline. I carried the chairs quickly to the stairwell, then came back with
05:37my flashlight in one hand, empty-handed this time. The cracked door was still there, open just enough
05:43for someone to peek out. My throat went dry. I crept toward it slowly, each step echoing. When I was
05:51close, I called out, Hello? Anyone down here? My voice cracked, and it sounded small in the
05:57big empty basement. No answer. I swallowed hard, then pushed the door open fast with my free hand,
06:03and shined the flashlight inside. The room was empty, just shells of dusty science equipment,
06:09boxes stacked high, cobwebs in the corners. I stepped inside for a second, heart racing,
06:15listening for any sound. That's when I heard it again, a dragging shuffle, but this time it was
06:22behind me in the hallway. I spun around and pointed the flashlight, with the beam cutting down the
06:27corridor. Nothing, just shadows and concrete, but I felt it, that heavy pressure you get when you know
06:34you're being watched. My skin prickled all over. I didn't care about the chairs anymore. I backed up
06:41slowly, keeping the flashlight aimed down the hallway, and made my way toward the stairwell.
06:45When I got to the stairs, I grabbed the chairs I'd left and carried them up two steps at a time.
06:50I didn't stop until I was back in the main hallway upstairs, gasping for breath.
06:55I leaned against the wall, sweating even though the school was cold. I told myself I was imagining
07:01things. Maybe it had been rats or water pipes, but I couldn't explain the cracked door.
07:07I locked the stairwell door behind me, even though I wasn't supposed to, and I didn't go back down for
07:12the rest of the night. A week later, I was mopping the hallway right above the basement stairs,
07:17when I heard it again. Three loud bangs, evenly spaced, like someone hitting the wall with their
07:23fist. The mop slipped out of my hand, water dripping onto the tiles. I froze and listened.
07:30Then I heard the basement door rattle like someone had shoved it from the other side.
07:35My blood went cold. I didn't open it. I stood there, gripping the mop handle until the sound stopped.
07:40After that, I refused to go down into the basement alone. If anything needed to come up, I'd wait until
07:47another custodian was there. I never told the others what I heard, because I knew they'd either
07:52laugh or tell me it was the so-called ghost. But I know what I felt, and I know what I heard.
07:58To this day, when I think about those slow, dragging footsteps behind me, I feel sick to my stomach.
08:03I worked as a custodian at a high school for three years. I was the newest guy on the team,
08:18so most of the time I got stuck with the overnight shifts. The building was huge,
08:23four floors and two gyms. And at night, when it was empty, it felt like a giant maze.
08:29The rule was to go floor by floor, room by room, turning off lights, emptying trash,
08:35and locking doors. It usually took the whole night to cover everything,
08:39and if you tried to rush, you'd miss something. One Friday night, I was working alone because
08:44one of the other custodians had called out sick. Normally, we worked in pairs, so I wasn't used to
08:50being the only one on duty. At first, the shift was normal. I started on the first floor,
08:56emptying trash cans, wiping down surfaces, and mopping the hallways. The lights in some of the
09:02old corridors flickered, which made the shadows jump around, but I told myself it was just the
09:07building settling. Around midnight, I made my way up to the third floor. That floor always gave me a
09:15bad feeling because it was quieter than the others. It had a lot of older classrooms that weren't used
09:20anymore. Some permanently locked, and others were just storage rooms filled with dusty books,
09:26broken furniture, and old lab equipment. As I walked down the hallway, I passed the lockers.
09:32The metallic click of the doors and the echo of my boots against the tiles made me jump a few times.
09:37I kept reminding myself it was normal. I was halfway through mopping one of the main hallways,
09:43when I noticed a door about 20 feet away was open. That struck me immediately because I had already
09:49checked all the rooms earlier in the evening, and every door had been locked. My first instinct was
09:55to walk past it quickly and ignore it, but something made me stop. I set my mop against the wall and
10:01walked over slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. The door was one of those old wooden
10:07classroom doors with a square glass window. I pushed it open slowly, shining my flashlight inside.
10:13The room looked empty. The desks were stacked along the walls, and boxes were in the corners.
10:19Nothing seemed out of place at first glance, but then I noticed that one of the boxes near the back
10:24wall had been moved. It was tilted, not lined up with the others, and there were scuff marks on the
10:30floor, like it had been dragged across the tiles. My stomach sank. I knew I had closed that door earlier,
10:37and I knew I hadn't moved that box. I told myself it was probably nothing, just my imagination playing
10:43tricks on me because I was tired. I pulled the door closed and went back to mopping, but my mind kept
10:49wandering to that room. I kept thinking I should check the windows, maybe a student had snuck in
10:54somehow, but all the windows were locked from the inside, and the hallway doors were locked as well.
11:00I tried to shake the feeling of being watched and focused on the cleaning.
