Now mix that imaginative reflection on the hospital's history with some of the tall tales one of the veteran male staff might tell you as you sat there in the nursing station at 3am. One older Male Nurse told us stories of a patient who once levitated, of objects floating in the air and weird mysterious sounds. Sure, the skeptic in me sensed these frightful tales were spun in an attempt to shake my youthful confidence, so I contemplated each one's plausibility. What these homespun stories did do, though, was activate my own sense of curiosity about the areas and wards of the hospital that we young orderlies had been told about, but never took the opportunity to seek out.
One night, after being prompted by thoughts of the "stories", I decided to go explore the old, unused ward S-15. It was early in the morning, around 3am, and instead of taking my usual hour nap on an empty bed or mattress on the floor of an empty TQ room (which, itself, was always an odd, creepy thing to do now that I think about it), I told the Nurse on duty I was going to the all night cafeteria for something to eat and pretended to leave the premises via the far hallway through a secret stairwell that spiralled downward two floors, like a helter skelter, to the tunnel below. When I knew I was out of the Nurses' sightline, I went a little further down the hallway to go exploring in the far Southern wing of the Old North Building. This wing, formerly known as S-15 and closed down since the early 70s, was only accessible through a double locked door situated in a small TV lounge room at the very southernmost point in the hallway of S-16. I had seen these doors many times before and, on occasion, opened the first one but my sense of right & wrong always seemed to back me away from opening the second door. Not this time, though. I unlocked the second door, and in front of my eyes in the dark was something like a scene from a ghost story in a mental institution.
The lights, long since turned off, served no purpose this night for I did not want to chance someone seeing the lights "on" in this abandoned section of the Hospital. Besides, I had no flashlight since the only one available to me was required to remain at the nursing station. The only light that was of any use were the sectioned off filtered streams of moonlight gleaming through the curtain-less windows of the rooms on one side of the hallway. It was almost as if some unknown security force had their spotlights fixed on this forbidden wing of the hospital, purposefully on the hunt for perpetrators of any sort. This only intensified the scary reality of what of what I was seeing & doing at the moment. Guilt entered my conscience as I moved forward. At once, a mouse scurried away from me, the intruder, along the edge of the wall. The "willies" just entered my body and a chill came over me.
Next, I noticed was the tremendous amount of dust everywhere. Each footstep brought life to millions of particles that, mere seconds before, had remained undisturbed for years. There were cobwebs stretching from the walls to the ceilings and over each archway to the bedrooms and lounge rooms. S-15 was evolving into the nightmarish place I had depicted in my mind previous to entering. As I slowly walked down the first hallway, I also recognized that this former ward was designed exactly as S-16 and the same size in length, too. My cautious and gingerly snooping would seemingly last forever because of the lack of light, the cobwebs dissolving into a sticky sweat trickling down my cheeks and my own heartbeat which I could clearly hear . It was so quiet at 3am in this deserted ward. I could only tell myself there was no going back. I was determined to go all the way down to the end and look into as many rooms as I could. The eerie thoughts that precipitated each footstep only fuelled my adrenalin.
I poked my head into the bedrooms of former inmates and mostly saw unused and broken beds and bedside stands. Some beds stood erect, motionless and naked with no mattress, while others had just a mattress with no sheets adorning them. The dust continued to rise when I opened doors, splashing an unsettling sediment into my eyes and face when I least expected it. As I peered into the bedrooms I thought about "who" was once hear and for how long? I turned my attention to the nearest TV lounge room and ventured forth in the near darkness. As I turned to the right, I immediately became entangled in a cobweb that spanned near four feet wide. My growing distaste for cobwebs, that night, had me flailing my arms desperately trying to free myself of the spider's trap. Yuck, it was in my hair, my mouth, my face, my hands, my clothes! As I tried to move away from the web, suddenly a harsh light moved across the window of the TV lounge. The thought of the imaginary security force entered my head again, but I quickly determined it was just a car driving through the compound of the hospital and settled my thoughts. Between the giant cobweb I battled with only moments ago and the sudden appearance of the unknown headlights, my heart was beating faster and harder than ever. I decided to leave the TV room and go back down the second hallway.
I passed the former nursing station with its empty chairs, drawers and cupboards. None of the usual business in this outpost. No longer transient with its staff and patients, the former nursing station was just a forgotten and desolate part of a hospital's past. Nothing to see in here.
As I mentioned, S-15 was a exact duplicate of my ward S-16, so I as I passed the nursing station I knew I was now entering the 2nd wing of S-15. Like S-16, this hallway started at the end of the middle adjoining hallway and was mostly bedrooms and TQ rooms. Some of the TQ rooms had the doors left wide open with just a barren floor visible. Each room had its' own eternal gloominess, as I thought of former patients incarcerated behind the thick oak doors and peering helplessly through the 5"x5" windows on the TQ door.
