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Speaker 1: Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here.

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Let's get into it. My uncle Ben ran this old

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self storage place out near Kessler, New Jersey, just past

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a bend on one hundred forty seven. His facility was

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touched behind a line of overgrown pines and a rousted

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chain link fence, with the gate to jowned if you

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closed it too fast. Ben had been running that place

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for years. I used to help him once in a

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while when I was younger, changing locks, clearing out abandoned units,

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spraying for spiders when exterminated didn't show so when he

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called me one evening and asked if I could cover

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the night shifts for a couple weeks while he recovered

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from charlder surgery, I said sure. He said he'd pay

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me in cash. He'd be easy to stay awake, lock

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anyone who came in after iyres and make sure the

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place didn't catch fire. I was between jobs at the time,

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trying to figure out what the hell I wanted to

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do next. So the time I worked at Plus, I

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figured it might be nice to have some quiet time

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to myself. I brought books, my laptop, snacks. Thought it'd

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be kind of peace. The office itself looked like it

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hadn't changed since nineteen ninety six. Dej everything dusty fate

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plaid in the corner, a filing cabinet that stuck when

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you opened it. The heater was ancient, and I swear

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at cuff when it turned on. But there was a desk,

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an old coffee pot, and a little monitor set up

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that showed each row of units. The law had about

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fifty units total, spread across two long rows, with a

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single motion light above each door. Most of them were

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vacant or hadn't been opened in years. The first two

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nights were uneventful. I stayed in the office, streained some

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old episodes of Mythbisters, and drank away too much coffee

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from my Theramis. Thereat there was dry and sharp at night,

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and the silence hit different. Not peaceful exactly, just empty,

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the kind of quiet that makes you notice how loud

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your own breathing is. Then came the third night. It

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was around two point thirty in the morning. I'd just

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finished a leucwm cuff of gas station chili and was

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debating if I could take a nap without technically breaking

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the rolls. That's when I noticed the light on the monitor.

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It wasn't just flickering, it was full on Unit forty two.

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That one always stood out to me because it had

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its own interior light. None of the others did not

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like that. Just along fluorescent strip bolted to the ceiling.

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I checked the gate logs, no enterers, No one had

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come in still. I threw on my jacket, grabbed the flasklight,

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and headed out. The error was freezing. Each step crunched

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hard against the gravel, like walking on broken glass. My

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flasklight beam jumped across the rows of units, catching rust

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and peeling paint. When I reached forty two, the door

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was cracked open, just enough to see lights spilling out

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from inside. Pollisy said that if a door was open,

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I had to investigate and document it, so I called

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out twice. I waited nothing. I pulled the door open

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the rest of the way. A fullescent light boast above

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me like it was struggling to stay alive. The unit

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was full of the usual junk boxes with torn labels,

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the treadmill with one handle missing, a craft rubber mad bin.

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But there was something else in the back, leaned carefully

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against a wall was a huge mirror seven feet tall

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at least, with the thick, cough frame that looked like

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like something from an old Estates sail. The wood had

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these culling vine like patterns, and it looked weirdly pristine.

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No dust, no nicks, not even any fingerprints. The glass

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was even stranger, perfectly clean. It didn't match the rest

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of the unit at all, which looked like it hadn't

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been touched in a decade. I stepped closer, mostly just curious,

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I guess I expected to see myself looking tired and cold.

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But the second I got up closed, something fell wrong.

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It was my reflection. Yeah, same closed, the same stance,

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but my chest was moving. My reflection was breeding rapidly,

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like it had just sprinted across the lot I was moving.

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I frozen, just watched it for a few seconds, my

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hand slowly dropping away from the flashlight. Then it stopped,

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distilled back to normal. I backed out of the unit

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without another word, pulled the door shut hard, and locked

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it Back in the office. I called Ben. It was

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almost three in the morning, and he answered sounding half asleep.

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When I told him what I saw, he didn't even

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pretend to be surprised, just said don't go back in there.

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That unit's been strange for years. I should have warned you.

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That was it. No explanation, No, you're seeing things, or

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maybe it was a trick of the light, just a warning,

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like he'd been waiting for this call. The next night,

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I tried to ignore it. I even flipped the monitor

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off and kept the blinds closed. I figured if I

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didn't see anything, I wouldn't have to deal with it.

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But around one point forty five, the monitor flickered on

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by itself, just static for a few seconds, then a

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clear image. The door to Unit forty two rolled open again.

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I stared at for way too long before grabbing the

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flask flight. I don't know what I thought I was

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going to do, shoe away a ghost reason with the mirror.

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The unit was empty, no light, no boxes, no mirror,

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just cold concrete and the soft echo of my own footsteps.

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I turned to head back, and that's when I saw

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something move in the reflection of another unit's door, just

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a blow, like some one ducking behind me. But when

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I spun around, nothing was there. I ran back to

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the office and slammed the door shut behind me. My

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hands wouldn't stop shaking, I kept telling myself it was

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to stress, just imagination. Then around four in the morning

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came the knocking, not on the door, on the back window.

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There's an arrow window behind the desk that faces the

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gravel lot. I hadn't looked at it all night. I

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moved toward it slow, heart pounding so loud it drowned

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out the heater. When I peeked through the blinds, my

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legs almost gave out. The mirror was back, propped up

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against the outside of the glass, facing in the reflection,

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staring at me. Was moving, wasn't blinking. The eyes were

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wide just a little too why, like someone trying to

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fake what normal looks like. I didn't move. I couldn't.

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Eventually the sun started to rise, and just like that,

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the mirror was gone. I left the keys on the

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counter that morning, didn't even leave a note. I just

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got in my car and drove home. Three weeks later,

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Ben's wife called. He died in his sleep, stroke, they said,

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but she mentioned something odd. When they found him, he

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was upright in bed, eyes open, looking like he'd been

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frozen mid thought. There was a shard of glass in

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his hand, dried around his fingers. Nothing came out After investigation,

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they said it was a natural death. Back then, I

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was working nights at the Bellman Theater downtown. The front

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looked nice, marble floors, shiny brass fixtures, all restored to

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this slightly over the top version of his nineteen forty self.

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I was the overnight supervisor for the clean up crew

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ten p m. To six a m. One Thursday night

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in early March, two of the regular cleaners, Morsel and Gina,

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called out. I remember because they always brought coffee on

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break and I missed it. With them gone, I had

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to cover their rounds upstairs. It was one of those

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nights where everything felt slightly off kilter. The upper levels

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of the theater were always strange. The echoes up there

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did something weird, like you'd hear footsteps a second after

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you moved, or voices would bounce some ways that made

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you pause and listen, but I'd gotten used to it.

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Around midnight, I was in one of the supply rooms

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off the second four whole log and cleaning supplies. I

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had my tablet open, checking off what we had left,

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paper towels, decrease or toilet paper. That's when I noticed

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the red binder. It was just sitting there on top

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of the Mott's sink, plain red, slightly frayed at the corners.

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We didn't use physical binders. Everything was tracked online. I

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thought maybe someone left an old doc up behind, but

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I couldn't remember ever seeing it there before I opened it.

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The first page was labeled stage left story dark, even

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thick black pain underneath a lust of inventory boxes, props, lighting, gels, cables,

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all handterton. I frowned. That section had been sailed since

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long before I started. Management said the stairs were unstable.

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No one went down there. I closed it and figured

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it was just some weird left over from an old

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inventory market has found. Tucked it under my arm and

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brought it back to the front office. I locked it

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inside the cabinet under the desk, double lock actually, and

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wrote the time down in my shift notes. About an

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hour or later, I was during another sweep, and when

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I passed the same supply room, I saw it again,

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sitting on the exact same shelf, exact same angle. The

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office was still locked. I didn't even try to come

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up with an explanation that made sense. I just stared

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at it if a bit, then picked it up again

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and walked straight back. This time I placed it under

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the front desk camera, right in the middle of the frame,

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so I could catch anything that happened to it. Fifteen

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minutes later I checked the footage. It wasn't there. I

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don't mean someone moved it. I mean it just wasn't

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visible in the footage. One frame, it was sitting there

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the next then like it skipped over the part where

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it should have existed. I went back up to the

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supply room. There it was. I didn I didn't touch

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it this time, just stood there for a few minutes,

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then left. I didn't even write it down in the

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lock What would I write. Later that night, I walked

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the upper hallway to lock up the restrooms. I passed

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the usual row of dressing rooms and service closets, and

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just as I reached the bignyard the back staircase, I

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saw one door slightly open. It had a small plaque

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before my lounge. That area was restored abt the walls

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back there were still water stained. As far as I knew,

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no one had been in there in years. Only one

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key existed for me. I pushed it open. The air

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was colder than the rest of the floor. I remember

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the way it hit me, not like a see cold,

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but still sharp, like the kind of cold you feel

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on new gums when you bite into eyes. The room

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was mostly empty. A row of vanity mirrors lined one wall.

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Most of the bulbs cracked are missing thus clung to everything.

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A few steel sat scattered across the space, one knocked over.

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There was a folding dressing screen in the corner with

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a long tear in the fabric, and in the middle

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of the room the binder it was lying up in,

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this time a different page. The handwriting looked the same,

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but the heading had changed. This one said entries beneath

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it five names first and last, no dates, no job titles.

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I only recognized one of them, mine next to it,

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written in small capital letters, filed. I closed the door

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and left the building without saying a word to any one.

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The next night I called and sick, send a half

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hard a text about migraine, and stared at my phone

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the rest of the night waiting for some response. Nothing.

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Sleep well, kept thinking I was hearing the soft kind

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of pipes or movement upstairs. By the following evening, I

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felt ridiculous, told myself I was being dramatic, probably a

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prank or some way had left of her from a

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past employee. I decided to finish the week and quit properly.

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Everything seemed normal at first, until I went back to

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that mop room. The biner was in the sync, this

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time closed. It wasn't just sitting there casually either. It

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looked like it had been dropped hard when edge hanging

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into a drain, like it wanted to slip away. I

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opened it. The names were gone. There was just one

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short paragraph in the center of the page under the

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heading returned Erective. The handwriting was different, now shaky and small,

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like someone was writing in a hurry. The ink was darker.

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Tew led into the paper. It read rehearsal and complete

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proceed a green room. We didn't have a green room.

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I pulled up the floor plan on my dabbot. No

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such label anywhere. But even as I told myself that,

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I started walking down the hallway behind the stage, past

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the orchestra pit entrance. Everything felt like the walls had

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shifted slightly closer. Then I saw a door and never

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paid much attention to a label set into the wall

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like a fire exit of storage. I assumed it led

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to electrical systems. I tried the knob. It opened stairs,

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led downward. The air was stale and warm with an upstairs,

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but there was light at the bottom, one single bulb

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swinging slightly, making the soft almost imperceptible. Hum I heard

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a piano, not a recording, a real piano, just a

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few notes, played slowly like someone rehearsing scales, without much enthusiasm.

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I stood there, not breathing, for maybe thirty seconds. Then

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I shut the door and locked it in the hallway.

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I pulled up my phone and tied to resignation email

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right then and there no notice. I didn't even read

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it over, just HiT's end. I turned around ready to

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get out, and the binder was in the floor behind me.

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I didn't even hesitate, picked it up, walked out the

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main doors, crossed the street, and left it on a

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bench outside a little sandwich shop across from the lot.

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I drove home, didn't turn on the radio, didn't stop

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for gas, just white knuckle the wheel all the way.

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At the time, I worked for a property services company

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based in southern Indiana. Our job was simple, haul out

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00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,960
whatever was left, document the condition, take photos, and prepped

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the place for a locksmith or inspector. That Thursday, I

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00:12:16,799 --> 00:12:18,720
got sent to a single story brick house outside a

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00:12:18,759 --> 00:12:21,480
small town called Ashfield. It's had at the end of

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a long wooded road with no sidewalk and barely any

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00:12:23,919 --> 00:12:27,519
cell service. I'd never been down that stretch before. The

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00:12:27,559 --> 00:12:29,919
property had apparently been untouched for over half a year.

