Original Nosleep | Collection #1 - In 2014 I Visited an Abandoned Zoological Park. (Patreon)

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When I was in my late teens I was very into urban exploration. Usually I was limited to reasonably tame areas, for example I would just go d

When I was in my late teens I was very into urban exploration. Usually I was limited to reasonably tame areas, for example I would just go down streets I didn’t know or walk around abandoned buildings and construction sites. Admittedly I never spent much time in areas that made me feel that, ‘I’m going to get in trouble for being here’ feeling and I had a curfew. I was also pretty sure my mom would kill me if I came home late so I was never late home.

This was until I was about 17, then I was more self assured and rebellious. I met a girl, Charlotte, that I wanted to impress so naturally I ramped up how dangerous and scary it could be. Trying to make myself sound cooler I suppose. She seemed delighted by this and to my surprise she hinted at an exploration date. Honestly it was a miracle my hormone filled awkward self actually noticed her hint and offered to take her along to a super spooky location.

Of course I absolutely did not have a super spooky location to take her. To buy myself some time I told her it was a secret location and that if she met me at 7 that night with a bicycle, I would take her to this mystery place. She agreed and I panicked myself into rapid google searches of abandoned places in my area. To my horror, there was nothing. Not one place that seemed even vaguely exciting or eerie sounding to visit.

In desperation I looked up historic records hoping to find and old train station or something. Still nothing. As I skimmed through the pages of results the words ‘Zoological Park closure, 1944.’ Caught my attention. I was saved. Clicking on the link I saw that the old zoo was a little ways out of town, it was closer to the industrial side of town so I hadn’t actually been to that area before, which is probably why I didn’t know about it sooner.

It was a Friday night and that was usually the night my parents went out on their date night, so I wasn’t going to have any trouble sneaking out. In fact. I told them that I would probably go to bed early since I’d had a long day, and while they seemed surprised, I could tell they were quietly relieved because it meant they didn’t have to call home to check on me later.

My parents left around 6, and I spent the next half an hour getting ready. Combed my hair, used mouth wash, that kind go thing. I chose a black high collar leather jacket and denim jeans to wear. I wanted to make a good impression and look much tougher than I really was, then I rode down to meet Charlotte. We meet in the park and she was there before me nervously looking around as she waited. She was wearing a halter neck top, skirt and sneakers with her dark brown hair down over her shoulders.

She looked relieved to see me, and I tried not to gawk at her. We greeted each other then I lead the way towards the old zoo. A lot of the way there was darker than I thought it was going to be, the streetlights were far spaced and I could tell Charlotte was a little bit scared. Truthfully, I was a little bit scared too. However instead of saying this I poked fun at her, “If you’re scared we can go back.” I taunted playfully, hoping she would agree.

“I’m not scared, are you?” She teased innocently in return. “Not at all.” I lied with a smug tone. I still cringe at how cool I thought I sounded.

We arrived at the zoo not too long after that. The entrance to the zoo was a set of tall barred iron gates, they were held shut by a thick chain and padlock that was just as rusted as the gate itself was. To either side of the gate were decorative stone-brick pillars spaced by sections of iron bars that matched the gate. Eventually these sections connected seamlessly to even taller concrete walls.

On the right there was a simple stone building with a window hole and wooden door on the other side. It was in a state of disrepair, pieces of broken bricks lay around it’s base, the paint on the door was peeled and the window was smashed.“This was the old ticket booth.” I told Charlotte pointing it out, I was hoping my knowledge would be impressive.She however just smiled and said, “I see.” - I realised then that I was only pointing out the obvious.

We left out bikes near the gates, making sure to put them out of direct sight in case someone passed by on the road, and I lead her around the outer perimeter of the zoo. “How are we going to get in?” She asked curiously, she seemed more confident now, I could hear excitement in her voice. “Don’t you trust me?” I asked light heartedly to hide the fact that I had no damn clue how to get in. We couldn’t fit through the bars of the front gate, and I was really just hoping that the whole thing wasn’t surrounded by this giant wall.

It was by pure dumb luck that we actually found a way in. We came to a section of the wall that had a chain link fence running parallel to it that was only a little shorter than the top of the concrete. This meant that if we could climb the fence, we could stand on the top of it, and then get on top of the concrete part. Thinking quickly I announced this was the spot that we would get in.

