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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. I'd signed on for a seasonal

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job with the state preservation program, just temporary trail work,

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mostly maintenance and documentation out in the backwards niar Kovna County.

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Each of us got a section mine with Section D.

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It was the roughest one, according to the coordinator. Overgrown remote,

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no paved access roads, just a mess of old mining

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pass cut into the hillside back when horses still hold carts.

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Some parts hadn't seen a footstep in decades, which honestly

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I didn't mind. I liked alone. There were six of

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us in total. We each got his own to cover

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at a radio with a chicken schedule three times a

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day every day. My spot didn't have cell service verready

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even had a trail. I had to hike in from

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the south side and follow a flag rat that one

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of the surveyors had set up years ago. First couple days,

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a cleave brush flagged new erosion and made notes using

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a digital recorder they issued. By the third day, I

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started feeling familiar with a layo. The day everything started,

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I got to the trail early. Sun wasn't fully up yet,

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and I wanted to reach an old clearing that had

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been logged in the records as the sight of a

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collapsed boundary marker, supposedly from the nineteen teens. Took me

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close to forty five minutes just to hike in. The

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trail twisted through ferns and down timber, and I had

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to scramble across a copple switchbacks that were barely holding together.

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Once I reached the clearing, I set my pack down

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beside the first marker and got to work. It had

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slid half way out of the slope over time, but

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the top paff still had some inscription left. I cleaned

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around it, snapped a few photos, and lobbered a note.

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Everything was quiet, dead quiet, actually, but that wasn't unusual

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That part of the woods was always still, No birds,

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no buzzing, just the sound of me scraping dirt. Then

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I stood up to stretch and something caught my eye.

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Up at the top of the slope, maybe twenty or

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twenty five yards away, there was a wooden stake sticking

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out of the ground, crooked and thin, definitely not part

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of any state marker, and tied to the top was

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a strip of red cloth looked like a ban on, frayed,

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soaked through, clinging to the wood that wasn't the day before.

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I reached for my radio cold in just to document

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it cut nothing but static. I checked my watch, still

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twenty minutes until the schedule check in. I figured i'd

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look it manually, so I grabbed my recorder, left my

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pat by the marker, and climbed up to take a

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closer look. The cloth was weird. It looked old, but

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also wet, not damp from dew, but soaked like I

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had been buried and pulled up. There were markings on

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the stake toohallow carvings, almost like some one had used

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a pocket knife to dig circles into the wood. Nothing intricate,

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just rough outlines like they were doing it in a

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hurry o with shaky hands. I took a picture, made

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a note into the recorder. Then I turned round and

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my pack was gone. At first I thought I'd just

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lost my bearings. Maybe I'd warked farther up than I thought.

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But no, the exposed maker i'd been working on was

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still right there. My tools were next to it, exactly

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where I left them, just no pack. I walked back down,

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checked the area. No sign of anything, no broken twigs,

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no dry mugs in the dirt. It's not like someone

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could have snuck up, grabbed it and left without me hearing.

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I went back up toward the stake. The cloth was

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gone now. The impression from where it had been tied

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was still visible in the bark, by the cloth itself

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completely gone. I hadn't heard anything move, there was no wind, nothing.

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I started checking the trail again, walking small loops, retracing

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my steps. The whole section wasn't that big. Maybe four

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acre's turtle. I should have seen it. The red canvas

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would have stood out, even under brush, but there was nothing.

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It was just gone. Eventually, I hacked out early and

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went straight to the sight shed. The coordinator didn't say much,

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took my report, told me to take the next day off.

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He probably thought I lost it and didn't want to

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admit it. Honestly, that would have made more sense. The

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next morning, I woke up to a voicemail from Marla,

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one of the other contractors. She worked Section F, which

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was about two miles from mine. Her voice sounded, I

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don't know, shaky, not scared exactly, just strained. She said,

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she'd found a pack that didn't belong to her. Said

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it was red canvas with the torn zipper and an

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old pot tag. Scrabbed it exactly my pack. I called

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her back immediately, but it rang out no answer. When

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I got to the site that afternoon, the co ordinator

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said Marla had called him sick. I asked if she

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dropped off the pack before leaving. He looked at me

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like i'd asked. She flew to work, said she hadn't

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brought anything in. That night, I couldn't sleep, had this

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feeling like the dream was already waiting for me and

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my usual trail, but something felt wrong. I wasn't holding

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my tools. I was dragging the wooden stake as tips,

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graving the dirt and the bandanna. It was tied around

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my wrists, snug and damp, like a warning. I woke

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up with my shirt stuck to my back, checked my

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phone again. Nothing for Marla, nothing at all. The day after,

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I did something I probably shouldn't have. I went out

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to Section E F though I just needed to see

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it from myself. I followed the mark of flags she

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had left, bright orange strips tied low spaced every twenty

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yards five minutes in they just stopped up. Ahead was

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a small clearing, no tools, no signs of work, just

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a single wooden steak in the center, same shape, same lean,

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red cloths tied to the top. I didn't want to

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get closer, but I did, and behind a patch of thorns,

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half hidden under brumbles, I saw my pack. It was

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torn open, like something had rumished through it. My recorder

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was still inside. I turned it on. The first entrans

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were mine, these clogs from that morning, me describing the marker,

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the red cloth. Then ten seconds of static. Then came

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the breeding, slow, deliberate, not mine. It sounded too close

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to the mic, like it was sitting in someone's lap.

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Then my voice again, except I never set what it said,

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stop bringing them. That said three words, but in my

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exact voice. I turned it off to the record of

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the pack what was left of it, and left straight

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back through the trees, no stops, back to the Chatau

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the coordinator. I was quitting, no explanation. I packed up

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the afternoon and drove straight out of Covenor County. Didn't

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wait for the last check. The job at Breeber Mining

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Museum sounded like a dream gig. When I first got

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it night security. The guy who used to cover the

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shift had just retired and they brought in a contractor

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to replace him, and that contractor hired me. All I

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had to do was walk the circuit a few times,

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signed the log sheet every ire and make sure nobody

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broke in to mess with the exhibits, which, to be honest,

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rarely happened. The place basically ran itself. The museum used

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to be an act of cold processing center back in

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the fifties. Now most of it was cleaned up in

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section into walkable exhibits with paccards and manequins and ulgear.

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There was a freight elevator that ran all the way

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down to the basement archive. That area was off limits

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unless he had a very specific reason to be down there, curators,

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maintenance staff, maybe an electrician. I had the key clipped

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to my belt with the rest of the ring, along

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with the back up door coding case. The elevated lytched,

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but I wasn't supposed to use it. My supervisor literally said,

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don't mess with it unless something brakes would catch his fire.

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First couple of weeks were smooth, not single weird moment.

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I'd show up just before ten clock in, grab a

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coffee from the little break room, and plant myself behind

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a main desk with whatever book I was working for.

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Every so often i'd walk around check each wing, look

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over the displays, shine my flasklight down the holes, just

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to look official. Most nights I didn't see another soul.

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But on the forty to night something changed. It was

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ten thirty, give or take, and I had just finished

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one of my usual laps. I was settling back into

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my chair when I heard a scraping sound from the

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back exhibit metallic lough. Not super loud, but sharp enough

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to get my attention. It sounded like someone dragged a

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pipe across a concrete floor. I figured maybe something fell.

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There were shells and displays back there. Not everything was

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nailed down. Oh maybe it was a rat. Place was old,

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after all. I grabbed my flashlight and headed over. By

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the time I got there, it was silent. Everything looked normal.

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The manequins were where they always were, frozen mincewing with

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rusted pickaxes. The mining cut was still on its little

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rail section. Nothing looked out of place. I was turning

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to leave when it happened again. Another scrape, this one

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louder from behind the seal double doors that led to

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the old freight tunnel. That tunnel was sealed off on

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before I ever got there, collapsed in the light seventies.

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From what I heard. There was even a plaque near

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the door that mentioned the cave in and how the

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museum preserved the site for historical context. Nobody went in,

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nobody came out. I waited, listened. It was quiet again

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for the rest of the night. I sat with one

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eye on the hallway that led to those doors. Told

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myself it was old pipes or an echo from some

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way deeper in the building. But then it happened again

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and again, three nights in a row, always around the

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same time, always the same place, just once each night,

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the scrape, then silence. At a third night, I started

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adjusting my round so i'd be standing near the door

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at ten point thirty, just in case. One night, I

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swear I heard something else like rebel shifting verily audible,

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but it was there. I leaned in, held my ear

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to the door. Not then no breeze, no warmth, no vibration,

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just still heavy air on the other side. I gave

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up on the rat theory. Then rats don't keep a schedule.

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On the fifth night, it changed. First came the scrape,

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then faint and soft. I heard some one breathe out,

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like they'd been holding it in for too long, just

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one breath, not a gasp, just to release. I backed away.

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I didn't turn my back on the doors until I

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was down in the hall and around the corner. I

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didn't ride anything in the love. No damage, no evidence,

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no incident, just noise. After that, something shifted, not in

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the building, in me. I started fillin watch, not all

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the time, not everywhere. Just when I passed the elevator,

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I'd walked past it and get this weird buzz in

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my spine, like there was some one standing right behind me,

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just barely out of reach, never moving, just present. The

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elevator made a humming noise when it was cold. That's

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how I knew something was off. Night seven, ten twenty eight,

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I was in the central hall, nowhere near the panel.

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I heard the hum gears turning, then the thunk as

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it stopped on my floor. I walked over slowly. The

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doors were still shut. I swiped my key and opened them.

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Nobody inside that There was a footprint in the dust,

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just once smaller than mine. Facing the wall in the

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back corner. I locked the whole thing down. After that,

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disable the panel flipped the breaker in the elevator's circuit.

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I didn't mention it to anyone, just rode a big

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note in the lock. Maintenance requested elevator cycling to it

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as soon as I pot almost drove back, but the

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side entrance had been left open for a delivery. I

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figured I could close up from the inside, skip the basement,

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and deal with it tomorrow. Everything seemed fine until I

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heard the elevator hum again. I didn't have the key,

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couldn't open it, couldn't stop it. I just stood there

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as it rose to the ground floor and stopped. The

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doors didn't open right away, but I could see something inside,

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a shadow, a shape not standing straight bent eye awaited.

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My legs started to lock up. Then the doors slid open, empty,

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or at least it looked that way. The walls were clean,

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floor bear but the air. But the air. The air

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felt runlike something heavy was hanging into the silence in

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that moment felt physical, like pressure on my chest. The

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doors closed on there. When the elevator went back down.

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The next night, I brought the keys and decided to

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take a look for it. I had to see what

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was going on down there. I waited until after ten,

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then took the elevator to the basement. The moment I

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stepped out, I felt the air change thicker, damp, almost

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like the whole place had been under water a few

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hours before and was still drying off. My flashlight cut

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through these big, lazy swells of dust. Every step echoed

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longer than it should have. I passed shells of old helmets,

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stacks of rotting crates. The morning log room was straight ahead.

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Right before I got to it, the air dropped cold,

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not as he cold, more like walking into a stone

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cellar after rain. The tunnel door, the one that was

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supposed to be sealed ship, was cracked open. I stopped,

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just stood there for a long second, staring that door

237
00:11:40,159 --> 00:11:43,559
hadn't moved in decades. Then I heard it, my name, Jonah,

238
00:11:43,679 --> 00:11:46,919
soft whisper, like someone testing it out. I didn't move,

239
00:11:47,039 --> 00:11:50,159
didn't breathe. Then it came again, stretched longer this time,

240
00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:53,080
like whoever was saying it was trying to remember how

241
00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:56,200
to form the word Jonah. I shut the door, locked

242
00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:58,759
it manually. I didn't turn around until I was in

243
00:11:58,799 --> 00:12:01,759
the elevator. As the doors closed, I heard it again,

244
00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:05,480
closer now, my name repeated in a breathy rhythm, like

245
00:12:05,519 --> 00:12:08,080
some one was practicing it under water. I rode up

246
00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:10,720
and stayed at the desk until daylight. I didn't quit,

247
00:12:11,399 --> 00:12:15,399
I didn't transfer. I still worked the shift, same night's,

248
00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:18,600
same rounds, but I don't go near the elevator any more.

