Scary Stories

Cremated Alive

In college, I got a job at a crematorium. It wasn't fun.. At all. But, it paid really well, and being a broke (and struggiling) student, I was okay with it. Dealing with dead bodies was gross at first, but I got used to it quickly.

One day, I was cleaning the floor when a hearse pulled up into the parking lot. A man in a black suit stepped out and headed over to my manager to talk to him. After a while, he called me over to help him carry the casket to the crematorium. It was strange, cause they usually bring the caskets over to the funeral home, but I thought nothing of it. We put the coffin on the ground and I started the fire up for the cremation process. There was an awkward silence between the man and I, I just thought maybe this was a family member that had died and he was in charge of getting him cremated.

When the oven was ready, my manager and I picked up the casket and brought it on a metal table. We took off the top of the casket, and I saw that the corpse was of a 30-something year old man. The thing that confused me the most? The dead bodies we usually have are pale, but this one was pink in the face. My manager started the conveyer belt, and I just stood around, waiting. It usually takes about an hour or two for the body to completley turn to ashes, after that I'd collect the ashes and put them into an urn.

My manager and the man went next door into the funeral home, to fill out some paperwork or something. I was left alone in the crematorium, to continue cleaning. About 15 minutes afterwards, I heard a strange banging from the oven. It was like a faded knocking sound, at first I thought it was my imagination, but then in grew into a loud banging. I just tried to tell myself that it was the metal warping.

BANG! BANG! It was the unmistakable sound of someone banging on something, trying to get out. A chill went down my spine, and the cloth I had a death grip on suddenly felt weightless. I was completley sure that the guy inside was still alive. Terrified, I ran into the funeral home, shaking uncontrollably, I told my manager what I had heard. Leading them back into the crematorium, I told them to listen. BANG! BANG! "I don't hear anything." said my manager. BANG! BANG! "Yeah, me neither." said the man.

I looked at them in awe, I began to doubt my own sanity. My manager and the man just looked at me like I'm crazy and went back into the funeral home, I just sat on the ground, listening, waiting to hear those banging noises again. I didn't know how to open the furnace door without possibly drowning in the flames. After 15 minutes in a burning furnace, would someone even be able to live? Soon, the banging noises stopped. All I could hear is the crackiling of the fire. There was no more noise. An hour later, my manager came to turn off the oven, together we collected the ashes and put them in an urn. The man took it with a smile, and he drove away. At closing time, my manager gave me an envelope full of cash, and told me not to mention what I had heard to anyone. I never spoke of it ever again.

Even today, I still have nightmares of the banging noise. I feel like it's my fault he died.

—————————

Author: mmafan100A