Speaker 1: I thought i'd treat myself to a short getaway vacation.
I live in a really flat and boring area, so
I chose somewhere with a more mountainous and forest covered scenery.
I settled on Colorado, but I didn't really know any
towns aside from the main ones, which were pretty expensive,
so I started looking into airbnbs in smaller towns. There
weren't as many options as I was hoping within my
price range, but I did find one that I thought
wasn't too bad. I booked it and was on the
road the following week, driving through the country to the airbnb.
Ten long hours later, I made it to the town
i'd be staying in. I gotta say I was not
very comfortable when I first started driving through it. I
shouldn't have expected much, but this was far less than
what I'd thought it would be. The few rows of
houses bordered a very empty and dark road, with old
wooden power lines barely standing on the sides. Being at night,
it almost looked like an abandoned ghost town. I knew
during the day it would probably look less so, but
this was my first and only impression to go off of. Thankfully,
I was able to find the airbnb without trouble. Pulling
into the gravel path that led to a cul de
sac with my airbnb along with four other small homes,
I parked and got out, lugging my bags up to
the front door and getting inside. This was a very small,
five hundred square foot home, but I have to admit
the setup was nice. I dropped my things in the
bedroom and went to the kitchen to fill up my
water bottle and take a minute to relax before. As
I stood at the counter, though, I heard a car
coming down the gravel outside. I walked over to the window,
seeing a pair of headlights appear and slowly coming to
the cul de sac, parking in front of the house
next to the airbnb. The car turned off and the
headlights went out, but oddly, as I stood and watched,
nobody ever exited the car. After a minute, I just
left and went back to the kitchen, as it was
really none of my business and I didn't want them
to notice me watching. I sat down on one of
the barstools and pulled my phone out, responding to some
messages and letting my family know that I made it
here safe. I was there no longer than fifteen minutes
before calling in the night and going to the bedroom.
I unpacked some things and started getting ready when I
quietly heard a car door open and close outside, followed
by some foots steps. It sounded like they walked up
pretty close, but I assumed they had to just be
walking up to the house next door. The footsteps stopped
somewhat abruptly, though, but after finishing getting ready, I got
in bed. From what I remember, I fell asleep after
half an hour and didn't hear anything else during that time.
When my eyes opened, I had no idea what time
it was, but I felt very unsettled. Everything was quiet,
aside from the light creaking of the house. I sat up,
staring through the dark room and trying to understand whatever
was making me feel this way. My eyes could barely
see anything until they fell on the uncovered window and
behind it a pair of eyes were looking back at me.
My heart jumped and my body froze, and after a
moment I saw the figure move away from the window,
but I could only slightly hear their footsteps and it
didn't sound like they were leaving. I quickly got out
of the bed and hurried to get dressed, but there
was a sudden sound from outside the bedroom door. I
stopped and listened as heavy footsteps left from right behind
the door and ran down the hallway. At this point
I didn't know what to do, so I just stood
there and listened. I heard the footsteps go from inside
the house to the gravel path and down to the road.
Then a car started and drove off. After some time passed,
I carefully opened the door and walked down the hallway,
seeing the front door wide open and hearing only the
quietness of the night. I never heard the foot steps
of the man by my window leaving, but from the
looks of it, they were definitely gone. I did what
I could, reporting it to a local police station twenty
minutes away, but there was never any follow up. Who
they were, what they wanted, and why they broke in.
I didn't stay to find out. I arrived at my
last stop before my final destination on the following day.
It was late and I was extremely exhausted from a
long few days of driving, so I got my small
backpack out and got inside my airbnb for the night.
It was some random house off the main road that
just happened to be on my route. I didn't do
too much looking into it because it was just for
a night, so really all I needed was a bed
to sleep in for eight hours. Upon walking in, I
immediately got a whiff of a really unpleasant smell. It
wasn't a concerning smell per se, but it definitely was
not enjoyable, like maybe a dead rodent under the house
or mold in the ceilings. I did a very quick
look around, glancing into the bedroom and bathroom, but I
noticed the smell was a lot stronger in the bedroom
than it was in the living room, so I decided
to keep my stuff in the main living space and
just set myself up for the night on the couch.
I took the throw blanket off one of the sofa
chairs and laid it out, but as I was doing this,
a loud thump rang through the walls. I was less
scared than I was confused, thinking that this was way
too loud, just to be the house settling in or something.
But the way the sound came through the walls made
it really hard to tell where in the house it
came from. I stepped down the hallway and peeked my
head into each of the rooms, checking for anything wrong,
but everything looked okay. I wasn't really sure what to
check for, to be honest, but as far as I thought,
nothing was to worry about for the short amount of
time i'd be staying there. I went back to the
couch and continued setting it all up, then laid down
and took my phone out to do some planning for
the next few days. Only a few minutes after that
first thump, there was another. It was almost identical to
the previous, ringing through the walls and just being a
single thump. I got up and walked down the hallway again,
but decided to check the rooms a bit more thoroughly.