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00:12:30,519 --> 00:12:33,200
No electricity, no running water, just a house full of

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00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:35,440
whatever the previous owner coudn't or wouldn't take with them.

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When I pulled up, the driver was cracked and mossy,

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00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:40,519
and the mail box was hanging by one screw. The

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00:12:40,559 --> 00:12:43,279
grass had grown into stiff yellow stalks that crunched underfoot.

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00:12:43,879 --> 00:12:46,799
Nothing felt particularly speaky or out of place, just another

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00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:51,399
dead house on another forgotten road. I grabbed my gloves, flashlight, crowbar,

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00:12:51,519 --> 00:12:53,759
and clip board from the truck, ran through the checklist

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00:12:53,759 --> 00:12:56,159
in my head, and headed up to the porch. The

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00:12:56,200 --> 00:12:59,840
front door was already unlocked, which wasn't that weird. Sometimes

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00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:02,639
the bank's ends out of locksmith ahead of time. Still

261
00:13:02,759 --> 00:13:06,120
something about it bugged me. The door frame looked slightly warped,

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00:13:06,159 --> 00:13:08,320
like the wood had shifted sideways a bit. Even though

263
00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:11,159
there wasn't any visible damage. It was like the house

264
00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:12,960
itself had leaned away from the door at some point

265
00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,840
and never quite settled back. I made a mental note

266
00:13:15,879 --> 00:13:19,879
and pushed it open. The air inside was dense, not stinky,

267
00:13:20,039 --> 00:13:22,720
just still dry on a moving like a cross base

268
00:13:22,799 --> 00:13:25,759
or sealed basement. You know that muffled silence. Yet when

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00:13:25,759 --> 00:13:28,320
nothing's been disturbed for a while, that was the first

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00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:31,519
thing I noticed. Even my footsteps felt quieter than usual.

271
00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:35,120
The furniture was all gone, except for some thick bundles

272
00:13:35,159 --> 00:13:37,879
of newspapers stacked neatly in the living room, tied with twine.

273
00:13:38,279 --> 00:13:40,720
I checked the top copy out of Habit The date

274
00:13:40,799 --> 00:13:43,720
was over five years old. That felt strange, even for

275
00:13:43,759 --> 00:13:46,559
a foreclosure. I started in the usual way, checked the

276
00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:50,159
front rooms, photographed the walls, looked for water damage. One

277
00:13:50,159 --> 00:13:53,279
bedroom was empty, Another had a few broken hangers on

278
00:13:53,279 --> 00:13:55,960
the floor and some mold spots near the window. Nothing

279
00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:57,759
stood out until I got to the third room, which

280
00:13:57,759 --> 00:14:00,440
had clearly been used as some kind of home office.

281
00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:03,759
That's where it got weird. The walls were lined with shelves,

282
00:14:03,799 --> 00:14:06,120
and the shelves were filled wall to wall with food cans.

283
00:14:06,879 --> 00:14:10,799
Every single one had the label removed, just plain silver cans.

284
00:14:11,039 --> 00:14:13,720
Most of them lightly rusted around the rooms. They were

285
00:14:13,799 --> 00:14:17,759
organized carefully by size, tall ones on the left, smaller one,

286
00:14:17,799 --> 00:14:20,840
stacked in pyramids. There had to be hundreds of them,

287
00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:24,159
not a single label left behind. On the desks had

288
00:14:24,159 --> 00:14:26,480
a rotary phone, one of the old beige models from

289
00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:29,960
the seventies, completely unplugged. There wasn't even a phone jack

290
00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:32,039
on that side of the room. Next to it was

291
00:14:32,039 --> 00:14:34,960
a thick closed ledger book with a cloth cover written

292
00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:37,279
across the top and black ink was a single word hail,

293
00:14:37,399 --> 00:14:40,600
no title, no dress, just that name. I left it

294
00:14:40,639 --> 00:14:43,399
a load. At first. I went through the closet, moved

295
00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:46,120
some dusty file boxes, checked behind the door for any outlet,

296
00:14:46,279 --> 00:14:48,960
nothing unusual. But when I turned back to the desk,

297
00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:51,559
the phone was off the hook, just lying there on

298
00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:54,240
the wood, with a cold cord stretched out, like someone

299
00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:56,480
had picked it up and set it down gently. I

300
00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:59,559
stood still for a moment, then I said out loud, okay,

301
00:14:59,799 --> 00:15:03,639
not funny. Sometimes I talked to myself on jobs, not

302
00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:06,840
like full on conversations, just quick things to stay rounded.

303
00:15:07,519 --> 00:15:09,519
It's easier to feel like the one in control when

304
00:15:09,519 --> 00:15:11,960
your voice is the only one you hear. I picked

305
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:14,559
up the receiver half expecting it to be dead. But

306
00:15:14,639 --> 00:15:18,600
there was a slow hum, faint but steady. Not static,

307
00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:21,279
not static, more like the vibration you get near an

308
00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:24,200
old pow line or a giant transformer. There was no

309
00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:27,440
electricity in the house. I'd confirmed it before I walked in.

310
00:15:28,039 --> 00:15:29,960
I set the phone back in the cradle a little

311
00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:32,600
harder than I meant to. I stepped back out into

312
00:15:32,639 --> 00:15:35,039
the hallway. Half Way down was a closet door I

313
00:15:35,039 --> 00:15:38,159
had passed her alier. It had been shut. Now it

314
00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:39,840
was cracked up at about a foot and light was

315
00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:43,240
spilling out from his side. I stopped walking. There was

316
00:15:43,279 --> 00:15:46,559
no power, no light should be on, but through that

317
00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:48,879
crack I could see the unmistakable yellow glow of a

318
00:15:48,919 --> 00:15:51,399
single bulb. I pushed the door open all the way

319
00:15:52,039 --> 00:15:55,279
Inside was a small utility closet, empty except for a

320
00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:58,120
folded lawn chair in the center of the floor. It

321
00:15:58,159 --> 00:16:01,279
was positioned to face the back. All directly on that wall.

322
00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:04,120
Written in thick pencil in uneven lines were the words

323
00:16:04,159 --> 00:16:07,840
I remember who left. I didn't go inside, I didn't

324
00:16:07,879 --> 00:16:10,879
touch anything. I just closed the door slowly and walked away.

325
00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:14,279
Back in the office, I finally opened the ledger The

326
00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:17,840
first dozen pages were lists of initials and dates. Every

327
00:16:17,919 --> 00:16:20,159
name was marked with a single daaconal slashed through it

328
00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:23,279
like a running tale. But about half way through the

329
00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:27,440
book the pattern changed. The entries turned into phrases front

330
00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:32,679
door twice, cabinet twelve, bedroom, blanket off, and then the

331
00:16:32,759 --> 00:16:35,879
last one, see if they notice. I closed the book,

332
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:37,759
carried it out to the living room, and placed it

333
00:16:37,799 --> 00:16:40,080
on top of the box I was collecting with other removables.

334
00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:43,600
That's when I noticed the newspapers. They weren't in stacks

335
00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:46,440
any more. They'd been rearranged, laid out in a circle

336
00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:49,200
on the floor, evenly spaced, each bundle pointing toward the center,

337
00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:53,000
like spokes on a wheel. I hadn't heard anything, nothing

338
00:16:53,039 --> 00:16:55,120
had moved while I was in the other room. But

339
00:16:55,159 --> 00:16:57,519
I swear to you they weren't like that ten minutes earlier.

340
00:16:58,120 --> 00:16:59,679
That was if for me. I loaded what I had

341
00:16:59,679 --> 00:17:01,840
into the track, left the checklist half filled in the

342
00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:04,559
passenger seat, and got ready to leave. But as I

343
00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:07,480
reached for the keys, I realized i'd left my flashlight inside.

344
00:17:08,039 --> 00:17:10,359
I sigh cursed under my breath, then walked back up

345
00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:13,519
to the porch. The front door was wide open. I

346
00:17:13,559 --> 00:17:16,519
know I shut it. I always shut it. It's part

347
00:17:16,519 --> 00:17:20,279
of the routine, muscle memory, one of those small habits

348
00:17:20,279 --> 00:17:23,119
you don't even think about until it gets interrupted. I

349
00:17:23,119 --> 00:17:26,359
stepped back inside, keeping my footsteps quiet. This time. I

350
00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:29,400
went straight to the office. My flasklight was sitting on

351
00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:32,319
the desk, but the phone was gone. Then I heard it,

352
00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:36,680
that soft, deliberate clicking sound, a rotary dial being turned

353
00:17:36,759 --> 00:17:41,160
one number at a time, slow mechanical, coming from the

354
00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:43,720
bedroom across the hall. I didn't want to go, but

355
00:17:43,759 --> 00:17:47,839
I took a step, then another, and I looked. Nothing

356
00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:50,839
in the room had changed, except now the rotary foe

357
00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:52,559
was sitting in the carpet right in the middle of

358
00:17:52,599 --> 00:17:56,279
the floor, still unplugged. The receiver was resting in the cradle.

359
00:17:56,839 --> 00:17:59,480
The sound had stopped on the window of the bed

360
00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:02,680
drawn backward, and the condensation with the same five words,

361
00:18:03,359 --> 00:18:06,519
I remember who left? I turned around, walked straight out,

362
00:18:07,039 --> 00:18:10,920
No running, no panic, just a very control, very steady walk.

363
00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:13,759
I got in the track, locked the doors, and didn't

364
00:18:13,759 --> 00:18:16,799
stop driving until I was back in town. Two days later.

365
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:19,559
My manager call to ask why I hadn't completed the checklist.

366
00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:22,319
I told him the foundation was unstable and I had

367
00:18:22,319 --> 00:18:25,279
a migraine. He didn't press it, just reassigned a job.

368
00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:28,000
I was twenty seven when I moved into the basement

369
00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:31,079
unit off Howard Street, just outside of Rochester, not far

370
00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:33,279
from an old church in the sketchy looking tire shop

371
00:18:33,279 --> 00:18:35,680
with a busted knee unsign that flickered even during the day.

372
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:38,119
I didn't love the area, but the rent was low,

373
00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:40,240
and more importantly, I didn't need to put down three

374
00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:42,680
months deposit, which felt like a miracle at the time.

375
00:18:43,279 --> 00:18:45,119
The house was a red brick split level with a

376
00:18:45,119 --> 00:18:47,200
front porch that looked like it had been sacking since

377
00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:50,960
the nineties. My place was the basement unit. It had

378
00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:53,240
its own side entrance, which felt like a bonus at

379
00:18:53,279 --> 00:18:56,000
the time, more privacy. There was also a locked door

380
00:18:56,039 --> 00:18:58,400
that connected to the main house. It led to a

381
00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:01,720
narrow staircase up to Vince's place. We both have locks

382
00:19:01,759 --> 00:19:03,880
on our side, but the stairs were still there, just

383
00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:06,559
sitting behind a hollow corridor, like a weird little passage

384
00:19:06,559 --> 00:19:10,119
nobody used. I could hear Vince walking around Uplu. Sometimes

385
00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:13,400
he wore heavy boots, and occasionally I'd hear coughing late

386
00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:15,799
at night. The guy sounded like he'd smoked a chin

387
00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:18,559
as worth in his life. The first time I noticed

388
00:19:18,559 --> 00:19:20,759
the cold patch was maybe a week after I moved in.

