Just outside of the town I live in, there is a massive densely wooded park that is largely forgotten. It’s not that people don’t know it is there, but it’s simply more of an afterthought. It’s not ideal for hiking, it doesn’t have any kid-friendly play areas, or even a pond to attempt fishing in. What it essentially amounts to is miles and miles of wooded area. But me and my college buddy Derrick had long known about something that lay deep within the park, and we had finally built up the courage- and resources- to explore it.
Derrick had always been into this type of thing since I met him a few years before at the start of college. Although we didn’t know each other for that long, we quickly became best friends, forming a connection like I’d never had with anyone before. Despite that, he was the type of person who would keep a lot of stuff buried deep. I never blamed him for it, as his usual coping mechanisms tended to be positive, such as going to the gym or writing. But when his sister had passed away a few months prior, I didn’t hear from him for a week. One day he finally returned my calls, and he had only one thing to say.
“Henderson Park, this summer. We are going to find it.”
At the beginning of the summer break, we began our hike. After a couple hours of trekking a route which we had planned and charted out for months, we finally made it to the spot. It was a clearing spanning a couple hundred meters in area, and once we made it past the last of the foliage, it didn’t take but a second to identify what we had come for. In the middle of this open patch lay a large building, abandoned to time and worn down by nature. But yet it stood, beckoning us to enter.
The abandoned structure of Henderson Park had been a legend in this town since I could remember. No one knows how it got there, or what it used to be. It was simply a massive building miles deep into the wilderness, with no documentation or history. I almost didn’t believe it was real, but we had found someone previously who had made a detailed map of the park. We decided if the structure was there, we were going to find it.
“There it is Sam. Glad to see we didn’t come all this way for nothing…”, Derrick said as we rested for a moment to catch our breath.
“You act as if we hadn’t done our research…”, I responded, secretly as relieved as he was.
There was always the possibility after all that the building had withered away, or that a small mistake in navigation would send us off the path. But, luckily, we had found our destination with relative ease. We took the moment to look up at it while we gathered our bearings, and documented it with some pictures. It stood tall with at least three floors, and had plenty of surface area. It appeared like it had been an old school or hospital of some sort based on its layout. Its exterior was a dark gray, tainted by the decay and moss creeping around it. Despite the wear and tear, there was a surprising lack of graffiti or any signs of human tampering.
“Well, you ready to see what’s in there?”, I said, breaking the silence.
Derrick turned to me, a look of worry appearing on his face..
“No, I think we should head back…”
He then flashed me a big grin, and began to make his way to the structure. I followed, trying to ignore his stupid joke. We made our way to the entrance doors, and noted that they appeared to be missing, the only remaining evidence being some scattered pieces of glass. I noted at this point that besides the obvious weathering over time, this building did not seem old at all. In fact, it was as if a building from the modern day had been left to the whims of nature for a century.
Before I could ponder this in too much detail, we continued inward, and quickly the darkness began to consume our vision. Derrick turned on his flashlight, illuminating the hallway directly in front of us. It was lined with abandoned lockers and debris, which covered most of the doorways. Most of the paths on this floor appeared to be blocked off, or just seemed a bit unstable due to damaged pillars and missing walls. We explored what little we could safely access, until finally coming upon a set of stairs that could either have taken us up to the second floor, or downwards towards what I assumed was a basement area. We wanted to start somewhere, and work our way through the building seamlessly. That inevitably left us with a decision- should we go upstairs, or explore the basement first? Finally Derrick spoke up.
“Dude, I think we should split up.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“How are we going to explore both at the same time, it’s the only way,” he insisted.
“Derrick I-”
“I’m kidding man… let’s start downstairs and we can work our way up,” Derrick said, descending the stairs before I could respond.
The stairs proved to be much deeper than we thought. What I assumed was going to take us one floor down felt more like a hundred. After walking down the stairs for what felt like ten minutes, I spoke up.
“Hey man, this is kind of ridiculous… how deep does this staircase go…”
“I don’t know Sam… it’s kind of freaking me out to be honest… but…”
I nodded in agreement. Derrick did seem to be getting genuinely concerned for the first time during this trip, but we were on the same page. We had to keep going at this point. Whether this staircase was bottomless, or a descent into hell itself, we were going to see the end of it. Luckily, it turned out to be neither of those things, because a few minutes later we hit the bottom.
“Well… good news is if one of us gets hurt, the other only needs to drag them up seventy flights of stairs,” Derrick joked, although the thought only made me uneasy.
