1
00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:08,519
Speaker 1: Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here.

2
00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:11,919
Let's get into it. I just moved from Oregon too,

3
00:00:11,919 --> 00:00:14,800
a small town in Tennessee, Colbrandon. It's about an arrow

4
00:00:14,839 --> 00:00:17,440
from Knoxville, tupped between patches of woods and open fields

5
00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:19,920
that all start to blow together after a while. The

6
00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:22,160
house I found was dirt cheap, which should have tipped

7
00:00:22,199 --> 00:00:25,039
me off. One story a three bedrooms plus a basement.

8
00:00:25,079 --> 00:00:27,679
I wasn't really planning to touch it. Sat on a

9
00:00:27,719 --> 00:00:30,399
thin road with no shoulder, just a gravel strip leading

10
00:00:30,399 --> 00:00:32,320
to the driveway and wood wrapping around the back like

11
00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:34,719
a curtain. It had that look like someone had cared

12
00:00:34,759 --> 00:00:36,679
for it once a long time ago, then gave up

13
00:00:36,679 --> 00:00:39,759
halfway through a renovation. Paint was flaking off the siding

14
00:00:39,799 --> 00:00:42,079
in spots, the front step creak like an old knee,

15
00:00:42,119 --> 00:00:44,439
and the mail box leaned like it wanted out. But

16
00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:47,079
it was private and the landlord didn't ask many questions.

17
00:00:47,679 --> 00:00:49,679
I signed a lease before I even saw the basement.

18
00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:53,159
The first couple nights were uneventful. I spent most of

19
00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:55,719
the time on packing the basics in pretending to organize,

20
00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:58,560
but really I was just trying to feel normal. Everything

21
00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:00,759
was quiet, and I mean quiet. No traffic, no neighbors

22
00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:03,320
yelling through walls, no city sounds bouncing off concrete. It

23
00:01:03,359 --> 00:01:05,200
was the kind of silence that makes you notice your

24
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:06,959
own breathing. On the second night, I tried to shut

25
00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:08,760
the hallway bathroom door and it bounced back at me,

26
00:01:08,799 --> 00:01:10,480
not how just like something was in the way. But

27
00:01:10,519 --> 00:01:13,799
when I looked behind it, there was nothing there. I

28
00:01:13,879 --> 00:01:16,000
figured maybe the door frame was crooked or the latch

29
00:01:16,079 --> 00:01:18,879
was off. The next day I grabbed a screwdriver and

30
00:01:18,879 --> 00:01:21,519
messed with the hinges for a bit. Didn't fix much.

31
00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:24,480
The door stoll resisted closing all the way and now

32
00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:26,640
and then i'd hear a soft thump like a knock,

33
00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:28,519
but not quite in the hall, and I'd find the

34
00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:31,640
door slightly at our again old house. I told myself,

35
00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:36,519
old houses, grown, schiff creek. It's just wood expanding or something.

36
00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:39,760
I left it alone. A few days in I got

37
00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:41,680
back from a grocery run and found one of the

38
00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:45,000
kitchen chairs sitting halfway down the hallway, just one chair,

39
00:01:45,079 --> 00:01:47,680
not tipped over her, not broken, just placed there like

40
00:01:47,719 --> 00:01:49,799
someone had started to bring it somewhere then forgot or

41
00:01:49,879 --> 00:01:53,519
change their mind. I froze for a second. I hadn't

42
00:01:53,519 --> 00:01:55,840
moved any of the chairs since I got there. I

43
00:01:55,879 --> 00:01:58,439
hadn't even eaten at the table yet. I'd been living

44
00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:00,680
off sandwiches and coffee and whatever I could make in

45
00:02:00,719 --> 00:02:03,439
one pan. I stood there holding a bag of eggs

46
00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:07,200
and fruit, just staring at it. It felt weird off,

47
00:02:07,959 --> 00:02:10,400
like walking into a room and realizing something's missing, but

48
00:02:10,439 --> 00:02:13,080
not knowing what. I picked the chair up and returned

49
00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:14,879
it to the table without thinking much more about it.