389
00:19:21,359 --> 00:19:23,440
I was doing the laundry and stepped barefoot on to

390
00:19:23,519 --> 00:19:26,359
something that felt wrong, not wet, not soft, just called

391
00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:28,480
like freezer cold. A single dinner plate sized patch of

392
00:19:28,519 --> 00:19:30,599
concrete right in the middle of the laundry room floor.

393
00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:32,480
It didn't look any different than the rest of the floor,

394
00:19:32,519 --> 00:19:34,240
but every time I stood on it, even in socks,

395
00:19:34,279 --> 00:19:36,240
I felt this deep, metallic chill shoot up my leg.

396
00:19:36,279 --> 00:19:38,440
I started stepping around it just out of instinct. I

397
00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:40,279
didn't even question it at first. You know how your

398
00:19:40,319 --> 00:19:43,000
body just sort of avoids stuff that feels off. It

399
00:19:43,119 --> 00:19:47,440
was like that. By mid January, things got brutal outside Rochester.

400
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:50,039
Windows don't miss around, and this one came with single

401
00:19:50,079 --> 00:19:52,160
digits in that sharp, dry, aired up bites you skin.

402
00:19:52,759 --> 00:19:54,839
I kept a little space heater running in the bedroom

403
00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:57,839
at night, mostly to stay sane, but even then i'd

404
00:19:57,880 --> 00:19:59,759
wake up in the mornings and see my breath hanging

405
00:19:59,759 --> 00:20:03,559
in the eh. The heater was working, it just wasn't enough.

406
00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:06,079
The place felt like it was trying to freeze me out.

407
00:20:06,799 --> 00:20:09,640
The night it happened. I gone to bed early, I remember,

408
00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:12,200
because I'd fallen asleep watching something dumb on my laptop,

409
00:20:12,279 --> 00:20:14,920
and when I woke up, everything was off, the heater,

410
00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:20,279
the power, total silence. Now, silence doesn't usually feel like

411
00:20:20,319 --> 00:20:22,960
a thing, right, but in that basement, with the heater

412
00:20:23,039 --> 00:20:26,240
always humming and the occasional thud from upstairs, it was

413
00:20:26,279 --> 00:20:30,400
the kind of silence that hits you in the chest, thick, unnatural.

414
00:20:31,039 --> 00:20:34,759
I reached over to flick on my bedside lamp. Nothing tried.

415
00:20:34,759 --> 00:20:40,319
The main lights witch also dead. Okay, power outage, I thought, annoying,

416
00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:42,960
but not the end of the world. I got up,

417
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:46,960
mostly because I wanted minehiler colder and no ventilation was

418
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,759
a great combo for my asthma. I always kept the

419
00:20:49,799 --> 00:20:51,799
inhalo on the corner of my dress of habit, but

420
00:20:51,839 --> 00:20:53,799
when I reached for it, my hand landed on smooth,

421
00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:57,720
empty wood. But I checked the floor, looked behind the lamp,

422
00:20:57,759 --> 00:20:59,359
pulled the drawer open in case I knocked it him

423
00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:03,039
by mistake. Nothing. And then I looked toward the window.

424
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:06,079
That tiny basement window always had just enough light from

425
00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:08,960
the porch bulb to outline the edges. It was much,

426
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:10,880
but it let me know the outside world was still

427
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:14,839
there that night, though the glass look completely black, not dim,

428
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:18,119
not shadowed, just gone, like the window had disappeared or

429
00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:20,920
been painted over. I leaned a little closer, trying to

430
00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:22,799
figure out if maybe the light bulb had burned up.

431
00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:25,920
And that's when I heard it, right behind me, a

432
00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:29,079
man's voice, calm and close. You're not breathing. I jumped

433
00:21:29,079 --> 00:21:32,519
and spun around. My whole body went cold. There was

434
00:21:32,559 --> 00:21:35,480
no one there, but my chest got My chest was tied.

435
00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:38,519
My trip felt like some one was slowly pressing it closed.

436
00:21:39,119 --> 00:21:41,319
I couldn't get a full breath in. You know when

437
00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:42,720
you suck for a straw with a crack in it

438
00:21:42,759 --> 00:21:45,200
and nothing comes up. It felt like that, but in

439
00:21:45,279 --> 00:21:47,960
my lungs. I stumble, dropped to my knees, tried to

440
00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:51,079
crawl toward my phone. It was charging across the room, screen,

441
00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:54,880
glowing faintly in the dark. My fingers barely worked. I

442
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,240
got maybe halfway her before my vision narrowed and the

443
00:21:57,279 --> 00:22:00,000
floor came rushing up to meet me. And then nothing,

444
00:22:00,759 --> 00:22:04,200
not then just blank. When I came to you, I

445
00:22:04,279 --> 00:22:07,039
wasn't in the bedroom any more. I was in the stairs,

446
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:10,720
those locks, stairs to Vince's place. My head was resting

447
00:22:10,759 --> 00:22:13,640
against the bottom step, and my phone was in my hand, unlocked,

448
00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:17,680
emergency dial, screen open. I didn't remember walking there. I

449
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,880
didn't remember getting up at all. I definitely didn't remember

450
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:24,599
unlocking the door. I blinked a few times. My chest

451
00:22:24,759 --> 00:22:27,440
felt like it was full of sand. Then I looked up.

452
00:22:28,039 --> 00:22:30,000
There was some one standing on the landing above me.

453
00:22:30,279 --> 00:22:33,480
Not fence. This guy I was younger, midman, as third

454
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:38,000
as maidie, shaggy hair, faded Bill's hoodie, just standing there watching.

455
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:42,200
Except he wasn't watching. He wasn't even facing me exactly.

456
00:22:42,839 --> 00:22:44,680
His head was tilted down like he was looking at

457
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:47,640
the stairs, but his eyes never met mine. And then,

458
00:22:47,759 --> 00:22:50,400
without turning, he stepped backward, smuth and slow, like he

459
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:52,920
was moving on rails, and disappeared into the shadows at

460
00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,119
the top of the staircase. That was it. Next thing

461
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:58,680
I remember, I was in the hospital, tubes in my nose,

462
00:22:58,759 --> 00:23:01,799
some one adjusting monitors beside me. Vince had found me

463
00:23:01,839 --> 00:23:04,960
pass out against the door, barely breathing, and called an ambulance.

464
00:23:05,519 --> 00:23:08,279
It was three point thirty in the morning at the hospital.

465
00:23:08,319 --> 00:23:11,960
They told me it was a chemical reaction, severe respiratory inflammation,

466
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:15,039
like an allergic attack, but worse. They asked if I'd

467
00:23:15,039 --> 00:23:18,759
been exposed to insulation ceilants were rubber fumes, stuff like that.

468
00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:21,720
I told them no, but Vince filled in the blank slater.

469
00:23:22,319 --> 00:23:23,920
I was twenty eight when I took a night job

470
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:25,920
at a small roadside a hotel just outside a town

471
00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:29,240
called Red Hall Pines. The hotel wasn't part of any chain,

472
00:23:30,039 --> 00:23:32,519
just one of the squat, single story buildings with twenty

473
00:23:32,599 --> 00:23:34,759
rooms in a U shape around a gravel parking lot.

474
00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:38,319
After the rooms had burnt up porch bulbs. The sign

475
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:40,640
up front used to say Cumberland Lodge, but most of

476
00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:43,039
the letters had peeled off, so it just said come low.

477
00:23:43,599 --> 00:23:46,119
The locals thought that was funny. I did two the

478
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:49,240
first week. I worked the overnight shift ten to six,

479
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,880
no other staff. The owner lived in New Jersey and

480
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:54,839
came up once a month to breathe heavily over the

481
00:23:54,839 --> 00:23:57,599
books and change the filter in the ice machine. The

482
00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:00,319
manager lived in Iraway and only showed up as something broke.

483
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:03,640
That meant I had the place to myself. Most nights

484
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:06,319
were uneventful. I'd sit at the desk in a tiny

485
00:24:06,319 --> 00:24:08,920
front office, drinking terrible coffee and watching mu to crime

486
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:11,519
shows and the TV bowlted to the wall. The vending

487
00:24:11,559 --> 00:24:13,400
machine would hum in the background like it was trying

488
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:15,880
to fall asleep, and every so often a tired truck

489
00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:17,599
or a guy on a business trip would roll in,

490
00:24:17,799 --> 00:24:20,559
bleary eyed and grateful. I'd hand over one of those

491
00:24:20,599 --> 00:24:22,559
fat brass keys and point them down. The whole were

492
00:24:22,599 --> 00:24:25,759
like a concierge in purgatory. I liked the quiet, Honestly,

493
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:28,960
after years of dancing between dead end retail jobs and

494
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,920
temp gigs with fluorescent lighting and four small talk, sitting

495
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:34,000
alone in a slightly musty room didn't feel like the

496
00:24:34,039 --> 00:24:36,839
worst thing. There was a kind of piece in knowing

497
00:24:36,839 --> 00:24:39,640
that nothing much was expected of me. That night didn't

498
00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:42,759
start off feeling different. The wind had picked up around midnight,

499
00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:45,680
not storm exactly, but the kind of dry gusts that

500
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:47,839
make the leaves shuffle around like there looking for something.

501
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:51,000
The lobby door was one of those old automatic sliding types,

502
00:24:51,359 --> 00:24:53,599
a kind that operates like its on its last legs.

503
00:24:54,279 --> 00:24:56,400
Every time the wind blew across the sensor, it would

504
00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,519
drag itself open an inch or two, make disexhausted mechanical

505
00:24:59,559 --> 00:25:02,319
wheeze and then snap shut like it was offended. It

506
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:05,279
was annoying, but not unusual. I even laughed at it

507
00:25:05,279 --> 00:25:07,519
once or twice, like yeah, buddy, I feel that too.

508
00:25:08,079 --> 00:25:10,440
Around two in the morning, I was wrapping up the audit,

509
00:25:10,599 --> 00:25:14,039
everything balanced. I shut the registered drawer with a satisfying

510
00:25:14,079 --> 00:25:16,359
little snap, stretched my back and was just reaching for

511
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:18,240
the light switch behind the desk when the front door

512
00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:22,480
side opened again. I looked up nothing. The parking lot

513
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:28,000
outside was still, no headlights, no silhouettes, no sign of movement.

514
00:25:28,599 --> 00:25:30,920
Then the door slid shut with a soft hiss. I

515
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:32,759
figured it was the wind again, but I walked over

516
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,480
to check anyway, habit I guess. I pressed my hand

517
00:25:36,519 --> 00:25:40,279
against the glass and looked out empty. Just my beat

518
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:43,519
up Corolla sitting alone under the flickering security light casting

519
00:25:43,599 --> 00:25:46,920
a nervous little shadow, and the gravel, no fresh tire tracks,

520
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:51,279
no footprints, just a uneasy stillness where everything looks normal

521
00:25:51,279 --> 00:25:54,079
but feels not. And then behind me, something hit the floor,

522
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:58,400
a sharp metal thunk. I turned fast. One of the

523
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:00,960
room keys, the six, was lying just behind the desk,

524
00:26:01,079 --> 00:26:03,119
a couple inches from the pedboard way. It usually harm.

525
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,200
The hook was still there, not bend or anything. The

526
00:26:06,279 --> 00:26:08,759
key had just dropped all on its own. They weren't

527
00:26:08,839 --> 00:26:11,960
light either. These were solid brass with thick leather tags.

528
00:26:12,559 --> 00:26:15,359
They didn't just fall off for no reason. Still, I

529
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,759
picked it up, maybe a little too quickly, and hung

530
00:26:17,759 --> 00:26:20,240
it back like that made things normal again. I took

531
00:26:20,279 --> 00:26:23,400
one step back and another key fell. This time it

532
00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:26,160
was eleven, and it didn't just drop straight down. It

533
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:28,279
bounced off the hook below. It clattered in the counter,

534
00:26:28,599 --> 00:26:31,480
then hit the floor. That one I didn't hand back up.