The area we found ourselves in would probably be best compared to that of a subway tunnel. Well, without the actual train tracks. What lay before us was simply a long vacant tunnel with concrete walls and flooring, and no end in sight. I was beginning to feel like we were out of our depth here. However, I didn’t think to protest as Derrick began walking down into the tunnel. At least not until we began to hear something echoing deep within the tunnel. We immediately stopped dead in our tracks.
What sounded like a high pitch synth had begun ringing through the tunnel. The echoing was making me feel queasy as it reverberated through my body. It paused for a movement before resuming, every few seconds another tone ringing out like a beacon, progressively getting louder, and presumably closer. The sounds started to become ear piercing, and before I knew it I was on my knees holding my ears, barely withstanding the sharp ringing throughout my head. Just as I thought I was going to black out from the sheer intensity of it, the sound stopped in an instant.
I looked over to Derrick who was also recovering from the auditory assault. We both shared a glance and a nod. Our curiosity had seemingly run its course, and we started to quickly head back from the way we came. I was unsure of how to rationalize what just happened, but all I knew is that I would prefer not to experience whatever that was any closer. That’s when we heard something else from within the tunnel. The unmistakable sound of footsteps.
Our speedwalk quickly escalated into a jog, and then a run. Maybe it was just my imagination running wild, but I had some serious doubts that many other people were exploring this place, and especially wandering through this forsaken tunnel. And so we ran… and ran. We hadn’t been walking down the tunnel for more than a minute, There was no way we were that far away from the stairs. Yet again, it felt like we were in an endless loop with no end in sight. But then we found it. We stopped, and looked at the staircase as we caught our breath.
“So… “Derrick began, trying to form his thoughts.
I walked up to the foot of the stairs and put my hands on the large chunks of rubble that now blocked our only exit off. I didn’t even have the energy to freak out, or to scream. I slumped down, staring at the rubble as if my gaze alone could alter the grim reality we were faced with.
“That sound… it had to have caused something to collapse…” Derrick said, trying to rationalize the situation as if that would make things any better.
“Derrick… we are going to die down here,” I said weakly.
Before he could respond, we remembered why we were running. The footsteps were now within twenty feet of us, and we had nowhere to run. We both turned our gaze to the direction they were coming from. Whatever it was seemed to be hidden in the shadows, and neither of us wanted to see what was approaching. I could just barely make the outline of a shambling figure, moving erratically, and twitching violently with each step. We nodded to each other, seemingly on the same page that if we die here, we are gonna at least put up a fight. But after taking a deep breath, Derrick lifted his flashlight and pointed it towards the figure.
“E-Em…” Derrick was lost for words, as was I.
There stood Emily, Derrick’s sister. She appeared to be bruised and beaten, covered in scratches and wearing tattered clothing. But… Emily had died earlier that year. This didn’t make any sense why she would be alive, let alone here.
“Emily… I thought you were…” Derrick struggled to find words, as his tears began to well up.
Emily weakly smiled, clearly having been through hell. But something was wrong. She had stopped moving. She looked like she could barely stand. Her head was lowered, as if she couldn’t lift it. I tried to look into her eyes.
“Derrick…” she said weakly.
Derrick began to walk towards her, his arms open wide ready to embrace her. It all played out in slow motion, as he neared her. I didn’t have time to warn him. I didn’t have time to tell him to stop, as I noticed the hollow blackness of what should be her eyes. The hellish grin that she could hardly contain. She grabbed him, and met his gaze. I can’t get the image out of my head, of the look of terror on my best friend’s face as he looked into the abyss that were that creature’s eyes.
And then, she unhinged her jaw beyond the point of reason, latching onto Derrick as he began to scream. But he didn’t have the chance to make a sound as the creature closed its jaws over his head.
I ran. Without thinking, I left my friend to his fate, knowing full well he was already dead. I ran. And I kept running. I don’t know what I was thinking, or where I was running to. The synth began to reverberate throughout the tunnel, and the ear splitting ringing began to return, escalating until my body was numb and I couldn’t sense where I was.
I suddenly snapped back into consciousness, my head still ringing. I lay at the entrance of the structure. It was still bright outside. I sat up, trying to regain my senses. I had no idea what happened. I don’t know if I blacked out, and somehow found an exit, but that didn’t seem likely. I still had my bag with me, with water and food. I could make it back by night if I started hiking.
And that’s what I did. I reported Derrick missing and explained that we got split up on the hike. It’s not an uncommon thing for people to go missing on long treks through parks of this size, so it seemed reasonable. I haven’t mentioned the structure to anyone until now. But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. What if Derrick somehow survived? I feel like he is calling to me. I feel like I need to help him. I know I shouldn’t, but something is telling me to go back… to go back to the structure.
Credit: C. M. Seebold
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