Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
When I was in second grade, my best friend Celia
started sharing stories about odd things happening in her house.
She seemed really worried and I could tell something was
bothering her. Then one day she showed me a small
hole in the wall of her unfinished basement. The walls
in the basement were made of bricks or cinder blocks,
(00:41):
and the hole was forming in the mortar between them.
After a while, when we were in fourth or fifth grade,
the hole had grown much bigger, and by then we
could fit most of our arms inside it. But when
we put our arms into the hole, we couldn't feel
the end of it. It was strange because the hole
up getting deeper but didn't get much wider. Around this time,
(01:04):
Celia told me she started hearing voices in her basement,
and she believed the sounds were coming from the hole,
even though I never heard anything when I visited her house,
but since we were only ten years old, I believed
her completely. We often had sleepovers on weekends, and that's
when I noticed all the creepy things about her house.
(01:26):
Her family was a bit unusual because they had so
many animals. They had at least six cats and dogs
along with rabbits, birds, lizards, snails, frogs, fish, and more.
Around the time, her cats and dogs would sometimes go missing,
and later we'd find them in the basement, standing right
(01:46):
in front of the hole. For as long as I
knew Celia and her animals, they never liked going into
the basement. This started to really frighten us. Celia told
me she thought something was living inside the walls and
could move around her house using the whole as a
way to come out. I believed her, but I hadn't
(02:09):
seen enough to feel as scared as she was. At school,
Celia was always nervous and stressed. The teachers and other
classmates noticed and were very worried about her. It felt
like her parents didn't care or didn't believe her. A
lot of people thought she was just nervous because her
(02:29):
older sister had gone away to college. Now here's where
things got really creepy. I was staying over at her
house during the Christmas holiday. One thing to know about
Celia's room is that she had a big collection of
stuffed animals in all shapes and sizes, which made sense
since her family loved animals so much. On the first
(02:51):
night of my stay, we slept in her bed. When
we woke up the next morning, we saw something strange.
All of her stuff animals, which were usually scattered around
the room, had been neatly stacked in a pile about
four feet high. Every stuffed animal was facing us, staring
(03:11):
right at us. I didn't think then, and I still
don't believe now that Celia or anyone else could have
moved all those toys. I've always been a very light sleeper,
and some of the stuffed animals were on top of
a big wardrobe. We both knew that whatever Celia thought
was living in the walls must have done this. We
(03:33):
carefully put all the animals back in place and didn't
tell her parents. I kind of wish we had now,
since I was staying for the whole weekend. We went
to sleep again in her bed that night. Then we
woke up around the same time, when it was still
dark outside it must have still been night. We heard
(03:54):
a very low creaking sound coming from under us. We
knew it was the wooden floor under her bed, just
like in a horror movie, and maybe because we were
only ten, we thought it would be a good idea
to lean over the edge of the bed and look under.
As soon as we did, we saw and heard one
of the floorboards slam back down. We quickly pulled our
(04:16):
heads back up, hugged each other, and cried. I have
never been so scared in my life. The next morning,
I called my parents and asked them to take me
home right away. I refused to ever go back to
Celia's house because I was too afraid things only got
worse for her at school and at home. I don't
(04:37):
remember if I ever asked her about what was happening
in her house again. Maybe I didn't because I was
too scared and we were so young. I only saw
Celia twice after that, and it was over ten years ago.
I've never heard from her since, but I've always wondered
what happened to her, especially since I know her family
(05:01):
still lives in that house today. After so many years,
I still remember those moments clearly, and my theory is
that there was a man or a group of people
secretly living in the walls of her house watching everything
that happened. The hole in the wall was their way
of spying on us and listening to what was going
(05:24):
on in the basement, and when no one was in
the basement, they could slip out unnoticed. As for the
stuffed animals, I believe they must have been moved by
someone who was deeply disturbed, someone with a twisted kneed
to scare us or mess with her. It was like
they enjoyed seeing how much fear they could cause. The
(05:46):
next night, the floorboard noise might have been to see
if we were asleep. Since I only saw one board move,
there's no way that was how they got into the room.