This time. I flicked on the lights and inspected the
war ceiling, but still there was nothing to show any
signs of anything. At this point, I was thinking maybe
a large branch was swinging in the wind and banging
on the roof, but even that just seemed far fetched.
I went back to the couch and reminded myself that
I was only here for one night and whatever the
problem was wasn't my problem. I shut off the lights,
laid down and fell asleep, with the night being quiet
and being as exhausted as I was. I had no
problem sleeping, but the way I woke up was unusual.
My eyes were still closed, as I'd only partially woken up.
I probably wouldn't have even remembered it if not for
what happened next. I got a bad feeling in my gut.
As I opened my eyes. A man was standing right
above me, staring into my eyes. My whole body tightened
in that moment, but it only lasted fractions of a
second before the man sprinted from the side of the
couch and straight out the front door. I quickly stood
up and ran to see where he went, but I
lost sight of him in the trees. I closed the door,
then went to grab my phone, but stopped at the
end of the hall as I saw something from the
corner of my eye. Hanging in the middle of the
hallway was a folding ladder leading up to an attic.
I wasted no more time to call for help. As
you could guess the man had been up in the
attic that night, but there wasn't much up there to
show he'd been around for more than a day or two.
It's likely he was just using the airbnb as a
place to live, but his actions made things really disturbing.
If I hadn't woken up, I don't know what would
have happened. At the time of writing this, this happened
only a few weeks ago. I had driven out to
an Airbnb vacation cabin in a woodsy area. I had
planned a backpacking trip with a few friends, and I
was meant to stay there only two nights before heading
out for the rest of the week. When I pulled
in and saw the place, I was satisfied. It was
very isolated. It was very much just a plain cabin,
which I loved. I parked around the side of the
place and got my gear out of the truck, bringing
it inside. The inside is what you'd expect, small and
not the nicest, but good for what I paid for.
That night, I pretty much got right in bed, though,
falling asleep and getting up early the next morning. My
goal for this stay was to scout out the first
portion of the trail that my friends would meet me
on the following day. Really, I just needed to make
sure it was open and not too muddy from last
week's rainfall. If it was, then we'd have to find
a new trail. I made a cup of coffee and
chilled until mid afternoon, then went out and walked down
to the main road, walking along it for a half
mile to the trailhead. It looked clear and dry, so
I didn't bother hiking down more than a quarter mile
or so before heading back. In total, I'd only been
gone for an hour, but when I got onto the
path leading to the airbnb, I saw in the distance
that a truck was now parked right out front. I
quickened my pace, unsure what was going on. When I
got up to the cabin, I went right up to
the window of the truck, but nobody was inside. I
then looked around in all directions, not seeing anyone at all.
Nobody in the distance, and nobody at the front door.
Where else could they even be? I cautiously walked up
to the front door, noticing it was still locked. Heading inside,
it was clear that nobody had entered, which was my
worst fear. After double checking all the rooms, I opened
the Airbnb app and contacted the host, asking if he
or someone else was here. As I waited for a response,
I checked the windows but still saw nothing. What made
this so unnerving was that I couldn't see where anyone
could even go from here. It was just forced around
with this one cabin in the middle. As I continued
to wait for a response, hours passed. I kept looking
for anyone to come back to their truck, but with
the sun setting, it seemed more unlikely. Then, at just
about eight pm, I got a text back, no one
else should be here. I'd be lying if I said
I didn't already expect that answer, but I was just
hoping that somehow it wasn't. After some thinking, I just
couldn't get myself to feel safe enough to stay the night.
I went around the cabin and started packing my things,
but then the sudden sound of footsteps came from the front.
I stopped and listened as they made their way onto
the porch and up to the door. Moments passed and
no knock came. I must have stood there staring at
the door for at least a minute before slowly walking
up and looking out. A tall man was on the doorstep,
but he was facing away from the door, looking out
by the truck. An eerie feeling came over me, looking
at this man, not moving at all and just staring
out into the distance, feeling that he may not be
the only one out there. I took a few steps back,
trying to quietly go into the other room to call
nine one one, but on my third step, one of
the floorboards made an extremely loud creak. Right after, I
heard the man shuffle around outside, followed by seeing the
doorknob shake violently as he tried to open it. I
ran and locked myself in the bedroom, dialing nine one
one as the man outside continued to shake the door
and bang on it before suddenly running off the porch.
A second later, I heard the truck driving away. Police
made it to the cabin relatively quickly, but it didn't
end up being that helpful. I left the cabin that
night to stay in a hotel instead. Being that the
man wasn't caught and was still out there somewhere. I
really can't even try to guess what he was doing.
But the thing that really horrifies me is thinking about
where the man was that whole time. Was he just
standing out in the woods or hiding somewhere outside the house.
After that experience, though, I probably won't be staying in
another far out cabin anytime soon. Sh