Lighthouse Horror Podcast - I Used To Be A Night Watchman On A Wind Farm. What I Saw There Haunts Me | Scary Stories

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

I'll never forget what I saw...  Story from Horror_writer_1717 Make sure to check out more of their work at u/Horror_writer_1717                          Original Post: I used to be a night watchman at a wind farm. What I saw there still haunts me. : r/nosleep                           Original YouTube link: I Used To Be A Night Watchman On A Wind Farm. What I Saw There Haunts Me       For more stories like this one, check out my YouTube channel: Lighthouse Horror | YouTube  Patreon: Lighthouse Horror | Patreon Merch: lighthousehorror.com  Sound Effects: Freesound Zapsplat  Music: Lucas King - YouTube Myuu - YouTube  Incompetech Thank you for listening to this scary story! If you enjoyed this new creepypasta story, please check out some of my other horror stories. We'll be uploading new episodes every day, featuring ghost stories, haunted encounters, mysteries, true stories, creepypasta, and anything supernatural and paranormal. Don't miss out on the thrill and suspense that await you in each episode!

I used to love my job. I was a watchman at a wind farm. All I had to do was make rounds a few times a night to make sure no one was messing with the wind turbines. I would read a lot of books. And eventually, if I got bored, I'd bring my portable DVD player and watch movies all night. The only thing that broke up the time was the patrols. I'd arrive every night around 9 p.m. and get relieved by the day shift at 9 a.m. There wasn't

There wasn't much to it. I'd pull up beside the watchman I was relieving. We'd exchange pleasantries. He'd tell me if anything went on during the day, and then he'd be on his way. I don't remember him ever telling me more than seeing some deer or maybe a bear. There were a dozen windmill stretching out over five miles, each connected by a dirt road. When I first started working for this company, I'd get out and check the locks on the access door to each windmill.

After five years, I'd drive by and barely glance at the things. Most times I'd still be watching my movie or show while I'm driving. Not a whole lot of traffic on that dirt road. I drove into a ditch only once, but I got the car out with minimal difficulty. The worst part about that was the embarrassment. One evening, I was in a hurry and running late. I jumped in the car and flew to the work side with something nagging in the back of my mind. I made it just in time.

I got my report and settled into my routine. I did my first round with no problem. Twilight had just faded, leaving the world diving into nighttime darkness. Clouds had been forming all evening, and I saw a flock of turkeys crossed my path near one of the fields. That meant it was going to storm. My first round through was a breeze. Nothing was happening.

I didn't even see animals that I'd usually see, except for the turkeys. Maybe since it was going to storm, the other animals were going to storm. were battening down the hatches and settling in wherever they were. The drive around the five-mile dirt road circle took around 30 minutes. They don't like us going very fast, and technically we're supposed to check the door on each wind turbine. I and the other drivers have it timed, so that it looks like we checked. I got back to the main building a little after 9.30. I pulled out my portable DVD player and started watching Die Hard. Of course, I fell asleep. I went woke to credits rolling.

Oh, shit, I said, remembering my missed round. I threw the car in gear, and I flew off towards the wind turbines. It was right then that I remembered what I'd forgotten. The flashing light announced low fuel. I cursed myself for forgetting to fill it up yesterday on the way home. This is my second round, I thought. I should have enough to make it through the rest of the night and get to a gas station. This was the thought I clung to the rest of the night.

My second round was uneventful. My eyes were constantly drawn to the fuel gauge, but there was nothing I could do about it. Once you're in for the night, you had to stay. If they caught you driving off the job, you are fired. I didn't want to lose such a gravy job, so I stayed put. Although there were a couple of times I considered a quick two-mile trip to the gas station. The problem was my boss. He was a bit of a prick and liked to pull surprise inspections at all hours of the night.