535
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:33,720
I just stared at it a second and stepped away.

536
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,160
The lobby fell, not cold, but thick, charged, charged, like

537
00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:38,480
the air before a thunderclap, or right after someone says

538
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:40,880
something unforgivable and the whole room forgets how to breathe.

539
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:42,720
I walked over to the door, fit the censor off

540
00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:44,839
and locked it manually. Then I sat back down behind

541
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:46,920
to ask every hair on my arm, standing up, telling

542
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:50,680
myself I was overreacting. Then the phone ram internal line

543
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:54,319
Room four. I stared at the blinking extension for a second.

544
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:57,319
No one was in four. It had been vacant for

545
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:01,519
over a week. I'd even walked past a DRLL that night. Doorshit,

546
00:27:02,279 --> 00:27:08,680
curtain pulled, same as always. I picked up slowly, front desk, nothing,

547
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:14,720
not even static Allo, nothing, then a click, just that.

548
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:17,400
I sat there for a moment, still holding the phone.

549
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:22,480
Then it rang again, Room nine. My stomach clenched. I

550
00:27:22,519 --> 00:27:25,759
picked up, tried to sound board, front desk pause. Then

551
00:27:25,799 --> 00:27:31,799
a voice, small, high pitched, definitely a child's voice. Are

552
00:27:31,839 --> 00:27:35,160
you alone? I hung up that time. I didn't wait.

553
00:27:35,799 --> 00:27:38,400
I told myself it was a glitch, that maybe the

554
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:41,680
phone system had cross wires, that maybe some guess kid

555
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:44,119
had got in hold of the receiver. But I already

556
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,400
knew none of the occupied rooms had kids in them.

557
00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:49,559
I checked the checkings myself, two eight and twelve, all

558
00:27:49,559 --> 00:27:52,799
solo travelers, all adults. I opened the system again and

559
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:57,319
double checked, same result. Still, I printed out the occupancy

560
00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:00,440
report and stepped out from behind the desk. Figure what

561
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,359
the hall confirmed? Nothing weird was going on the hallway

562
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:06,519
was its usual self, thin brown carpet, buzzing overhead lights,

563
00:28:06,839 --> 00:28:09,160
that faint sire's smell of air freshener, trying to fight

564
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:13,599
milview and losing. I knocked on room for nothing, same

565
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:16,799
with nine. Then I rounded the corner and everything stopped.

566
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:20,920
Room six's door was wide open, not half way, not

567
00:28:21,119 --> 00:28:26,480
cracked wide. I pushed slowly, listening. The hallway was dead quiet.

568
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:29,720
I leaned in and flicked on the room lie. Everything

569
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:34,640
looked and touched bed, perfectly made, remote still sitting on

570
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:38,160
the night's and nothing out of place. No bags, no guess,

571
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:41,079
no movement. But the bathroom light was on. The door

572
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:43,880
was shut. I stood there in the doorway, staring at it.

573
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:46,519
Every part of me was yelling to leave it alone,

574
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:51,680
but I couldn't HULLO. I called, this is hotel staff.

575
00:28:52,359 --> 00:28:55,279
If some one's in there, e're not supposed to be nothing.

576
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:57,799
I walked in, put my hand on the knob and

577
00:28:57,839 --> 00:29:02,000
turned it slowly. Empty, light buzzing from the fan, no

578
00:29:02,119 --> 00:29:06,759
towels disturbed, no mirror fog, just an ordinary, very empty

579
00:29:06,799 --> 00:29:09,559
bath room. I turned off the light, left the room,

580
00:29:09,599 --> 00:29:11,440
locked the door behind me, and made my way back

581
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:14,400
to the desk. When I got there, my stomach dropped.

582
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:19,359
Three keys were on the counter now four nine six.

583
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,519
Their hooks were empty. I hadn't taken them down. Then

584
00:29:23,559 --> 00:29:25,680
the front door, still locked, clicked open on its own,

585
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:30,000
that dragging, breathy sound as it slid wide. I turned around.

586
00:29:30,599 --> 00:29:33,160
There was a little girl standing just outside, barefoot, hair

587
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:36,160
matted like she'd been out in the wind, fryers, no coat,

588
00:29:36,319 --> 00:29:40,079
no parents. I stepped forward, heart in my throat. Hey,

589
00:29:40,359 --> 00:29:44,599
I said gently, are you okay? Are you lost? She

590
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:47,640
didn't answer, didn't even look at me, just stared down

591
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,279
the hallway. Then she said, very softly, I need to

592
00:29:50,319 --> 00:29:53,279
go back to my room. What room is that? She

593
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:55,559
raised one arm slowly and pointed to the one where

594
00:29:55,559 --> 00:29:59,880
I died. I didn't move. I couldn't. My legs felt

595
00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:03,599
like sandbegs. She stepped inside without another word, walked right

596
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:05,880
past me. I washed her leave wet footprints across the

597
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,519
tower as she headed down the hall. It hadn't rained

598
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,440
that broke me. I left, didn't even grab my phone,

599
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:14,920
just got in my car, hart hammering in my chase

600
00:30:15,039 --> 00:30:16,880
and drove until I saw light at a gas station

601
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,359
ten miles down the road. I sat in the parking

602
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:21,799
lot for almost twenty minutes before I called the manager.

603
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:24,160
Told him something weird had happened and I couldn't finish

604
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:28,640
the shift. Didn't explain, he didn't ask. He confirmed what

605
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:31,440
I already knew. No kids had been booked that night.

606
00:30:32,119 --> 00:30:37,240
No vamilies, just three adults. I never went back, texted

607
00:30:37,279 --> 00:30:39,720
him two days later and quit. Took a job at

608
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:42,799
a bookstore that only opens during the day. Months later

609
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:46,279
I got curious. I looked up the hotel. It had

610
00:30:46,319 --> 00:30:49,200
closed that winter. The burst pipe had flooded half the

611
00:30:49,279 --> 00:30:53,680
rooms never reopened. I found one old article by the shutdown,

612
00:30:54,359 --> 00:30:56,880
just a short blurb, but buried near the bottom was

613
00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:58,839
a line about a woman who had filed a lawsuit

614
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,400
years earlier after her dog to die during a weekend stay.

615
00:31:02,039 --> 00:31:06,480
Carbon monoxide leak Room six. Back when I was twenty one,

616
00:31:06,599 --> 00:31:09,000
I was working the closing shift at this Snurfrall's twenty

617
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,359
four Iri jyin just outside Aldridge, Virginia. The place was

618
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:14,759
called Richburnd Fitness, though that made it sound fancy than

619
00:31:14,799 --> 00:31:19,279
it was. Most nights were uneventful. I vacuum wipe things down,

620
00:31:19,559 --> 00:31:21,559
checked the bathrooms to make sure no one fell asleep

621
00:31:21,599 --> 00:31:23,599
in a stall, then locked the doors by midnight and

622
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:27,200
head out easy enough. The jim sat right up against

623
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:30,279
this patch of woods everyone around town called Ashfield Timber.

624
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:33,680
Locals always had some story pits disappearing weird light at

625
00:31:33,799 --> 00:31:36,200
night don't go in the kind of stuff, but that's

626
00:31:36,279 --> 00:31:39,279
just small town folklore. I'd bark in the side lot,

627
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:42,319
which faced those woods directly. At the end of my shift,

628
00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:44,160
I'd just cut across the back lot with my keys

629
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:47,079
and flashlight and go home. I didn't think twice about it.

630
00:31:47,599 --> 00:31:50,359
That night started normal for round tent. There were just

631
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:54,319
two people left, Rob, a regular who did late night cardio,

632
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,319
and this other guy I didn't recognize. Young, may be

633
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:00,480
seventeen or eighteen. He wasn't working out, though, just sitting

634
00:32:00,519 --> 00:32:03,720
on the stretching mats near the wall of mirrors, cross legged,

635
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:05,920
staring at his reflection like he was waiting for it

636
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,240
to move. I figured he was killing time, maybe waiting

637
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:11,319
for some one. But after a while I walked over

638
00:32:11,359 --> 00:32:13,880
and asked if he needed anything. He didn't even fully

639
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:16,440
look at me, just said I'll leave soon, And something

640
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:18,920
about his voice stopped me. It was flat, like someone

641
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:22,519
talking in their sleep, not slowed, just distant. I paused,

642
00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:24,480
kind of watching him for a second, longer than I

643
00:32:24,519 --> 00:32:27,519
probably needed to, then went back to the desk. By

644
00:32:27,599 --> 00:32:30,880
ten point thirty, Rob had left, the kid hadn't moved,

645
00:32:31,559 --> 00:32:34,039
still sitting there facing the mirror. I cleared my throat

646
00:32:34,039 --> 00:32:36,839
and let him know we were closing. He stood up, slowly,

647
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,880
walked straight past me, and left without another word. I

648
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:42,119
locked the door behind him, shut off the lights, did

649
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:45,200
my final sweep of the locker rooms. Everything looked fine.

650
00:32:45,319 --> 00:32:47,160
But when I came back into the lobby, the little

651
00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:50,559
red mushed censor near the entrance blink once. That usually

652
00:32:50,599 --> 00:32:53,799
only happens if someone walks by. I double checked the doors,

653
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:56,920
still locke looked out on to the side were completely empty.

654
00:32:57,519 --> 00:33:01,640
Figured it was just a glitch. They happened so sometimes humidity,

655
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:05,519
power surges, whatever. I shut everything down, grabbed my back

656
00:33:05,599 --> 00:33:08,359
and stepped out the back. And that's when I saw it.

657
00:33:09,039 --> 00:33:12,119
My car's headlights were on, not bright, just the dim setting,

658
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:15,240
but they were definitely on, casting too long, pale beams

659
00:33:15,319 --> 00:33:17,920
right into the trees. And here's the thing. I never

660
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,720
leave them on. Never. I've got this little routine I

661
00:33:21,759 --> 00:33:24,640
follow every night like clockwork. Check the doors, shut the lights,

662
00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:27,200
keys in my hand, then walked to the car. I

663
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:30,480
don't even touch the headlight switch, it's automatic. I stood

664
00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:33,039
there for a minute, just watching. No one else was

665
00:33:33,039 --> 00:33:37,000
in the law, no sounds, no signs of anyone around.

666
00:33:37,599 --> 00:33:39,559
The car looked like it had just pulled in light,

667
00:33:39,599 --> 00:33:43,759
still humming faintly. I walked up slowly. Both doors were shut.

668
00:33:44,319 --> 00:33:46,680
I glanced around, trying to convince myself this was just

669
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:49,440
me forgetting something, but it didn't feel like that. I

670
00:33:49,519 --> 00:33:53,440
unlocked the door. The lights went off immediately, not faded,

671
00:33:53,519 --> 00:33:56,319
snapped off like a breakus which had flipped. I got

672
00:33:56,359 --> 00:33:59,079
in and started it. The engine came on just fine.

673
00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:01,920
Nothing I felt wrong, except the domelight didn't turn on

674
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,839
when I opened the door, Just darkness overhead, like the

675
00:34:04,839 --> 00:34:07,640
car didn't want me to see inside. I backed up

676
00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:10,400
faster than usual and pulled onto the road. Glanced in

677
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:13,239
the rear view as I left. There was someone standing

678
00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:17,639
in the middle of the lot, same hoody, same stillness,

679
00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:20,880
just standing there, but his head was tilted all the

680
00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:23,360
way back, like he was staring straight up into the sky,

681
00:34:23,559 --> 00:34:26,800
not moving at all. I didn't stop. I didn't even

682
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:29,920
slow down, just kept driving and told myself I was tired,

683
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:32,599
that I probably imagined it. I didn't bring it up

684
00:34:32,599 --> 00:34:35,400
to anyone. How do you explain something like that without

685
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:38,480
sounding ridiculous. I chalked it up to stress and went back.

