Forever Watching

by Drachen
(Wheeling, IL)

Growing up, ghost stories were usually a Halloween or stormy night thing. Little did I know my first summer job would involve an encounter with a true ghost story I'd never forget.

The story begins in my hometown in October 2005. A public works employee had been doing some maintenance work on some pipes in the basement of the South pumping station. The air mask he'd been wearing malfunctioned, and carbon monoxide seeped in. By the time the paramedics got to him and got him to the hospital, he had died.

Shortly after his death, the other public works employees refused to go into the basement alone or with one or two other people. When I started my summer job, I didn't know why. I didn't even know anything about the dead employee until I went to the South pumping station for the first time. That's when the story was told to me.

I was even shown the exact spot where the employee supposedly died. The air conditioning was on full blast, but the spot where the employee died was colder than anywhere else in the building or in the basement. As I finished my work around the building, I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched, even though there was no one there when I turned and looked to the spot where I felt the thing or person watching me was.

If it is a ghost, I don't think it means any harm. It just wants to watch over any visitors and make sure an accident like what happened to him doesn't happen to anyone else.

This October will mark the 6th anniversary of the employee's death.