Slowly, I continued my exploration in the final hallway of the forgotten S-15 Ward. Eventually, I made my way to the very end of the hallway, where two large bedrooms were located across from each other. Each of these bedrooms originally housed 6-8 patients, but now remained empty and uninhabited. The beds were still in the their final resting positions, as some stood scattered unaligned and some lined up aside one another. It was like there had been a mass exodus at some time in the past and everyone had fled for their lives.
My heart was still racing but not as much as when I had entered S-15. In fact, as I wound down my hour of exploratory fun, I thought to myself, how much of a disappointment the venture had actually been. With that conclusion in my head, I proceeded to retrace my steps and leave S-15 for good. I had seen enough and had to be back on duty in S-16. I was almost at the end of the second hallway, when I heard it. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Every movement of my body froze. Each muscle simply ceased action. I felt thousands, no...make that a million, goosebumps rising on my neck, arms and legs. I was instantly terrified from head to toe. I waited for a moment, trying to determine just exactly what made that loud sound. I wondered if anyone else heard it. It was incredibly loud. It sounded exactly what an empty metal hospital bed frame might sound like if someone picked up one end of it and slammed it back down on the linoleum floor 4 times. I was sure that was what it sounded like.
My mind raced faster than it ever had (at least since the time I once ran from the cops when I was 16 years old). That "Bang-Crash" neither sounded like it came from S-16 far behind me nor from the Wards above or below. That huge crashing metal sound came from S-15. I was so certain, yet so scared, but my curiosity would get the better of me. I started to walk back down the deserted hallway in the direction of the final 2 bedrooms. I was convinced that the banging bed sound had emanated from either of those two bedrooms. Almost 15 seconds had passed since I first heard that horrible metallic sound. I was now about 20 feet away from the far bedrooms. As I approached the bedrooms, slowly with no flashlight, suddenly once again my nerves shattered. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
My being so close to the bedroom and that the sound was more closely audible to my ears, I was now completely convinced. That frightening clash of metal on floor had come from the room just a mere 10 feet away. I wanted to run away...fast. Yet, I couldn't bring myself to leave without peeking into the room for one final investigative look. I dreaded my decision and sweated with anticipation of what might be lurking in that room. I kept telling myself, I had previously looked in that room and saw no one. However, my mind was countering that thought with what I had just heard. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! It was a distinct sound and it clearly came from within this room. I clung onto every ounce of courage in my body. I just had to look in that room again, no matter what. I imagined seeing the ghost like apparition of a former mental patient standing there. With fear gripping my body's movements, I cautiously brought my head around the edge of the doorway and looked into the room. Then it happened. The next sound I heard was the slow, grating, scraping sound of someone dragging a metal bed across the floor. Right there in the room I was looking in, the sound just got louder. Then again from behind me in the other room - BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Then...more of the scraping sounds began to roll out into the hallways from other rooms. These excruciating metallic sounds now surrounded me. I had seen and heard enough. I ran down the 2nd hallway, bringing up more dust into the air. I rounded the corner leading to the first hallway of S-15 and again, I was greeted by a network of cobwebs strung across the hallway. My heart was racing too fast for my liking. I was mortally terrified. After what may have seemed like minutes, but took only mere seconds, I finally got back to the double entrance doors, leading back into more comfortable and familiar grounds. My hands fumbled in my pants' front pockets in search of the old latch key required to open each door. I could not find the key and I began to panic. I felt trapped. Quickly, my mind raced again as I wondered if I had dropped it somewhere at the end hallway of S-15. Finally, I found my key in my back pocket and frantically opened both doors. As I opened the first of the two doors, I heard it again - BANG! BANG! BANG!
When I heard that sound again, I was now more terrified than any moment preceding. I imagined the ghost creature(s) had followed me and was now getting closer. I wanted to scream.
Shit! This second door was taking to long to open. The sweat running down my face just accelerated. I swore again quietly to myself and then, at last, the second door opened. I quickly exited, closed and locked the double doors to S-15. For a moment, I stood there still frozen all over. I felt the chill in my body linger, prompting more goosebumps to surface on my skin. My breathing was rapid, as was my heart rate. I could still hear my heart beating over my slow, deep breaths. The sweat continued to roll down the sides of my head and into my eyes. As I listened every so closely through the double doors. I tried to wipe the sweat away from my eyes and they just stung. Nothing. No more sounds. In fact, the surrounding quietness was creepier than ever now. What had I just heard? What had I just witnessed? I wondered if I was now going crazy. I know I heard something, but, in the end saw nothing. I questioned my skepticism of paranormal activity. I was now convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt.
By now it was 4am and I returned to the nursing station. The nurse looked at me in a somewhat quizzical manner. I wondered if she had heard anything. She acted like nothing had happened.
I just sat there and looked at the clock in the office. I had 2 hours left until my shift ended and I sighed - all I wanted was to go home. I couldn't stop thinking about those sounds of the "Bed Banging" on the floor, way back there in S-15. I knew I wasn't going mad, but still I wondered. I have never stopped wondering about those frightful sounds I heard that night. I have never stopped thinking about those "Ghosts" of S-15.
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