They probably had several spots to watch us, so they
knew when to move around the house. In the summer
(06:11):
of twenty ten, when I was starting my teenage years,
my family went on a trip to a nice hotel
in the city. I don't remember why we went, but
I do remember that some family friends came too and
stayed in nearby rooms. I never asked my parents about
the reason, but it doesn't matter for the story. Now.
(06:32):
I should say that I get scared easily, and always have.
I'm a skinny, fragile kid, so I get nervous pretty
easily even now. But this time it wasn't just me
getting scared for no reason like usual anyway, So the
hotel had an unusual design like the lobby was on
(06:52):
the fourth floor, not the first floor, which felt odd
to me. So to get to the lobby you had
to take the elevator, and you couldn't reach there using
the stairs, which would have been good to know before
everything else happened. The hotel was built in a square shape.
Each floor had a balcony where you could look down
(07:14):
into the lobby and cafe area. This meant that if
you were walking to your room, anyone on your floor
could see you just by stepping out of their room
and looking around. I was always scared I might fall
over the balcony and drop eight floors, but the railings
were high enough that I didn't worry too much. The
first couple of days were fun. My friends and I
(07:36):
played cards all day or watched whatever was on TV,
and at night we walked around the hotel halls and
told ghost stories. But on the third day, though, things
got weird. I woke up to loud screaming outside my door.
Because of the hotel's design, sounds from the lobby could
(07:56):
echo all the way to the top floors. I stepped
outside to see what was going on and looked over
the balcony down below. I saw a girl on the
ground with eggs and milks build all around her. People
were rushing to help her, and I heard some of
them saying to call nine one one. It looked like
the girl was unconscious, maybe she had fainted. I looked
(08:20):
around the lobby and saw my family and a few
friends eating breakfast watching what was happening, so I decided
to go down to join them and find out what
was going on. The elevator was on the other side
of my floor, so I used the stairs near my room.
We were on the seventh or eighth floor, so I
(08:40):
only needed to go down about four flights. It wasn't
a big deal. I started going down, looking for the
number four on the wall or the letter L for
the lobby. I passed the fifth floor and kept going,
but after a couple more flights, I noticed there was
no door for the fourth floor. There wasn't a door
(09:03):
for the third or second floor either. At this point
I probably should have gone back, but I kept going
because I was tired and didn't want to go back up.
I saw some strange side hallways that led to dark
areas with pipes and wires. I felt curious, but decided
not to check them out. Soon I reached the bottom floor.
(09:28):
It was a cold, dimly lit room with cinderblock walls
and concrete floors. In front of me, there was a
pair of double doors. I paused for a moment, but
figured this was just another way to the lobby, so
I opened the doors and went in. Behind them was
a huge warehouse like room, about the size of a
(09:48):
small basketball stadium. The only light came from the stairwell
behind me, so I couldn't see much inside. There were
stairs stacked and covered in plastic wrap, tables along the wall,
and in the distance. I thought I saw boxes piled
up against the wall too, so it was probably the
hotel's storage room. I looked around and noticed an elevator
(10:13):
at the back of the room, so I started walking
toward it. I closed the stairwell door behind me and
walked through the dim light. The room felt hot and dusty,
like no one had been there for a long time.
I pressed the up button, but nothing happened. There was
a card swiper next to it. I thought it was
(10:35):
probably for employees only. I turned back to the stairwell
doors and walked past the chairs and tables along the wall.
When I reached the door. I tried to open it,
but it was locked. Of course, this is when things
started to hit me and I realized I was stuck
in the dark, dusty basement of the hotel. I didn't
(10:58):
have a phone because my parents said I couldn't get
one until I finished middle school, so I couldn't call anyone,
and everyone probably thought I was still in my room,
so I started to panic, thinking no one would look
for me. Now, some parts of the room were brighter,
so I looked around in those areas first before checking
(11:19):
the darker parts. I found another set of doors, but
they were locked. Two it felt like ours, But I
think only a few minutes passed before I heard a
door creak open. It wasn't the stairwell door, but the
second one I had found. A thin, middle aged man
in a lab coat stepped out of the door. If
(11:41):
I had been twenty one, I would have been really
confused about why he was wearing a lab coat in
a hotel, but I was only twelve or thirteen at
the time, so I felt relieved to see an adult
who looked smart. I approached him with tears in my eyes,
and he looked surprised to see me, just like you'd expect.
