Courthouse “The Dark Hallway”
There is a hallway that runs under the Wellington Street Municipal Courthouse. Because of the advent of computers and the internet most employees never encounter the hallway at all, as most of the recent records have either been stored or translated into computer documents. However, some of the earliest history of Wellington Street is stored under the building, and many of these records have not seen the light of day in decades.
Because of its infrequent use, there have been spans of months and sometimes years in which all knowledge of the place has disappeared. At some point though, the hallway is discovered again, but within a short amount of time the rumors begin to surface once more. Some of the earliest accounts of strange happenings in the courthouse date back to the early 1800's, around the time when the courthouse was originally established.
The reports from that time are sketchy at best, and many of those records have either been lost or badly damaged. A lot of this stems from water damage that has occurred over the years through a leak in the foundation. Numerous times people have been sent in to investigate the cause of the leak, but no source has ever been found.
Despite these conflicting reports, it is often recounted that there is always standing water of at least one inch in several locations of the hallway leading to the records room. This eventually caused the movement of the records onto large wooden pallets set half a foot above the ground, as well as an installation of a sump pump. Since these measures have been taken no further damage to the records have occurred, though standing water is still a common occurrence.
The condition of the records is partially an assumption, as the last full investigation of the files occurred fifty years ago. After its completion, many of those involved in the project submitted their two weeks’ notice.
Only one light bulb illuminates the hallway, the other light fixtures refusing any attempts at being fixed or replaced. People claim that when they travel down the hall they hear the sound of someone breathing coming from behind them. It is said that the longer they linger in the hall, the stronger the breathing becomes, until eventually it stops sounding like breathing and instead begins to sound like words.
For security reasons, the original layout of the basement included heavy doors at the beginning and the end of the hallway. This is no longer the case, and they are currently serving as the front doors of the courthouse. The reason for their removal was an incident that occurred over a hundred years ago. The only account of the occurrence comes from a report that was filed with the local police. According to the report, a male clerk was sent down to retrieve some records on one of the old buildings for a property dispute. It was near the end of the day, and according to the report it was his responsibility to close up for the night.
Later that night, a local officer was making their rounds and found that the front door was still unlocked. They entered, but found the upper floors vacant, and so headed downstairs to the basement. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, the officer claims that they heard sound of heavy breathing emanating from the hallway. They opened the first door, which was surprisingly unlocked, and found the clerk huddled in a corner at the end of the hall.
The officer identified themselves and requested the clerk do the same. Upon getting no response the officer headed towards the end of the hall. When he was a couple of feet away, the man began to speak rapidly, but the officer was unable to discern what was being said. The tone was barely above a whisper at first, but gradually grew in volume until the man was screaming at him. Even with the increase in volume, the officer was unable to understand him, and was only able to make out a long stream of random numbers. The officer then ran off to get backup. However, though this required little time, by the time he returned the man was dead. His death was labeled as a heart attack.
Curiously, it seems that the man had made real attempts to escape. There were dent in the wood, along with bruising on his shoulder and palm, which suggest he tried to break the door down. This is especially strange as the keys to the door were on his person. He had also resorted to trying and claw his way out, as several of his fingernails had broken off. Surprisingly not all of them were found initially, and it was not until an autopsy was performed that the majority of the nails were found in his stomach. Even with this in mind, several of the fingernails were not located right away, the last of which managed to avoid discovery for nearly five years.
The doors were removed shortly after the incident and were re-purposed for the front doors. Although a great amount of work went into sanding and resurfacing them, to this day a close inspection will reveal the dents in the wood, along with the ragged claw marks. Such a detail you would expect would cause them to be replaced, but since very few people are even aware of the initial purpose of the doors this has not been an issue. To this day very few people venture down into the basement to retrieve documents. When they do, they come running up the stairs, seemingly reacting to a childlike fear that something is chasing them.