249
00:12:19,159 --> 00:12:21,159
My cousin, Micah, had just bought the Sole Triplets in

250
00:12:21,159 --> 00:12:24,000
a little place called Fulton Ridge, not far from Elkins,

251
00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:27,000
West Virginia. The buildings sat on the slope, just off

252
00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:29,519
a back road, kind of half sunken into the hillside.

253
00:12:30,039 --> 00:12:32,480
Three stacked units, all the same layout, the kitchen and

254
00:12:32,519 --> 00:12:34,639
living room in the front, two small bedrooms in the back,

255
00:12:34,759 --> 00:12:37,679
and a bathroom tucked between them. The top unit hadn't

256
00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:40,519
been touched in years. Micah had already hired people to

257
00:12:40,559 --> 00:12:43,559
deal with the big stuff, new h track, updated plumbing,

258
00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:46,240
cleaned out the gutters. He needed help with the odds

259
00:12:46,279 --> 00:12:51,039
and ends, painting, fixing broken cabinets, maybe reinstalling a doorbell.

260
00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:53,639
If I was feeling generous, he said, if I came

261
00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:55,759
up for a few days, he'd cover gas and I

262
00:12:55,799 --> 00:12:57,679
could stay in the thout four unit to save time.

263
00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:00,399
He even left me some basic groceries in the fridge,

264
00:13:00,399 --> 00:13:02,720
microway of burritos, a loaf of bread, and a six

265
00:13:02,799 --> 00:13:06,519
pack of something unremarkable. I figured, why not, I've been

266
00:13:06,559 --> 00:13:09,279
between projects an Honestly, the idea of getting away from

267
00:13:09,279 --> 00:13:11,279
my noisy apartment for a few quiet days of manual

268
00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:14,879
sounded almost like a vacation. That third four unit had electricity,

269
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:17,879
but no WiFi yet, and barely any cell signal unless

270
00:13:17,879 --> 00:13:19,759
he stood at one weird angle in the living room.

271
00:13:20,279 --> 00:13:23,360
But it was peaceful, just me, my tools and the

272
00:13:23,399 --> 00:13:26,320
slow tick of an old thermostat the first two days

273
00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:29,360
went fine. I fixed the sagging kitchen drawer, sanded the

274
00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:31,360
walls in the bath room, and started the first coat

275
00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:34,200
o paint in the smaller bedroom. I'd usually work until

276
00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:36,600
above ten, eat something quick, and crash on the catch

277
00:13:36,639 --> 00:13:40,000
with a podcast I pre downloaded. Nothing spooky, just me

278
00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:43,639
being productive. Then came night three. It was a little

279
00:13:43,679 --> 00:13:46,360
after midnight when I heard it. I was half asleep,

280
00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:48,759
wrapped up in a blanket on the couch when the soft,

281
00:13:48,759 --> 00:13:51,519
full knocking pulled me back up. Not from the hallway,

282
00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:56,320
not the sailwell above me, slow rithick, three knocks, a

283
00:13:56,360 --> 00:14:00,399
few seconds of silence, then three more. A first, I

284
00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:02,919
told myself it was just the building settling. It was

285
00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:05,759
an old place, full of odd angles and weird drafts.

286
00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:09,519
Maybe something had shifted on the roof, a loose gutter,

287
00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:13,399
a tree branch graping in the wind. I weeded it out,

288
00:14:14,039 --> 00:14:17,519
nothing else happened. Still it stuck in my head. The

289
00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:19,480
next morning I mentioned it to Mike a while we

290
00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:22,440
were unloading some supplies from his truck. He just laughed

291
00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:25,279
and said, dude, that place is always creaking. I swear

292
00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:28,519
its God Auphradis. Then he added, kind of offend that

293
00:14:28,559 --> 00:14:31,799
the attic door sometimes jawned. The last tenants had uced

294
00:14:31,799 --> 00:14:33,679
the space for storage, but no one had been up

295
00:14:33,679 --> 00:14:37,320
there since. I asked if it was locked. He scratched

296
00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:39,519
his head and said it should be, but sometimes the

297
00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:42,320
latch doesn't catch all the way. That made me pause.

298
00:14:42,919 --> 00:14:44,720
Back inside, I took a better look at the in

299
00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:47,440
the hallway. Sure enough, there was a pul dunb outic

300
00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:49,279
door just above the cook closet, the kind with a

301
00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:51,799
robe loop you can tug on. I didn't open it,

302
00:14:51,919 --> 00:14:54,639
just moved a chair underneath, partly out of curiosity, partly

303
00:14:54,679 --> 00:14:57,080
to keep an eye on it. That evening, I was

304
00:14:57,120 --> 00:14:59,799
back in the bedroom painting around the window frame when

305
00:14:59,799 --> 00:15:02,679
the lights flickered, not just a little dim like a surge,

306
00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:06,440
fully blinked on and off three times exactly three. Then nothing,

307
00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:09,960
just steady light like it happened. I stood there, holding

308
00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:12,279
my brush midaut trying to decide whether I'd imagined it.

309
00:15:12,799 --> 00:15:17,080
Then came the footsteps right above me. Not fast, not heavy,

310
00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:23,440
just slow, deliberate pacing. One step, pause, another directly overhead,

311
00:15:24,039 --> 00:15:29,080
and then the knock, same pattern, three slow hits, solemns,

312
00:15:29,759 --> 00:15:33,840
then three more. That was enough. I grabbed my flask slight,

313
00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:36,919
pulled out a cord, and let the ladder unfold. It

314
00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:39,519
came down, stiff, joints creaking like they had moved in years.

315
00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:42,039
I climbed up just far enough to put my head

316
00:15:42,039 --> 00:15:45,120
through the opening and sweep the beam of light around. Nothing.

317
00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:50,000
No boxes, no insulation, no furniture, just bare wood and dust.

318
00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:52,919
But in the center of the floor the dust was disturbed,

319
00:15:53,519 --> 00:15:57,799
not footprints exactly, more like smudges, long dragged heel marks,

320
00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:00,360
like someone had sat down and skewed it. Backwards slowly

321
00:16:00,399 --> 00:16:03,879
across the boats. That image lodged in my brain. I

322
00:16:03,919 --> 00:16:07,159
didn't sleep. I stayed on the couch, lights on he Is,

323
00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:09,639
tuned to every creek and pop from the ceiling. In

324
00:16:09,679 --> 00:16:11,759
the morning, I told Mike i'd stick around to finish

325
00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:14,120
what I'd started, but I was only working during daylight,

326
00:16:14,919 --> 00:16:18,440
no more overnight shifts. Around four that afternoon, I was

327
00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:21,240
reorganizing the tilbin when I heard footsteps in the hallway again,

328
00:16:21,519 --> 00:16:24,600
just regular walking. I figured maybe Mike had come back,

329
00:16:24,799 --> 00:16:26,919
or one of the contractors had dropped in without knocking.

330
00:16:27,399 --> 00:16:31,519
I opened the door. No one, hallway was empty. I

331
00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:34,559
checked a stairwell, front door, still locked from the inside.

332
00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:37,639
I started moving from room to room, calling out, just

333
00:16:37,679 --> 00:16:40,120
in case some one was being weared. All the rooms

334
00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:41,879
looked and touched until I got to the bath room.

335
00:16:42,399 --> 00:16:45,440
There and the mirror were these two long, smeared hand prints,

336
00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:48,440
wileigh cloudy streaks, running from about eye level all the

337
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:51,120
way down to the counter, like some one had pressed

338
00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:53,799
their pums flat against the glass and slowly dried them downward.

339
00:16:54,519 --> 00:16:57,039
I stared at them for a while. My stomach did

340
00:16:57,039 --> 00:17:00,799
that slow, uneasy flip. I didn't wipe them off. That night,

341
00:17:00,879 --> 00:17:02,519
Mica came by again to help me pack up the

342
00:17:02,519 --> 00:17:05,720
heavier stuff. As we were locking up, he suddenly stopped

343
00:17:05,759 --> 00:17:08,119
on the driveway and pointed up. Did you open that?

344
00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:11,960
He asked. The kitchen window on the third floor, where

345
00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:14,960
I'd been sleeping, was cracked half way open. I said no,

346
00:17:15,799 --> 00:17:18,480
I'd never touched it. The windows in that place were

347
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:21,200
old and a pane to move. I hadn't even tried.

348
00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:24,359
We went back up stairs and checked it out. The

349
00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:27,000
latch was technically still engaged, but the wood around it

350
00:17:27,039 --> 00:17:29,079
was splintered and soft, like it had been forced open

351
00:17:29,119 --> 00:17:32,119
from the inside, not pride from the outside, pushed with pressure.

352
00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:34,640
We looked at each other, then at the attic door.

353
00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:37,599
One last check. We climbed out, both of us. This time.

354
00:17:38,079 --> 00:17:40,759
It'sa an empty space, same dusty floor, but there was

355
00:17:40,759 --> 00:17:43,039
something new right near the top of the ladder, a

356
00:17:43,079 --> 00:17:45,599
tightly rolled piece of newspaper, just sitting there, like it

357
00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:50,000
had been placed deliberately. Mike unrolled it. The paper was yellow,

358
00:17:50,039 --> 00:17:53,400
dated July of nineteen eighty seven. Inside some one had

359
00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:56,519
circled an obituary and thick red ink. I didn't recognize

360
00:17:56,559 --> 00:18:00,039
the name. Nita did he but underneath it read in

361
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,200
faint crooked pencil or five words, You're not supposed to

362
00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:06,799
be here. We didn't say anything. We just climbed back down,

363
00:18:06,799 --> 00:18:09,759
closed the attic, and lock everything we could. I left

364
00:18:09,759 --> 00:18:12,759
early the next morning. I didn't even stop for coffee,

365
00:18:12,799 --> 00:18:16,160
just drove. My shift at the reclamation office started at seven,

366
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:18,039
and I was already sorting in tick locks when the

367
00:18:18,039 --> 00:18:20,880
first odd entry showed up. A palette of old circuit

368
00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:22,880
panels had been marked as delivered, even though I knew

369
00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:25,640
for a fact I hadn't signed anything. I'd even checked

370
00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:29,240
the yard myself. Nothing there. I'd only been working there

371
00:18:29,279 --> 00:18:33,279
a few weeks. Contract position, nothing permanent, but it was

372
00:18:33,319 --> 00:18:37,559
decent money, steady eyres and quiet. I like quiet it.

373
00:18:38,279 --> 00:18:40,640
The office sat at the edge of Rivermont's old industrial strip,

374
00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:43,359
tucked between a recycling center and a defunct textile plant,

375
00:18:44,079 --> 00:18:45,960
so when that entry popped up in the lock it

376
00:18:46,039 --> 00:18:49,759
caught me off guard. I double checked everything, dates, time stamps,

377
00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:53,920
even the electronic sign off locks. Nothing matched. It looked

378
00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:56,440
like someone had delivered that palette, scandered into the system,

379
00:18:56,480 --> 00:18:59,640
and then vanished it. I logged the discrepancy and moved

380
00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:03,440
on weird but not unexplainable. About the night or later,

381
00:19:03,599 --> 00:19:05,519
I was doing a walk crew and noticed a single

382
00:19:05,519 --> 00:19:07,440
panel syin type as the ones on the missing palette,

383
00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:09,839
leaning against the conveyor, just sitting there like some one

384
00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:12,559
had placed it carefully to be noticed. I stood there

385
00:19:12,559 --> 00:19:14,319
for a while, thinking maybe one of the other workers

386
00:19:14,359 --> 00:19:18,279
moved it without updating the locks. Happened sometimes. I asked

387
00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:20,519
Karl and Alva, the only two others on that shift,

388
00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,799
but both just gave me blank looks. Pal muttered something

389
00:19:23,799 --> 00:19:26,720
about probably inventory screw ups, then went back to taping

390
00:19:26,799 --> 00:19:30,160
up boxes like he couldn't be bothered. Alva didn't even respond.