(12:03):
What are you doing down here? I got lost on
my way to the lobby and got locked in here.
Do you have a key? I was shaking, wanting to
get out. He didn't answer about the key, but instead
said I know a way out. Follow me. He started
(12:24):
walking towards the stairwell doors and I followed. We got
to the doors and I reached for the handle, but
he kept walking. Isn't it right here? I asked him.
I will never forget the look on his face when
I said that. He looked nervous, and even though it
was dark, I could see sweat on his forehead and
(12:45):
behind his glasses. No, this way, he said firmly. I
kept following him, but now I was nervous too. We
passed the stairwell door and were heading to a darker
part of the basement, away from the elevators. He looked
like he didn't know where he was going, as he
(13:05):
kept looking around like he was seeing everything for the
first time. We turned a corner and started walking toward
the boxes, which led to a dead end. I stopped
right away, realizing something was very wrong. This guy didn't
know where he was going, and he didn't seem to
work at the hotel. Hey, wait, where are we going?
(13:28):
He turned and said, this way, Just follow me. I
knew there were no doors by the boxes because I
had checked there first. When I found the stairwell door
was locked, I'm thankful for whatever gave me the idea
I had. Next, I started yelling as loud as I could.
I yelled so loudly that I gave myself a headache.
(13:50):
The man, annoyed and covering his ears, yelled back at me,
what are you doing? Be quiet? But I kept yelling,
and I don't even remember how how long it lasted,
But fortunately the man snapped and started walking toward me.
I ran as fast as I could towards the stairwell doors,
hoping they would somehow be open. He didn't run after me.
(14:14):
He just walked behind me, calling me names like stupid
and other kind compliments. I was about a few feet
from the door when someone suddenly came through. My savior,
a hotel janitor who had heard my screaming from the stairwell.
The janitor asked me who the man was, and I
told him I didn't know. I said the man had
(14:37):
come in through the door on the other side of
the room and pointed to it. The janitor quickly radioed
the front desk, telling them he found a child in
the basement. The man in the lab coat started arguing
with the janitor, saying he was just looking for a bathroom,
but the janitor clearly didn't believe him and kept saying
(14:58):
things like wait until security gets here and talk to them.
I was standing next to him, trying to understand what
was happening, completely confused. Finally, an employee from the front
desk came and took me back up the steps to
the lobby, where I met my family. They surprisingly didn't
know I was missing. I told them what happened, crying
(15:22):
and shaking, and they hugged me tightly, thanking the employee
again and again for their help. I never got to
thank that janitor. Looking back, I have no idea what
that man was doing in the basement. I don't know
what happened after that, or who he was. I do
know the thing with the girl in the lobby was unrelated,
(15:44):
something about low blood sugar. I think I've thought about
that day a lot, and the only explanation I can
come up with is that the door I found in
the basement led to the streets of the city where
he must have come from. He had no idea what
his intentions were, why he was wearing a lab coat,
(16:04):
or why he pretended to know a way out. Honestly,
this could have just been a big misunderstanding, and I
picked a really bad time to get lost. My parents'
(16:25):
house is right next to a small red house, and
our backyard faces the side of that house, which has
a wooden deck and two big windows out in front.
There were always at least three cars parked in the
driveway or on the street, but no one ever seemed
to use them. It was strange because in the ten
(16:45):
years I stayed there, I never saw anyone going in
or out of the house, not even to check the
mail or take out the trash. Then one evening, when
I was around twelve, I was in the backyard and
happened to look toward the red house through one of
the windows. I noticed faint shadows moving on the far wall,
(17:05):
almost like people were walking around inside. It caught my
attention because it was the only time I ever saw
any kind of movement in that house. Then, after a while,
when my sister moved out, I took her bedroom. It
was a big, open room in the basement that had
(17:26):
been fixed up nicely. The room had a door with
an outdoor stairway leading to the back yard, and there
was a small window on the door, and my sister
had covered it with a pulp fiction poster. But when
I moved in, I changed the decorations and put up
sheer half curtains instead of the poster. The room was
(17:47):
set up so that if I was lying on the
bed or sitting on the couch, I could see the
door right in front of me. When I first started
staying in that room, I noticed that sometimes at night
I could hear the sound of leeves crunching in the
stairway outside. I thought it was just my cat who
(18:07):
liked to wander around the neighborhood, so I didn't worry
about it. But a few weeks later something happened that
made me think differently. So one night, when my parents
were away for work, my boyfriend and I were sitting
on the couch and talking. Then all of a sudden,
he froze and stared at the small window on the door.
