The night of All Hallows’ Eve is almost here, and there’s no telling what is in store for us this year. Just make sure to stay away from black flame candles, because the last thing 2020 needs is three witches who suck the lives out of children coming back from the dead.
When hearing the word “scary,” each person will have a different image pop into their head. Maybe you see a clown, or a creepy porcelain doll or maybe even you imagine showing up to a big meeting realizing you forgot to put your pants on that day. At Carimus, we’ve been sharing some of our most scary stories during our time in the professional field and sharing them with you all in a series we like to call, “Scar-imus.”
Get in your favorite Halloween costume and have your favorite candybar in hand, because this week’s stories feature some tricks and treats.
Always share your location with a friend
The frost of winter began to give way to vibrant flowers, and there was just enough of a breeze to balance out the heat of the spring sun. The Blue Ridge Mountains during the transition seasons is arguably the most beautiful time of year.
The day was promising and bright, but little did marketing associate, Taylor Sexton, know that she was about to have one of the most unnerving experiences, not only in her professional career, but life in general.
“My junior year of college, I was working as an intern where my main job was to run and create content for social media. I would drive anywhere that was within a two hour radius of Asheville just to go interview sources, but I always really enjoyed the drive and the people I got to meet,” Taylor said.
On that fateful day, the drive was normal at first. She drove down the highway, her windows down and the radio turned all the way up so she could hype herself up for the interview and enjoy the lovely weather after a bitter winter.
When her GPS began taking her down backroads, that’s when she should’ve known something was off.
“I mean, it’s the mountains. I’d lived there long enough by then to know that sometimes the easiest way to get to certain places is by going down backroads,” she said.
Taylor began to slow down, weaving her way through the winding roads; a mountain on her right and a cliff to her left. This is nothing new for mountain roads, so she still saw no reason to question where she was headed.
It’s when the paved roads narrowed and turned to gravel, and the trees created a canopy so thick it blocked out the sun, she began to get suspicious.
“I knew this place I was going was in a rural area, and I’ve been to some weird locations,” Taylor said. “This wasn’t my first rodeo, and at this point I was 10 minutes away from arriving, so I just kept following my GPS.”
The bumpy road was not kind to her small car, which was obviously not built for this type of terrain.
Realizing she was most likely lost, she began trying to find a spot where she could turn her car around without going over the cliff. So, she continued to follow her GPS until she could find said spot.
The moment her destination came into view, she knew this is not where she was supposed to be.
At the end of the slender road sat an old log cabin. Ivy grew between the damp planks of wood on the house’s siding and the roof was covered with pine needles. The front porch sagged from years of neglect and also because the foundation was sinking into the ground.
She made a circle in the driveway, (which was more like a patch of weeds and dirt) turning back toward the road and parking for a moment so she could reroute her GPS.
Then, her heart stopped when she looked at her screen.
She had absolutely no service.
“Here I am, lost in the middle of nowhere and I don’t have my location shared on my phone with anyone. The only people who know where I am are my coworkers, but they think I’m at the location I’m supposed to be at,” Taylor said.
As she began to look at her phone’s map to see what roads she took to get there, she forgot her windows were still rolled down. Because of this, she was able to hear the rustling from behind her, which seemed to be coming from inside the house.
“I’m a scary movie fan, and I’ve watched enough of them to know better than to stick around after hearing any noise come from an abandoned house,” she said.
With her tires screeching against the gravel, Taylor quickly left the scene, refusing to look back.
Once she was finally in range for cell phone service, she called her coworkers, who, after rechecking the address they gave her, informed her they had given her the wrong one. The place she should have been at was only a 15 minute drive from where she currently was, so she was only a few minutes late for the interview.
There are two lessons to take away from this; 1) make sure to double check your destination address, and 2) always make sure you have your location shared with a friend.
It’s all gone!
We’ve all felt the fear and anxiety of beginning a new job. Think back to your first job within your professional field. You probably felt excited, but terrified because “Oh no, I’m actually an adult now.”
Change and the unknown can be scary. Plus, there’s always the settling in period where you’re trying to figure out how everything works and getting to know and feel comfortable with your coworkers.
This was the case for graphic designer, Kaitlyn Welch. She had just started working at Carimus as a graphic design intern, and was settling into her new role.
One of the tools Carimus utilizes is Dropbox, which allows the entire team to easily share and have access to different files.
Dropbox can be a tricky tool if you’ve never used it before, and it takes time to get familiar with.
“You know how you can sync Dropbox with your computer? I did that, but I was using my personal computer that I used for college and it wasn’t a very good computer, so it couldn’t handle that,” Kaitlyn said.
Since syncing it with her computer caused it to crash, she decided to delete dropbox off of her computer.
That’s when disaster struck.
It was only when a coworker was attempting to locate a specific font that they realized what had happened.
She had unknowingly deleted everything from dropbox, not only from her computer but everyone else’s.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to get fired. I’ve only been here for a week and I deleted everything,’” Kaitlyn said.
As an intern, this is genuinely more terrifying than any haunted haunted, murderous doll could ever hope to be. The panic from a situation like this could make anyone start to shake in their seat and break out in a cold sweat.
Luckily, the creative team was able to restore all the files thanks to Dropbox holding them in the ‘trash’ section instead of automatically deleting them.
Also, Kaitlyn obviously did not get fired. Here at Carimus, one of our values is “embracing reality and dealing with it.” Mistakes are bound to be made, and we choose to use them as a learning experience instead of a punishment.
Still, this story will send a chill down any person’s spine who has been an intern before.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our Scar-imus series as much as we have! Which story was your favorite? Let us know through our Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. You can read last week’s story here, and be sure to stay tuned for more interesting content!