He liked to pretend he was being a nice guy and showing up to see if I needed anything. But I knew why he was really there. If he showed up tonight, I would ask for a couple of gallons of gas. Maybe that would solve my problem and keep him from inspecting as often. Partway through my second movie, Die Hard 2, of course, I went for my next round. It had just started to rain, making my windows fog up, and my defroster wasn't working the best. By the time I went for my fourth round, the weather had made a decision to switch from mildly annoying rain, to grab the animals and head for the ark.

It was raining so hard I could barely see in front of me. I drove at crawling speed. The rain had worn ruts in the road. In some of the lower depressions, there were puddles across the entire road. I was glad I was driving a Jeep. I got right in the middle of one of the giant puddles when my engine gave out. I cranked and I cranked, but it was no use. I was out of gas.

I was never going to live this down. I could hear it now. Five years from now the other guy would be telling the story about the moron who ran out of gas in the middle of a rainstorm. So now I had a decision to make. Do I stay in the car and ride out the storm? Or do I walk back to the main building and wait for the day shift to arrive? I checked my watch.

Nearly eight hours until my relief arrived. The way it was raining, there was no way I was walking back. If there had been an emergency gas can full of fuel, I might have considered it. But the can hadn't had any gas in it for a long time. Yet another wonderful present from my idiot boss. He said it was a waste of gas to have it sit around and grow old. I guess the concept of emergency never crossed his mind. I didn't want to drain my battery, so I didn't watch any more movies.

I sat and listened to the rain pound the roof of the car like someone was dropping marbles from the sky. That's when my mind started playing tricks on me. I guess it was bored as I was and decided to have a little fun. I was whistling a little tune in my own off-key way that makes people stuff cotton in their ears. When I happened to glance in the rear view mirror and the mirror glanced back, I swore I saw a set of eyes looking in the back window. I whipped around so fast my neck cracked, but nothing was there. I hit the door lock button just to be sure, as if that would help

in the middle of nowhere in a downpour. My whistling grew louder and more off-key, as I did all I could to avoid looking in the mirror. Eventually, it was too much. My eyes were drawn to the mirror like a magnet. I looked. There was nothing there. I chuckled nervously at myself, for being so stupid, and I leaned my head back against the headrest. I don't remember falling asleep, but I do remember waking up to nothing. No sound of pounding rain, no sound of animals, no crickets even. It was unnerving. I lowered the window a few inches and listened. There was still no sound, not even the whooshing of the wind turbines blades as they spun. I looked at the closest one, and the blades were still. It was unusual for the wind to be so calm.

that it couldn't muster enough energy to turn the blades. I checked my watch and found I'd been asleep for four hours. The storm clouds had drifted off, and the moon had appeared. It wasn't quite full, but bright enough to light the ground and create hundreds of shadows of the trees that surrounded me. It was a beautiful night, the kind of night that made me glad to live in rural Pennsylvania. It made me seriously rethink waiting in the Jeep until morning. My mind held the tug of war as I hummed, should I stay or should I go?

I looked at my watch again. In just under four hours, my relief would be driving through the gate. What would he do if I wasn't there? It'd be much easier to explain and have him go get gas rather than wait for him to do his first round and find me sitting in the middle of the road. My mind was made up. I grabbed the flashlight from the glove compartment, staring for a long moment at the handgun sitting beside it. I thought about it, but decided to leave it behind. Most of the animals

in these woods want nothing to do with humans, and the others are easily scared away with a little yelling. I locked the door as I stepped out, and my foot landed in a deep puddle. I sighed as the water oozed past my ankle and filled my sneaker. The puddle encompassed the entire car. It was easily 12 feet across. I knew hopping on one foot wouldn't do anything but get my clothes wet, so I put my second foot down and close the door. I started waiting through the puddle to the far side until I found dry land. I shone my light at the closest wind turbine. It was number five. I knew that was the farthest one from the gate. Being at the halfway point, it didn't matter if I went forward or back. I decided to go forward and started off on my

trek. For the first part of my trip, the only sound I heard was my shoes squishing. It was unnerving having your only companions being total silence and hundreds of shadows cast from the trees. I shone the flashlight around in the trees and saw plenty of eyes shining back at me, but they were silent. It was as if they were seated in the pews of a church, and I was walking up the aisle looking for my seat. The eyes ranged in size, for from small to quite large, and yet none of them made a sound. Were they really afraid of me? I paused to take a break, and that's when I heard it.

