Beyond The Shadows

Beyond The Shadows

A suspenseful mystery short story by Rod Jones Artist-Writer

It was like trying to find a black cat in a coal mine. Before me was a steep awkward looking ladder with handrails. 12 flights of stairs and now facing a ladder, which I assumed would take me to the tiptop of the abandoned building. I had seen this concrete warehouse building that sat on the end of a narrow finger of land when looking for interesting things to photograph. The formidable structure was the first significant building that Mariners saw when they entered the mouth of the San Pedro harbor. Compared to anything else in the vicinity it was a colossus of a structure. A proud landmark of a bygone era.

My fascination for old buildings, many of them historical, but all too often they have become disregarded derelicts. Started when I learned the phrase “Urban Archaeology.” The building before me was the perfect candidate to explore and perhaps discover the past when it was totally operational. I could have never imagined what this building was about to reveal to me and how frightening it was to become. Often walkers that came anywhere near this building were indifferent, disinterested, and very rarely even looking up. I felt there was something magical about this building and I desperately needed to explore it, not knowing what this formidable structure was going…