(18:28):
He didn't say a word, but I could tell something
had caught his attention. So I asked him what was wrong,
and he said, I just saw a camera flash. At
first I laughed it off, thinking he was just imagining things.
But as the night went on, I couldn't shake the
strange feeling. So when it was time to sleep, I
(18:53):
kept glancing at the small gap between the curtains on
the door. The stairwell outside was completely dark, since there
wasn't a light there. If someone was really standing at
the bottom of the stairs watching, I wouldn't have been
able to tell. Then around three in the morning, I
heard the sound of leaves crunching under heavy boots. For
(19:18):
some reason, I decided that the best thing to do
was to handle it myself, even though I'm only five
feet three inches, I didn't even bother putting on shoes
and opened the door quickly and looked outside. There was
no one in the stairway, so I ran up the
stairs into the backyard. That's when I saw him, a
(19:39):
man probably in his mid forties, about six feet tall,
wearing one of those mechanic jumpsuits. He was just standing there.
He was holding an old, clunky digital camera that looked
like it hadn't been used in years. For a moment,
neither of us moved. We just stared at him, each
(20:00):
other frozen. The way he stood there made my skin crawl.
It felt like an eternity before I finally found my
voice and shouted, Hey, what are you doing. My words
startled him, and without saying anything, he spun around and bolted.
He ran straight through my back yard toward the Red House,
(20:22):
and disappeared into the darkness. I stood there, shaking, trying
to process what had just happened. After that night, I
never saw any strange camera flashes or heard the sound
of boots in the stairwell again, but the thought still
haunts me. How many nights had he been standing there
(20:44):
in the shadows, silently watching me
When I was in second grade, my best friend Celia
started sharing stories about odd things happening in her house.
She seemed really worried and I could tell something was
bothering her. Then one day she showed me a small
hole in the wall of her unfinished basement. The walls
in the basement were made of bricks or cinder blocks,
(00:41):
and the hole was forming in the mortar between them.
After a while, when we were in fourth or fifth grade,
the hole had grown much bigger, and by then we
could fit most of our arms inside it. But when
we put our arms into the hole, we couldn't feel
the end of it. It was strange because the hole
up getting deeper but didn't get much wider. Around this time,
(01:04):
Celia told me she started hearing voices in her basement,
and she believed the sounds were coming from the hole,
even though I never heard anything when I visited her house,
but since we were only ten years old, I believed
her completely. We often had sleepovers on weekends, and that's
when I noticed all the creepy things about her house.
(01:26):
Her family was a bit unusual because they had so
many animals. They had at least six cats and dogs
along with rabbits, birds, lizards, snails, frogs, fish, and more.
Around the time, her cats and dogs would sometimes go missing,
and later we'd find them in the basement, standing right
(01:46):
in front of the hole. For as long as I
knew Celia and her animals, they never liked going into
the basement. This started to really frighten us. Celia told
me she thought something was living inside the walls and
could move around her house using the whole as a
way to come out. I believed her, but I hadn't
(02:09):
seen enough to feel as scared as she was. At school,
Celia was always nervous and stressed. The teachers and other
classmates noticed and were very worried about her. It felt
like her parents didn't care or didn't believe her. A
lot of people thought she was just nervous because her
(02:29):
older sister had gone away to college. Now here's where
things got really creepy. I was staying over at her
house during the Christmas holiday. One thing to know about
Celia's room is that she had a big collection of
stuffed animals in all shapes and sizes, which made sense
since her family loved animals so much. On the first
(02:51):
night of my stay, we slept in her bed. When
we woke up the next morning, we saw something strange.