686
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:41,559
The next night, everything seemed normal, but that mirror in

687
00:34:41,599 --> 00:34:44,360
the stretching area it gave me a weird feeling. At

688
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:46,079
one point, I saw a movement in it, just for

689
00:34:46,079 --> 00:34:49,239
a second, a quick flicker, like someone walking behind me.

690
00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:52,199
When I turned around, there was no one there. I

691
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:55,079
told myself it was my reflection, maybe a light catching weird.

692
00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:57,280
Tried not to make a big deal out of it.

693
00:34:57,880 --> 00:34:59,679
Then about a week later, I was in the locker

694
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:02,519
room cleaning when the front door chime went off. It's

695
00:35:02,559 --> 00:35:07,360
a very distinct sound, loud, can't miss. It only happens

696
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:10,400
when someone actually opens the front door, but it was locked,

697
00:35:11,079 --> 00:35:14,320
always is by then. I rushed to the front, no

698
00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:19,039
one there, parking lot empty, lights still off. I checked

699
00:35:19,039 --> 00:35:22,679
the security feed and that's when I got goosebumps. The

700
00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:25,679
camera footage cut out for exactly thirteen seconds, just before

701
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:29,360
the chime. Then it came back, showing me walking into frame, confused,

702
00:35:30,039 --> 00:35:33,599
no one entering, no one leaving, just a missing chunk

703
00:35:33,639 --> 00:35:35,880
of time. I brought it up to my manager the

704
00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:39,719
next day. She brushed it off, said the cameras were old,

705
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:42,760
that they cut out sometimes, told me not to worry.

706
00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:46,079
I tried to believe her, but then a few nights later,

707
00:35:46,159 --> 00:35:48,840
I saw the kid again. He wasn't inside this time,

708
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:51,400
he was sitting across the parking lot on the curb,

709
00:35:51,599 --> 00:35:56,440
just watching the front doors. Didn't move, didn't flinch, just

710
00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:59,639
sat there like he'd been waiting. I called my coworker, Tony,

711
00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:01,920
asked if he could pick me up. Left my car

712
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:04,719
behind that night. When I came back the next morning,

713
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:07,280
there were three deep scratches across the driver's side door.

714
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:11,599
Not like someone keyed it. These weren't straight. They were uneven, jagged,

715
00:36:11,719 --> 00:36:14,719
almost like claw marks. I told the manager I had

716
00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:17,000
classes starting back up and couldn't do the late shift

717
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:20,239
any more. No one pushed back. A new guy took

718
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:23,280
over nights. Two weeks later I heard he quit without

719
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,400
giving notice. Someone said he saw a person standing in

720
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:28,880
the back hallway. He wasn't supposed to be there. When

721
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:31,039
he went to check, no one was around, but every

722
00:36:31,039 --> 00:36:33,000
mirror in the locker room had fogged up, like someone

723
00:36:33,039 --> 00:36:36,239
had just breathed on them. Sometimes I dream about that mirror,

724
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:39,480
that kid in the dream, his reflection still moves, but

725
00:36:39,559 --> 00:36:42,000
he doesn't. The house had been empty for about a

726
00:36:42,039 --> 00:36:44,480
year before I moved in. It was this old, two

727
00:36:44,519 --> 00:36:47,400
story farmhouse outside a little town in southern Indiana, Culver

728
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:49,960
and sy. I'd never lived anywhere that, but after the

729
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:52,159
break up, I'd just gone through. It sounded like a dream.

730
00:36:52,599 --> 00:36:55,400
The rent was low, the landlord didn't ask many questions,

731
00:36:55,599 --> 00:36:58,920
and I needed a reset, some space to breathe. The

732
00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:01,599
first two weeks were honest great. I got into a

733
00:37:01,679 --> 00:37:04,320
routine up around eight, walked through the morning, then walked

734
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:07,440
the perimeter of the fields in the afternoon. Sometimes I'd

735
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:09,119
go down to the crete that ran along the back

736
00:37:09,159 --> 00:37:11,480
of the property and just sit with my coffee. I

737
00:37:11,599 --> 00:37:14,639
left the windows open at night. The air was perfect,

738
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:18,000
just that early autumn col crisp enough to feel fresh,

739
00:37:18,039 --> 00:37:20,079
but still warm enough to sleep under a light blanket.

740
00:37:20,639 --> 00:37:23,880
I actually started feeling okay again, like maybe this weird

741
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:26,119
old house in quiet town were exactly what I needed

742
00:37:26,159 --> 00:37:28,920
to get back to myself. Then came the alarm clock.

743
00:37:29,679 --> 00:37:31,559
I kept it on the foe next of the mattress,

744
00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:35,119
no nights, and yet one morning I rolled over and

745
00:37:35,119 --> 00:37:38,280
saw it blinking three point thirty three, not making noise,

746
00:37:38,599 --> 00:37:40,519
just blinking like the power had cut for a second,

747
00:37:41,199 --> 00:37:44,719
except nothing else had reset. The kitchen stove still showed

748
00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:48,159
the correct time, so did my phone. No storms the

749
00:37:48,239 --> 00:37:52,400
night before, no wind, no flickering lights. Weird but not

750
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:56,440
worth sparreling over until it happened again, and then again.

751
00:37:57,039 --> 00:37:58,679
Three nights in a row, I woke up and the

752
00:37:58,679 --> 00:38:02,920
alarm was blinking three points thirty three exactly, no more,

753
00:38:03,039 --> 00:38:06,639
no less. The fourth night I got curious enough to

754
00:38:06,679 --> 00:38:08,920
do something about it. I set up my phone to

755
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:10,719
do time laps and left it pointed at the clock.

756
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:13,320
When I checked it in the morning, the video ran

757
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:16,400
fine until three point thirty two, then it just stopped.

758
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,079
The last frame was a mess, just grafe, was like

759
00:38:19,159 --> 00:38:22,840
the old static on a broken VHS tape, and then nothing,

760
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:28,000
no explanation. The file wasn't even labeled as corrupted, just frozen.

761
00:38:28,599 --> 00:38:30,519
I watched it three times like that was going to

762
00:38:30,599 --> 00:38:33,360
change something. Then I deleted it and told myself I

763
00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:35,639
must have set something up wrong. But then other things

764
00:38:35,679 --> 00:38:38,840
started to shift. Just small stuff at first, like my keys.

765
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:41,079
I always put them on the little hook by the

766
00:38:41,079 --> 00:38:44,199
front door, same place every day, but one morning they

767
00:38:44,199 --> 00:38:46,360
were laid out on the kitchen counter, lined up in

768
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:48,960
a straight row, evenly spaced, like someone had measured it.

769
00:38:49,519 --> 00:38:51,840
Another time, my shoes turned up on the back porch,

770
00:38:52,519 --> 00:38:55,159
dry clean, perfectly placed side by side, like I just

771
00:38:55,159 --> 00:38:57,679
stepped out of them. Only I hadn't been outside the

772
00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:01,320
day before. Little things, but they it up. I kept

773
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:04,639
trying to come up with explanations. Maybe I was sleep walking,

774
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:07,480
maybe I was so distracted that I didn't remember doing

775
00:39:07,559 --> 00:39:10,400
it myself, or maybe a raccoon had found its way in,

776
00:39:11,079 --> 00:39:13,920
or a stray cat. But the doors were locked. Every night,

777
00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:18,960
the windows were closed. I checked or checked. I even

778
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:22,039
started snapping photos of where I left things, just to

779
00:39:22,079 --> 00:39:25,119
prove to myself I wasn't losing it. Then came the hoodie.

780
00:39:25,599 --> 00:39:28,599
I'd fallen asleep on the couch again, a documentary playing

781
00:39:28,639 --> 00:39:32,639
low in the background. I woke up around furry. Felt

782
00:39:32,639 --> 00:39:34,840
it before I knew it, a kind of cold that

783
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:37,800
makes your breath feel feel sharp in your throat. I

784
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:39,800
sat up, confused because the heat was on and all

785
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:42,320
the windows were shut tight. It wasn't just chilly, it

786
00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:45,320
was wrong, like freezer air. I reached for the remote,

787
00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:48,159
not on the table. I leaned down and something soft

788
00:39:48,159 --> 00:39:51,079
brushed against my foot. It was the remote, wrapped in

789
00:39:51,119 --> 00:39:53,639
my old navy hoodie I hadn't worn that hoodie in

790
00:39:53,679 --> 00:39:56,199
over a week. It had been upstairs in the laundry

791
00:39:56,199 --> 00:39:58,679
basket the last time I saw it. I picked it

792
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:02,480
up and instantly regretted it. The whole bundle reeked like

793
00:40:02,519 --> 00:40:05,840
swamp water, that slimy, i'llgie heavy smell you get nearer

794
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:09,559
the edge of a stagnant pond, wet rotting vegetation, the

795
00:40:09,639 --> 00:40:12,440
kind of smell that makes your skin crawl. I dropped

796
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:14,760
it and turned on every light in the house, but

797
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:17,920
again nothing. Everything else was right where I'd left it.

798
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:21,159
The next morning, I found long, pale smears across the

799
00:40:21,159 --> 00:40:24,840
floor near the sink. Not quite foot prints, not hand

800
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:29,960
prints either, just long, dragging marks wet fibers, almost like

801
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:32,679
something had been pulled across the wood. I got paper

802
00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:35,679
towels and started scrubbing, without even thinking, like if I

803
00:40:35,719 --> 00:40:38,920
cleaned fast enough, it wouldn't be real. I told myself

804
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:41,679
maybe an animal got in through the crawl space. That

805
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:43,719
made more sense than any of the other thoughts calling

806
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:45,960
around in the back of my brain. So I drove

807
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:48,880
to the hardware stor bought sea lent traps Heavy Dutiful,

808
00:40:49,039 --> 00:40:51,440
spent that afternoon plugging up every possible gap I could

809
00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:54,480
find That night, I stayed out later than usual, caught

810
00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:57,079
dinner in town, lingered over coffee, wandered the aisles of

811
00:40:57,119 --> 00:40:59,880
the twenty four iro grocery store like I needed something important.

812
00:41:00,519 --> 00:41:03,000
I told myself I wasn't scared. I just didn't want

813
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:04,960
to fall into a routine. But I left every light

814
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:06,920
on when I got home, pulled the space heater into

815
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:10,559
the living room. We didn't till almost too went to bed,

816
00:41:10,679 --> 00:41:13,400
mattress still in the middle of the room. At exactly

817
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:16,480
three point thirty three, something slammed against a wall behind me.

818
00:41:17,119 --> 00:41:22,039
Odd I didn't move, didn't breathe just stared at the ceiling,

819
00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:25,199
waiting for whatever was next. The heater hum from the

820
00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:28,960
living room. The silence pressed in. Then it happened again,

821
00:41:29,599 --> 00:41:32,039
a single heavy bang, like a fist from inside the wall.

822
00:41:32,639 --> 00:41:35,920
I rolled over slowly and pressed my ear to the wall. Nothing.

823
00:41:36,559 --> 00:41:39,280
That was the night. I stopped sleeping properly. I started

824
00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:41,599
staying up until morning and crashing for a few hours

825
00:41:41,639 --> 00:41:44,440
after the sun came up. Something about the dark eyes

826
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:47,239
felt unsafe, like that time of night didn't belong to

827
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:49,760
me any more. I didn't talk to anyone about it,

828
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:53,719
didn't even message friends what would I say? Around five

829
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:55,559
one morning, I was rinsing a mug in the sink

830
00:41:55,599 --> 00:41:58,079
when I heard it, the sound that finally broke me.

