Real Ghost Experience: Between Me and the Light

I was working alone one Saturday morning in the Clinical Engineering shop of a hospital. The shop had several different light switches for the different sections of the shop. I only turned on the lights I needed to light my work area and the path to and from it. I hadn't experienced anything overtly supernatural in several years, so I didn't think anything of working alone in a dimly lit shop.

I suppose my guard was down as I was sitting at the computer terminal typing work orders. I thought I saw something in my peripheral vision, but when I turned my head to look there was nothing there.

Thinking little of this, I went back to work. I don't know how long it was between the flicker and the next strange occurrence, as I was absorbed in my work.
Suddenly the hairs on my neck were pricking up, and I felt unusually cold. I didn't feel any air coming from the vents overhead, so there wasn't any obvious reason as to why I should feel so cold. I was starting to get a little spooked from this.

I decided I would go back to my workbench on the other end of the office and do some work there. On my walk back to my bench I turned on some more lights. Even though I know that the lights won't really protect me from anything, I still felt safer.

I worked on repairs for about an hour. I didn't notice anything strange in this work area, but I hadn't forgotten about the weird coldness and the blurry vision I had seen earlier. I needed to go back to the computer terminal to finish up my work orders before I could go home.

On the path from my work bench to the computer terminal there is a bathroom. The door is left open when it's not in use. There is a large mirror in the bathroom that I will be able to see as I walk past it. I have been petrified of mirrors in dark rooms ever since my sister tricked me into playing Bloody Mary when we were really young. I chickened out before we saw anything in the mirror, but I have always had a fear since then. I feel as if someone is watching me from the other side of the mirror.

When I thought about this I didn't want to walk past the bathroom. However, I had to pass it to get to the computer terminal. I decided I would jog by it quickly without looking. As I jogged by I couldn't help but take a peek. I was relieved to see that it was just me.

Back at the computer terminal I felt a little better. There was no cold draft and my neck hairs weren't prickly. I finished up my work orders without further incidence.

I shut the computer off and went to turn out the shop lights at the front end of the office. As I looked towards the switch I froze. Hovering before the light switch was a somewhat translucent skeletal figure.

What added to my fear and dismay was that this wasn't the first time that I had seen this figure. Or at least a figure very similar to this one. When I was about seven years old I lived in a house that was haunted. I routinely saw, felt, and heard supernatural beings.

The time I had seen this figure before was in my bedroom. I shared the bedroom with one of my sisters and my other sister had the adjacent room. The other room had no door, just an open doorway. Next to that doorway was the staircase heading downstairs. Between the staircase and the doorway was the light switch. This is where I first saw the ghost.

Standing in the workshop looking at the ghost gave me the same chills I'd felt as a child. I stood there petrified, looking at the specter. There were wispy patches of hair on its skull that were long enough to reach just past the neck in spots. The dark, hollow eye sockets were empty. It wore a tattered cloth with holes and tears in it. As its waist narrowed it began to trail off into nothing but tattered remnants of the cloth that covered its upper torso. It had no identifiable gender.

I knew from my previous experience with this apparition that it probably wouldn't hurt me. I couldn't be sure that it was the same one I'd seen as a child, but it looked so familiar that I couldn't help but think of it as the same one.

I knew that I needed to turn the light off for several reasons. The main reason the compelled me to take the first step towards the creature was that I didn't want to run out of the office in fear with my back towards it. Less important at the moment was that I wanted to confront my fears. Also, I didn't want to get lectured on Monday morning about leaving the lights on all weekend.

Before I took the first step though, I decided to try talking to it. "Hello," I called out weakly. Nothing happened.

Gaining courage from the ghost's inaction, I strode towards it and stopped arms length from it. I slowly reached my hand out towards the creature, and consequently, the light switch. As my fingers touched where the specter should have been it vanished. Exactly like my childhood apparition, this one too disappeared upon my touch.

Not wanting to stick around to see if it would come back I switched the light off. I turned around and jogged quickly through the office, shutting out the lights as I whizzed past the switches.

Things seemed to blur between the time I touched the specter and the time I arrived at my apartment. It felt so surreal.

I never told anyone about it, and I have never seen the ghost again. I'm not sure why it guards the light switches, but if I see it again I may be brave enough to ask.