Somebody call Ghostbusters.

Earlier this week, I sat down with a good friend of mine to discuss an event that took place in the Butler stacks a few weeks ago. An event that could be described as nothing short of paranormal.

Or, if you want to be cynical about it, an even that could be described as being an overworked STEM student who doesn’t have time to sleep.

But I’d rather talk about ghosts.

Let me set the scene: it’s late at night during your busy week as a college student and you decide to get some work done in Butler, specifically the Butler stacks. From where you’re sitting in the stacks, you can hear everything, the dings from the elevators, the open and closing of doors, you hear it every time a person enters or exits the room.

It gets later and later in the night and soon you’re the only one left on the floor,

or so you think.

You’re a busy person and you have a lot of work to get done, so, naturally, you’re the last one in the library as the clock moves further and further into the early morning hours. You put your headphones in in an attempt to keep yourself awake to get the rest of your homework done.

All of a sudden, you see a figure round the corner towards where you’re sitting.

It’s a man you hadn’t heard come in.

He’s in dark clothes and the only truly discernable feature about him was his black hoodie. You try and look for some recognizable facial features underneath the black fabric but can’t see anything, all you see is a black shadow.

“I swear to God, he didn’t have a face. Underneath the hoodie was just like a shadow”

Thoroughly freaked out, you’re ready to pick up your stuff and leave when the shadowy figure finally notices you.

He seems shocked at your presence, like he wasn’t expecting you to be there.

“Oh shit” He says “sorry” and he hurries away.

At this point, you’re more intrigued then you are scared, and you take off your headphones and listen. You expect to hear the familiar sound of footsteps or elevator noises like you heard every other time a person was in the room with you, but all you hear is silence.

“I don’t hear any person moving, I don’t hear any doors opening, nothing”

You think to yourself that maybe the man hadn’t actually left, so you pick up your stuff and walk around, trying to find him. But you soon realize that you truly are the only person left on the floor. The shadowy stranger had somehow managed to slip away completely silently, something no one else had done in your time sitting there. He had simply disappeared without a trace.

So now I leave it up to you: was it a ghost? Was it a person? Was it just a shell of a student after walking out from their midterm?

We may never know. But what we do know is that even though this was a scary experience for my friend, rest assured that “nothing was as scary as seeing a condom in the stacks though.”

Ghosts via Bwarchives