Three years ago, I was working as an underwriter for a private U.S.-based fintech company. At that time, my monthly salary was around ₹60,000. Every one or two months, our shifts would rotate. Employees working during the day would be moved to the night shift, and those working nights would switch back to the day shift.
Whenever the night shift schedule was announced, almost everyone became excited because of the extra night-shift allowance. I believe that this allowance is one of the biggest motivations for employees to sacrifice their sleep and work through the night.
After the COVID period, however, life slowly started returning to normal.
One day, someone contacted me with an unusual request.
“Please don’t reveal my real name,” he said.
“Alright,” I replied.
For the sake of this story, we’ll call him Arun.
12th grade in a village called Nawada
In 2020, Arun completed his 12th grade in a village called Nawada. He was never interested in studies. His family practically forced him to appear for the board exams. Once he passed, he made up his mind that he would never study again.
Instead, he spent his days roaming around with friends, wasting time, and enjoying life without any responsibilities. Three years passed like this.
His parents constantly pressured him.
“If you don’t want to work, at least continue your education. You’ll need qualifications if you ever want a decent job.”
But Arun refused to listen.
“I just don’t enjoy studying,” he would say.
As time passed, the arguments at home became more frequent. By 2023, the taunts from his family had become unbearable. Arun decided he had had enough.
“I’m leaving this house,” he thought.
Like many young people his age, he wanted freedom more than anything.
He asked his friends if they knew of any job openings.
“I haven’t studied much,” he admitted. “I’m not expecting a high-profile job. Even a small job will do.”
Soon, one of his friends, Kartik, called him from Chandigarh.
“Come here,” Kartik said. “I’ll help you get a job.”
Arun packed a small bag with his clothes and immediately left for Chandigarh.
Through one of Kartik’s contacts, Arun got an interview at a BPO (call center). He cleared the interview and was hired.https://english.newstrack.com/lifestyle-news/gurugram-bpo-girl-haunted-story-518842
No one enter or exit on the first floor.
The office was located on the fourth floor of a commercial building, while Arun rented a room only about 200 meters away. Since it was so close, he simply walked to work every day.
Initially, he worked the day shift. He made a few friends at the office and felt that life had finally become peaceful.
He was away from all the pressure at home.
Everything seemed perfect.
But after just one month, his life changed forever.
His day shift ended, and he was assigned to the night shift.
Before describing what happened next, there’s something important you should know about the building.
The BPO occupied the fourth floor. Other companies operated on the second, third, and fifth floors. Everyone used the elevator to move between floors.
However, there was something very strange.
The elevator never opened on the first floor.
Not once.
After working there for over a month, Arun realized he had never seen anyone enter or exit on the first floor.
During the day shift, around seventy employees worked in the office.
At night, that number dropped to barely forty.
Another strange thing caught Arun’s attention.
Every Saturday, four or five priests visited the building. They performed religious rituals, chanted mantras, and left shortly afterward.
Arun had become friendly with a senior employee named Suman.
One day he asked her,
“Why does nobody ever go to the first floor? I’ve never seen anyone there.”
Suman had worked there for years.
She avoided the question.
“Oh… it’s just a storage area,” she said casually. “Nothing important.”
But her answer didn’t satisfy him.
The entire first floor remained sealed at all times.
The elevator doors slowly opened.
According to everyone, the only way to reach it was through the elevator.
During the day shift, the elevator was always crowded, so Arun never thought much about it.
But things felt very different after he started working nights.
There were far fewer people around.
The silence itself was unsettling.
After about ten days on the night shift, Arun’s routine was simple.
He started work at 9:00 PM and finished around 5:00 AM.
One cold winter morning, after completing his shift, he entered the elevator alone to go home.
It was still dark outside.
As the elevator reached the first floor…
The lights inside suddenly went out.
At first, Arun wasn’t worried.
“Probably a minor power fluctuation,” he thought.
He had just finished work and was already half asleep.
Twenty-five or thirty seconds passed in complete darkness.
Then…
The elevator doors slowly opened.
What Arun saw next froze him with fear.
The entire floor appeared deserted.
About thirty meters away stood a single office desk with a chair in front of it.
On the desk sat a computer monitor, keyboard, mouse, and microphone exactly like a normal call center workstation.https://unbiasedpollkhol.com/
But there was one terrifying detail.
The computer screen was switched on.
Before Arun could process what he was seeing…
The empty chair in front of the computer suddenly slid backward on its own.
His blood ran cold.
Before anything else could happen, the elevator lights came back on.
The doors immediately closed, and the elevator continued down to the ground floor.
Arun rushed home in complete shock.
Lying awake in bed, he tried to make sense of everything.
Everyone had told him the first floor was abandoned.
If nobody was there…
Who had switched on that computer?
And why did priests perform rituals in the building every Saturday?
None of it made any sense.
To be continued…………