1/ I have a lot of creepy stories from abandoned places, but this is one has to be on the top 5. I don't usually do this, but I'm posting unprocessed shots (so be gentle), and giving a CW for squeamish folks.

In 2007 I snuck into the admin building of this abandoned institution

2/ First thing I do is go up to the second floor, open the door, and see... this. Fresh blood everywhere, still wet. It's all over the room to the right, too. I was with another guy, & we were both speechless. Was it real? It looked real to both of us, but there was so much of it

3/ It's on the walls, sprayed across the ceiling - but nothing there that it could have come from. Did someone kill an animal? It seemed unlikely that they'd have taken it with them when they left. We took a few photos and left the building.

4/ If we called the police we'd be arrested for trespassing. We had driven a long way so we spent the day photographing other buildings. Probably not the best call but we convinced ourselves it must not be real and didn't really know what to do.

5/ When I got home it was really bothering me, esp as I looked back at the photos and realized how much there was. MY GF and I were trying to figure it out. There had been construction stuff laying around, maybe someone had an accident?

6/ If it was, why did they go out into the hallway and bleed a bunch more? What were the paper towels from? What had blocked the spatter on the ceiling and what happened to it? Nothing seemed to make sense. Had someone killed someone else there? I was getting freaked out again.

7/ Another complication: like idiots, we'd walked through it. I get people in horror movies better now. You're just kind of in shock trying to figure out what happened. But what if they found my footprints and thought I had done something? I realized I had to call the police.

8/ The next day I went in search of a payphone. It was 2007 so they still existed but were pretty hard to find. Finally I found one at a gas station and picked it up/dialed with my sleeve because, y'know, fingerprints. Like I said, I was freaked out.

9/ I called 911 and then had to convince them to put me through to a police department in another state, which took some talking. Finally I got through to the sheriff's secretary and told her what I'd found. She put me through to the sheriff.

10/ I told him I knew I wasn't supposed to be in the building but I had found a bunch of blood and was worried someone or something was hurt and couldn't in good conscience not let them know. I was shaking. There was what seemed like a very long pause before he answered.

11/ "Yeah," he said, "they were just filming a movie in that building."
"Thanks!" I said, promptly hung up, and drove home, tremendously relieved.

12/ It's a bit anticlimactic, I admit, but I'm glad nobody was hurt. I DO wish I'd stuck on the line long enough to ask him what the movie was, and to this day I have no idea. Probably some B slasher film. As long as I'm not involved in a murder investigation I don't care.

13/ If you'd like to see the rest of my "creepiest things I've come across" list, here you go, I still have plenty more I'll probably remember to post some day. https://twitter.com/abandonedameric/status/1057725225205465089