Thereβs a college in my city that has a rumor that thereβs a secret basement below the known basement that can only be accessed via some hidden stairs scattered around the school or by pressing a secret number sequence in some of the elevators. The staff at the school are super annoyed by this and have no idea where this rumor started.
But I know. I think it was me.
In my defense I never intended to start a rumor. Many years ago I worked as a cleaner at the school and one evening I had to transport one of those big floor washing machines from the basement to the second level via the elevator. When the doors opened a very confused looking man stood inside. He was one of those slicked back gym-bro IT guys and made no movement to get out. The elevator wouldnβt fit him, me and the machine so I asked βWhere are you going? Up or down?β
He gave me a smug shit-eating grin and said βDown?β in a mocking tone.
It took me a second to realize that of course he wasnβt going down, we were in the basement, but his look and tone annoyed me so much I refused to admit I misspoke and instead said βYeah, down. I donβt know if youβre going to the second basementβ
His smile disappeared βThereβs a second basement?β
βYeah but it sounds like you donβt have access to it so I guess youβre going up? Iβll just waitβ
I never thought of it as anything other than a funny story to tell about that time I got so annoyed with a guy that I invented an entire second basement, but it turns out he probably refused to believe a cleaner fooled him and the story spread.
No joke, when I worked for my college newspaper, the office was in the sub-basement. There was only one way down, and if you didn't know where it was already it was so hard to find. So anytime I had to call someone to meet me at the office, I'd tell them to come to the basement via a specific stairway. When they called to say they'd arrived, I'd reply, "great, I'll come up to get you!"
"Up?" they'd ask, nearly every time.
And then I'd go up to get them (and usually scare them by appearing from seemingly out of nowhere).
But admittedly, I may have also lied to some of the more annoying ones and said that there was also a second sub-basement that the lit mag operated out of, and I hope that someone believed it. I'd love to start that kind of rumor too.