I pushed a near by dumpster up against the chain fence, and offered to helped her climb up by lifting her slightly so she could reach the top of the fence and pull herself up from there. At this Charlotte hesitated a moment, “What?” I asked her. I was worried that she had suddenly changed her mind. “…Don’t look up my skirt.” She told me firmly.

Honestly, that thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. I felt my ears grow hot with embarrassment, “Don’t worry, I won’t. I’ll close my eyes.” I assured her tripping over my words and, I’m sure, ruining my cool facade. She eyed me with suspicion for a moment before smiling, “Why so serious?” she joked to lighten the mood again. I was thankful for that and lifted her up.

When I opened my eyes again to see that she’d made it, she was sitting on the concrete part of the wall swinging her legs, “Hurry up slow poke!” She called down. Great. Now I had to hoist myself up there without looking like a sissy. Let no one think pulling your own body weight up is an easy task for anyone, let alone 17 year old me who had never been to any gym a day in his life.

Somehow I managed to get up with my dignity intact and we cautiously shuffled along the top of that wall until we were able to jump down onto the sloped roof of the gift shop. I helped her slide down to the ground and cautiously jumped down after her. On the inside of the zoo wall it was dark. I mean, pitch black, can’t see your own hands in front of your face, dark. I had brought a flashlight with me, but I fumbled to turn it on and those extra seconds before there was light were deeply unsettling.

I shone the light at Charlotte, “That’s so bright!” She laughed nervously as she shielded her eyes from it. “Yeah.” I agreed returning her laugher to hide my own nerves.

Feeling emboldened by the flashlights strong beam we picked a direction and began to explore. The ground was made of long neglected, uneven paves with plant life growing up between them. We had to be careful not to stumble in the dark and I spent half the time shining the light on the ground. We would stop at places of interest so I could point the light ahead of us and over the empty cages. Dust, litter and cobwebs were their only inhabitants now.

They were all extremely small, too small to imagine ever putting animals in, and we found entertainment in reading the plaques on the bars that noted which animal had once been housed in each cage. Some enclosures were deep pits with moats surrounding to keep their inhabitants trapped and visitors out. For some reason these spaces gave me the creeps, looking down into them and seeing the remains of dismal looking habitats gave me feelings of claustrophobia.

As we walked the conversation came easily, we talked about school, our parents and how sad it was that animals had been kept in these small enclosures. Gradually Charlotte grew closer to me and eventually she looped her arm around mine to hold my hand, holding my arm lightly with her other hand so that she was leant in close to me. My heart beat so fast then, she smelt like vanilla body spray. It was the best moment of my life.

“Why did they close this place down?” Charlotte asked me after some time. “They closed it down in 1944, officially its listed that they just lost funding during the war. Couldn’t afford to keep the place running without visitors and a lot of the animals died due to neglect.” I told her, pleased that my five seconds of research on the place was coming in handy. “That’s really sad..” She replied with sympathy. “Yeah… But that’s just the offical reason. Do you want to hear the unofficial reason?” I asked with glee.

“Yes!” She answered alight with curiosity. I smiled, I was amped up to tell her this and had been trying to work it in all night. I thought it would really set the mood since she seemed to enjoy the spookier side of things, “Well, the head zoo keeper was crazy..” I began in a low tone, shining the light under my chin for effect as I began. At this she laughed and folded her arms in an unimpressed manner, giving me a sarcastic ‘oh really?’ expression as she waited for me to continue.

“When the animals would die, the head zoo keeper would become inconsolable. He wanted his animals to come back to life. It was rumoured that he would try to bring them back by sewing their remains back onto live animals. Some people even say he would take children from parents who weren’t paying attention and sew them onto his beloved animals corpses. As many as 23 children disappeared in this park. When the public found out about these experiments there was an uproar. The guy locked himself down in the zoo basement with his creations and the towns people set fire to the building. The zoo’s reputation never recovered. Some people say, some of his creations survived the fire and still roam the grounds to this very day..” I trailed off slowly and cut the light for a moment to scare her.