A footstep behind me. It wasn't a heavy thud, it was a soft squish of grass under a large foot. I whipped around and shone my light where I thought I'd heard the sound coming from, but there was nothing. I panned all around with the light, but all I saw was a gravel road. and endless trees. Seeing nothing was possibly worse than seeing something. A deer, a bear, even a coyote would have been something I could deal with, scare away, fight off. But nothing created this void that my mind filled with all kinds of horrible creatures. The unnerving silence

continued as I started walking faster without thinking about it. Even the squish of my shoes seemed louder in the absence of noise. I started thinking about my destination. It was tempting to cut through the woods and save myself a lot of time, seeing I was still on a long loop of road. Had it been daylight, I might have considered it. In the dead of night, though, with a nearly full moon over my shoulder and dawn hours away, I didn't give it a second thought. I thought that perhaps whistling would soothe my jangled nerves. I tried whistling the happiest tune I could think of. But the echo came back to me, bent and twisted, like the children's song that plays in a horror movie. I ended my whistling soon after it started. I was halfway

through a verse when the tune died on my lips. The sudden unexpected silence brought me the horrible gift of another footfall behind me. I whipped around as quickly as I could, and I shone my flashlight around. This time my mind wasn't given the luxury of scaring me with nothing. This time, I saw a set of eyes. They were large and red, but what was most unnerving about them was their distance from the ground. Whatever it was, its eyes were a good eight feet off the ground. It was 40 or 50 yards away and hiding behind a tree. But those eyes. They'll haunt me for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, I didn't know how long that would be, especially with such a monstrously large creature obviously stalking me. I'd love to say

that I carefully weighed my options and came to a sensible solution to what this creature was and how to deal with it. I didn't. I ran like the devil himself was chasing me. It surprised me that I kept hold of my flashlight. I found special. speed, I never knew I had. Desperation will do that. My mind raced faster than my feet, but there was no solution it could come up with. I could hear the footfalls behind me coming closer. It was going to catch me. It was only a matter of time. And then my salvation rose in front of me, like a lighthouse to a lost fisherman. One of the wind turbines loomed in front of me. I knew the code to get inside in case I ever had to be.

an emergency and would need to shut one down. I didn't think I could run any faster, but hearing the footsteps behind me and seeing my salvation in front of me, I felt like the roadrunner when he put on a burst of speed and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Of course, that was all in my mind. Reality dashed my illusion as the sounds of massive feet grew even closer. It no longer cared about stealth. I could hear it on the gravel road now, My curiosity wanted to turn and at least identify my pursuer, but I forced myself to focus on what was in front of me. Stumbling because I wasn't focused, or because of seeing the creature that would be my doom,

would be catastrophic. The 400-foot-tall monolith loomed large in front of me. I envisioned where the keypad was, knowing I had one shot to type in the code before my death, as salvation drew nearer. Panic set in, I became obsessed with the notion that I would be caught in any moment. I have no idea what possessed me to do it, other than sheer terror and desperation, but I took the only thing I had available to me, my flashlight, and I threw it backward. By some miracle, I heard a muffled fud and a slight groan.