831
00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:04,400
The back door unlocked, n creaked, not jiggled, unlocked, A

832
00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:07,039
clean shop click, followed by the slow turn of the knob,

833
00:42:07,639 --> 00:42:10,360
A frozemuked still in my hand. My heart dropped so

834
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:13,039
hard I actually felt dizzy. I hadn't touched that door

835
00:42:13,039 --> 00:42:15,440
in daze. The only other key was in the glove

836
00:42:15,480 --> 00:42:18,000
box of my car. I stepped quietly to the hall

837
00:42:18,039 --> 00:42:20,079
and flipped on the porch light. Peered through the window.

838
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:24,880
No one, nothing, The yard was still and empty. I

839
00:42:24,920 --> 00:42:27,599
stood there for what felt like an iron. Didn't open.

840
00:42:27,599 --> 00:42:31,039
The door, didn't turn off the light. When I finally

841
00:42:31,079 --> 00:42:34,719
did check it, the lock looked fine, no scratches, no

842
00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:37,559
sign of tampering. I shoved my kack key into the

843
00:42:37,599 --> 00:42:40,880
keyhole from the inside and left it there. Later that afternoon,

844
00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:43,880
I called the landlord, said I needed to break the lease.

845
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:47,280
Didn't offer a reason, just said I couldn't stay. He

846
00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:49,679
was quiet for a second, then said, did you leave

847
00:42:49,679 --> 00:42:52,559
the back bedroom anty like I told you? I hesitated.

848
00:42:53,079 --> 00:42:56,320
I've been using it for storage. Someone opened boxes, a

849
00:42:56,400 --> 00:43:01,239
few coats, nothing big, yea, I said, why, he sighed,

850
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:04,280
just make sure it's locked before you go. Then he

851
00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:07,960
hung up. I didn't wait. I packed everything into my

852
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:10,239
car that day and left by noon. My uncle I

853
00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:12,039
asked me if I could look after his cabin while

854
00:43:12,039 --> 00:43:13,679
he and his wife went to visit her family out

855
00:43:13,679 --> 00:43:16,320
in Washington for the week. The place is up near

856
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:18,679
the edge of a nature reserve in Northernisconsin, where the

857
00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:21,119
rose twisted threw dense trees, and the nearest neighbors about

858
00:43:21,199 --> 00:43:24,159
quarter mile away. I'd been there a few times growing up,

859
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:27,159
mostly summer weekends with my parents, but I hadn't seen

860
00:43:27,199 --> 00:43:30,239
it in years, never stayed there alone. Mike handed me

861
00:43:30,320 --> 00:43:32,239
the keys a couple days before they left and said,

862
00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:34,960
just grabbed the mail and shovel. If its nose, it's

863
00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:39,079
peaceful up there, you'll like it, And honestly I did it. First.

864
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:43,039
The first two days were solid, quiet. I missed simple mills,

865
00:43:43,079 --> 00:43:45,039
read on the porch in the afternoon, took a few

866
00:43:45,039 --> 00:43:48,039
short hikes round the trails nearby. But by day three

867
00:43:48,119 --> 00:43:51,360
I started feeling the difference. That evening, i'd just gotten

868
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:53,840
out of the shower, wrapped in a towel, still wiping

869
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:55,800
water from my face. When I heard the scraping noise

870
00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:58,599
from the kitchen. It wasn't loud, just enough to catch

871
00:43:58,639 --> 00:44:01,000
my attention, like the Sunday chair makes when someone pushes

872
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:03,880
it back from the table. I walked out, still dripping,

873
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,400
half laughing at myself, thinking maybe it was the window,

874
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:09,639
some pipe knocking against the wall. Everything looked totally normal,

875
00:44:10,239 --> 00:44:12,800
nothing out of place. The chairs were tucked in, the

876
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:15,239
front door was still locked, and there wasn't even a draft.

877
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:18,239
I opened the pantry for some reason, like I expected

878
00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:21,239
to reckon, to be hiding behind the float or something. Nothing.

879
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:23,840
I went back to finish trying off, but I was

880
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:27,199
more aware now, listening harder that kind of alert wear

881
00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:31,159
skin feels one size too small. Ten minutes later, same sound,

882
00:44:31,840 --> 00:44:34,760
that dragon chair scrape. This time I came out of

883
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:37,639
the bedroom a little faster. One of the dining chairs

884
00:44:37,679 --> 00:44:40,480
was pushed back from the table, not far, just a

885
00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:43,599
few inches, angled, like someone had stood up from it

886
00:44:43,679 --> 00:44:45,559
and didn't bother to push it back in all the way.

887
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:49,360
I froze, not because it was terrifying yet, but because

888
00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:51,559
there's this weird moment when something's just wrong enough to

889
00:44:51,559 --> 00:44:53,880
miss with your head, but not enough jacked on. I

890
00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:55,679
stared at the chair, trying to figure out if I'd

891
00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:58,559
left it like that. Maybe when I put my bag down,

892
00:44:59,159 --> 00:45:02,079
maybe I bumped. I'd pushed it back in slowly and

893
00:45:02,079 --> 00:45:04,679
stood there a few seconds longer, just kind of testing

894
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:06,920
the air, like maybe i'd hear breathing or catch movement

895
00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:11,880
out of the corner of my eye. Nothing. Just silence, dense, close,

896
00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:14,159
kind of silence where you start to feel like you're intruding.

897
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:16,840
That night, I left my bedroom door open a crack.

898
00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:20,239
I don't usually do that. I'm the type who likes

899
00:45:20,239 --> 00:45:22,400
everything shut and locked, but I wanted to hear if

900
00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:25,480
anything moved around out there. Round two may be closer

901
00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:28,599
to three. I woke up, not jolted awake, but slowly,

902
00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:31,800
like something had been nudging me toward consciousness. It was

903
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:35,960
the sound knocking, but not from the front door. This

904
00:45:36,119 --> 00:45:39,119
was inside, quick, soft, two knocks at a time, almost polite.

905
00:45:39,719 --> 00:45:43,840
I held still and listened. There it was again, two knocks,

906
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:48,679
a little louder, closer. I sat up slowly, every muzzle tight,

907
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:52,000
like if I moved wrong, something would notice. It sounded

908
00:45:52,039 --> 00:45:54,800
like it was coming from the hallway closet just outside

909
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:58,599
the bedroom. Two more knocks, then nothing. I got up

910
00:45:58,599 --> 00:46:01,800
and flipped the whole light on. The sound stopped. I

911
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:04,199
stared at the closet door for a while before opening it.

912
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:09,880
Courts an old boot tray, a flashlight, nothing new. I

913
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:11,480
left the light on and went back to bed, but

914
00:46:11,519 --> 00:46:14,800
I didn't sleep, not really. I just laid there with

915
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:16,880
my eyes open, listening for the knocking to come back.

916
00:46:17,639 --> 00:46:20,559
It didn't. But the next morning the holy light was

917
00:46:20,599 --> 00:46:23,639
off again. I know I didn't touch it. That was

918
00:46:23,679 --> 00:46:26,280
the first thing that made me feel watched. I turned

919
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:27,880
it back on and stood there a while, trying to

920
00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:30,800
convince myself it was a bad switch. Then I saw

921
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:33,519
the boots. They were sitting by the back door, right

922
00:46:33,519 --> 00:46:36,119
where I'd left them, But they were wet, not soaking,

923
00:46:36,239 --> 00:46:38,320
but damp enough to leave a faint ring on the mah.

924
00:46:38,679 --> 00:46:40,920
Thing is I hadn't worn them since the day before,

925
00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:44,000
and I hadn't been outside since mid afternoon. No snow

926
00:46:44,039 --> 00:46:48,239
was tracked in, no puddles, just the boots resting exactly

927
00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:50,719
where I left them. Only now they looked used. I

928
00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:52,880
didn't know what to do with that. I called my

929
00:46:52,960 --> 00:46:54,960
Koranyon and asked if any one else had a key

930
00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:57,800
to the cabin. He laughed, said no, just me and him.

931
00:46:58,360 --> 00:47:01,599
Why you're getting spooked up there? I made some big

932
00:47:01,679 --> 00:47:04,320
joke about weird noises and told him the place had personality.

933
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:07,800
I didn't bring up the boots. That night, I locked

934
00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,079
the bedroom door again and wedged a chair under the knob.

935
00:47:10,639 --> 00:47:12,280
I even put a couple of pans near the base

936
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:14,119
of the door, figuring i'd at least hear them as

937
00:47:14,119 --> 00:47:16,360
someone tried to come in. I didn't care if I

938
00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:19,840
look paranoid. By the fifth night, I started hearing movement

939
00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:23,960
in the attic. It wasn't footsteps exactly, just slow, muffled shifting,

940
00:47:24,159 --> 00:47:26,639
like something was dragging itself from one beam to the next.

941
00:47:27,239 --> 00:47:30,079
The attic isn't finished. It's just a coral space with

942
00:47:30,119 --> 00:47:33,800
exposed beans and some insulation, no storage, nothing you could

943
00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:36,519
even stand up in. But something was up there. The

944
00:47:36,559 --> 00:47:38,840
axis panels in the hallway just a flat piece of

945
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:41,679
wood that sits flushed with the ceiling. I'd noticed on

946
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:44,519
day one and barely gave it a second thought. But

947
00:47:44,639 --> 00:47:46,920
now I was lying in bed, staring at it through

948
00:47:46,920 --> 00:47:49,039
the open door and picturing a face pressing down against

949
00:47:49,079 --> 00:47:51,639
it from the other side. In the morning, I pulled

950
00:47:51,639 --> 00:47:53,159
the step sol up from the shed and popped the

951
00:47:53,199 --> 00:47:56,760
panel up empty. No mice, no nests, no signs of

952
00:47:56,800 --> 00:47:59,519
anything living or ever having lived up there. I poked

953
00:47:59,559 --> 00:48:01,480
a round with the broom handle. This infra squeaks was

954
00:48:01,519 --> 00:48:05,760
scurrying nothing. It somehow felt worse after I checked before,

955
00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:08,239
at least I had no known. Now it was just

956
00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:10,199
silence and the creeping sense that I was looking in

957
00:48:10,239 --> 00:48:13,280
the wrong place. That last night, night six, I couldn't

958
00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:16,440
handle staying inside. I threw on a jacket, baled a

959
00:48:16,480 --> 00:48:18,519
small fire and pit up back and sat there until

960
00:48:18,559 --> 00:48:22,000
the sun went down. The cold helped gave me something

961
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:24,719
else to folks on. But when I came back inside

962
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:27,679
everything felt different. The ear was heavier, like it had

963
00:48:27,679 --> 00:48:30,000
been waiting for me. The whole way light turned off

964
00:48:30,079 --> 00:48:33,079
right as I passed under it. I stopped, flip the switch.

965
00:48:33,199 --> 00:48:36,480
It came back on thirty seconds later. It clicked off again.

