Shivering Mechanics cont...
Should I explain that I lived in a two bedroom flat above a Car Main Dealership built on the site of an old monastery, brewery, graveyard and other previous buildings, the use of which had been lost in history? I don't suppose it matters much but it is important to know that it was now a large rambling showroom, workshop and service bay conected by a narrow passage with a tin roof.
To set the scene, I will tell you the place was haunted, not 'might have' been haunted, or 'I thought' it was haunted, but it was indeed haunted. The place covered many old sites and the hauntings around the place were as follows:
Service Bay, giving access to the building at the rear by massive roll back wooden doors big enough to let a tank in! This place was haunted by a woman who often appeared to float across the area, deadly white, as any ghost in a story should. Apart from her scaring the hell out of a colleague one night I had no communication with her but felt that she was a nun from a previous monastery built on the site.
Connecting Tunnel (corridor really, but always called the tunnel), this connected the Service bay to the garage workshop and had a corrugated metal roof. Lovely place to be at night, and sometimes also at daytime. The children used to play in this area (and on the roof) and were always a happy bunch. Late at night you could hear them playing and laughing. I felt that this must have been an orphanage and the sense of fun and playfulness was uplifting in this area. (Used to worry the daytime mechanics when they played on the tin roof as they could hear them but not see them though!)
Workshop and Stores area; Deep monastery area this, the overwhelming sense of serenity that flooded into you here, even in the daytime was amazing.
Upstairs, New Car Preparation, (connected by car lift and stairs); Not for the squeamish, this place terrified me. The sense of evil here made my hair stand on end! I was also caretaker but would not go up those stairs even if the alarms went off at night. (except once, but that's later in this story.)
Car Showrooms, not nice but bearable, this was below the new car preperation department and my gut feelings said this area was an old prison of sorts. Things used to look at you, but disapeared when confronted.
Well welcome to my world, or should I say theirs. In order not to bore you I will relate only one event of many that may make you think, and has left me doubting my sanity since. I used to do 'foreigners' in the garage at night (well a guy has to feed his family). I also looked after the premises at night as I was the resident motor mechanic, but to get on...
One night while I was working on a 'friends' car at night I heard the car lift start up at the other end of the workshop and start to go to the top floor. Now I was supposed to be told if any of the managers were in so I thought this strange, and anyhow I had not turned off the alarms. The car lift was an old fashioned lift with concertina doors and an open front.
I raced around to the lift and hit the stop switch, but it did not stop and carried on up. I heard somebody in the lift at the top. I immediately raced up the stairs (yes.. heat of the moment, it was like running into hell.) When I got to the top of the stairs the door was locked but I could hear somebody inside the upper workshop. (The lift came out inside the upper workshop and you had to get through that door to enter). I raced back down the stairs and the lift was descending.... I beat it down. It was empty and I looked up to throw the master electricity switch to lock the intruders in the upstairs workshop before I called the police.
Then reality struck me like a brick. The master electricity switch was turned off (a firemans switch) and a chain and padlock secured the lift gates! Try as I might the lift would not respond to the buttons, it was certainly not an electrical problem!
The demons had made me go up those stairs, I thank God I had not had the key on me to the upstairs workshop!
I returned to the serenity of my place in the order of things, and continued to work on my 'friends’ car... Well a fellow has to earn an honest(?) crumb, doesn't he?
Sweet Dreams,
Ivor