391
00:19:30,799 --> 00:19:32,920
I marked it down, moved the panel to holding, and

392
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:35,400
tried to let it go. But the next day there

393
00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:38,519
were two. Both were the exact same model, same condition,

394
00:19:38,759 --> 00:19:41,920
old green housings, dented corners, the kind we usually pulled

395
00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:44,920
from demolition sites. One was by the loading bay, the

396
00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:48,640
other propped against my desk. Now La got undermaskin the

397
00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:51,759
office days locked over night. I'm the one who opens,

398
00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:54,519
so unless someone at keys or it stayed late without

399
00:19:54,559 --> 00:19:57,839
signing out, it didn't make sense. I checked the locks.

400
00:19:58,599 --> 00:20:03,160
Nothing secure fotage, of course, the camera near the entrance

401
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:05,880
had gone out three days earlier. Still waiting on maintenance,

402
00:20:06,599 --> 00:20:08,599
I moved the panels again, this time into the back

403
00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:11,400
storage room and wedged a dolly against the door. It

404
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:13,680
wasn't high security, but I just wanted to see if

405
00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:16,960
this daid put. That evening I met a guy named Farrell.

406
00:20:17,119 --> 00:20:19,319
Said he'd been brought in for evening inspections since we

407
00:20:19,319 --> 00:20:22,960
were short staffed. He was probably mid fifties then, sun

408
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:24,839
worn skin, walked with a hitch in a step, like

409
00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:26,839
he'd spent most of his life holding things that weren't

410
00:20:26,839 --> 00:20:30,400
meant to behold by hand. He asked quiet questions, always

411
00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:32,400
looked past you when he talked, like he was watching

412
00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:35,240
the corners of the room. First time I mentioned the panels,

413
00:20:35,279 --> 00:20:39,039
he didn't seem surprised, just said, yeah, sometimes they show

414
00:20:39,119 --> 00:20:42,519
up in twos. It's when NURSERIEU got to worry. Then

415
00:20:42,559 --> 00:20:44,519
he laughed in the slow, rasped up way, like he

416
00:20:44,519 --> 00:20:47,359
told a joke, only he understood. I asked what he meant,

417
00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:50,119
but he changed the subject. Asked me if I ever

418
00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:53,200
worked near electrical dumps, told me to let him know

419
00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:54,960
if the lights in the break room flickered for more

420
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,559
than three seconds, that kind of thing. The next week,

421
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:02,759
Ferroldon show, no call, no warning. This badge was still

422
00:21:02,759 --> 00:21:05,920
in the system, but he stopped clocking in. The supervisor

423
00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:09,960
shroved it off seth contract workers were always flaking. I

424
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:13,000
got moved to evening shifts to cover first night alone.

425
00:21:13,079 --> 00:21:15,359
I did the walk through in surprise. Three panels now

426
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:18,440
all prop neatly against the inside at the back office door.

427
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,319
I remember standing in the hallway first all ad minute,

428
00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:25,000
not moving, just listening, not for foodstuts or voices, but

429
00:21:25,039 --> 00:21:27,119
for that quiet, Charles kind of stillness that makes your

430
00:21:27,119 --> 00:21:30,000
stomach feel heavy. I pushed them outside and stacked them

431
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:33,160
near the dumpster. Fifteen minutes later, when I came back

432
00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:36,680
when logging disposalwaits, they were gone. I didn't see any one.

433
00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:40,960
The yard was empty, no wind, no animals, nothing. I

434
00:21:41,039 --> 00:21:43,960
left early that night told the supervisor of the sorting

435
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:46,400
bay was leaking coolant and someone needed to look at it.

436
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:49,359
Two mornings later, I woke up to a soft sound

437
00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:52,200
from the front room, like something metallic shifting against linoleum.

438
00:21:52,759 --> 00:21:54,920
I sat up too fast, pulled something in my neck.

439
00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:57,440
When I walked into the living room, one of the

440
00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:01,720
panels was there, just one standing up right beside my brookshelf.

441
00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:05,000
I hadn't brought it home. I hadn't even touched one

442
00:22:05,039 --> 00:22:07,920
since I left them outside. I stood across from it

443
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:11,680
for a while, didn't move closer. Eventually I got a

444
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:14,519
heavy blanket, wrapped it up, carried outside, and shoved it

445
00:22:14,519 --> 00:22:16,680
in the trunk of my car. I drove it all

446
00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:18,680
the way up past Grainger Hill and dumped it in

447
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:22,160
the old cory lot behind some broken fencing. Didn't think twice,

448
00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:25,599
but the next night it was back, same spot in

449
00:22:25,599 --> 00:22:28,920
my living room, same dust on the bottom edge. I

450
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,759
don't know how it got there. Nothing in my apartment

451
00:22:31,839 --> 00:22:35,279
was broken, the door was locked. I saw it staying

452
00:22:35,279 --> 00:22:38,000
at a friend's place for a while. Janna, some one

453
00:22:38,039 --> 00:22:41,000
I knew from back when Ewart Municipal inventory, she had

454
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:44,000
to pull up, SOFO didn't ask too many questions. When

455
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:46,759
I finally came home, the panel was gone, but there

456
00:22:46,759 --> 00:22:49,200
were three small indentations in the floor where it had stood,

457
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:51,759
deep enough to mark the vinyl. That's when I stopped

458
00:22:51,759 --> 00:22:55,240
sleeping properly. I tried burning one of them. Took it

459
00:22:55,319 --> 00:22:58,480
up behind the reclamation lot. Dalsa with ethanol lit it

460
00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:02,119
it burned sure, or at least the casing did melt,

461
00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:06,079
a plastic, stinking smoke that The next morning, when I

462
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:08,319
pulled into the lot, a matching panel was waiting at

463
00:23:08,319 --> 00:23:12,960
my station, brand new casing, no bear marks, same serial

464
00:23:13,039 --> 00:23:16,759
number etched on the corner. I stopped touching them, started

465
00:23:16,759 --> 00:23:21,559
documenting everything with photos, dated logs. I even recorded audio.

466
00:23:21,559 --> 00:23:23,920
One night when I left one in the hallway, the

467
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:26,279
playback just had this faint start to come under everything,

468
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:27,880
like the sound to see art he used to make

469
00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:30,400
when you weren't looking directly at it, but there were

470
00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:33,839
also clix rhythmic, almost like typing. I sent the recording

471
00:23:33,839 --> 00:23:36,599
to a friend who does audio engineering. He said it

472
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:40,039
was probably electromagnetic interference. Then he asked if I had

473
00:23:40,079 --> 00:23:42,759
been recording in a room with any live transmission equipment.

474
00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:47,400
I hadn't. Then Verol came back out of nowhere. One night,

475
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:49,279
I pulled into the lot and his truck was there.

476
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:52,720
Parkside was near the exit gate. He was sitting inside,

477
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:56,200
engine off, windows down. When I walked over. He didn't

478
00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:58,640
look at me. He said, I saw it again, but

479
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:01,519
it's not staying underground anymore more. I didn't ask what

480
00:24:01,599 --> 00:24:04,079
he meant, but I noticed his hands were shaking. I

481
00:24:04,079 --> 00:24:06,480
asked if he needed help. He just looked at me

482
00:24:06,519 --> 00:24:09,880
and said, it wants patrons, That's how it spreads. Then

483
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:12,720
he started his track and drove off. The next day,

484
00:24:12,799 --> 00:24:17,359
the Riclamation Office hit of fire electrical fault, total loss.

485
00:24:18,039 --> 00:24:21,960
They never found Farrell. I quit, didn't even give notice,

486
00:24:22,599 --> 00:24:24,839
just packed up, turned off my phone and drove until

487
00:24:24,839 --> 00:24:27,480
I ran out of highway. I'm in a small town now,

488
00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:30,880
off the grate more or less, no job tied to

489
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:34,160
logistics or data systems. I was clearing out brushing the

490
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,759
old side trail behind Bramble Creek when I noticed the rocks.

491
00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:39,440
I've been doing seasonal work with the Seat of Hollow

492
00:24:39,519 --> 00:24:42,319
Trails Department for a couple of years now. That rouge

493
00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:45,119
section hadn't been touched in years, maybe longer, wasn't on

494
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:47,839
the current trail maps. I only found it because a

495
00:24:47,839 --> 00:24:49,960
windsworm had knocked over a few trees and I was

496
00:24:50,039 --> 00:24:53,240
roared in hikers around the damage. I ended up busheroking

497
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:55,119
out the side path just to see where it led.

498
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:58,720
That's when I came across the stones. Later that day,

499
00:24:58,759 --> 00:25:01,039
when I mentioned the ridge trail to my supervisor Karen.

500
00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:03,440
She got this odd look, like I'd said something she

501
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:07,960
didn't expect to hear. EUMENI e's fork. She asked, that

502
00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:11,279
thing's been closed off since before I started. Don't mess

503
00:25:11,319 --> 00:25:15,839
with it too, dangerous dead trees, old sinkholes and stable everything.

504
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:18,680
She said it casually, but her voice had this word

505
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,519
added to it, like she wasn't just talking about safety,

506
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:23,920
more like she didn't want to hear not a word

507
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:27,119
about it. I let it drop, didn't tell her about

508
00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:29,880
the markers, but I couldn't stop thinking about them that

509
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:32,279
whole week. It stuck in the back of my mind.

510
00:25:32,519 --> 00:25:36,079
Those stones weren't random. Fifteen of them, each won a

511
00:25:36,079 --> 00:25:38,359
little different in shape, but all about the same size,

512
00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:40,759
placed in such a precise way that you just knew

513
00:25:40,799 --> 00:25:42,519
someone meant for them to be found by some one?

514
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:46,559
But who and why? So, like an idiot, I went

515
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:49,759
back after work one day. I hacked him from the south,

516
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:52,799
where there are any warning signs of flagged off barriers.

517
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:55,720
I climbed the slope again, ducked under the same dead fall,

518
00:25:55,839 --> 00:25:58,279
and found them right where I left them. This time,

519
00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:01,720
I looked closer. Some of the nails looked nearer. A

520
00:26:01,759 --> 00:26:03,799
few were driven so deep into the stone I couldn't

521
00:26:03,839 --> 00:26:06,880
imagine how someone did it without breaking the rock. Others

522
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,960
were older, crusted with rust spreading out in faint haloes

523
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:13,119
across the surface. But not one of them looked accidental.

524
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:17,079
It was deliberate, every inch of it. No names, no dates,

525
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:19,920
just nails and stone. I stood there a while trying

526
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,400
to figure it out. My best guess was maybe a

527
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:25,400
forgotten pet cemetery, or one of those old mountain family

528
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:28,599
plots that never got official records. But still even those

529
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:32,559
usually had a cross over initials something. This had nothing

530
00:26:32,559 --> 00:26:35,799
but nails. I should have told some one, should have

531
00:26:35,839 --> 00:26:38,200
at least mentioned it to Ray, He's one of the

532
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:42,319
old timers worked the area along before me. But I didn't.