966
00:48:37,039 --> 00:48:39,880
That time I didn't bother fixing it. I went straight

967
00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:42,039
to the bedroom, locked the door, whiched the chair back

968
00:48:42,079 --> 00:48:44,119
in place, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

969
00:48:44,639 --> 00:48:48,000
I didn't even bother change in clothes. Just after midnight,

970
00:48:48,079 --> 00:48:50,920
I heard the front door open. It didn't bang or creak,

971
00:48:51,559 --> 00:48:54,079
It opened smoothly, deliberately, like someone who knew how to

972
00:48:54,159 --> 00:48:57,599
move through the space without making noise. Then came the footsteps,

973
00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:01,559
soft even crossing the living room, passed the kitchen, heading

974
00:49:01,559 --> 00:49:04,760
straight down the hallway. No pauses, no hesitation, just slow,

975
00:49:05,079 --> 00:49:07,760
certain movement, like they knew where they were going. I

976
00:49:07,760 --> 00:49:10,679
sat there without moving for over an hour. Every now

977
00:49:10,719 --> 00:49:13,239
and then I'd strained to hear breathing off Fritztead's walking away,

978
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:16,320
but there was nothing, just the dead silence, again pressing

979
00:49:16,360 --> 00:49:19,199
into my chest. When I finally opened the door, the

980
00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:21,400
hallway was empty, the front door was closed, and the

981
00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:23,960
boots were gone. The next day, Mike and his wife

982
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:26,599
pulled up just before noon. I handed him the keys

983
00:49:26,599 --> 00:49:28,320
and told him very calmly that he might want to

984
00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:30,639
check the added panel. He gave me a look I

985
00:49:30,679 --> 00:49:33,559
couldn't quite read, kind of a half nod, like he

986
00:49:33,639 --> 00:49:35,559
already knew there was something weird about the place, but

987
00:49:35,599 --> 00:49:37,840
didn't want to have made it out loud. I haven't

988
00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:40,480
been back. My cousin Morrow and I were living in

989
00:49:40,519 --> 00:49:42,599
this old duplex in the edge of Clermont, a quiet

990
00:49:42,599 --> 00:49:45,400
little town in upstate New York. She had just gotten

991
00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:46,920
out of a message of oars and I needed a

992
00:49:46,960 --> 00:49:49,599
cheap place while picking up over night shifts at grocery store.

993
00:49:49,639 --> 00:49:52,559
So we split rent and moved in together. The unit

994
00:49:52,599 --> 00:49:54,239
had been empty for more than a year before we

995
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:57,519
got it. The landlord, a guy named mister Hartley, said

996
00:49:57,519 --> 00:49:59,599
the last tenant got weird and left without a word.

997
00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:02,840
I worked nights stocking shells, so I'd usually get home

998
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:05,480
around one or two in the morning. When I wasn't working,

999
00:50:05,559 --> 00:50:08,920
I kept to a weird schedule, reading, folding laundry, watching

1000
00:50:08,960 --> 00:50:12,119
TV until I crashed. That night, it was maybe three

1001
00:50:12,159 --> 00:50:14,559
a m. I was in the couch folding a load

1002
00:50:14,559 --> 00:50:16,880
of laundry when I noticed the basement door was open.

1003
00:50:17,440 --> 00:50:20,360
I always kept it hut. It creaked loudly when it moved.

1004
00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:23,480
Anea that came up from down there smelled off musty,

1005
00:50:23,559 --> 00:50:26,440
a little metallic. I figured mar had gone down and

1006
00:50:26,559 --> 00:50:29,199
just forgot to close it. I walked over to shut it,

1007
00:50:29,239 --> 00:50:32,000
but stopped before touching the knob. The whoay light was on,

1008
00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:35,320
but the stairs looked too dark. The bottom wasn't visible

1009
00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:38,480
at all. It wasn't just shadows. It was like the

1010
00:50:38,559 --> 00:50:41,679
light gave a paffrey down just this thick, dead black

1011
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:44,480
space weather should have been steps. I stood there for

1012
00:50:44,519 --> 00:50:47,079
a second, staring at it like an idiot. Then I

1013
00:50:47,119 --> 00:50:49,280
told myself to quit being dramatic and shut the door.

1014
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:52,079
A few minutes later I heard this soft scraping noise

1015
00:50:52,119 --> 00:50:55,480
from the kitchen, slow and steady, like something dragging across tile.

1016
00:50:55,519 --> 00:50:57,480
I froze for a second and got up and checked nothing.

1017
00:50:57,559 --> 00:50:59,679
The back door was lock, chairs tucked, and everything was

1018
00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:01,920
worried should be I even open the fridge, thinking maybe

1019
00:51:01,960 --> 00:51:04,280
the compress. I made a weird noise. Nope, just regular fridge.

1020
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:06,039
How I shook it off and went upstairs. A round

1021
00:51:06,039 --> 00:51:08,119
four thirty, I heard it again, the same dragging, but

1022
00:51:08,159 --> 00:51:09,920
this time it moved through the hallway toward the foot

1023
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:12,639
of the stairs. I sat up in bed, hard in

1024
00:51:12,679 --> 00:51:16,400
my throat, just listening. I stopped. Then I heard a

1025
00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:18,840
single creak, like someone putting weight on the bottom step.

1026
00:51:19,599 --> 00:51:23,639
I didn't move. Nothing followed, no more steps, no sound

1027
00:51:23,679 --> 00:51:26,519
at all. After five minutes, I crept out and leaned

1028
00:51:26,519 --> 00:51:29,199
over the banister. The stair wall was empty, but the

1029
00:51:29,199 --> 00:51:32,679
basement door it was open again, not why, just enough

1030
00:51:32,679 --> 00:51:35,400
for a sliver of black to show. I didn't go down.

1031
00:51:35,960 --> 00:51:38,159
I locked my bedroom door, got back in bed, and

1032
00:51:38,199 --> 00:51:41,719
stayed there until daylight. The next morning, Morrow was already

1033
00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:44,320
in the kitchen. First thing she said was did you

1034
00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:47,599
go down, sirs last night? I told her now. She

1035
00:51:47,679 --> 00:51:49,679
said the basement door was wide open when she came

1036
00:51:49,719 --> 00:51:52,480
down for coffee. I said I must have left it, ajar.

1037
00:51:53,199 --> 00:51:55,639
She gave me a look but didn't push it. Nothing

1038
00:51:55,639 --> 00:51:58,880
happened The next night, or the one after. I was

1039
00:51:58,920 --> 00:52:01,480
starting to let it go. Then I got off work late,

1040
00:52:01,599 --> 00:52:04,360
close to two and came home to quiet house. Ma

1041
00:52:04,679 --> 00:52:07,360
was asleep. I made tea and sat on the couch,

1042
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:10,360
flipping through a book. That's when I heard the laundry

1043
00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:13,719
machine beep. I hadn't done laundry. I went to the

1044
00:52:13,719 --> 00:52:17,760
basement door. It was shut. I stood there for a second,

1045
00:52:17,800 --> 00:52:19,880
trying to decide how stupid I was feeling that night,

1046
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:22,639
then opened it slowly and flipped the switch. The light

1047
00:52:22,719 --> 00:52:24,920
came on, but halfway down the stairs I realized it

1048
00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:27,559
wasn't reaching the back of the basement again. Same thing

1049
00:52:27,599 --> 00:52:30,320
as before, just this dead zone with the lights stopped working.

1050
00:52:30,840 --> 00:52:33,360
I kept going hand on the railing. The air felt

1051
00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:37,199
heavier the lower I got cooler too. At the bottom

1052
00:52:37,239 --> 00:52:39,800
I saw the washle it open. Inside was one of

1053
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:42,400
my shirts, damp, stretched and was shapen, like some one

1054
00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:44,199
had grabbed both sleeves and tried to pull them in

1055
00:52:44,199 --> 00:52:48,079
opposite directions. I hadn't even washed it yet. I closed

1056
00:52:48,119 --> 00:52:50,320
the lid, backed up the stairs, shut the door, and

1057
00:52:50,400 --> 00:52:54,360
lock it. Didn't sleep that night. After that, things started

1058
00:52:54,440 --> 00:52:57,400
changing in ways that were hard to explain. Drawers left

1059
00:52:57,400 --> 00:53:00,920
half open. My books were out of order, some flipped

1060
00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:03,800
upside down, others stacked differently than I left them. I

1061
00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:05,679
found a note on the fridge in my handwriting that

1062
00:53:05,679 --> 00:53:08,000
I had see her memory of writing. It just said

1063
00:53:08,079 --> 00:53:10,760
leave the door shut. I finally tried bringing it up

1064
00:53:10,800 --> 00:53:13,320
to morrow. Every time I did, she brushed it off,

1065
00:53:13,920 --> 00:53:16,639
said old house's creak were tire. Maybe one of us

1066
00:53:16,639 --> 00:53:19,440
forgot something. Until one night I found her sitting half

1067
00:53:19,440 --> 00:53:22,039
way down the stairs staring at the basement door. It

1068
00:53:22,119 --> 00:53:25,159
was closed, but she looked frozen, hale and wire, like

1069
00:53:25,199 --> 00:53:28,400
she'd been holding her breath. I asked what happened. She

1070
00:53:28,519 --> 00:53:30,639
said she heard some one moving below her room. Not

1071
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:34,519
walking exactly, circling, dragging one foot like a limp. She

1072
00:53:34,599 --> 00:53:36,559
thought it was me until she realized my car wasn't

1073
00:53:36,559 --> 00:53:39,199
in the driveway. I told her I was calling some one,

1074
00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:42,719
a priest maybe. She said not to. Don't make it worse,

1075
00:53:42,760 --> 00:53:46,039
she said first time, she admitted she'd been seeing things too.

1076
00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:49,800
After that, we made an unspoken deal. No one went

1077
00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:53,360
down there after dark. That lasted about a week. One

1078
00:53:53,440 --> 00:53:55,440
night I came home late and found Mars standing in

1079
00:53:55,440 --> 00:53:59,039
the open basement doorway. The light was off. She was

1080
00:53:59,079 --> 00:54:01,400
just standing there facing the dark light. She was waiting

1081
00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:05,679
for something. I called her name, nothing. I grabbed her shoulder.

1082
00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:08,000
She jumped so hard I thought she was going to

1083
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:11,440
fall over. Her whole body was shaking. She said she

1084
00:54:11,440 --> 00:54:14,119
didn't know how long she'd been standing there, that she

1085
00:54:14,159 --> 00:54:16,679
heard someone say her name and just followed it. We

1086
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:20,000
went upstairs. She cried in my room for almost an hour.

1087
00:54:20,639 --> 00:54:23,039
The next morning, the basement life was on again, door

1088
00:54:23,119 --> 00:54:25,840
wide open. I shut it, locked it, and bushed a

1089
00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:28,320
chair against the knob. That day I stayed home and

1090
00:54:28,400 --> 00:54:32,039
dug out the lease. Nothing about deaths, no reports, no

1091
00:54:32,199 --> 00:54:34,480
word history, but the tenant agreement for the last guy

1092
00:54:34,559 --> 00:54:36,400
had a word gap between his movement and move out

1093
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:39,159
dates over six months off. I called mister Hotley and

1094
00:54:39,199 --> 00:54:42,119
asked about it. He paused, then said the guy wasn't

1095
00:54:42,159 --> 00:54:45,719
well and left it out notice no forwarding address. We

1096
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:48,039
pat bags that afternoon and went to stay with our

1097
00:54:48,039 --> 00:54:50,800
aunt a few towns over, just for a couple days,

1098
00:54:50,840 --> 00:54:53,800
we told ourselves. Before we left, I went back up

1099
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:56,679
stairs to grab some things from my closet that shuret

1100
00:54:56,679 --> 00:54:58,800
The stretched one from the washer was folded neatly on

1101
00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:02,599
my top shelf, still damp. Underneath it was a single

1102
00:55:02,639 --> 00:55:05,719
sheet of paper, a print out I didn't recognize across

1103
00:55:05,760 --> 00:55:08,840
the top at re Innit Sea basement access records. It

1104
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:12,360
listed dates, times, names. My name showed up three times.

