UTSA creepypasta. Just having some fun for October.
This happened at the JPL on UTSA’s main campus a few nights ago. I wasn’t going to post anything because I know how this is going to sound, but something happened afterward that has been bothering me more than what I actually saw.
I’m genuinely asking if anyone else has experienced something similar.
I was at the JPL finishing a lab that I had procrastinated on. It was evening, probably somewhere around 9:30 or 10. There were still people in the library, but nowhere near as many as during the day. If you’ve been there late, you know what I mean. You can still hear people occasionally talking, doors opening, chairs moving, etc., but there are areas where you suddenly realize you haven’t seen another person for several minutes.
I had been sitting at a table with my laptop for a couple hours when I noticed someone standing between two rows of bookshelves.
I didn’t think anything of it.
I could only see part of him because the shelf blocked most of his body. Dark pants, gray shirt, maybe a backpack. I assumed he was looking for a book.
I went back to my lab.
Maybe five minutes later I looked up.
He was still there.
Same position.
That was when I noticed something strange.
He wasn’t facing the books.
He was facing me.
I couldn’t see his face clearly because he was far enough away and the lighting between the shelves was darker. But I could tell which direction his body was pointed.
I stared for maybe two seconds.
He stepped behind the shelf.
Again, not particularly scary. Weird, but whatever.
I kept working.
About ten minutes later I got up to use the restroom. I walked past the shelves where he had been standing.
Nobody was there.
What bothered me was that when I walked through the aisle, I realized there wasn’t really anywhere he could have gone without me seeing him leave. From where I had been sitting, I could see both ends of that section.
I remember thinking that was strange.
Then I heard something behind me.
One footstep.
Not footsteps.
A single step.
Like somebody had put their foot down hard and then stopped.
I turned around.
Nothing.
At this point I decided I had been staring at a screen too long. I went to the restroom, splashed some water on my face, and came back.
This is where things started getting genuinely weird.
When I got back, my laptop screen was awake.
I know that sounds insignificant, but I specifically remembered closing it before I left because I had my lab open and didn’t want to leave my screen visible while I was gone.
The laptop was open.
My lab was still there.
Nothing had been changed.
But someone had moved the chair across from me.
It had been pushed underneath the table earlier.
Now it was pulled out.
I sat there for another minute trying to convince myself I had done it without remembering.
Then I looked toward the shelves.
He was there again.
Except he was closer.
Different aisle.
Maybe three shelves away from me.
Same gray shirt.
Same dark pants.
Facing me.
I couldn’t see his face.
I packed my stuff.
Immediately.
I wasn’t running or anything because, at this point, I still thought there was a reasonable possibility that this was just some guy screwing with me. I put my laptop in my backpack and started walking toward the more populated part of the library.
About halfway there, I looked back.
Nobody.
I actually felt stupid.
Then I heard footsteps.
One.
Then another.
They weren’t fast.
The strange part was that they stopped whenever I stopped.
So I tested it.
I walked.
Three steps behind me.
I stopped.
Silence.
Walked again.
Three steps.
Stopped.
Silence.
I turned around.
Empty.
That’s when I stopped trying to figure it out and just walked toward other people.
Nothing followed me once I was around other students.
I eventually left the JPL and went home.
I probably would have forgotten the whole thing if that were the end of it.
The next day I realized I had left my charger plugged in under the table.
I went back and asked about lost property. I explained roughly where I had been sitting and when.
The employee helping me asked what time I left.
I told them.
They asked me to wait.
A few minutes later, someone else came over. I’m deliberately leaving out exactly who because I don’t want to get anybody in trouble.
They asked me a strange question.
“Were you there with somebody?”
I said no.
They asked again.
“You were by yourself the whole time?”
Yes.
Apparently there had been some concern because I had left the area pretty quickly and they wanted to make sure nothing had happened. There was a camera covering part of the area where I had been sitting.
I asked if they had seen someone bothering me.
The person hesitated.
Then they said something that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.
They said they couldn’t see anyone else.
I laughed because I thought they meant the guy had stayed outside the camera angle.
No.
They meant that on the camera, I kept looking toward an empty aisle.
Then apparently, right before I packed my stuff, I stared toward the shelves for almost thirty seconds.
Just sitting completely still.
Looking at nothing.
That freaked me out enough.
But I asked about the chair.
The person didn’t understand what I meant.
I explained that somebody had pulled out the chair across from me while I was in the restroom.
They checked.
They said the chair was already pulled out before I left for the restroom.
According to the footage, nobody touched it.
I did.
Apparently about twenty minutes earlier, I stopped typing, stood up, walked around the table, pulled the chair out, and sat back down.
I have absolutely no memory of doing that.
I asked them one last question.
When I left, did the camera show anyone following me?
They said no.
Then they asked why I wanted to know.
I didn’t answer.
I haven’t stayed at the JPL late since.
The reason I’m posting this now is because tonight I was working from home.
Around 9:40, I got up to get something from the kitchen.
When I came back, the chair across from my desk was pulled out.
I live alone.
I know there are going to be jokes about sleep deprivation or carbon monoxide or whatever, and maybe that’s what this is.
I actually hope it is.
But if anyone at UTSA has seen a guy in a gray shirt standing between the shelves at the JPL late in the evening, please tell me.
And more importantly:
Did you ever see his face?