533
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,759
That was my mistake. The third time I went back,

534
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,440
maybe five days later, there was a new stone, same shape,

535
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,519
same nail, same placement. It was set at the far

536
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:57,119
end of the last row, perfectly aligned. I walked the

537
00:26:57,119 --> 00:27:00,599
line twice to be sure. There had been fifteen. Now

538
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:03,880
there were sistine. I stood there for maybe ten minutes,

539
00:27:04,039 --> 00:27:06,960
just staring. I tried to talk myself into believing i'd

540
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:09,680
counted ron the first time, that maybe I missed it.

541
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,200
Maybe I was tired, but I wasn't. I turned around

542
00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:16,480
and left fast. About twenty yards back down the trail,

543
00:27:16,559 --> 00:27:19,319
I saw something that stopped me cold, A pepper tag

544
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:21,799
hanging from a low branch. It was tied on with

545
00:27:21,839 --> 00:27:23,920
bright orange t wine trail marking twine, the kind we

546
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:27,680
used for warning signs, hazards, maintense boundaries. Except we hadn't

547
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:31,599
flagged anything up here, not for years. This whole section

548
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:34,599
was off limits. I walked over slowly and read what

549
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,640
was written in faint pencil, not for you. I stood

550
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:39,240
there with the tag in my hand for a while.

551
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:42,200
I wasn't sure what to do with it. I ended

552
00:27:42,279 --> 00:27:44,440
up just leaving it there, like maybe it wasn't a

553
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:46,240
good idea to take it with me. I didn't mention

554
00:27:46,319 --> 00:27:47,839
any of this at work. The next day or the

555
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:51,119
day after that. Friday afternoon, I took a longer lunch

556
00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:53,759
and drove out for a burger. I parke ined the shade,

557
00:27:53,759 --> 00:27:56,000
eating the truck, just trying to forget about it all.

558
00:27:56,559 --> 00:27:58,400
But when came back out, there was a tag under

559
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:03,319
my windshield wiper, same kind of paper, same handwriting, same

560
00:28:03,319 --> 00:28:06,880
orange wine. Don't remove the nail that one actually made

561
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:09,400
me light headed for a second. I just stood by

562
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:11,880
the truck, staring at it like an idiot. I hadn't

563
00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:15,240
touched a single nail. I'd barely gone near them. Some

564
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:19,079
one was watching, some one knew. That night. I waited

565
00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:21,200
until we were closing up shop and casually asked Ray

566
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:24,079
about the old East fork. He was packing up chainsaws

567
00:28:24,079 --> 00:28:26,359
when I brought it up. Didn't even look at me

568
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:30,799
at first. You been up there, he asked. I shrugged,

569
00:28:31,519 --> 00:28:35,559
just wandered past thought I saw some old markers. That's

570
00:28:35,559 --> 00:28:38,599
when he looked at me, really looked at me. You

571
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:43,279
kick any No, he nodded once, slowly, like he wasn't

572
00:28:43,319 --> 00:28:46,400
totally convinced, but wasn't going to argue. You don't want

573
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,200
to find the grave that's not buried, he said, because

574
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:51,640
if you do, you won't come back, the same might

575
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:53,880
not come back at all. He said it like it

576
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:57,559
was just a fact. No drama, no trying to scare me.

577
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:02,079
You're not from here, right, he asked. I shook my head.

578
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:05,319
Then stop acting like you are. That night, I kept

579
00:29:05,359 --> 00:29:09,640
the blinds closed, lock the doors, double check the back windows.

580
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:11,960
I live alone in a rental cabin. Way out off

581
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:16,079
a gravel road, pretty isolated. Round two in the morning,

582
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,880
I heard tapping at the kitchen window. Not constant, not aggressive,

583
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:22,799
just soft, uneven, like someone lightly knocking with a knuckle.

584
00:29:23,279 --> 00:29:25,160
I stood there on the other side of the kitchen wall,

585
00:29:25,319 --> 00:29:28,880
not moving, just listening. When I finally worked up the narve,

586
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,279
I grabbed my flashlight and went outside. No one was there,

587
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:36,480
no print, no signs, nothing. But in the morning there

588
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:38,640
was another paper tack nailed to the edge of the porch.

589
00:29:39,319 --> 00:29:42,200
He stepped too close. I didn't go to work Monday,

590
00:29:42,359 --> 00:29:44,839
just said I was sick. Didn't give a return date.

591
00:29:45,599 --> 00:29:49,759
That afternoon, Ray showed up, no call, no knock, just

592
00:29:49,799 --> 00:29:52,279
standing on the porch. When I opened the door. You

593
00:29:52,359 --> 00:29:55,240
need to take a drive, he said. Now he wouldn't explain,

594
00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:58,079
just kept repeating it. It's worse if you ignore it.

595
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:00,599
So I papped a bag, got in the truck and

596
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,440
drove west. Didn't tell anyone where I was going. Ended

597
00:30:04,519 --> 00:30:07,119
up two counts over at this cheap motel off Route sixty.

598
00:30:07,799 --> 00:30:09,960
After I lost my job at a warehouse in Pittsburg,

599
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:12,640
one of those big distribution centers where everything's loud, fast,

600
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:15,119
and constantly behind schedule. I didn't have much of a PLANSO.

601
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:17,119
When my uncle Ray said I could crash with him

602
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,240
for a while, I didn't testate. Heard this trailer sitting

603
00:30:19,279 --> 00:30:21,559
near the edge of a ridge in Viaette County, West Virginia,

604
00:30:21,599 --> 00:30:23,680
sat maybe a half hour outside of a tiny town

605
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:27,200
called Hollow Creek. One gas station, one grocery store, a

606
00:30:27,279 --> 00:30:30,079
laundrum at that barely ran. If I needed real cell

607
00:30:30,119 --> 00:30:32,519
signal or something that was fried food or canned beans,

608
00:30:32,599 --> 00:30:35,359
I had to drive down to Meadowville. Still, for the

609
00:30:35,359 --> 00:30:38,480
first couple weeks, I got used to it. I'd wake up, drink,

610
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,240
burn coffee, tinker with whatever they wanted fix, then read

611
00:30:41,319 --> 00:30:43,079
or scroll my phone until I ran out a signal.

612
00:30:43,559 --> 00:30:46,240
Pretty low stakes living. Then I met this girl at

613
00:30:46,279 --> 00:30:49,640
the gas station just outside Hollow Creek, Lacey. She worked

614
00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:52,160
at the checkout counter, had this quiet confidence about her

615
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:54,759
and laughed at all my dumb jokes. We talked a

616
00:30:54,839 --> 00:30:57,079
couple times while I bought snacks or filled up the truck,

617
00:30:57,119 --> 00:30:59,119
and eventually I asked if she wanted to hang out.

618
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:01,640
First time we met up at a little dinner and

619
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,359
just talked forriars. She was funny, shop a little sarcastic,

620
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:08,480
felt like we clicked fast. A week later, late October,

621
00:31:08,519 --> 00:31:10,559
starting to get cold, she asked if we could hang

622
00:31:10,599 --> 00:31:13,960
out again. I said sure. She didn't want to go

623
00:31:14,039 --> 00:31:16,119
back to her place, said her brother was crashing there,

624
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:18,640
so I offered up mine. I figured Ray would be

625
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:21,319
out anyway. He often drove up to Glen Hollow to

626
00:31:21,359 --> 00:31:23,640
drink and walk sports with some guys he'd known since

627
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:26,519
high school. That night, I picked her up. We grabbed

628
00:31:26,519 --> 00:31:29,319
some food and headed back to the trailer. We pulled

629
00:31:29,319 --> 00:31:32,559
in a round ten hatch light was on flickering as usual.

630
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,440
I unlocked the door and noticed the doormut was pushed

631
00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:38,079
off to one side. Not a big deal, but I

632
00:31:38,119 --> 00:31:40,759
always straightened it when I came or went, one of

633
00:31:40,799 --> 00:31:43,519
those little habits you don't even think about until something's off.

634
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,079
Inside things felt normal enough, except and notice two of

635
00:31:47,079 --> 00:31:50,200
the upper kitchen cabinet doors were hanging slightly open, just

636
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,400
an inch or two. I paused, staring at them, trying

637
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:56,000
to remember if I'd left them that way. I hadn't.

638
00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:58,880
I'm not tidy, exactly, but I'm not the kind of

639
00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:01,960
guy who leaves cabinets hanging open. I asked Lacy if

640
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:04,319
she ever had raccoons or anything get into her house.

641
00:32:05,079 --> 00:32:07,799
She laughed and said, maybe my uncle was just forgetful.

642
00:32:08,319 --> 00:32:11,079
Could have been that. Still, it was a strange detail

643
00:32:11,119 --> 00:32:13,319
to let go of. We sat on the couch and

644
00:32:13,519 --> 00:32:16,079
ate half watched some old movie playing on TV. The

645
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:20,039
vibe was good, comfortable, kind of lazy. I started to relax.

646
00:32:20,799 --> 00:32:23,440
Around eleven, I got a text from her. He said

647
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:25,240
he was staying at his body's place for the night.

648
00:32:25,839 --> 00:32:28,319
That made me feel better. Knowing we had the place

649
00:32:28,359 --> 00:32:30,799
tie ourselves helped me shake off the word feeling from Eller.

650
00:32:31,519 --> 00:32:35,200
Somewhere between then and midnight, the lights flickered just once.

651
00:32:35,359 --> 00:32:38,359
Lacey made a joke about haunted trailers. I laughed, but

652
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,400
didn't feel like joking. She got up to use the bathroom.

653
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,680
I wandered into the kitchen to grab a soda. That's

654
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:46,880
when I noticed the back screen door was cracked open.

655
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:50,720
Not white, but definitely not closed. It hum maybe two

656
00:32:50,839 --> 00:32:53,279
or three inches off the frame. The latch was loose

657
00:32:53,319 --> 00:32:55,279
sometimes so part of me thought it could have just

658
00:32:55,279 --> 00:32:58,839
bounced open, but I knew i'd shut it earlier, locked

659
00:32:58,839 --> 00:33:01,720
it too. I stood there for a while, staring at

660
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,839
the gap, one hand still in the ferge. Eventually I

661
00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:07,640
pushed it closed and slid the bolt tight. My shoulders

662
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:10,480
fell tense, like I was waiting for something to explain itself.

663
00:33:11,039 --> 00:33:13,119
Lacey came back and noticed the look on my face.

664
00:33:13,799 --> 00:33:15,799
I didn't want to make a big deal out of it.

665
00:33:16,079 --> 00:33:18,720
Told her the back door had blown open. She shrugged

666
00:33:18,759 --> 00:33:21,480
it off, asked if we could step outside for a smoke.

667
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:24,559
We went out the back stood in the small wooden steps.

668
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:28,000
The woods beyond the roodge were pitch black. No moon,

669
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:31,039
no stars, just this wall of trees in darkness. I

670
00:33:31,119 --> 00:33:32,759
kept looking out there like my eyes were trying to

671
00:33:32,799 --> 00:33:36,079
focus on something, but there was nothing. No sounds, no breeze.

672
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:40,200
The stillness felt heavy. We didn't stay out long. When

673
00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:43,000
we went back inside, A triple checked the door latch bolt,

674
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:45,319
and I even shoved a small folding chair under the handle.

675
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,440
Lacey gave me a look but didn't say anything. We

676
00:33:48,519 --> 00:33:51,480
went to bed. She fell asleep pretty quick, but I

677
00:33:51,599 --> 00:33:54,400
just laid there staring at the ceiling. The silence was

678
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,400
louder than usual. I couldn't shake this feeling that something

679
00:33:57,480 --> 00:33:59,960
was off. Around two in the morning, I heard it,

680
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:05,920
not a creek, not the usual trailer settling footsteps, slow,

681
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:10,079
deliberate on the hallway linoleum. I froze. The door to

682
00:34:10,119 --> 00:34:12,159
my room was shut, but the gap underneath it let

683
00:34:12,159 --> 00:34:14,039
in just enough light from the whole way to sea movement.