1105
00:55:13,039 --> 00:55:15,800
The last line just said pending. We left that night,

1106
00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:17,840
took what we could carry, and didn't come back for

1107
00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:20,360
over a month. When we finally did, it was to

1108
00:55:20,400 --> 00:55:24,559
move out. Mister move out. Hartley didn't ask why, just

1109
00:55:24,639 --> 00:55:28,039
nodded and said, you're not the first. Now I won't

1110
00:55:28,039 --> 00:55:30,639
live anywhere with the basement. I don't care how nice

1111
00:55:30,639 --> 00:55:33,360
the place is. Back then, I was working nights as

1112
00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:35,800
an inta coordinator at a long term care facility in

1113
00:55:35,840 --> 00:55:39,599
rural Kentucky. The building had a strange history. It used

1114
00:55:39,599 --> 00:55:42,199
to be a tuberculosis hospital back in the day. They

1115
00:55:42,280 --> 00:55:44,840
converted it into a geriatric grahab center in the early eighties,

1116
00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:46,960
slapped on some new paint, put in elevators, but you

1117
00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:49,719
could still see where they bricked off the old quarantine wings,

1118
00:55:50,119 --> 00:55:53,719
long narrow halways that didn't lead anywhere, dead end doors

1119
00:55:53,719 --> 00:55:56,360
that looked like they hadn't been opened in decades. I

1120
00:55:56,400 --> 00:55:59,159
only lasted about six months in that job. It wasn't

1121
00:55:59,199 --> 00:56:02,400
the work itself. I could handle the paperwork, the late ires,

1122
00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:05,920
even the crankyff family, but something about that place it lingered.

1123
00:56:06,519 --> 00:56:09,280
And one night in particular still follows me. We had

1124
00:56:09,280 --> 00:56:12,840
a resident named Ruth eighty seven. Tiny woman, not even

1125
00:56:12,840 --> 00:56:15,239
five feet tall, but she carried herself like she owned

1126
00:56:15,239 --> 00:56:18,559
the building. Sharp, snappy, and very clearly not interested in

1127
00:56:18,599 --> 00:56:21,840
making friends. Most of the staff gave her a wide breath.

1128
00:56:22,360 --> 00:56:24,440
She didn't lush out or anything, but she had this

1129
00:56:24,559 --> 00:56:26,320
way of looking at you like she already knew your

1130
00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:28,679
weaknesses and was just politely choosing not to say them

1131
00:56:28,679 --> 00:56:31,960
out loud. Her husband, Ellis, had died in the facility's

1132
00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:34,960
hospital wing the year before I started. They'd been sharing

1133
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:37,360
a room for almost twenty years before he passed from

1134
00:56:37,360 --> 00:56:40,719
a stroke. According to some of the older nurses, Ruth

1135
00:56:40,719 --> 00:56:43,280
had barely cried, just sat by the window fires after

1136
00:56:43,519 --> 00:56:46,840
muttering to herself. She never really stopped talking about him,

1137
00:56:47,360 --> 00:56:50,039
but it wasn't the kind of grief people expected. She

1138
00:56:50,119 --> 00:56:52,880
didn't say she missed him or wished he was still around.

1139
00:56:53,159 --> 00:56:55,639
What she kept repeating over and over in different ways

1140
00:56:55,920 --> 00:56:57,760
was how he hadn't rested right, or how he never

1141
00:56:57,800 --> 00:57:00,840
got to say goodbye. The staff mostly ignored it, just

1142
00:57:00,920 --> 00:57:03,000
shock cut up to old age and a bit of personality.

1143
00:57:03,559 --> 00:57:06,239
That was the default explanation for anything strange around there.

1144
00:57:06,840 --> 00:57:09,159
If a life flickered o, someone felt watch, people just

1145
00:57:09,159 --> 00:57:12,039
said it's an old building and kept moving anyway. It

1146
00:57:12,079 --> 00:57:15,039
was a Thursday night, middle of March, cold and tamp

1147
00:57:15,079 --> 00:57:17,320
one of those nights where your bones feel heavier than usual.

1148
00:57:17,880 --> 00:57:19,599
It was a round two point thirty in the morning

1149
00:57:19,599 --> 00:57:21,639
when the fire panel by the intake desk lit up

1150
00:57:22,119 --> 00:57:26,159
false alarm. Room two hundred fourteen, that was Ruth's room.

1151
00:57:26,760 --> 00:57:28,599
I was in the office with Jess, one of the

1152
00:57:28,639 --> 00:57:31,960
newest y enneal nights, she was young, early twenty is

1153
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:34,760
still a little too chip of her graveyard shifts, but

1154
00:57:34,880 --> 00:57:37,880
she was kind and she treated to residence with real patience.

1155
00:57:38,519 --> 00:57:40,639
When the alarm buzzed, we both got up to check

1156
00:57:40,679 --> 00:57:43,679
it out. Not unusual. Those panels went off random me

1157
00:57:43,679 --> 00:57:45,920
at least once a week, usually a censor issue or

1158
00:57:45,920 --> 00:57:48,960
some of microwaven. Something weird. The hallway to the rooms

1159
00:57:48,960 --> 00:57:53,000
was quiet, no t be on, no nurses around, just

1160
00:57:53,000 --> 00:57:55,480
our footsteps and the soft hum of those overhead fluorescence.

1161
00:57:56,159 --> 00:57:58,280
When we got to Roos's door, something felled off before

1162
00:57:58,320 --> 00:58:02,000
we even opened it. The smell he first burnt matches,

1163
00:58:02,719 --> 00:58:06,840
faint but definitely there, and something else laid underneath fall powdery,

1164
00:58:07,079 --> 00:58:09,119
like the kind of puffum you only smell in antique

1165
00:58:09,119 --> 00:58:12,239
shops or at your grandma's house. It wasn't strong, just

1166
00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:15,159
enough to raise your neck hairs. We stepped in slowly.

1167
00:58:15,840 --> 00:58:18,199
Ruth was sitting up in bed ram rod straight, not

1168
00:58:18,320 --> 00:58:21,199
looking at us. Her gaze was fixed on the recliner

1169
00:58:21,239 --> 00:58:24,880
in the corner. I asked Ruth everything all right. She

1170
00:58:24,960 --> 00:58:28,440
didn't move, didn't blink. Jess said very clearly, he's been

1171
00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:31,159
here for a while, just watching. He wants to talk

1172
00:58:31,880 --> 00:58:34,800
jet shifted beside me. She tried that soft sea and

1173
00:58:34,840 --> 00:58:38,000
a voice, calm, careful, Ruth, do you know where you are.

1174
00:58:38,639 --> 00:58:41,079
It's the middle of the night. There's no one here

1175
00:58:41,119 --> 00:58:44,480
but us. Ruth didn't look away from the chair. That's

1176
00:58:44,519 --> 00:58:47,199
not true, she said, he was here before you walked in.

1177
00:58:47,719 --> 00:58:50,519
That's when the room felt small or heavier. I glanced

1178
00:58:50,559 --> 00:58:54,360
at the chair. Nothing there, just that worn beage recliner

1179
00:58:54,400 --> 00:58:57,960
every resident had, but Ruth's eyes never left it. I

1180
00:58:57,960 --> 00:59:00,280
asked if she needed water or help. Lying back down, Anne,

1181
00:59:00,840 --> 00:59:03,440
That's when she finally looked at me. Her face was

1182
00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:05,679
tired in a way I hadn't seen before. Not angry,

1183
00:59:05,760 --> 00:59:08,880
not stubborn, just worn out. He can't rest, she said,

1184
00:59:09,519 --> 00:59:12,920
he needs someone to see him, just one person. Then

1185
00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:16,760
the recliner creaked. It wasn't loud, more like a breath

1186
00:59:16,800 --> 00:59:20,559
of hand, a soft chrift, like someone adjusting their weight

1187
00:59:20,599 --> 00:59:24,079
after sitting too long. Jess took a step back. I

1188
00:59:24,119 --> 00:59:26,800
saw her hand twitch, fingers flexing like she wasn't sure

1189
00:59:26,840 --> 00:59:30,639
whether to grab mine or bolt. I didn't move, crudn't

1190
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:34,239
My chest felt tight like the air had thickened. Ruth's

1191
00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:38,480
force was quite now he died angry alone. They didn't

1192
00:59:38,559 --> 00:59:41,519
let me be there, but he's trying again. Then she

1193
00:59:41,599 --> 00:59:44,679
nodded slowly toward the chair, like she was giving someone permission.

1194
00:59:45,199 --> 00:59:48,079
I told Jess to go get the nurse supervisor, something

1195
00:59:48,119 --> 00:59:51,559
about having another person that suddenly felt really necessary. She

1196
00:59:51,599 --> 00:59:54,559
didn't argue, just turned and left quickly. I sat down

1197
00:59:54,559 --> 00:59:56,760
on the edge of Ruth's bed. I had this whole

1198
00:59:56,760 --> 00:59:58,360
thing in my head about how our minds cling to

1199
00:59:58,360 --> 01:00:01,360
familiar shapes when we're grieving. Sometimes we imagine things to

1200
01:00:01,400 --> 01:00:04,400
feel less alone. But before I could say anything, Ruth

1201
01:00:04,440 --> 01:00:07,480
whispered something I'll never forget. He just wanted to face,

1202
01:00:07,599 --> 01:00:10,199
just one person to look at while he left. Then

1203
01:00:10,239 --> 01:00:13,559
she closed her eyes just like that. I put my

1204
01:00:13,599 --> 01:00:16,719
hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle shake. Nothing.

1205
01:00:17,400 --> 01:00:22,079
When the nurse arrived, we checked her pulse. Ruth was gone, peacefully,

1206
01:00:22,480 --> 01:00:26,920
no signs of pain, no struggle, just gone. Her chart

1207
01:00:26,920 --> 01:00:30,360
had flied her for congestive heart failure, so medically it

1208
01:00:30,400 --> 01:00:34,599
wasn't surprise, but still Jess refused to re enter the room.

1209
01:00:35,159 --> 01:00:38,239
She just stood outside, pale as chalk, rubbing her arms.

1210
01:00:38,960 --> 01:00:41,039
After they moved Ruth's body, I was asked to back

1211
01:00:41,039 --> 01:00:43,079
her belongings and lock them in the intic closet for

1212
01:00:43,119 --> 01:00:45,880
her family. The room was silent when I went back in,

1213
01:00:46,519 --> 01:00:50,440
still cold, still smelled faintly of smoke and perfume. I

1214
01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:52,599
picked up a few of her speatters, folded them into

1215
01:00:52,599 --> 01:00:55,960
a bane, and then the recliner shifted again. That soft creak,

1216
01:00:56,639 --> 01:01:00,639
the same one. I looked over the chair rock or slightly,

1217
01:01:00,760 --> 01:01:03,079
just once, as if some one had stood up. It

1218
01:01:03,079 --> 01:01:05,440
shouldn't have moved at all. It was one of those

1219
01:01:05,480 --> 01:01:08,760
bulky medical recliners electric, the kind you operate with a remote.

1220
01:01:09,239 --> 01:01:11,840
I walked over and checked the plug. It wasn't even

1221
01:01:11,840 --> 01:01:15,159
plugged in. I stood there for a long second. Then

1222
01:01:15,239 --> 01:01:17,519
I backed out, slowly, shut the door and said nothing.

1223
01:01:18,119 --> 01:01:21,360
Didn't even write it up. Three resident in two hundred fourteen,

1224
01:01:21,960 --> 01:01:25,119
a woman named Angela. She didn't even make it one night.

1225
01:01:25,679 --> 01:01:28,639
By morning she was commanding a new room. She told

1226
01:01:28,639 --> 01:01:30,679
to nurse some one had stood by the chair all night.

1227
01:01:31,280 --> 01:01:34,519
A man didn't blink, didn't speak, just watched her. After

1228
01:01:34,559 --> 01:01:37,760
that they turned the room into sworage. No one wanted it,

1229
01:01:38,360 --> 01:01:43,960
and the chair still in there, And that is the end.

1230
01:01:44,559 --> 01:01:46,280
Thank you for listening. And I will see you in

1231
01:01:46,280 --> 01:01:54,880
the next one.