All of her stuff animals, which were usually scattered around
the room, had been neatly stacked in a pile about
four feet high. Every stuffed animal was facing us, staring
(03:11):
right at us. I didn't think then, and I still
don't believe now that Celia or anyone else could have
moved all those toys. I've always been a very light sleeper,
and some of the stuffed animals were on top of
a big wardrobe. We both knew that whatever Celia thought
was living in the walls must have done this. We
(03:33):
carefully put all the animals back in place and didn't
tell her parents. I kind of wish we had now,
since I was staying for the whole weekend. We went
to sleep again in her bed that night. Then we
woke up around the same time, when it was still
dark outside it must have still been night. We heard
(03:54):
a very low creaking sound coming from under us. We
knew it was the wooden floor under her bed, just
like in a horror movie, and maybe because we were
only ten, we thought it would be a good idea
to lean over the edge of the bed and look under.
As soon as we did, we saw and heard one
of the floorboards slam back down. We quickly pulled our
(04:16):
heads back up, hugged each other, and cried. I have
never been so scared in my life. The next morning,
I called my parents and asked them to take me
home right away. I refused to ever go back to
Celia's house because I was too afraid things only got
worse for her at school and at home. I don't
(04:37):
remember if I ever asked her about what was happening
in her house again. Maybe I didn't because I was
too scared and we were so young. I only saw
Celia twice after that, and it was over ten years ago.
I've never heard from her since, but I've always wondered
what happened to her, especially since I know her family
(05:01):
still lives in that house today. After so many years,
I still remember those moments clearly, and my theory is
that there was a man or a group of people
secretly living in the walls of her house watching everything
that happened. The hole in the wall was their way
of spying on us and listening to what was going
(05:24):
on in the basement, and when no one was in
the basement, they could slip out unnoticed. As for the
stuffed animals, I believe they must have been moved by
someone who was deeply disturbed, someone with a twisted kneed
to scare us or mess with her. It was like
they enjoyed seeing how much fear they could cause. The
(05:46):
next night, the floorboard noise might have been to see
if we were asleep. Since I only saw one board move,
there's no way that was how they got into the room.
They probably had several spots to watch us, so they
knew when to move around the house. In the summer
(06:11):
of twenty ten, when I was starting my teenage years,
my family went on a trip to a nice hotel
in the city. I don't remember why we went, but
I do remember that some family friends came too and
stayed in nearby rooms. I never asked my parents about
the reason, but it doesn't matter for the story. Now.
(06:32):
I should say that I get scared easily, and always have.
I'm a skinny, fragile kid, so I get nervous pretty
easily even now. But this time it wasn't just me
getting scared for no reason like usual anyway, So the
hotel had an unusual design like the lobby was on
(06:52):
the fourth floor, not the first floor, which felt odd
to me. So to get to the lobby you had
to take the elevator, and you couldn't reach there using
the stairs, which would have been good to know before
everything else happened. The hotel was built in a square shape.
Each floor had a balcony where you could look down
(07:14):
into the lobby and cafe area. This meant that if
you were walking to your room, anyone on your floor
could see you just by stepping out of their room
and looking around. I was always scared I might fall
over the balcony and drop eight floors, but the railings
were high enough that I didn't worry too much. The
first couple of days were fun. My friends and I
(07:36):
played cards all day or watched whatever was on TV,
and at night we walked around the hotel halls and
told ghost stories. But on the third day, though, things
got weird. I woke up to loud screaming outside my door.
Because of the hotel's design, sounds from the lobby could
(07:56):
echo all the way to the top floors. I stepped
outside to see what was going on and looked over
the balcony down below. I saw a girl on the
ground with eggs and milks build all around her. People
were rushing to help her, and I heard some of
them saying to call nine one one. It looked like
the girl was unconscious, maybe she had fainted. I looked
(08:20):
around the lobby and saw my family and a few
friends eating breakfast watching what was happening, so I decided
to go down to join them and find out what
was going on. The elevator was on the other side
of my floor, so I used the stairs near my room.
We were on the seventh or eighth floor, so I
(08:40):
only needed to go down about four flights. It wasn't
a big deal. I started going down, looking for the
number four on the wall or the letter L for
the lobby. I passed the fifth floor and kept going,
but after a couple more flights, I noticed there was
no door for the fourth floor. There wasn't a door
(09:03):
for the third or second floor either. At this point
I probably should have gone back, but I kept going
because I was tired and didn't want to go back up.
