Bored during quarantine and in desperate need of adventure without having to leave your house? Read all about Calgary’s Gideon Keys from the comfort of your couch! This is your chance to get swept into another world — one that you’re familiar with, so you might even feel like you’re in your own little movie. If you like shows such as Supernatural, Gravity Falls or Buzzfeed Unsolved, you will absolutely love this.
So what exactly are Calgary’s Gideon Keys? Well, to explain it simply: they are a collection of occult phenomena that occur in YYC, addressed in various journal entries in a notebook that was mysteriously found in the University of Calgary back in 2009. You will find that these “keys” speak of real places in Calgary, ranging from malls to streets to the airport. The stories are strange and creepy to say the least, take a look at Key 40: The Library.
The Bowness Public Library is smaller than the Mac’s that is at the end of the same strip mall, and is one of the least utilized libraries in the city. Regardless, the Public Library remains open and is used, unofficially, as a dumping ground for “problematic books”. For the most part, these are books with complaints against them for explicit content or politically incorrect material. However, if you ask the librarian to see the basement and she complies, you’ll discover books that are problematic for different reasons.
To get into the basement, you need a Public Library Card, no overdue notices against you, and to come on Saturday evening when the librarian in charge of the basement is on duty. If you meet all these conditions, you’ll be led through a trapdoor hidden beneath a small rug and down a staircase. At the bottom, you will realize that the entire room is packed so full of books that there is little room to stand. There are bookshelves on every wall, built into the staircase, and even into the floor. The librarian will not let you take any of the books in the floor out. However, the walls are fair game.
The eastern wall is the most important, as it contains the history, travel and biography sections. Everything you learned in school is a lie, and the basement is where they keep the truth.
There are 200 of these keys, some missing. They all entail a sort of eerie vibe to it, with some keys being more or less captivating than others. Overall, it’s a chilling read, but whether it’s real or not is up to you and your imagination. Personally, I believe this is fictitious simply because I don’t believe in the supernatural and some of the stories seem pretty far-fetched to me, however if you have a more vivid imagination than me, I will not stand in your way and tell you that this is fake. Honestly, who knows? It’s your choice of what to make of Calgary’s Gideon Keys. Real or pretend, one way or another, these stories hook you in and you will not be able to stop reading. A personal favourite of mine is Key 70: Baggage Claim.
There is a secret baggage claim beneath YYC where They keep objects of interest that passengers leave in their checked baggage. Entering the claim is problematic. It is only accessible on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, as these are the days that They are absent, and entering on a day when They are present would mean certain death. On these days when it is safe, book a seat on a domestic flight and travel to the dingy section of the airport terminal’s food court. Look for a small, dirty counter where Italian food and pizza is sold. Tell the clerk that you left your bag in the kitchen when you worked your last shift.
The clerk will accept this pretext and let you into the kitchen, as though you were in fact a recently laid off employee. The kitchen, which is shared by all the franchises in this corner of the terminal, is dominated by a staircase that leads up into the blank roof. Climb it, and keep climbing when you reach the ceiling. You will emerge in a vast and empty copy of the baggage claims downstairs, inhabited only by still figures made of plaster.
Pilfer what you find valuable or notable from the baggage that is kept here, but only take with you what fits in your carry-on bag and what will pass safely through airport security. Larger or more conspicuous objects, such as the still-whispering heads of saints or the monitors that show the state of your soul will have to be left behind. Then leave, get on your flight and lay low for a time in another city. They will soon find out what you’ve done, and they’ll want their stolen property back.
If you’ve got the time (I know you do), give Calgary’s Gideon Keys a read. But beware! You might have nightmares.