11:03After finishing that hallway, I went down to the stairwell to head to the second floor.
11:09As I walked past that same classroom again, my heart nearly stopped. The door was wide open.
11:15My breath caught in my throat. I knew I had shut it before. I slowly stepped closer.
11:21I peeked inside, and the room looked normal, except the box was now moved to the center of the floor.
11:27My pulse was racing. I whispered, Hello? Who's in here? My voice sounded tiny in the emptiness of
11:35the building. I waited, but there was silence. And then from the back of the room, I heard slow,
11:41deep breathing. Not a gust of wind or a pipe. It was someone trying to be quiet, but making sure I
11:48could hear it. I tried to convince myself it was a student hiding, playing a prank. But how would they
11:53have gotten in? I was the only one who was supposed to be there, and all the doors were locked.
11:59I slammed the door shut and ran down the hallway to the stairwell.
12:03My heart was hammering, and sweat ran down my back. I stayed pressed against the stairwell door,
12:08listening. I debated calling my supervisor, even though I hated bothering him in the middle of the
12:13night. Finally, I did. When he picked up, I told him what was happening, trying to keep my voice
12:20steady. He said he would be there in 20 minutes. Those 20 minutes felt like hours. I stayed as far
12:27away from that room as possible, peeking over my shoulder every few seconds. Finally, he arrived.
12:34We went back up together. He had a big flashlight and walked straight into the classroom. The box was
12:40still in the middle of the floor. We checked everywhere, the closets, under the tables, behind
12:45the desks. There was nothing. He suggested I was just tired or imagining things. I didn't argue,
12:51but I knew what I had heard. That slow, heavy breathing. I tried to finish the rest of my
12:57shift with him there, but I kept glancing at that classroom. The hallway felt colder and more oppressive
13:03than ever. Even sweeping and mopping didn't distract me. Every time I passed a locker, I expected it to
13:10swing open. Every shadow seemed like a person standing just out of view.
13:16Weeks later, when I worked with another custodian, he told me that years ago, a student had been
13:21caught hiding in that classroom overnight. They had snuck in to play a prank, but it scared the staff so
13:26much that they never used that room again. It made sense, but it didn't explain the breathing I heard
13:32that night. There was no one else in the school. I finished the shift and left, but every time I thought
13:38about it, my stomach twisted. I started taking extra precautions. I made sure all the doors were
13:44locked as I passed. I kept my flashlight pointed at the floor and stayed near the stairwell if I had to
13:50pass that hallway. Months later, I had another overnight shift alone. I avoided that third floor
13:56for as long as possible. When I finally had to go up, I moved as quickly as I could. I kept thinking
14:03I'd hear it again. The feeling of being watched didn't go away. Even when I was in a room far
14:09from that classroom, I felt like eyes were on me. Every creak of the floor made me jump.
14:15I finished the shift and left quickly, never looking back. I refused to work that floor alone again.
14:22Even years later, I avoided it whenever I could. I never found out if it had been a student hiding or
14:28something else. But I'll never forget the sound of that breathing, coming from a classroom that
14:32should have been empty. I can still hear it in my head sometimes.
14:46I worked as a night custodian at an old high school for two years. The worst part of the job was always
14:52the auditorium. It was massive with three levels of seating, a big stage, and long heavy curtains that
14:58hung from the ceiling. During the day, it looked normal. But at night, when the building was empty,
15:04it felt like stepping into a completely different place. Even with the lights on, there were shadows
15:09in every corner that seemed darker than they should be. Sound carried strangely in there. If you dropped a
15:15broom, the echo would stretch and bounce, making it hard to tell exactly where the sound came from.
15:20Most nights, I saved the auditorium for last because I hated going in there. There was just something
15:26about it that always made my skin crawl. Near the end of winter one year, I had to clean it earlier
15:32than usual because there was going to be a play the next morning. I arrived around midnight, dragging my
15:38cart behind me. The side door creaked loudly as I opened it, and when it slammed shut behind me,
15:44the echo traveled across the empty room. I started by sweeping the aisles between the seats.
15:50The chairs were old, metal folding seats bolted to the floor in some rows, and in other rows,
15:56they were loose. As I pushed the broom, I listened to the scraping sound echo off the walls and ceiling.
16:03After a few minutes, I thought I heard something else. It was faint at first, like a soft rustling from
16:09the stage. I froze, thinking maybe a prop had fallen over. But when I looked, the stage was empty.
16:16I shook my head and told myself it was nothing. I continued sweeping. A few minutes later, I heard
16:24it again. This time it was more distinct, the sound of slow footsteps across the stage.
16:29I stopped sweeping and looked toward the stage. I could see the stacked props in the corners.