50
00:02:14,919 --> 00:02:17,520
But that was when I started locking the doors, all

51
00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:19,879
of them, even if I was just taking a shower

52
00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:23,599
or reading on the couch. I couldn't explain why. It

53
00:02:23,719 --> 00:02:27,319
just felt necessary. That weekend, around midnight, I was half

54
00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:29,719
asleep watching something on TV when I heard what sounded

55
00:02:29,719 --> 00:02:33,439
like light footsteps in the back porch. Not heavy, more

56
00:02:33,479 --> 00:02:35,599
like the sound of bare feet brushing against old wood.

57
00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:39,680
Too softy boots, too irregular to be an animal, I thought.

58
00:02:40,319 --> 00:02:42,520
I muted the TV, held my breath for a second,

59
00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:45,719
and then grabbed my flasklight from the counter. The porch

60
00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:48,560
was empty, nothing there but the screen door was moving,

61
00:02:48,759 --> 00:02:50,680
just gently, like someone had let go of it a

62
00:02:50,719 --> 00:02:53,599
few seconds before. I looked. I hadn't touched that door

63
00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:56,960
since moving in. It hadn't been windy, the air was

64
00:02:56,960 --> 00:02:59,800
still thick with summer humidity. I opened the main door

65
00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:02,319
and step outside, shining the light across the yard and

66
00:03:02,319 --> 00:03:05,960
into the trees. Just brush and branches and shadows, no movement,

67
00:03:06,199 --> 00:03:08,759
no sounds, except for one cicada chirping off somewhere too

68
00:03:08,759 --> 00:03:11,560
far to matter. I told myself maybe a raccoon had

69
00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:13,919
bumped the door, or a squirre, something harmless, but I

70
00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:16,400
did bolted it tight and jawned the chair under the handle. Anyway,

71
00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:18,879
that night, I left the hallway light on and sat

72
00:03:18,879 --> 00:03:20,719
in bed for a long time before sleep caught up.

73
00:03:21,319 --> 00:03:23,319
Around two a m. I woke up to the sound

74
00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:26,039
of the kitchen faucet turning on, just a quick boast,

75
00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:27,800
like someone had flipped the handle up and let it

76
00:03:27,879 --> 00:03:30,599
run for one second before turning it off. I didn't

77
00:03:30,639 --> 00:03:32,960
move from my bed. I could see the edge of

78
00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,400
the hallway through the open door. I stared at that

79
00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,199
empty patch of light for what felt like ten minutes, listening.

80
00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:42,479
Nothing else happened. Eventually, I got up slowly switched on

81
00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:44,680
the bedroom light, first in the hallway, then the kitchen.

82
00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:49,159
The faucet was off, no droops, nothing out of place.

83
00:03:49,879 --> 00:03:54,240
Every door was still locked, windows two. I checked them twice.

84
00:03:54,919 --> 00:03:56,759
It didn't make sense, but there was nothing I could

85
00:03:56,800 --> 00:04:00,599
point to, nothing I could prove. I didn't call the police.

86
00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:05,120
What would I even say that the plumbing was acting suspicious.

87
00:04:05,439 --> 00:04:07,719
The next day I wandered into town and camped out

88
00:04:07,719 --> 00:04:09,560
at this little coffee shop. For most of the evening,

89
00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:11,719
I sat in the corner with a mug. I didn't

90
00:04:11,759 --> 00:04:15,000
refill scrolling my phone, pretending to read. I didn't know

91
00:04:15,039 --> 00:04:17,720
what I was expecting to find, articles about how to

92
00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:20,759
tell if your house hates you. Nothing online really helped.

93
00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:24,240
Everything sounded exaggerated or fake, and what I was dealing

94
00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,879
with didn't feel like that. It felt specific, personal, like

95
00:04:27,959 --> 00:04:30,240
whatever was happening had only just started to notice me.