684
00:34:14,599 --> 00:34:17,880
A shadow passed by, slow and smooth, some one walking

685
00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:20,559
by the door. For half a second, I thought maybe

686
00:34:20,639 --> 00:34:23,079
Ray had come back after all, But I hadn't heard

687
00:34:23,079 --> 00:34:27,159
his truck, no doors, no gravel crunching, nothing, and whoever

688
00:34:27,199 --> 00:34:29,239
this was, they weren't moving like someone who lived there.

689
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,880
I leaned over and tapped Lacey's shoulder. She stared, blinked,

690
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,480
looked at me. I whispered, I think someone's in the trailer.

691
00:34:36,039 --> 00:34:39,440
Her face shifted instantly. She didn't speak, just stayed still

692
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:43,159
and listened. Two more steps than nothing. I reached into

693
00:34:43,159 --> 00:34:46,159
the nightston and pulled out raised big metal flashlight. It

694
00:34:46,199 --> 00:34:48,960
was heavy, with ship pained along the handle. Not much

695
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:52,239
of a weapon, but better than nothing. Then the doorn upturned,

696
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:58,599
thought slow, A little click, a little click, just testing it.

697
00:34:59,199 --> 00:35:02,239
Lacy shot up in out what the hell. I moved

698
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:05,000
closer to the door and called out Ray, loud enough

699
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:08,239
to carry, but not a yell. No answer. The door

700
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:11,079
knob stopped moving dick quiet. I pressed my ear to

701
00:35:11,119 --> 00:35:13,800
the door. Nothing, no shuffling, no shuffling, no breathing, your silence.

702
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:15,280
I cracked it open in and she and aimed the

703
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,719
flosite into the hallway, empty eye, opened the door wider

704
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:19,559
and stepped out, shaped the front door, still locked from

705
00:35:19,559 --> 00:35:22,039
the inside, living room, clear, kitchen, saying bathroom nothing. Then

706
00:35:22,079 --> 00:35:24,079
I remembered the coal space. There was a square hatch

707
00:35:24,079 --> 00:35:26,280
in the hallway floor just past the bath room, covered

708
00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:28,840
by a faded old rock. I walked over and peeled

709
00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:31,559
it back. The worden cover was shifted a few inches,

710
00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:33,519
not wide open, but not sealed like it had been

711
00:35:33,559 --> 00:35:37,119
before I'd vacuumed that rugge earlier in the week. I

712
00:35:37,159 --> 00:35:40,480
would have noticed, I didn't open it. I turned to

713
00:35:40,559 --> 00:35:42,880
Lacey and told her to grab her shoes, coat, anything

714
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:46,199
she needed. We were leaving. I locked the door behind

715
00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:48,559
us and we got in the track. I drove straight

716
00:35:48,559 --> 00:35:50,320
to a motel and hollow Creek and didn't say a

717
00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:53,119
word the hallway. The next morning I called Ray told

718
00:35:53,199 --> 00:35:55,760
him everything. He came back with a shot gun in

719
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:59,280
his truck bed and opened the coal space. Inside there

720
00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:02,280
were boot prints the dirt, an empty water bottle in

721
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:05,960
the corner. Someone had been down there living, sleeping, watching.

722
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:09,639
Probably the cops came to the search. They found a

723
00:36:09,679 --> 00:36:12,119
tone scrap of flannel, a rusty pocket knife, a match

724
00:36:12,119 --> 00:36:13,800
book from a bar in Beckley, and a trail of

725
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:17,519
broken branches leading off into the woods. No id, no

726
00:36:17,679 --> 00:36:21,599
finger prints, nothing naked jews. Ray put in a steel

727
00:36:21,599 --> 00:36:24,199
grate over the hatch that same day, bolted it to

728
00:36:24,239 --> 00:36:26,800
the frame. I packed my things and left A week later,

729
00:36:27,559 --> 00:36:32,880
moved to Charleston, found work, tried not to think about it. Now.

730
00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:34,639
I live in an apartment on the third floor with

731
00:36:34,679 --> 00:36:37,679
double locks and motion lights. I check under the bed

732
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:41,360
every night. Clauset too. Thanksgiving the year was at my

733
00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:43,440
cousin Drew's place, tucked out in the woods near a

734
00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:46,239
little tongue cold Ashford, about twenty minutes pass Bluefield in

735
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:49,119
southern West Virginia. Drew met me out front when I

736
00:36:49,159 --> 00:36:52,320
pulled up, same wiry frayin, same bus, cut from college,

737
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:54,000
but now with a pair of Neon orange and a

738
00:36:54,039 --> 00:36:56,199
new fiance in named Haley, who waved from the porch

739
00:36:56,320 --> 00:36:58,599
like we'd met before. I got out of the car

740
00:36:58,639 --> 00:37:00,559
and was immediately pulled into the kail his food, smells

741
00:37:00,599 --> 00:37:02,400
pouring out of the front door, football yelling from the

742
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:05,519
TV inside, someone's toddler making siren noises for no reason.

743
00:37:06,039 --> 00:37:08,119
The house was huge, way too big for just Drew

744
00:37:08,159 --> 00:37:11,400
and Haley. Five bedrooms, wrap around porch, even a five

745
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:13,840
pit up back. He said the place used to be

746
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,960
an old hunting lodge that got gutted and renovated. Now

747
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:20,639
it was just his house, no big deal. Inside it

748
00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:24,920
was shoulder to shoulder. I counted eteeing people, cousins, in laws, kids,

749
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:27,239
people I wasn't even sure were related, but smiled like

750
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:29,719
we grew up together. The kind of party where you

751
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:31,800
start off checking your phone in the corner and by

752
00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:33,679
the end of the night you're laughing over Bier's with

753
00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:36,440
someone who once pushed you off a trampoline in fifth grade.

754
00:37:36,599 --> 00:37:40,719
Dinner was chaos, glates piled high with everything. Haley made

755
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,119
three different kinds of pie for some reason. By the

756
00:37:43,159 --> 00:37:45,119
time we sat down to eat, it was already dark

757
00:37:45,159 --> 00:37:47,559
out and the windows just showed your own reflection. That

758
00:37:47,639 --> 00:37:50,360
weird kind of night were it so quiet outside, feels

759
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:53,039
like the woods are pressing in in the house. I

760
00:37:53,079 --> 00:37:55,039
crashed in the guest room upstairs, the one with the

761
00:37:55,079 --> 00:37:56,880
floral quilt and a window that looked out over the

762
00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:00,440
graveled driveway. Around midnight, after brushing my tea than trying

763
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:02,840
to ignore the sons of someone's snoring lovely down the hall,

764
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:05,079
there was a knock at my door. It was Drew.

765
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:07,880
He leaned him with a sheepish look, scratching the back

766
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:09,400
of his neck like he was about to ask for

767
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:13,239
a ride to the airport. Amen, you'll wake kind of,

768
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,960
I said, I said, what's up? He explained that his knighbor,

769
00:38:17,119 --> 00:38:19,079
Guy Nin Curtis, had asked him to check on his

770
00:38:19,159 --> 00:38:22,079
dogs while he was away for the holiday. Nothing major,

771
00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:24,960
just let them out top off the water, maybe ten

772
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:28,360
minutes max. Only problem was Drew had not back half

773
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:30,840
a bottle of wild turkey and wasn't about to drive anywhere.

774
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:33,840
He'd be doing me a huge favor, he said. I

775
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:37,280
was about to say no, I was tired, I didn't

776
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,719
want to drive an unfamiliar back was at night. But

777
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:42,639
then he hit me with remember junior year that night

778
00:38:42,639 --> 00:38:45,920
in Huntington. Went I O kay, fine, I said, cutting

779
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:49,000
him off. What do I have to do? He handed

780
00:38:49,039 --> 00:38:51,199
me the keys to his truck and gave vague directions.

781
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:54,079
Down the main road, passed a busted mail box, then

782
00:38:54,119 --> 00:38:56,800
a gravel path to the right. After a bend, you'll

783
00:38:56,800 --> 00:38:58,719
see a tree with a bunch of reflectors nailed to it.

784
00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:03,440
He said, that's the turn. Long driveway. House sits behind

785
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:06,599
a hill. You'll know it when you see it. So

786
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:10,400
off I went. The truck was old but steady, tires

787
00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:12,679
crunched over the gravel, and headlights cut through trees that

788
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:15,559
looked like they'd been since the Civil War. I found

789
00:39:15,599 --> 00:39:18,400
the terrain barely, almost missed it because the reflectors had

790
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:20,559
fallen and were now just hanging crooked, like they'd melted.

791
00:39:21,199 --> 00:39:24,360
The driveway stretched longer than I expected. When I finally

792
00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:28,639
saw the house, it looked lonely, single story, dark porch,

793
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,559
no cars. The only thing that stood at was the

794
00:39:31,559 --> 00:39:33,880
basement like glowing faintly through a window near the back.

795
00:39:34,639 --> 00:39:37,079
I parked, left the headlights on, and walked around to

796
00:39:37,119 --> 00:39:39,440
the porch. There was a small note tip beside the

797
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:43,639
basement door. Dogs in back room let the mountain yard

798
00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:47,320
water and bowl by sync. I opened the door. The

799
00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:51,199
smell hit me first, not bad, just musty, like a

800
00:39:51,199 --> 00:39:54,079
space that hadn't seen fresh air. In a while. The dogs,

801
00:39:54,199 --> 00:39:56,159
two black labs, were curled up in the corner on

802
00:39:56,199 --> 00:39:58,599
an old blanket. They perked up when they saw me,

803
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:02,280
tails wagging low and lazy. Hey guys, I muttered, flipping

804
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:06,599
the light switch. They stood stretched, padded over. One nuzzled

805
00:40:06,599 --> 00:40:10,519
my leg, friendly, mellow mellow. I opened the back door,

806
00:40:10,599 --> 00:40:12,679
let them out, and leaned against the door frame, waiting.

807
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:16,000
My phone had to row pause. I tried to check

808
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:17,960
messages out of habit, but it was like holding a

809
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:22,599
dead brick. Fine. I watched the dogs instead. They sniffed

810
00:40:22,639 --> 00:40:24,760
around for a bit, walked toward the edge of the yard,

811
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:26,960
near where the tree lined dipped into a shallow slope.

812
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:31,159
Then they stopped, both at once, just froze their bodice stiffened,

813
00:40:31,199 --> 00:40:33,159
ears up, tail straight. I was locked on the woods.

814
00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:37,920
I swinted trying to see what they saw. Nothing, no rustling,

815
00:40:38,559 --> 00:40:42,239
no going eyes, not even a breeze. Then the bigger

816
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:44,400
one took a slow step back, keeping its eyes locked

817
00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:46,880
on whatever it thought was out there. A low growl

818
00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:50,599
rumbled from its chest. The other one whined softly, and

819
00:40:50,679 --> 00:40:53,960
that's when I heard the knocking, not behind me, not

820
00:40:54,079 --> 00:40:58,840
at the front door, under the porch tree knocks, slow,

821
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:02,679
even like someone tapping with the knuckles against the wood beams.

822
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,039
I didn't move. It didn't sound like a brunch or

823
00:41:06,079 --> 00:41:10,440
an animal. It had rhythm intent. Three more knocks, the

824
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:13,000
dogs turned and bolted straight back to the basement door.

