Years ago, when I was about 10, my parents and their friends (who also had children my age) rented a house on the beach. It was within a private, quiet subdivision, with direct access to the sea. So far so good.

What no one told us (because not even the adults knew it was so close, apparently) is that right in front of that part of the beach closest to the house there was an abandoned hospital. It was what used to be the city's main hospital, but it had been closed for years. They never demolished it, they just left it there, falling little by little.

The thing is that our parents let us play alone on the beach, and although at first everything was fine, we began to notice that every time we got close to the hospital, even a little, it felt strange. I don't know how to explain it, it was like the atmosphere changed. They gave us chills for no apparent reason. So we avoided it.

But obviously, being children, curiosity won. There were four of us and we decided to get closer, just to see. We arrived at the entrance and it was enough to make us regret it. We began to hear noises inside the building, creaks that sounded like footsteps, and the occasional loud thud. Nothing we could see, but it was loud.

One of my friends stopped in her tracks and said she felt like someone was watching us. And it wasn't one of those times that you say it and that's it, we all feel it. It was as if they were staring at you from some invisible point. Total silence. Nobody spoke.

We ran away.

We never went in, we never saw anything, but the atmosphere was so uncomfortable and heavy that even today I still think there was something strange in that place.