Charlotte screamed and I laughed turning the flashlight back on, “That was NOT funny! And totally not scary either!” She shouted, but I think my laughter won her over because she seemed more exasperated than angry. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” I apologised sincerely but still very much amused. “Jerk.” She grumbled, though thankfully seemed to forgive me, “You know, if that’s true, shouldn’t the burned building still exist?” She asked.

“..Maybe..” I said slowly, this was a major plot hole in my story if it didn’t. I had gotten my little tale from a comment left by an anonymous user at the bottom of the article. I didn’t really even believe it myself. “Let’s try to find it.” She suggested eagerly. This woman was unnervingly enthusiastic about terrifying situations and I was in no position to refuse after I had talked it up so much.

We wandered around looking for any charred buildings for a while and I felt disappointment setting in as there was nothing. I was starting to think that I would have to confess to her that my story was probably make believe when the very faint smell of stale smoke reached our nostrils. At first I thought I was imagining it, but the closer we got the stronger the smell of damp mold and charcoal became until the building stood directly before us.

It wasn’t much to look at. It was a stone building similar to the ticket booth and gift shop, only that the roof had caved in. The internal stones were blackened with soot and the floor was covered in the collapsed remains of rotting, burned wood. It seemed that this was all that remained of the supports that would have once held up the ceiling and walls. Finding it was an eerie achievement and I secretly wondered if maybe the user who had left that comment was in fact telling the truth.

Given our discovery we were both unsure of what to say and it seemed we silently agreed not to say anything. Instead we turned around and swiftly walked right back the way we had come as teenagers do. When we felt we were a safe distance away we began to laugh like idiots as all the nervous energy released at once, “That was so creepy!” Charlotte exclaimed. “I thought my story was bullshit! I never actually expected to find anything.” I admitted excited and terrified. “It could just be a coincidence, something that burned down recently.” She rationalised as we calmed down. “Definitely.” I agreed

We stood in awkward silence a moment then to my surprise Charlotte leaned in toward me, my heart started to race, I thought she was going to kiss me after that little adventure. But as she got close there was suddenly a sound from the darkness around us. It sounded as though a chain was jingling, or dragging. If the non-existent wind was somehow strong enough to move a loose chain somewhere behind us, that would be the sound.

Hesitantly we turned towards the noise and I pointed the flashlight at the area. The circle of light fell on emptiness. I looked around a little further, still nothing. “Jerk! You’re still trying to scare me!” She accused me pushing me away in a joking manner with an exaggerated ‘how dare you’ expression. “Hey! That wasn’t me, how could I do that? I’m standing right next to you.” I pointed out, sulky that the moment was ruined.

This gave her pause and I could see genuine concern cross her face, “But it was probably nothing. It must’ve just been the wind.” I assured quickly.“Okay, yeah, definitely.” She agreed through dry lips. “Maybe we should start heading home?” I suggested reluctantly lowering my light back to the usual level. “Yeah.” She agreed and we began to walk back the way we thought we had come in.

Truthfully with no map and almost no light, it was difficult to navigate. We were guided mostly by the enclosures, I felt my confidence returning as more and more animal plaques were familiar to us. However after hearing that sound, we felt watched. The whole place was eerily silent, so what had made that noise? Rats or something? I rationalised with myself as I resisted the frequent urge to turn back and look behind us.

I was both a little afraid in case there was something, but I also didn’t want to seem paranoid. I was lost in thought when Charlottes abruptly screamed, “Something just ran past my leg!” She shouted and almost tried to climb up onto me. From the panic in her voice I knew she wasn’t joking. Immediately I shone the flashlight around us. There was nothing. “It’s okay, it’s okay. There’s nothing there, see there’s nothing h-.” The word died as it left my mouth. The torch light had come to rest on several sets of reflective eyes glowing ominously in the darkness ahead.

Charlotte and I stood frozen. Neither of us made a sound, I don’t think we were even breathing as we stared back at those eyes. They were too far away from the light to show us exactly what we were looking at but they were undoubtedly some kind of animal. The eyes blinked and bobbed about as the creatures moved, slowly advancing on our position. “We should go. Can we Please go?” Charlotte whispered in my ear and I nodded. There was no argument from me on this point.