825
00:41:13,559 --> 00:41:16,639
I opened it without thinking. They ran in, tails tucked,

826
00:41:16,639 --> 00:41:18,880
and immediately huddled in the farthest corner like they couldn't

827
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:21,559
get far enough way. I locked the door, didn't check

828
00:41:21,599 --> 00:41:24,679
into the porch, didn't even glance back. I walked fast,

829
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:27,320
almost jawed back to the truck, climbed in, and peeled

830
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:29,960
out down the gravel. When I got back, Drew was

831
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,800
still up, sitting on the porch with a beer. You goed,

832
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:37,199
he asked. I told him what I heard, the dogs,

833
00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:40,920
the knocking. He raised his eyebrows but didn't say much.

834
00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:45,000
Just muttered something about sound carrying in the hills. Probably

835
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:48,679
a possum or raccoon messing around under there. Possums don't knock,

836
00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:53,039
I said, He just shrouked. Weird place. That house has

837
00:41:53,079 --> 00:41:56,119
been empty on and off for years. Curtis inherited it

838
00:41:56,239 --> 00:41:59,400
last spring. I didn't sleep great a round three in

839
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:01,840
the morning. I woke up with my mouth dry. I

840
00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:05,239
slipped downstairs, quietly, stepping over bodies in sleeping bags and

841
00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:08,719
half finished puzzles. As I opened the fridge, something outside

842
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:11,199
caught my eye. There was a woman standing in a

843
00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:14,679
field behind the house. No flashlight, no jacket, long hair

844
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:18,320
hanging down, not blowing even slightly. She was walking, wasn't

845
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:21,280
looking around, just standing face in the house, directly toward

846
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:24,039
the window. I was looking through a blink. Still there.

847
00:42:24,679 --> 00:42:27,599
I leaned back slowly, hort knocking against my roops. We

848
00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:32,639
did looked again. Fun. I didn't check the field, didn't

849
00:42:32,639 --> 00:42:35,840
ask about her in the morning, just acted like nothing happened.

850
00:42:36,559 --> 00:42:40,360
Help clean up, thank Cayley for the pies at my back,

851
00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:42,159
and planned to be back on the road before four.

852
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,639
As I was loading up my car, Drew came out. Hey,

853
00:42:45,719 --> 00:42:49,920
he said. Curtis texted said thanks again for helping out.

854
00:42:50,599 --> 00:42:53,039
But now the dogs won't go near the yard. They

855
00:42:53,159 --> 00:42:56,639
just bark at the basement door. I paused, wait what

856
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:00,000
He nodded like it was nothing. They wouldn't even eat

857
00:43:00,079 --> 00:43:02,920
this morning, just sat there growling. He said it started

858
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:05,639
last night. I told him again about the knocking the

859
00:43:05,679 --> 00:43:08,480
porch for the dogs. He just gave me a crooked smile.

860
00:43:09,119 --> 00:43:13,280
That house's weird man. Always has been, always has been.

861
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:16,039
Someone said his uncle guy, who used to live there,

862
00:43:16,119 --> 00:43:19,639
died in the basement. That was enough. I didn't say

863
00:43:19,639 --> 00:43:22,840
goodbye to anyone else, just got in the car and drove.

864
00:43:23,599 --> 00:43:26,000
We were living in this quiet stretch of southern West Virginia,

865
00:43:26,119 --> 00:43:28,320
the kind of place where the highway eventually fades into

866
00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:31,159
nothing and the wood start to reclaim everything. Our house

867
00:43:31,159 --> 00:43:32,880
sat just a couple miles up from what used to

868
00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:34,920
be a mining zone. One of the older one's lawns

869
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:37,519
shut down, most of the shafts were boarded up and

870
00:43:37,559 --> 00:43:40,000
slowly collapsing, and the forest had been creeping back in

871
00:43:40,039 --> 00:43:43,199
for years. You'd see rusted metal half sunk into the dirt,

872
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:46,360
old fencing tangled in vines, warning signs that had faded

873
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,280
to wide. Nobody really paid attention to it any more.

874
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:52,559
That land still technically belonged to a private company, though,

875
00:43:53,199 --> 00:43:55,360
some offshoot of an energy group that didn't you anything

876
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:58,360
with it anymore except keep liability at bay. My uncle

877
00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:00,239
Rick worked for them, not in any kind of a

878
00:44:00,239 --> 00:44:03,199
Fisher badge in uniform way, just low key contract security.

879
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:06,000
His job was to make sure people weren't messing around

880
00:44:06,039 --> 00:44:08,679
on the property, mostly keeping drunk teenages out and keeping

881
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:12,199
scavengers from getting crushed in old structures. That fall, Rick

882
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:14,119
fell through a rotted floor while checking an old up

883
00:44:14,119 --> 00:44:16,880
buildingier Chaft three, broke his leg bad enough to need

884
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:19,840
sogery in a long stint on crutches. A few days

885
00:44:19,840 --> 00:44:21,599
after it happened, he asked me if i'd cover a

886
00:44:21,599 --> 00:44:23,920
few of his night patrols until he could get around again.

887
00:44:24,519 --> 00:44:26,480
Said it would just be temporary and off the books,

888
00:44:27,199 --> 00:44:32,000
cash pay, no paperwork. He'd vouch for me. At the time,

889
00:44:32,079 --> 00:44:36,320
I didn't think twice. I was between things, some odd jobs,

890
00:44:36,519 --> 00:44:38,960
no college plans yet, and not much else going on.

891
00:44:39,519 --> 00:44:43,760
It sounded easy enough. Walk a loop, shine a flashlight,

892
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:47,960
make sure no one's around, maybe bring a snack. He

893
00:44:48,039 --> 00:44:49,960
gave me the key to the axis gate, a rough

894
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:51,880
map of the area, and a short checklist on a

895
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,039
couldboard I was supposed to fill out during each shift.

896
00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:57,159
The loop itself was about a half mile around. It

897
00:44:57,239 --> 00:44:59,480
started at the perimeter events and curved around two old

898
00:44:59,519 --> 00:45:02,599
mining strokes long since guttered, and then circled the main

899
00:45:02,719 --> 00:45:04,639
entrance to Shaft three, which had a gate over it

900
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:07,440
and fencing that extended a good thirty feet on either side.

901
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:09,559
All I had to do was walk the loop once,

902
00:45:09,639 --> 00:45:13,000
check the locks, and log anything unusual. The first couple

903
00:45:13,079 --> 00:45:17,960
nights were uneventful, quiet, actually almost too quiet out there

904
00:45:18,119 --> 00:45:20,039
past midnight. It was the kind of still where your

905
00:45:20,039 --> 00:45:22,719
own breathing felt loud. You could hear animals moving in

906
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:26,519
the brush rockings, mostly maybe the occasional deer, and sometimes

907
00:45:26,519 --> 00:45:28,559
you'd hear snapping twigs from way off in the woods,

908
00:45:29,159 --> 00:45:33,000
but nothing ever felt close. I always stayed outside the buildings.

909
00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:36,039
Rick told me not to bother unless something really looked off.

910
00:45:36,679 --> 00:45:40,639
The structures were dangerous anyway, no floors, sharp metal masts.

911
00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:44,039
I didn't argue, just gave them a wide breath and

912
00:45:44,159 --> 00:45:47,039
kept moving. But on the third night something caught my eye.

913
00:45:47,039 --> 00:45:50,000
Near the shaft gate. One section of the fence looked nearer.

914
00:45:50,599 --> 00:45:52,920
The chain links were cleaner, like they hadn't been sitting out,

915
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:56,360
and the weathers long. The posts were brighter too. At

916
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:58,679
first I figured maybe the company had sent some one

917
00:45:58,679 --> 00:46:01,159
out to patch it recently, be after Rick's accident, but

918
00:46:01,199 --> 00:46:02,960
there wasn't any note about it on the checklis store

919
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:05,679
in the low book. I knelt down for a closer look.

920
00:46:06,519 --> 00:46:10,239
No rost nowhere, and then I noticed the lock on

921
00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:12,639
the gate was different. The one I'd seen the past

922
00:46:12,639 --> 00:46:15,280
two nights was old and dull, all scatched up. This

923
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:19,840
one brand new, shiny. You could still see the barcode

924
00:46:19,840 --> 00:46:22,480
sticker in the bottom. It hadn't been there before, and

925
00:46:22,559 --> 00:46:25,320
no one had told us to expect any replacements. I

926
00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:27,800
jotted it down on the clipboard and finished my loop.

927
00:46:28,239 --> 00:46:31,000
Nothing else seemed out of place. The next night, I

928
00:46:31,039 --> 00:46:34,000
showed up like usual around quarter after midnight, walked the path.

929
00:46:34,599 --> 00:46:36,679
When I got close to the chaft gate, I stopped.

930
00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:39,880
The new lock was gone. The gate was wide open.

931
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:43,440
It was just cracked, maybe four or five inches, but

932
00:46:43,639 --> 00:46:45,719
enough that someone could slip through if they wanted to.

933
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:49,199
I stood there for a while, just listening. I didn't

934
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:52,639
hear anything, no wind, no movement, but that tiny opening

935
00:46:52,679 --> 00:46:55,119
just sat there waiting. I got the weirdest sensation that

936
00:46:55,159 --> 00:46:57,519
if I stood still long enough, something would step out

937
00:46:57,559 --> 00:47:00,880
from the darkness behind it. I didn't go here, I

938
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:03,840
didn't touch the gate. I backed up, walked the entire

939
00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:07,239
loop again and logged the anomaly. Later that morning, I

940
00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:09,880
told Rick he just stared for a second like he

941
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:12,800
was surprised. Then he sighed and said, just don't go

942
00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:16,159
near it, let them handle it. I wanted to ask

943
00:47:16,159 --> 00:47:18,960
who them was, but I didn't. Two nights after that,

944
00:47:19,039 --> 00:47:21,280
the gate was shut again, but the lock still wasn't there.

945
00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:24,599
Someone had twisted a piece of wire around the latch instead,

946
00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:28,159
like a temporary fix. That night I noticed something else.

947
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:32,400
There were no signs of activity, no footprints, no drag marks,

948
00:47:32,599 --> 00:47:35,239
no tie trucks in the axis road, the dirt they

949
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:38,280
were usually held marks pretty well, but nothing. Then came

950
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:41,679
night six. It was just past two way m. I

951
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:43,960
remember because I just checked my phone. After passing the

952
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:46,760
northern corner of the loop, I was coming up toward

953
00:47:46,800 --> 00:47:49,400
the shaft again when I heard a sound something inside

954
00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:52,320
the tunnel. It was to an animal. I know what

955
00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:55,440
to sound like. I know what raccoons. When foxes sound

956
00:47:55,639 --> 00:47:59,960
like this, will swoller have you? It was a dragging sound,

957
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:04,559
like something thick and heavy being pulled across stone. I froze.

958
00:48:05,039 --> 00:48:07,599
I didn't shine a flashlight straight at the tunnel, just

959
00:48:07,719 --> 00:48:09,800
kept it aimed a few feet ahead of my boots.

960
00:48:10,079 --> 00:48:12,159
My heart was studding in this weird off hythmway, like

961
00:48:12,159 --> 00:48:15,559
it was trying to warn me. The dragging stopped, then

962
00:48:15,800 --> 00:48:18,960
a few seconds later started again, but this time it

963
00:48:19,039 --> 00:48:21,360
sounded farther away, like whatever it was had moved deeper

964
00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:24,559
into the tunnel. I turned and walked away. I didn't

965
00:48:24,559 --> 00:48:27,960
log anything, I didn't speak. I got in the truck

966
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:31,000
and drove home. Seventh night. The air felt off before

967
00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:33,599
I even got out of the truck, still and heavy,

968
00:48:33,679 --> 00:48:36,079
like the whole area was holding its breath. I got

969
00:48:36,079 --> 00:48:38,079
half way through the loop before I noticed the smell.

