The Morgue Guard, a horror story.
Short Story : The Morgue Guard.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark ( Horror Story)
By Prabir Rai Chaudhuri . All Copyright Reserved 2020
I have worked in security all my life, and like many people, I lost my job at the start of the COVID pandemic because the security company I worked for had to cut staff as several offices that provided that service closed.
It was a difficult time, my wife who is a housewife started selling desserts to the neighbors with the help of my youngest daughter and fortunately my eldest daughter was working from home.
The fact is that I was unemployed for a couple of months until a colleague from the company where I previously worked called me to tell me that there was a place where they were looking for security guards.
It was an institute dedicated to forensic medicine, I won't say the name but I know that in every country there is an entity in charge of that, of carrying out investigations and autopsies for cases in which the law requires it, perhaps at another time in my life I would have thought about it more carefully but due to the situation I did not hesitate to apply to work there, you had to fill out an online application and then attend the job interview, fortunately I got the job, as did my partner.
The first few weeks were more about getting to know the place, learning about the work dynamics, the shifts that rotated one week at night and one week during the day. It was a fairly large institution, with several offices and laboratories. At first, the place seemed a bit strange to me, especially the area where the morgue was or the morgues, as they called them there.
It wasn't long before my old colleagues started talking about the strange things that had happened in that place, whether it had happened to them or someone else, they said that sometimes they saw ghosts, like people lost in the corridors that led to the morgue, or sometimes they heard moans, especially during night shifts, the truth is that I have never been very superstitious, although I have respect for the afterlife, I think it is with the living that one must be more careful, even today I still think that way, despite what I myself experienced in the morgue.
On one of my first night shifts while I was doing my rounds I passed the crime lab, it was closed but I could see through the big windows from outside and anyway the whole place has closed circuit video, just as I finished passing by I thought I heard footsteps, I went back to look closely but there was no one there, I continued on my way without paying much attention to what had happened, then I heard one of my coworkers call me on the radio to go to the security post, he seemed a little upset so I asked if there was a problem, to which he replied no but that he needed to show me something.
When I arrived I noticed that my partner looked worried. He asked me to sit down because he wanted to show me something that had been recorded on the cameras. I looked at the monitor and saw myself walking next to the laboratory.
Suddenly a small interference appeared that prevented me from seeing the video for a couple of seconds and then I saw the moment when I thought I heard something. I was left looking at my partner without understanding what the problem with the recording was.
He stood there paralyzed for a few moments, until he told me that he was sure he had seen a kind of shadow behind me when I had passed by the laboratory. He was sure that I had felt it because it was just after the shadow passed that I went back to check the place for the second time.
I told him that I had gone back to check because I thought I had heard footsteps, but I had not seen anyone there, and there was nothing strange in the video apart from the interference. At that moment, our other co-worker arrived, since the company always kept three guards for each shift. We told him what had happened and he, who had been in that job for almost a year, told us that this type of thing happened often in that place. Strange noises were heard and there were even those who claimed to have seen the dead in the morgue moving and walking through the corridors, but nothing really serious had ever happened.
Time passed and after about a month of working there, my youngest daughter turned fifteen. Due to the pandemic we decided that it was best to postpone the party, but we still had a small gathering with the closest family on a Saturday night. That week I had had the day shift but on Sunday I was supposed to start the night shift. I thought I would have enough time to rest, but the truth is that it wasn't like that. However, I already had many years of experience at work and I knew how to deal with fatigue, and it wasn't something I was used to doing.
That night I went to work as usual, when it was time to do the rounds, my two colleagues left and I stayed watching the security cameras, I began to feel very tired, luckily we had coffee at the workplace, I had a cup and made an effort to stay awake.
At that moment I regretted not having gone to do the midnight round myself, I continued watching the cameras, everything seemed very calm, suddenly my eyelids began to feel heavy, my eyes were closing, I couldn't help but fall asleep, I felt like no more than a few minutes had passed when I opened my eyes startled.
It was dark, I couldn't see anything, I took the flashlight I had in my vest and turned it on, I tried to look around me, I felt disoriented, I noticed it was very cold, colder than it was outside, that's when I realized where I was.
I saw the refrigerators and the metal tables where the forensic experts were doing the procedures. I was inside the morgue but I had no idea how I had ended up in that place. I could see that on one of the tables there was a body covered in plastic. I felt a chill; the place had a very strong smell, like chemicals.
As I could, I approached the door to get out of there, but it was closed. I tried to remain calm, I even thought that maybe my companions were playing a joke on me, but I didn't believe them capable of that. Then I heard a noise coming from the other side of the room. I shined my light towards the place where the metal table was.
Then I saw the same body covered by the plastic but it was sitting and a second later it fell lying down on the table again, I was startled, I tried to look for the light switch until I managed to turn it on, everything seemed normal, the body was on the table and it didn't seem to have moved, I tried again to turn the door knob to get out of that place, but it seemed to be locked, I felt like the cold could go through my bones.
I was desperate to get out of there, I grabbed my radio and started calling my colleagues, one of them answered but the signal was interrupted, I tried to tell him that I was trapped inside the morgue and at first I didn't know if he had managed to understand me, I had to wait a little longer until I heard some footsteps approaching from the other side of the door, it was one of my colleagues who somehow had no problem opening the door.
He asked me why I was there and told me that just a few minutes ago he had seen me at the security post. I had no choice but to tell him the truth, that tiredness had gotten the better of me, that I had fallen asleep for a few moments and had woken up inside the morgue and although at first I doubted it, I ended up telling him that I thought I had seen one of the dead people move.
I noticed that he was a little scared, he told me that while he finished the round on that floor I should go check the CCTV monitors, after all it was not advisable to leave them alone for so long, he said to wait for him so we could see the videos from the cameras and thus we would know exactly what had happened.
I waited for my partner to watch the recording, it showed the moment when I was left alone and was beginning to fall asleep, but then something strange happened, it seemed like I had fallen asleep and suddenly my body would shake for moments, then I would get up from the chair and look towards the corridor that led to the morgue , I would start to walk and then I would stop, it was as if I was talking to someone, but there was no one there, I continued walking but in a strange way, dragging my feet and with my head looking towards the ground, I continued walking until I entered the morgue and a few moments later my partner appeared.
It was very strange because I didn't remember anything of what we were seeing in the recording and it was obvious that I was acting strangely. My colleague had been working there for a lot longer. He told me that strange things happened there from time to time. It was best that we forget what had happened and from that day on we had to be more careful during the night shifts.
In the following days I was more alert than ever, I felt that at any moment some strange event could happen again, even when I was at home, sometimes when I was at work and walked through the corridors that led to the morgue, I thought I heard sounds of chairs being dragged, I can't say that I ended up getting used to this but over time it became part of my work routine.
Copyright © 2020 Prabir Rai Chaudhuri
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horror stories