16:37Nothing moved, but the sound was real. My breathing became shallow. I slowly climbed the steps onto the
16:43stage, shining the flashlight behind the curtains. There were ropes, pulleys, old chairs, and painted
16:49scenery stacked against the walls. Everything was covered in dust, and the beam of my light made it
16:55dance like it was moving. I couldn't shake the feeling that someone or something was nearby.
17:01I backed off the stage, telling myself it was just the building settling. Maybe a mouse in the rafters,
17:07but the feeling didn't go away. I continued sweeping down the aisles, trying to finish as fast as possible.
17:14My mind kept going back to the stage. The sound of those slow footsteps repeated in my head,
17:19even though I couldn't hear them anymore. I finished sweeping the lower level and started mopping.
17:25As I pushed the mop through the rows, I thought I saw a shadow move across the second tier of seats.
17:30I moved my flashlight toward the seats, but nothing was there. I tried to tell myself it was a trick
17:37of the light. I kept my back to the wall as I moved, feeling as if someone were behind me.
17:42I had nearly finished mopping the main floor when I heard it again. A whisper. I couldn't make out
17:48words, but it was low, and it was coming from the balcony seats above me. My heart was now hammering,
17:54my flashlight's beam trembling in my hands. I wanted to run, but I didn't. I had to finish the job.
18:02I told myself it was someone outside or maybe a janitor who had forgotten something, but I knew I was
18:08alone. I kept mopping slowly, my ears straining. The whispering continued, almost like it was moving
18:14closer. I tried calling out, but I was so nervous that my voice sounded weak. There was no answer,
18:21only the echo of my voice. I finished mopping the main floor and started cleaning the stage itself.
18:28The steps up felt endless, and every time I moved my flashlight, I thought I saw something
18:33just at the edge of the beam. Sometimes it was a flicker of a shadow. Sometimes it was just my
18:38imagination. When I reached the stage, I looked over the edge of the main floor. The seats stretched
18:45back in the darkness. I shined the flashlight into the balcony, and for a moment, I thought I saw a
18:51figure sitting there. Just a silhouette. But when I blinked, it was gone. I told myself it was a chair
18:59or a coat, but the feeling didn't leave me. I started dusting and moving props, trying to focus
19:05on something physical. The whispering came again, much clearer this time. It sounded like someone
19:11speaking my name, almost directly behind me. I spun around so fast that the flashlight slipped in my
19:17hands. The stage was empty. Nothing. The props were still stacked in the same place, and the curtains
19:24didn't move, but I knew I hadn't imagined the voice. I backed away slowly, with my heart racing,
19:31and I moved toward the side door. I stopped at the edge of the stage and listened. I could hear
19:36soft footsteps on the upper levels, moving slowly across the balcony. I told myself it was impossible.
19:42The auditorium was locked. No one else should have been there. The footsteps continued, stopping and
19:50starting as if someone were pacing and watching me. I finally ran to the door, grabbed the handle,
19:56and pulled it open. The cold night air hit me like a wall, and I felt relief, but I could still hear the
20:02faint echo of footsteps above, fading away slowly. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely lock the
20:09door behind me. I leaned against it, catching my breath, feeling the sweat running down my forehead.
20:15I didn't go back inside that night. The next morning, I tried to tell another custodian about
20:21what happened, and he laughed at me, saying it's an old building and probably just settles or something.
20:26But I'm not convinced. That whispering voice, and my name being called so softly and deliberately,
20:32and the footsteps pacing above me, I felt them in the air around me.
20:36Weeks later, I learned that years ago, a drama teacher had died suddenly in that auditorium during
20:42rehearsal, heart attack right on stage in front of students. People said sometimes you could still
20:48hear him walking the stage at night, or hear whispers in the seats. I tried to convince myself
20:54it's just a story, that the sounds were normal for an old building, but the way that voice whispered
20:59my name and the footsteps echoed, I could never forget it. Maybe I was going crazy, I don't know.
21:06After that night, I refused to clean the auditorium. I quit that job not long after, but sometimes,
21:12even when other people were in the building, I would feel the same cold pressure in the auditorium,
21:17and feel that same way about being watched. I know what I experienced was real, at least real to me.
21:24I've never had any kind of schizophrenic episodes or anything like that,
21:28so this whole thing still just baffles me to this day.
21:40That's a great question.
21:42That's a great question.
21:44I really appreciate it.
21:46I'm sorry, I really appreciate it.
21:48I'm sorry.
21:50I'm sorry.
21:52I'm sorry.
21:54I can't see it.
21:56I'm sorry.
21:58I'm sorry.
22:00I can see it.
Recommended
11:46
|
Up next
11:36
22:53
11:02
16:19
15:52
23:32
24:01
20:34
21:00
11:34
21:39
11:02
13:31
27:40
25:35
28:39
15:10
23:54
14:58
12:11
13:23
12:04
11:47
Be the first to comment