970
00:48:38,679 --> 00:48:40,280
It hit me like wet meat left in the sun,

971
00:48:40,320 --> 00:48:43,400
thick and clinging, not sharp like rogugil, but deeper, like

972
00:48:44,079 --> 00:48:46,920
something had been rotting under ground and finally cracked the surface.

973
00:48:47,679 --> 00:48:50,079
I kept walking slower now, trying to figure out where

974
00:48:50,079 --> 00:48:52,280
it was coming from. The closer I got to the

975
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:55,239
shaft gate, the stronger it got. The wire was gone.

976
00:48:55,639 --> 00:48:58,559
The gate was slightly open again. I should have walked away,

977
00:48:59,159 --> 00:49:02,800
I told myself that. I remember thinking, just finish the loop,

978
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:06,679
just turn your back and leave, but I didn't. I

979
00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:09,079
stood there at the fence, not moving, staring into the

980
00:49:09,159 --> 00:49:11,280
dark space behind the gate, like it was staring back.

981
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:14,360
That's when I saw it something was lying on the

982
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:17,199
ground just inside the gate. It looked like a bundle

983
00:49:17,199 --> 00:49:19,039
at first, like a top or maybe a big sack

984
00:49:19,039 --> 00:49:20,679
of tools. But it had a shape to it, a

985
00:49:20,719 --> 00:49:23,199
long cuff pale against the stone, almost like a spine.

986
00:49:23,599 --> 00:49:25,880
There was no blood, but something about it looked wrong.

987
00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:28,679
It looked opened, like it had been torn along the side.

988
00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:32,719
Then it twitched, not fast, just a tiny reflexive jerk.

989
00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:36,360
That was enough. I turned and walked, not where'm walked,

990
00:49:36,400 --> 00:49:39,519
but fast, kept my flash light on the path, didn't

991
00:49:39,519 --> 00:49:43,000
look back. I didn't even drive home. I went straight

992
00:49:43,039 --> 00:49:45,199
to Rick's house, pounded on the door until he answered.

993
00:49:46,079 --> 00:49:49,920
I told him everything, start to finish. He listened, didn't interrupt.

994
00:49:50,639 --> 00:49:52,840
When I was done, he just nodded and said, don't

995
00:49:52,840 --> 00:49:55,639
go back. He left the job a few weeks later.

996
00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:58,719
About a week after all that, the company posted signs

997
00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:04,239
private secure enforced no trespassing that sort of thing. The

998
00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:08,880
patrol stopped. They didn't hire replacements. I was working maintenance

999
00:50:08,880 --> 00:50:12,079
at the courthouse in Briarfield, Virginia. The records lived in

1000
00:50:12,119 --> 00:50:16,639
the basement, old court documents, marriage licenses from couples, probably

1001
00:50:16,719 --> 00:50:19,519
long beared, land deeds from back when half the town

1002
00:50:19,599 --> 00:50:23,320
was still forest floor to sealing boxes down there. The

1003
00:50:23,360 --> 00:50:25,159
woman who used to handle all that had passed the

1004
00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:28,039
year before I started. No one replaced her, so the

1005
00:50:28,079 --> 00:50:30,400
basement just stayed the way she left it. I was

1006
00:50:30,440 --> 00:50:33,199
told not to touch it unless someone needed something specific.

1007
00:50:33,920 --> 00:50:35,960
One Thursday evening, I was tightening a valve in the

1008
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:38,239
break room sink, one of those little leaked jobs where

1009
00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:40,039
you know the wash is gone, but you're still hoping

1010
00:50:40,079 --> 00:50:42,800
it'll holt together for another month, when Melinda King downstairs

1011
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:45,360
with a paper in her hand. Melinda was a clerk,

1012
00:50:45,400 --> 00:50:49,079
always polite but sharp. She didn't like wasting time. Can

1013
00:50:49,079 --> 00:50:51,920
you grab a probate file for me, she asked, handing

1014
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:54,559
me the slip. It hit the box, numbered shelf code,

1015
00:50:54,559 --> 00:50:58,880
and you're written on it. I nodded, easy enough. Gave

1016
00:50:58,920 --> 00:51:01,400
me a reason to stretch my life. The lights in

1017
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:04,199
the basement had been a problem since I started. I

1018
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:07,079
replaced the bulb's check to fixtures, even swapped the few wires,

1019
00:51:07,119 --> 00:51:09,719
but they always flickered like a bad horror movie. So

1020
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:12,119
I kept a flash like click to my belt. Not

1021
00:51:12,199 --> 00:51:14,960
out of fear, just habit. He learned to come prepared

1022
00:51:15,639 --> 00:51:17,599
when I pushed the basement door open. I felt that

1023
00:51:17,639 --> 00:51:21,199
flat kind of error again. Not coal, not musty, just stale,

1024
00:51:21,239 --> 00:51:23,360
like whatever circulated down there had stopped trying a long

1025
00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:26,119
time ago. I'd been in the week before Fury under

1026
00:51:26,159 --> 00:51:28,000
the old water heater, so it wasn't like it was

1027
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:30,840
sealed off or anything, but it didn't feel used. It

1028
00:51:30,920 --> 00:51:35,000
felt forgotten. The filing system was simple enough. Floor tiles

1029
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:39,199
had numbers, Shells were labeled with letters. Rows were divided

1030
00:51:39,199 --> 00:51:41,599
by year. Follow the grid and you'd end up in

1031
00:51:41,599 --> 00:51:44,599
the right corner. Eventually, I'd used it maybe twice before,

1032
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:48,400
Shell fourteen b, third row from the bottom. When I

1033
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:50,639
got to it, the box I needed was already sticking

1034
00:51:50,639 --> 00:51:52,239
out a bit, like someone had set it down in

1035
00:51:52,239 --> 00:51:56,400
a hurry, same kind of box as the others. Dull cardboard,

1036
00:51:56,440 --> 00:51:59,320
black mark, a label, old masking tape, yellowed in the corners.

1037
00:52:00,079 --> 00:52:02,719
That something about it didn't sit right. The libel was

1038
00:52:02,760 --> 00:52:07,360
too crisp ink, didn't bleed like theyellows, no smatging, no age.

1039
00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:10,840
Still it matched the coat, so I pulled it down,

1040
00:52:11,199 --> 00:52:13,320
rested it on a low shelf, and opened the lid.

1041
00:52:13,960 --> 00:52:15,679
Right on top was a file with my full name,

1042
00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:19,159
not initials not. I just stared at it for a second.

1043
00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:23,119
Could have been a coincidence, maybe maybe someone filed a

1044
00:52:23,159 --> 00:52:25,719
complaint or left a note. But when I opened it,

1045
00:52:25,719 --> 00:52:30,639
it was the complaint. It was a maintenance report, standard form,

1046
00:52:30,920 --> 00:52:34,320
but all the handwriting inside was mine. I knew it.

1047
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:37,000
The weird little col I make on my FSS, the

1048
00:52:37,039 --> 00:52:40,039
way I underlined dates when amonoid. It was like I'd

1049
00:52:40,039 --> 00:52:43,880
filled it up myself, only I hadn't. The report listed

1050
00:52:43,920 --> 00:52:47,280
a light fixture repair in the second floor hallway, scheduled

1051
00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:50,159
for the fall and Tuesday. I hadn't been assigned anything

1052
00:52:50,239 --> 00:52:53,599
like that yet. I closed a folder, lifted the box

1053
00:52:53,639 --> 00:52:56,039
to slide it back in the shelf, but the space

1054
00:52:56,079 --> 00:52:58,760
behind me had changed. The spot where I'd set it

1055
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:01,480
down was empty. And now there were three more boxes

1056
00:53:01,519 --> 00:53:05,519
at my feet, all stacked, all labeled in my handwriting.

1057
00:53:06,079 --> 00:53:09,480
Each one had a date. None of them matched. One

1058
00:53:09,519 --> 00:53:13,199
said July twenty second, two years ago, one said next month.

1059
00:53:13,880 --> 00:53:15,400
The third didn't have a year at all, just a

1060
00:53:15,519 --> 00:53:20,840
range on mowing. I opened one, then another. Every fowl

1061
00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:23,400
was a job I hadn't done yet. Some I didn't

1062
00:53:23,440 --> 00:53:28,800
even understand. Easterwell inspection, wal cavity exploture. We didn't have

1063
00:53:28,840 --> 00:53:32,840
any stairwell. One form mentioned a mechanical subbasement access deny.

1064
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:37,039
I'd never seen that space on any blueprint. Another said

1065
00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:41,559
storage room three B sound observed, lock jammed. There is

1066
00:53:41,559 --> 00:53:45,039
no storage room three be, not in that building. I

1067
00:53:45,079 --> 00:53:48,320
stepped back. I hadn't even realized how far i'd walked in.

1068
00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:52,400
The shelves looked taller now, or maybe I just felt smaller.

1069
00:53:53,000 --> 00:53:55,840
I turned, trying to get my bearings, but every row

1070
00:53:55,880 --> 00:53:58,239
looked the same stacks of old card board and stale air.

1071
00:53:58,880 --> 00:54:01,400
That's when I noticed the cab. It It sat low

1072
00:54:01,400 --> 00:54:05,679
in the corner, beige metal, medical, looking like something pulled

1073
00:54:05,719 --> 00:54:08,639
from a nurse's office in the sixties. It didn't belong

1074
00:54:08,679 --> 00:54:11,599
in there, not with the rest of the records. The

1075
00:54:11,639 --> 00:54:14,480
top drawer was opened just a little inside was a

1076
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:19,960
folded maintenance jumpsuit identical to mine, same navy color, same

1077
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:22,360
patch in the arm, same tear in the knee from

1078
00:54:22,400 --> 00:54:25,199
crawling under the boiler last month. I hadn't left a

1079
00:54:25,239 --> 00:54:28,719
spare down here. I didn't touch it. I turned back

1080
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:32,840
to the stairs. I needed to leave it air at

1081
00:54:32,880 --> 00:54:36,360
air pretend. I didn't see any of this. Right as

1082
00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:39,119
I reached the top step, the door slant shut pod

1083
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:42,480
like someone had yanked it. I ran up and shoved

1084
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:44,920
at it, but it wouldn't move. There's no lock on

1085
00:54:44,920 --> 00:54:49,519
that side, no bolt, but it didn't budge. I knocked,

1086
00:54:50,199 --> 00:54:55,039
then again, louder. Then I stopped because I heard something.

1087
00:54:55,679 --> 00:54:59,800
It was footsteps, not breathing, just a soft sum right

1088
00:54:59,800 --> 00:55:02,239
bef behind me, the kind of dry scrape you hear

1089
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:06,239
when cardboard slides across concrete. I turned around. There was

1090
00:55:06,239 --> 00:55:08,239
a box on the step below me. I hadn't heard

1091
00:55:08,239 --> 00:55:11,559
it move, hadn't seen it fall, but it was there.