I saw some strange side hallways that led to dark
areas with pipes and wires. I felt curious, but decided
not to check them out. Soon I reached the bottom floor.
(09:28):
It was a cold, dimly lit room with cinderblock walls
and concrete floors. In front of me, there was a
pair of double doors. I paused for a moment, but
figured this was just another way to the lobby, so
I opened the doors and went in. Behind them was
a huge warehouse like room, about the size of a
(09:48):
small basketball stadium. The only light came from the stairwell
behind me, so I couldn't see much inside. There were
stairs stacked and covered in plastic wrap, tables along the wall,
and in the distance. I thought I saw boxes piled
up against the wall too, so it was probably the
hotel's storage room. I looked around and noticed an elevator
(10:13):
at the back of the room, so I started walking
toward it. I closed the stairwell door behind me and
walked through the dim light. The room felt hot and dusty,
like no one had been there for a long time.
I pressed the up button, but nothing happened. There was
a card swiper next to it. I thought it was
(10:35):
probably for employees only. I turned back to the stairwell
doors and walked past the chairs and tables along the wall.
When I reached the door. I tried to open it,
but it was locked. Of course, this is when things
started to hit me and I realized I was stuck
in the dark, dusty basement of the hotel. I didn't
(10:58):
have a phone because my parents said I couldn't get
one until I finished middle school, so I couldn't call anyone,
and everyone probably thought I was still in my room,
so I started to panic, thinking no one would look
for me. Now, some parts of the room were brighter,
so I looked around in those areas first before checking
(11:19):
the darker parts. I found another set of doors, but
they were locked. Two it felt like ours, But I
think only a few minutes passed before I heard a
door creak open. It wasn't the stairwell door, but the
second one I had found. A thin, middle aged man
in a lab coat stepped out of the door. If
(11:41):
I had been twenty one, I would have been really
confused about why he was wearing a lab coat in
a hotel, but I was only twelve or thirteen at
the time, so I felt relieved to see an adult
who looked smart. I approached him with tears in my eyes,
and he looked surprised to see me, just like you'd expect.
(12:03):
What are you doing down here? I got lost on
my way to the lobby and got locked in here.
Do you have a key? I was shaking, wanting to
get out. He didn't answer about the key, but instead
said I know a way out. Follow me. He started
(12:24):
walking towards the stairwell doors and I followed. We got
to the doors and I reached for the handle, but
he kept walking. Isn't it right here? I asked him.
I will never forget the look on his face when
I said that. He looked nervous, and even though it
was dark, I could see sweat on his forehead and
(12:45):
behind his glasses. No, this way, he said firmly. I
kept following him, but now I was nervous too. We
passed the stairwell door and were heading to a darker
part of the basement, away from the elevators. He looked
like he didn't know where he was going, as he
(13:05):
kept looking around like he was seeing everything for the
first time. We turned a corner and started walking toward
the boxes, which led to a dead end. I stopped
right away, realizing something was very wrong. This guy didn't
know where he was going, and he didn't seem to
work at the hotel. Hey, wait, where are we going?
(13:28):
He turned and said, this way, Just follow me. I
knew there were no doors by the boxes because I
had checked there first. When I found the stairwell door
was locked, I'm thankful for whatever gave me the idea
I had. Next, I started yelling as loud as I could.
I yelled so loudly that I gave myself a headache.
(13:50):
The man, annoyed and covering his ears, yelled back at me,
what are you doing? Be quiet? But I kept yelling,
and I don't even remember how how long it lasted,
But fortunately the man snapped and started walking toward me.
I ran as fast as I could towards the stairwell doors,
hoping they would somehow be open. He didn't run after me.
(14:14):
He just walked behind me, calling me names like stupid
and other kind compliments. I was about a few feet
from the door when someone suddenly came through. My savior,
a hotel janitor who had heard my screaming from the stairwell.
The janitor asked me who the man was, and I
told him I didn't know. I said the man had
(14:37):
come in through the door on the other side of
the room and pointed to it. The janitor quickly radioed
the front desk, telling them he found a child in
the basement. The man in the lab coat started arguing
with the janitor, saying he was just looking for a bathroom,
but the janitor clearly didn't believe him and kept saying
(14:58):
things like wait until security gets here and talk to them.