The sounds came from much closer than I wanted, but I still refused to look back. I reached the door to the turbine, punched in the code, and I yanked the door open, straining my arms because of its weight. I was no sooner inside than I pulled the door shut. But just before it latched, a massive set of fingers appeared in the doorway. I pulled with everything I had, feeling muscle strained to the point of breaking. The door somehow continued its momentum towards closing. The giant fingers were slammed between the door.

door in the frame. They disappeared, and I heard an inhuman howling from the other side as I shut and locked the door. I collapsed to the floor, gasping for air as my mind kept replaying the image of the fingers appearing in the doorway. Like a frozen playback, I saw with startling clarity that the fingers were the size of Bratworth's covered in brown hair and claws sticking out of them. I lay on the floor panting, searching for any options, but finding none. For the moment, I felt safe, but how long would that last? How would anyone find me in here? Would they even look, or would they think I was lost in the woods? And the biggest question, what the hell was that thing? I didn't want to speculate because the possible answers were too terrible to

comprehend, especially with whatever it was still outside close by. Just as I began to feel my adrenaline abate, there was a pounding at the door. It reverberated through the giant hollow tube that was now my salvation and my prison. I jumped up, not knowing what to do. My only escape route led into the claws of a monster. I looked all around for any help, but finding none. I resigned my to wait for my inevitable demise. I could see the door vibrate with every impact. I knew it was made of sturdy metal, but even metal has its breaking point. As I searched the small room that was a mere ten feet across, my eyes were drawn upward. There, attached to the side, was a ladder. It stretched upward into infinity. There seemed to be no end. Thankfully,

there were lights along the side every few feet, but that was little comfort. I wondered about my choices. Wait here for the door to collapse, or climb an impossible climb straight up with no rest points, no timeouts, no do-overs. If I climbed, it would be all or nothing. Bailing halfway up just meant I would need to climb the whole way back down to my current hopeless situation. I had no idea if I had the strength or stamina for such a climb, but another round of pounding at the door made my mind up for me. I stepped onto the ladder tentatively, as if waiting for the rung to give out under my foot. After a moment, I stepped under the second one, then the third. The fourth rung brought near disaster. I slipped and fell back to the floor, landing

in a puddle. This painfully reminded me that my shoes were soaking wet. Even though there were grip pads on the rungs, I still needed to be extra careful and step on the arch of my foot, not the ball. I got up and checked for injuries. I was sure there'd be a bruise or two if I survived, but other than that, the only thing that was hurt was my pride. The thumping on the door refocused my priorities. I stood and started up the ladder, stepping with the arch of my foot this time.

I started out slowly, making sure every foot hold was secure. cure before stepping to the next rung. Soon I gained confidence and was moving a little faster. My breathing was getting ragged as the exertion zapped my energy. I regretted skipping supper. I paused my climb and hooked my arm into the ladder to keep from falling as I caught my breath. It was then that I made two mistakes. One was looking up. The other was looking down. When I looked up, it seemed like I was no closer to the top than when I started. When I looked down, I saw I'd made enough progress to kill me if I stumbled. There was one other thing I saw when I looked down that made me want to cry.

Hanging on the wall were several safety harnesses. There was a metal cable that ran beside the ladder. For one brief moment, I considered climbing back down to get a harness, but I realized I might not have the energy to get back up. The rest of the climb seemed to take forever. My brakes became more frequent and took longer each time. My feet were screaming at me for a rest. I was near total exhaustion.

When I looked up and saw the top of the ladder, the excitement carried me the rest of the way up. I climbed off the top of the ladder and collapsed onto the metal landing. I'd laid there for what seemed like in eternity until my strength returned. I stepped through the door that led into the generator room. It was cramped due to the machinery taking up most of the room. There was a small walkway beside the generator and a hatch that opened to go outside. I looked around and I found a safety rig. I put it on and secured the line to a hook as I opened the hatch to the outside.