1092
00:55:12,280 --> 00:55:14,920
No label this time, just my name and big block

1093
00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:19,360
letters across the lid. I opened it. Inside was a photograph,

1094
00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:23,199
black and white, Brueni looked like a still from a

1095
00:55:23,239 --> 00:55:26,880
security camera the time stump match that day. It was

1096
00:55:26,960 --> 00:55:30,559
me then over, flashlight in hand, standing at shelf fourteen by,

1097
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:33,880
just like I had ten minutes earlier. I dropped the box,

1098
00:55:34,639 --> 00:55:38,280
shoved the door again, harder this time it gave. I

1099
00:55:38,320 --> 00:55:41,280
almost fell forward into the hallway. Milinda looked up from

1100
00:55:41,280 --> 00:55:45,039
her desk like nothing had happened. You find it, she asked, No,

1101
00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:49,000
I said, records are a mess. I'll try again later,

1102
00:55:49,679 --> 00:55:52,920
she nodded, already typing again. I went home and didn't

1103
00:55:52,960 --> 00:55:56,280
sleep that night, just lay in bed, staring at the ceiling,

1104
00:55:56,360 --> 00:56:00,760
trying to convince myself. I'd imagined that I was tired, stressed,

1105
00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:04,559
anything but what it felt like. Next morning, I showed

1106
00:56:04,599 --> 00:56:07,480
up early, told the county manager I wasn't going into

1107
00:56:07,519 --> 00:56:11,440
the basement any more. Exterior jobs. Only. I didn't tell

1108
00:56:11,480 --> 00:56:15,679
them about the files, or the boxes or the photograph.

1109
00:56:16,119 --> 00:56:19,280
They wouldn't have believed me. I'm not sure I do now.

1110
00:56:19,320 --> 00:56:21,760
I don't even go near the basement level. If a

1111
00:56:21,800 --> 00:56:24,119
pipe burst down there, some one else can figure it out.

1112
00:56:24,679 --> 00:56:26,760
Deyna called me in late August, just as I was

1113
00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:29,559
wrapping up a rough week at work. She was moving

1114
00:56:29,559 --> 00:56:31,800
into a rental house near Lake in West Virginia and

1115
00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:34,079
asked if I could come help her settle in. She

1116
00:56:34,239 --> 00:56:36,400
landed a librarian job at small college out there and

1117
00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:38,519
found a cheap place not too far from campus. I

1118
00:56:38,519 --> 00:56:41,199
figured why not. I had some p DEO saved up

1119
00:56:41,239 --> 00:56:44,280
and hadn't seen her in months. The house was remote,

1120
00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:48,039
one story older, and surrounded on all sides by woods

1121
00:56:48,039 --> 00:56:49,920
that seemed to krawd close so the further you drove

1122
00:56:50,000 --> 00:56:52,480
in the road it sat on didn't even show up

1123
00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:55,639
by name on Google Maps, just a thin gray line.

1124
00:56:56,079 --> 00:56:58,239
Her nearest neighbors were an older couple who lived two

1125
00:56:58,239 --> 00:57:00,760
lots over and Bailey. Came outside and a broken down

1126
00:57:00,760 --> 00:57:02,920
house cross the road that looked like a half collapsed barn.

1127
00:57:03,480 --> 00:57:05,360
The back corner of its roof was carved in and

1128
00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:07,599
there were no cuttains in the windows, just bag glass

1129
00:57:07,599 --> 00:57:10,760
reflected in trees and sky. I drove down from Pittsburgh

1130
00:57:10,840 --> 00:57:13,639
on a Monday, made good time. Dana didn't have a

1131
00:57:13,639 --> 00:57:16,039
lot of furniture, just boxes and a few bigger pieces

1132
00:57:16,119 --> 00:57:18,960
she bought secondhand. We had it all inside by dinner.

1133
00:57:19,599 --> 00:57:21,760
That evening. We sat out in the yardard drinks, still

1134
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:24,639
sweaty from hauling stuff, letting the cicades hum in the background.

1135
00:57:25,199 --> 00:57:27,079
There was a quite stillness out there that was peaceful

1136
00:57:27,079 --> 00:57:28,960
in theory, but the kind of quiet that also makes

1137
00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:31,679
you keep glancing over your shoulder. We kept looking at

1138
00:57:31,719 --> 00:57:34,480
the old house cross the road. It wasn't boarded up,

1139
00:57:34,679 --> 00:57:37,519
just neglected, like someone meant to fix it once but

1140
00:57:37,559 --> 00:57:40,400
gave up half way through. The windows looked fogged up

1141
00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:43,320
from the inside. There wasn't even a wheel driveway, just

1142
00:57:43,360 --> 00:57:46,280
a patch of gravel sinking into weeds. I joked that

1143
00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:48,039
if any one was living in there, they were either

1144
00:57:48,039 --> 00:57:50,800
a ghost or a meth head. Dana laughed sort of,

1145
00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:52,880
then said her real stagage and told her the place

1146
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:56,039
had been empty for six years. She didn't sound convinced.

1147
00:57:56,719 --> 00:57:58,800
The next morning, I woke up to this soft, steady

1148
00:57:58,800 --> 00:58:02,079
hammering just enough to the quiet. I rolled out of bed,

1149
00:58:02,159 --> 00:58:03,800
looked out the window and saw a man in a

1150
00:58:03,800 --> 00:58:06,000
blue shirt standing next to that house across the road.

1151
00:58:06,639 --> 00:58:08,599
He was nailing something to a wooden post, not the

1152
00:58:08,719 --> 00:58:11,360
edge of the yard. I couldn't make out his face,

1153
00:58:11,519 --> 00:58:14,400
and there was something worried about how he moved slow,

1154
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:17,239
like his joints didn't quite work right. I figured I'd

1155
00:58:17,280 --> 00:58:19,239
go out and say something, but by the time I

1156
00:58:19,280 --> 00:58:22,639
got dressed and stepped outside, he was gone, just gone.

1157
00:58:23,159 --> 00:58:26,519
No sound, no truck, no footsteps on gravel. I asked

1158
00:58:26,559 --> 00:58:29,079
Diana if she saw him. She hadn't heard a thing.

1159
00:58:29,719 --> 00:58:31,679
We walked across the road together to see what he'd

1160
00:58:31,679 --> 00:58:34,000
been doing. There was a piece of weather wood nail

1161
00:58:34,000 --> 00:58:36,760
crookedly to a splindid poilt covered in rusted nails and

1162
00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:39,480
tangled wire, not like a sign or anything, more like

1163
00:58:39,519 --> 00:58:41,559
something meant to hurt someone or warn them. We just

1164
00:58:41,599 --> 00:58:43,920
stood there staring at it for a while. Then we

1165
00:58:43,960 --> 00:58:45,840
went back to the house and didn't bring it up again.

1166
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:49,159
That night, I had trouble sleeping. I don't know why.

1167
00:58:49,239 --> 00:58:51,280
It wasn't hot and it was nassy, but every time

1168
00:58:51,320 --> 00:58:53,719
I closed my eyes I felt like something was slightly off,

1169
00:58:53,800 --> 00:58:56,280
like I'd left a door cracked open. Around one in

1170
00:58:56,320 --> 00:59:00,239
the morning, I heard tapping, not banging, na, not king,

1171
00:59:01,039 --> 00:59:03,800
just a soft, deliberate tapping. It was coming from the

1172
00:59:03,800 --> 00:59:06,400
front room. I got up, trying not to wake Dana,

1173
00:59:06,480 --> 00:59:10,119
and walked slowly down the hallway. The tapping didn't change rhythm.

1174
00:59:10,440 --> 00:59:12,039
It was coming from the front window, the one that

1175
00:59:12,079 --> 00:59:15,360
faced the road. I pulled up the blind. The old

1176
00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:19,239
house had a light on second floor left window. There

1177
00:59:19,239 --> 00:59:22,159
had never been a light on in there, no electricity,

1178
00:59:22,280 --> 00:59:25,079
no movement, nothing, But now it glowed with a soft

1179
00:59:25,119 --> 00:59:27,199
yellow light, and behind the gloss doed of figure a

1180
00:59:27,280 --> 00:59:30,960
dog shaped still a stone. I just stood there watching it.

1181
00:59:30,960 --> 00:59:34,599
It didn't move, the light didn't flicker. Then, after what

1182
00:59:34,679 --> 00:59:37,840
felt like a full minute, the light snapped off, no fade,

1183
00:59:38,639 --> 00:59:41,360
just dark. I stepped back from the window and sat

1184
00:59:41,360 --> 00:59:44,239
on the floor until sunrise. Couldn't bring myself to go

1185
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:46,519
back to bed. The next day of over coffee, I

1186
00:59:46,559 --> 00:59:49,480
told Dana she was already stressed from the job orientation

1187
00:59:49,559 --> 00:59:52,719
and just waved it off. Save maybe someone was checking

1188
00:59:52,719 --> 00:59:55,679
on the property, maybe a squatter brought in a generator.

1189
00:59:56,199 --> 00:59:58,599
She didn't want it to become a thing. I didn't

1190
00:59:58,639 --> 01:00:02,519
press it. But that afternoon something else happened. We were

1191
01:00:02,519 --> 01:00:04,840
outside and loading groceries from her car when a man

1192
01:00:04,840 --> 01:00:07,880
stepped out of the woods behind the abandoned house. Same

1193
01:00:07,920 --> 01:00:12,039
blue shirt, same build, same with stiff walk. He didn't approach,

1194
01:00:12,119 --> 01:00:13,880
as just stood at the tree lion and stared. His

1195
01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:16,039
face was long and pale, blank as paper. I called

1196
01:00:16,039 --> 01:00:18,079
out as if he needed something, no response. After a

1197
01:00:18,119 --> 01:00:20,480
few seconds, he turned around and walked back into the trees.

1198
01:00:20,519 --> 01:00:22,760
Not sand nor TwixT cracking, no leaves rustling. He was

1199
01:00:22,840 --> 01:00:24,679
just absorbed back into the woods. That night, I didn't

1200
01:00:24,719 --> 01:00:26,519
even pretend to sleep, but kept the TV on low

1201
01:00:26,519 --> 01:00:28,159
and sat up in the arm jinney at the hallway,

1202
01:00:28,440 --> 01:00:30,960
just listening for around midnight, the light up of the

1203
01:00:31,039 --> 01:00:33,760
kitchen sink started to pulse. It didn't flicker like a

1204
01:00:33,760 --> 01:00:36,519
bulb about to go. It poles like it was breathing.

1205
01:00:37,119 --> 01:00:40,360
Then it stomped. Then the hallway life looked on. I

1206
01:00:40,440 --> 01:00:43,239
was still staring at it when the smell hit me. Smoke,

1207
01:00:44,039 --> 01:00:47,400
chop backward, kind that catches in the back of your throat.

1208
01:00:47,960 --> 01:00:52,079
I ran into the kitchen. Nothing. The stove was cold,

1209
01:00:52,400 --> 01:00:55,679
no fire, but the smell was thick, like something had

1210
01:00:55,719 --> 01:00:58,880
just burned and vanished. Then it came out, coughing, scared.

1211
01:00:59,480 --> 01:01:01,840
We searched the house top to bottom, checked every outlet,

1212
01:01:01,880 --> 01:01:05,159
every one nothing. Then I opened the front door to

1213
01:01:05,239 --> 01:01:06,880
let the air out, and that's when I saw it.

1214
01:01:07,480 --> 01:01:09,400
Right at the edge of the yard, near the ditch

1215
01:01:09,599 --> 01:01:12,400
was a mound of dirt. It hadn't been there earlier.

1216
01:01:13,039 --> 01:01:16,840
I walked toward it with a flashlight. The sail was loose, damp, uneven,

1217
01:01:17,000 --> 01:01:18,920
like someone had just dug it and covered it up again.

1218
01:01:19,480 --> 01:01:22,320
Dinna stood in the porch behind me, whispering, we need

1219
01:01:22,360 --> 01:01:25,559
to leave. We didn't argue about it. We packed what

1220
01:01:25,599 --> 01:01:28,039
we could in five minutes and left everything else behind.

1221
01:01:28,679 --> 01:01:31,559
We got a room at a cheap motel near Combass

1222
01:01:32,000 --> 01:01:34,480
and that is the end. Thank you for listening and

1223
01:01:34,519 --> 01:01:35,719
I will see you in the next one.