I was standing next to him, trying to understand what
was happening, completely confused. Finally, an employee from the front
desk came and took me back up the steps to
the lobby, where I met my family. They surprisingly didn't
know I was missing. I told them what happened, crying
(15:22):
and shaking, and they hugged me tightly, thanking the employee
again and again for their help. I never got to
thank that janitor. Looking back, I have no idea what
that man was doing in the basement. I don't know
what happened after that, or who he was. I do
know the thing with the girl in the lobby was unrelated,
(15:44):
something about low blood sugar. I think I've thought about
that day a lot, and the only explanation I can
come up with is that the door I found in
the basement led to the streets of the city where
he must have come from. He had no idea what
his intentions were, why he was wearing a lab coat,
(16:04):
or why he pretended to know a way out. Honestly,
this could have just been a big misunderstanding, and I
picked a really bad time to get lost. My parents'
(16:25):
house is right next to a small red house, and
our backyard faces the side of that house, which has
a wooden deck and two big windows out in front.
There were always at least three cars parked in the
driveway or on the street, but no one ever seemed
to use them. It was strange because in the ten
(16:45):
years I stayed there, I never saw anyone going in
or out of the house, not even to check the
mail or take out the trash. Then one evening, when
I was around twelve, I was in the backyard and
happened to look toward the red house through one of
the windows. I noticed faint shadows moving on the far wall,
(17:05):
almost like people were walking around inside. It caught my
attention because it was the only time I ever saw
any kind of movement in that house. Then, after a while,
when my sister moved out, I took her bedroom. It
was a big, open room in the basement that had
(17:26):
been fixed up nicely. The room had a door with
an outdoor stairway leading to the back yard, and there
was a small window on the door, and my sister
had covered it with a pulp fiction poster. But when
I moved in, I changed the decorations and put up
sheer half curtains instead of the poster. The room was
(17:47):
set up so that if I was lying on the
bed or sitting on the couch, I could see the
door right in front of me. When I first started
staying in that room, I noticed that sometimes at night
I could hear the sound of leeves crunching in the
stairway outside. I thought it was just my cat who
(18:07):
liked to wander around the neighborhood, so I didn't worry
about it. But a few weeks later something happened that
made me think differently. So one night, when my parents
were away for work, my boyfriend and I were sitting
on the couch and talking. Then all of a sudden,
he froze and stared at the small window on the door.
(18:28):
He didn't say a word, but I could tell something
had caught his attention. So I asked him what was wrong,
and he said, I just saw a camera flash. At
first I laughed it off, thinking he was just imagining things.
But as the night went on, I couldn't shake the
strange feeling. So when it was time to sleep, I
(18:53):
kept glancing at the small gap between the curtains on
the door. The stairwell outside was completely dark, since there
wasn't a light there. If someone was really standing at
the bottom of the stairs watching, I wouldn't have been
able to tell. Then around three in the morning, I
heard the sound of leaves crunching under heavy boots. For
(19:18):
some reason, I decided that the best thing to do
was to handle it myself, even though I'm only five
feet three inches, I didn't even bother putting on shoes
and opened the door quickly and looked outside. There was
no one in the stairway, so I ran up the
stairs into the backyard. That's when I saw him, a
(19:39):
man probably in his mid forties, about six feet tall,
wearing one of those mechanic jumpsuits. He was just standing there.
He was holding an old, clunky digital camera that looked
like it hadn't been used in years. For a moment,
neither of us moved. We just stared at him, each
(20:00):
other frozen. The way he stood there made my skin crawl.
It felt like an eternity before I finally found my
voice and shouted, Hey, what are you doing. My words
startled him, and without saying anything, he spun around and bolted.
He ran straight through my back yard toward the Red House,
(20:22):
and disappeared into the darkness. I stood there, shaking, trying
to process what had just happened. After that night, I
never saw any strange camera flashes or heard the sound
of boots in the stairwell again, but the thought still
haunts me. How many nights had he been standing there
(20:44):
in the shadows, silently watching me
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.