It’s been two years, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. I keep hoping to hear something more about it, but at the same time it was so creepy I’m not sure I’d ever go back.

October 2003. I was listening to Q102 ^[1] and they were broadcasting live from 13 Floors. For those of you who truly like haunted houses at Halloween, this should be your one true destination. Each year, the 13 Floors group takes over a factory in Philadelphia or its outlying areas. The concept — there are 13 floors and each one is more terrifying than the one before it. It runs Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights in October. I’m not sure about the times.

It costs $25 to get in, but you are given your money back if you make it all the way through. I know of nobody who made it above floor 11. And they make you sign an agreement and a waiver before you can enter. The agreement, that you will not reveal its location, as the mystery of finding it each year is half the fun. The waiver, that you will not sue the group should you get hurt in the “abandoned” factory.

Personally, I made it to the eighth floor. There were mirrors all around, and it was so dark I could see nothing but my own shadows and a red “Exit” sign. Standing still in the room, I could feel a real and definitive presence there in that room that night. Watching me. Breathing down my neck. Running its fingers up my arm hairs.

It was so terrifying, and remains so to this day. Just now while writing this and remembering, I decided. I will never go back to that place again.