A Mysterious Call About Downtown El Paso’s Secret Tunnels
It started with a phone call I wasn’t expecting.
My friend, a local paranormal investigator who’s asked to stay anonymous for their own protection, told me they’d seen something strange downtown. Strange, even by their standards. A group of people, cloaked in red, walking silently through the streets in the middle of the night.
At first, they brushed it off as another batch of night owls or urban weirdos. El Paso has its fair share of both. But then another friend reached out, someone who’d seen the same group enter a random downtown building and never come back out.
That same friend kept watch for several nights. Some nights, the group went in but never came out. Other nights, they came out but never went in. It didn’t make sense until my investigator friend realized what might be happening: they were using the old basement tunnels that supposedly snake beneath downtown El Paso.
Exploring the Hidden Basements Beneath Downtown El Paso
Most people think the basements under downtown are sealed up, forgotten, or just too dangerous to bother with. But my investigator friend has been down there. They’ve seen what’s left, tunnels that connect one building to another, some wide enough to stand in, others barely crawl spaces.
When they called me, they said it was time to shine a light on it. I’ll admit, this sounded like exactly the kind of wild story that gets clicks. But something in their voice told me it was more than ghost stories or folklore, so I agreed.
Maybe it’s a group of artists prepping for a secret event. Maybe it’s a bunch of urban explorers, or kids playing a live-action Dungeons and Dragons campaign. But if it was something darker, I wanted to find out.
Late-Night Stakeout in Downtown El Paso
A weekend ago, we met near Texas and Florence around 1 a.m., one of the “active” doors this group supposedly uses. The plan was simple: park, wait, watch.
They usually show up between 3 and 4 a.m.
We sat in my car, eyes half-shut, ears open. Nothing. Just the occasional drunk wanderer or late-shift worker cutting through the alley. By 4:30, I was ready to call it. I had to get to the station anyway, and nothing kills a hunch faster than an empty alley at sunrise.
Naturally, that’s when it happened.
Four figures, draped head to toe in red robes, stepped out of that door like it was the most ordinary thing in the world. My disbelief evaporated on the spot.
We ducked low in the car, trying to disappear into the seats as they drifted past, slow, deliberate, silent. Once they were gone, we slipped out of the car and into the alley.
The Door Without a Handle
There it was. The door.
No knob, no handle. Just a slab of metal scarred with strange markings and surrounded by graffiti that didn’t look like anything I’d seen before.
Investigator started taking pictures, recognizing some of the symbols from other abandoned sites across the city. These weren’t tags or murals. They were something else. A code, maybe.
I ran my fingers along one of the scratches on the door, following a line that crossed each of the symbols we’d seen repeated nearby. It felt deliberate, like someone tracing a map. Then, just as I was about to pull away, a sound.
A soft grunt. On the other side.
Strange Noises and a Red-Clad Figure in the Alley
I grabbed Investigator’s shoulder. We both froze. Seconds later, the metallic rattle of locks and latches echoed in the alley. The door opened.
Peeking from the shadows, we watched as another red-cloaked figure stepped out, waving a metal rod over the doorframe, exactly where my finger had been seconds earlier. The door clanked, sealed, and locked again.
The robed figure started walking our way.
Investigator stumbled, tripping on their foot and hitting the ground with a dull thud that sounded a lot louder than it should have.
The figure stopped. Listened.
I yanked Investigator by the collar and dragged them out of the alley, both of us running until the only sound left was my own pulse pounding in my ears.
By the time I got to the station, I was late for work, but I couldn’t think about anything else.
What’s Next in the Downtown El Paso Cult Investigation
That’s where I’m leaving it for now.
Something’s happening under downtown El Paso, something involving doors without handles, coded symbols, and people who don’t want to be seen.
Investigator and I aren’t done.
I’ll keep you updated as we dig deeper, literally and figuratively, into the tunnels beneath this city.
Stay tuned for Part Two.
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