Dawn had broken, and the world was lit with the brilliant orange of early morning. The beauty so overtook me that I didn't notice the wind that had been still after the storm, now buffeted against me, threatening to knock me off my feet. I stumbled, feeling grateful for the safety line. I watched as one of the massive blades passed by a few feet away. My only reason to take this risk was to look down and see if my pursuit of my pursuit of the sewer had given up and left. I slowly peaked over the side, fighting the vertigo from the sheer height. I looked around at the tiny trees below, and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

I was about to go back inside when movement caught my eye. It was the creature. It had come around from the other side of the base of the turbine. I marveled at how tiny it looked from up here, yet it still presented me with the conundrum of how to escape. I stepped back inside and looked around for the answer. After a brief search, I found a radio amongst the controls on the wall. I pressed a button, and an alarm went off. I pressed it again to silence it. I tried another button and was rewarded with static. Hello. Hello, can anyone hear me? I said into the microphone. I repeated it again, still receiving static. On the third try, my boss answered, What the hell are you doing in one of the units? Um, it was an emergency. This was the only way I could

contact someone. What was the emergency? I, uh, rather not say on the radio. I said, can you come get me? Uh, what unit you in? Number six. Uh, it'll be a little while. Like how long? Like when I get there. He grumbled. The line went back to static. I felt some relief and the fact that at least someone knew where I was and was coming

to get me. Eventually. Out of curiosity, I climbed back outside and leaned over to check on the creature. My blood turned to ice from what I saw. The creature was looking up at me. It must have heard the alarm. Then it did the thing that would haunt my nightmares for years to come. It started climbing the outside of the wind turbine. My eyes were drawn to the horrible sight, and I was unable to look away.

I kept hoping it would lose its grip and fall, but it didn't. It got closer and closer. When it was around halfway up, my mind woke to the danger and it sent my body into action. I lunged back inside and I closed the hatch. I unfastened the safety line and headed back for the main ladder. It took much less time going down the ladder than it did to go up. Several times in my haste, I nearly slipped, taking the express lane down that ended in death. Eventually, though, I made it. As I took a moment to catch my breath, I heard the top of the turbine being assaulted.

The bangs resonated down the tube, making them sound even louder. I opened the door as quietly as possible, hoping the noise the creature was making above would cover my exit. As I did, a few brown hairs fell to the floor. I picked them up and stuck them in my pocket. As I slowly opened the door, it made a slight creak. Suddenly the noise above me stopped. My heart leaped into my throat.

I stopped breathing. My mind sent me unhelpful images of the creature jumping down and dismembering me. As I stood as still as a statue, I smelled smoke. I looked up and black plumes were flowing from the turbine. I ran as fast as I could back towards my Jeep. I refused to look as I heard a roar behind me. I nearly ran into my boss's car as he turned the corner. What the hell?

He said getting out. Look. Look! I said pointing at the turbine. I see. What the hell did you? did you do? No, no, look, I said, pointing towards the black smoke.

What am I supposed to be seeing other than millions of dollars literally going up in smoke? I stopped and I looked at the burning machine, but there was no creature there. I jumped in the car and slammed my door. Look, look, look, can we go, please? He just stared at me. Then got in the car and drove back to the main building. The whole time I kept shooting glances behind us, he parked in front of the building and looked over at me.

You're gonna have to answer some questions. I know. Would someone please go get my car? I ran out of gas. That's why I was in the turbine. Why didn't you just wait in the car? He asked. I opened my mouth to answer, and then I realized what I was about to say, and I stopped, leaving

it unsaid. All right, he said, getting out. I'll send someone for the car. I followed him inside, and I just lay on the couch in the break room. A short while later, a co-worker woke me. Here the keys to your car, it's parked out front. Mr. Bush wants to see him. He said, I took the keys and stood.

I looked right towards the boss's office, then looked left towards the exit. It only took a moment of decision to turn left and walk out that door. I never returned. But the memory of that night has never left me, and it never will. The following day I read in the paper about the turbine fire and how they found a carcass of a bear that must have gotten trapped in the blaze. But I knew better. I knew the company would come after me for the destruction of their expensive turbine. I also knew. If I told the truth, they'd haul me away in a rubber truck. Either way, I was about to disappear and

my story would never be told. I found a group that specialized in unexplained phenomena. I walked into their office with a bag in my pocket that had three brown hairs in it. I knew they'd want to hear my story.