Part 1

Because I love weaving a tale. Happy Halloween.

The building had been abandoned for years. Closed in the late 70's it had sat there for years gathering dust, mildew, and water damage. It was sealed off with cinder block covering all the entrance ways. No one could get in as far as we knew. The outside of the building had become a dumping ground for tires and garbage while becoming so grossly overgrown with weeds that the perimeter resembled a literal jungle.

We played baseball in the building's parking lot for years. It was empty and with no owners around we had built ourselves a pretty good ballfield complete with milkcrate benches and an outfield wall built out of stacked car tires in front of the north facing wall of the building. Between the tire outfield wall and the building there was a trench about 15 feet deep. In it garbage and and plants dominated. The only time anyone ever went into the trench was when a ball was knocked into there.

"Crack!" and off of the bat went the ball flying straight for the trench beyond the tire wall. Seeing how that was the only ball we had that day somebody had to go into the trench to retrieve it. I volunteered. Being the 2nd oldest kid there at 14 I hopped down the wall and went in hunt of the ball. Bashing weeds aside with my baseball bat I came up next to the building and found the ball. Looking up to throw it out I spotted something. Up the side of the building about 10 feet up was an airshaft wide open and big enough for someone to stand in. "Hey guys come here, look what I found" I shouted and soon enough me and my buddies were all in the trench building a pile of debris with which to gain access to the airshaft. Crudely constructed out of wooden skids, cinder blocks, and of course more car tires we climbed into the airshaft and discovered that there was a door inside. Try as we might we couldn't get the door to open. So we all piled out of the airshaft and went home for the day to plan how we were going to get inside that building.

The next day we showed up to the parking lot not with baseballs and bats but with crowbars and hack saws. Right into the airshaft 2 of us went while the others kept watch up above on the baseball field and in the trench below. With some effort we were able to open the hatch inside of the shaft and called everyone up. As we looked inside an incredible stench greeted us and it was jet black inside. Without a flashlight to see inside with we decided to stick a cinder block against the hatch door to keep it open while we all agreed to go home and meet back at the field in an hour equipped with gear to go exploring inside the building. Like rats we scattered into the neighborhood.

An hour later we had all returned eager to start wandering through the building. We were equipped with everything a kid needs to go exploring. Bubble gum, flashlights, clothesline for rope, and of course soda and chips for when we needed a meal. All geared up and flashlights at the ready we headed into the dark abyss of the building and turned on our flashlights to reveal something we had never expected.

To be continued tonight.... Happy Halloween.