The Howling...
Many years ago I lived on a council estate in Coventry. After the council realised that many of their buildings were awful they decided to demolish them, to build new awful buildings.
So there were many empty buildings that nobody cared about in any way. My friends and I spent many an enjoyable evening roaming these buildings, being minor vandals and just messing around, safe in the knowledge that no-one would bother to stop us. (Early urban exploration?)

One evening we decide to go into a four storey block of flats, to go and sit on the roof and just doss around, as we had done many times before. Now these building has no supplies of utilities of any sort and were all boarded up, but once you were inside all the doors had been removed so you could just wander around. But it was always very, very dark inside. We'd have lighters or matches which helped light the way, but you couldn't see very much or far.

Anyhow, we are just getting onto the top floor when, from somewhere below us, came the most frightening sound we'd ever heard - massive howls, from god knows what. We crapped ourselves, mostly figuratively, but I'll bet a few of us came close to a bowel evacuation.

There's only one way out and between us and the exit there's something howling. We frantically did nothing, in a very panicked way. Eventually we come to the decision that we have to go downstairs and see what happens.

I am at the front of this scared bunch of teenagers - I think it's 'cos I was the biggest and we slowly make our way down through the building - the howls are getting louder and we're getting more concerned. We get to the first floor and figure that the howls are coming from one of the doors on this level.
Most of the group are wanting to get out of here, but I suffer from having to know what the hell is howling - I'm not brave, nor heroic - just have to satisfy my curiosity. (yep, I know I'd be dead first in a horror movie). More than half the group have gone to the stairs, ready to run down to the ground floor, but a few are not willing to admit their cowardice so are behind me while I approach the dark emptiness of the doorway. The howls are still going on, I can barely see anything but I still have to know.
I just enter the doorway, the howls stop and a massive dog (boxer cross I think) comes towards us, wagging its tail hugely as it is so happy to see someone (I reckon). I pat it on the head, it licks my hand and then follows us downstairs to the way we had gotten in, where it runs off into the night. Our assumption is that it had somehow got into the building and couldn't find its way out, so was expressing its unhappiness as it only could.
Scared us silly, but didn't stop us from going into these buildings until they'd all been knocked down.
(thebadangel, Fri 24 Jul 2009, 16:46, Reply)