“Don’t run, just walk backwards slowly.” I told her quietly through my set jaw. Both trembling we gradually inched backward. With the worst luck I’ve ever had in my life, the back of my heel connected with an out of place paver and I fell backwards. Dragging Charlotte down with me and dropping the light.

We both scrambled back to our feet in a frenzy and I hurriedly snatched the torch back up. I shone the light back to where the eyes had been as quickly as I could.

They were gone.

We ran.

I was faster than Charlotte so I was practically pulling her along. Behind us we could hear the sound of heavy grunting, scraping on pavement and the clatter of chain. We had absolutely no idea where we were going. It was impossible to keep the light steady and the lumpy neglected pavers were not kind to us. In our haste and fear we fell Several fucking times, dragging each other down, but we did not even once consider leaving the other.

Behind us the sounds grew louder, I could practically feel the hot breath of a predator on the back of my neck. “The gate!” Charlotte panted out as she changed our direction. I hadn’t noticed it, but she was right. Through the darkness there was light. It was street light to be precise, shining through the bars of the front entrance gate highlighting itself brilliantly. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

We reached it and in a panic tried to cram ourselves through the bars only to remember that they were still too thin for us to fit through. “Over. Go over!” I gasped, hoisting Charlotte up without a moments hesitation. I practically threw her towards the top of the gate with adrenaline fuelled strength I didn’t even know I had and in seconds she was pulling herself up over the decorative spikes.

She landed on the other side of the gate heavily, I heard her ankle snap and she gasped in pain. However that didn’t stop her from staggering back to her feet. “Climb!!” She screamed at me desperately. I didn’t need to be told but it was also an almost impossible task. There was no where to put your feet for support so I just kind of jumped up as far as I could and scrambled to haul myself up the rest of the way.

As I was doing this I was only vaguely aware of Charlotte. She was shouting like a lunatic, so loud her voice strained, things like, “Hey! Hey! Over here! Come here! You ugly mother fucker! Over here!”, as she limped her way along the fence away from the gate. In her hands she had pieces of broken bricks and she was hurling them through the gaps in the fence. Hearing her shout like that was honestly both inspirational and terrifying.

I could tell the creatures were distracted by her and I made it over the gate just in time with my arms screaming in protest. Once she saw I was over she began hobbling back towards me as I hurried over to her. I will never forget her expression. Her eyes were wide with pure terror, and she was trembling like a leaf, but her expression was one of unwavering determination.

My attention was then drawn past her to the creature. This was the first time I got to look at it properly and it was horrific. I had been expecting to see a pack of something, some group of animals that had been abandoned all those years ago and somehow survived. What I saw instead, was a single large monstrosity. It’s body was a tangled mess of body parts, some human, some animal. I don’t even dare guess as to what animals exactly.

The most disturbing part of this thing wasn’t the healed over liquified skin/fur patches, nor the remains of chain that had joined into it’s limbs over time. It was the heads. There were several heads on this creature. Some were tiny and fused into the main body while others were on elongated necks. It’s main head, seemed similar to a giant rodent but didn’t seem to have any functional lower jaw so instead it was an open mass of wet flesh leading into a dark throat.

It made awful sounds as it beat itself against the bars trying to reach us. I was afraid that the old walls wouldn’t hold and that thing would get loose. Thankfully it didn’t seem to be able to climb. Charlotte was in no condition to be able to ride a bike and neither bike had any space for a second passenger, let alone an injured one. So instead she put an arm around my shoulder and I put an arm around her waist. We walked as fast as we could in a three-legged-race manner until we were far enough away that we couldn’t hear the beast anymore.

As the hours passed our urgency faded into exhaustion and we staggered along together until dawn before a police officers car pulled up beside us. As it turned out my parents had come home early from their date and noticed I was missing, when I wasn’t home after midnight they called the police to help search for us. I don’t think anyone believed our story of what happened, but we also weren’t really in any trouble. Our parents were just grateful to see us both home safely.

Charlotte and I got married in 2018, and are expecting our first child later this year. We tend to shy away from the ‘where was your first date?’ question when people ask and neither of us have any intension of visiting any zoos in the future. We also, don’t enjoy urban exploration anymore.

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