Cinema 13

        
I used to be an urban explorer. Someone who likes to explore abandoned places.

That stopped two years ago.

It all involved the abandoned Palace Multiplex on Lafayette Street.

This was a huge state-of-the-art theatre complex built in 2006. Twenty-one screens on two floors. It had digital projectors. A fairly new technology at the time.

The first floor housed the lobby, ticket area, a full-service restaurant, and a snack bar. There were also ten auditoriums on this floor, plus two sets of washrooms.

The second floor had eleven auditoriums with a snack bar, and two sets of washrooms.

You can imagine how big this place was.

Then, in 2012, only six years after opening, the place shut down. No warning, nothing. People went one night for a good night at the movies, only to find the place shuttered.    

An interesting note about this complex. The builders were obviously not superstitious, because they had a Cinema 13.  

However, they had problems getting people into it.  Nobody wanted to watch a film in Cinema 13. 

Management had a “cure” for the problem. They tried to scratch out or remove the “1" and the “3" from after the word “Cinema” on all the signs that referenced it. What they ended up with was, “Cinema 13"

Anyway, about two years ago, I wanted to explore this place so badly, since it had been abandoned for over a year.

It was on Lafayette Street just two blocks south of Wilmington Avenue. It was the only commercial building on that street, since all the others were warehouses and light industry.

It took the ‘18 Lafayette’ bus to the location.

It was just past 10 PM, and that was the last bus. Since the theatres closed, there was no more need for late-night bus service. I will figure out how to get home later.

I walked across the parking area, surprised that the building still had electricity. The parking area, and parts of the building, were still brightly illuminated.

There was graffiti all over the outside, and the main entrance doors were smashed. 

That is a good thing. It will be easy to get in.

Upon entering the lobby and ticket area, the first thing I noticed was how immaculate the place was inside. It was so tidy. It looked like it was ready to re-open at any time.

There were still candies and chocolates in the display cases at the snack bar. I was surprised that the teenagers had not stolen it.

I looked up at the boards that display what films were showing. Twenty-one boards, for twenty-one theatres, including Cinema 13 . 

They were still sort-of working. I mean, they were on, but the displays were erratic. Mostly displaying symbols and parts of letters and numbers.

One display board stood out, however. 

It was the one for Cinema 13. It stood out because the time for the next show was an actual time, and not gibberish.  As a matter-of-fact, the time displayed was 10:45, but the title panel above just displayed something in another language, “Lassen Sie en Dämon”.    

I looked at my watch, and it was 10:36.

Interesting. This “movie” was starting in nine minutes.

Whatever.    

The building did have an odd layout, though. To get to the second floor, you had to walk to the end of the first floor. That meant passing all of the ten auditoriums on that floor. I am not really sure of the reason for that.

That was fine, as I wanted to explore anyway. However, trying all the doors to all the cinemas, I found that they were all locked.

I found my way to the stairs, and headed up to the second floor, and to the other eleven cinemas.

I had found that these auditoriums were also locked. 

When I was ready to pack it in, and turn around to go home, I noticed something ahead.

One of the auditorium doors was ajar.

I walked up to it, and noticed the sign above the door right away. It was Cinema 13.

Interesting how this was the only auditorium left open, and that it was the only one that had a start time. Which was in two minutes.

I thought the whole thing was kind of silly, but curiosity got to me. I wanted to see what was happening in that auditorium.

I slowly pulled the door all the way open, and walked in.

As I made my way up the ramp, I did not notice anything at all unusual about it. It looked just like your standard movie theatre.

As expected, there was no one else there, so I took the best seat. Right in the middle of the theatre.

After a couple of minutes, and right on time, the lights dimmed, and the screen came alive.

At first, nothing unusual. Some left-over ads and trailers from 2012. Probably accidentally left in the projector.

Then a “Feature Presentation” stinger came on.

After that, the screen went dark for what seemed a rather long time.

Then, suddenly, a picture came on.

It was...me...sitting there in the middle of the empty theatre. As if a camera was pointed directly at me.

Every move I made, was mimicked on the screen, as if I was looking into a giant mirror.

Then, I heard the door to the theatre open.

Too afraid to look at who was coming up the ramp, I stared directly at the screen.

What I saw made me jump half-way to the ceiling.

Making its way into the auditorium, was a large, dark creature, with glowing red eyes.

It was so dark, I could not make out its features.  Except for those eyes. Those horrible red eyes.

The creature turned the corner, and started up the stairs, as if looking for a seat.

I had to look.

There was nothing there.

I turned my attention back to the “movie”, and there it was.

It walked slowly, and seated itself, in the seat right directly behind me.

Terrified to look, but I just had to.

Sure enough. There was nothing.

Then, I heard the door creak open again, and two more of there “things” entered.

They also found seats in the theatre.

They kept coming, and sitting throughout the once empty theatre.

Until, I was surrounded by them.

The theatre was now full of them, but only in the “movie”. When I looked around, I was alone.

Then I heard an awful scream,

lLoud. A woman. It was coming from all around me.

It was coming from the theatre's sound system, Every speaker, was this horrible scream.

I had just about enough of this.

I took off out of that place as fast as I could.

I headed up the street to Wilmington Avenue.

There was an all-night bus I could catch that would get me...away from there.

After just a few minutes, the bus came, but it stoped about a half-block away from the stop.

The driver got out to get a coffee at the 24-hour coffee shop.

I figured I would walk over to meet the bus.

He had left the door open, so I just boarded. I had a pass, and figured that if he wanted to see it, he would ask.

The bus was empty, so I made my way to the back.

Relieved that I was finally getting away from there, I picked up a newspaper someone had left on the seat next to me.

Engulfed in an interesting article, I did not notice the driver re-enter the bus, but I did notice it start to move.    

After about twenty minutes, we came to a stop that was close to my house.

I rang the bell, to indicate a stop.

The bus driver passed the stop.

I was a bit annoyed, so I started to walk to the front of the bus to ask the driver why he didn’t stop.

On my way, I glanced up at the driver’s mirror, and what I saw horrified me.

It was the reflection of a dark creature, with glowing red eyes.

I did make it home, otherwise I would not be telling you this now.

However, ever since that night, I have been seeing these creatures everywhere.