96
00:04:30,879 --> 00:04:34,000
That night, I left the kitchen light on small comfort,

97
00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:36,959
but it helped. Around three in the morning, I woke

98
00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:40,759
up siding through the sheets. The room felt off, still

99
00:04:40,879 --> 00:04:45,000
but not calm. Then I realized my bedroom door was closed.

100
00:04:45,639 --> 00:04:49,040
I never closed it. I sat up, waited, watched, and

101
00:04:49,079 --> 00:04:52,720
then I heard it. The knob turned just a little,

102
00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:56,360
a soft click, like someone was generally trying it mebe

103
00:04:56,360 --> 00:04:59,959
expecting it to be locked. I couldn't breathe. I whispered

104
00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:04,920
hello nothing. After about thirty seconds, I got up. I

105
00:05:04,959 --> 00:05:07,759
wasn't brave about it. My legs felt like noodles and

106
00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:10,759
my hands were shaking. But I opened the door fast anyway,

107
00:05:10,879 --> 00:05:14,519
like I could surprise whatever was at there. Hallway was empty,

108
00:05:14,839 --> 00:05:19,160
kitchen was dark, the light i'd left on off. That's

109
00:05:19,199 --> 00:05:21,439
when I said it, I need to get out of here.

110
00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:27,560
Just those words, quiet, blood flat, like admitting something I

111
00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:30,519
already knew. I packed the essentials into a Duffel back

112
00:05:30,519 --> 00:05:34,560
the next morning, just close, wallet, charger, teeth brush, didn't

113
00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:37,800
take anything extra. I drove into Knoxville and checked into

114
00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:40,600
a budget motel. I emailed the landlord and said I

115
00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:44,680
wouldn't be finishing out the lease. No explanation, just paid

116
00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:47,160
through the month and let it go. I was twenty

117
00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:48,879
two when I signed the lease on the small house

118
00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,879
just outside of Marion. I moved an on a Saturday.

119
00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:54,560
My friend I'll and helped me hold everything over in

120
00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:57,079
his truck, mostly just a fruit on a copple, milk

121
00:05:57,079 --> 00:05:59,360
crates full of clothes, and an old dresser. I got

122
00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:02,720
off Facebook market place the house had two bedrooms, pale

123
00:06:02,759 --> 00:06:05,040
green siding that looked like it hadn't been painted since

124
00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:07,079
before I was born, and a front portch that leaned

125
00:06:07,079 --> 00:06:09,720
forward like it was slowly sinking into the dirt road.

126
00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:12,079
My shifts were mostly evenings, so I got used to

127
00:06:12,079 --> 00:06:15,279
coming home around midnight. The town practically rolled itself up

128
00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:19,720
after nine. No traffic, no porch lights, no noise, just me,

129
00:06:19,959 --> 00:06:22,759
my tired brain and whatever leftovers I head in the fridge.

130
00:06:23,279 --> 00:06:26,040
The first one was small. I came home one night

131
00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:28,319
and the whole closet life was on. It's one of

132
00:06:28,319 --> 00:06:31,240
those little polsterring bulbs, something you'd have to physically turn on.

133
00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:33,879
I hadn't even opened the door since I moved in.

134
00:06:34,439 --> 00:06:37,560
I turned it off, didn't think much of it. A

135
00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:40,439
couple days later, the same thing. Then I noticed the

136
00:06:40,519 --> 00:06:43,319
kitchen drawer, the one where I kept random stuff like

137
00:06:43,399 --> 00:06:45,480
take up menus and batteries, would be open an inch

138
00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:49,199
or two when I came home. Not every night, just sometimes.

139
00:06:49,879 --> 00:06:51,959
One morning I found my teeth bush line across the

140
00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:54,360
edge of the sink, damp, like it had just been used.

141
00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:57,920
I live alone, no one else has a key. I

142
00:06:58,000 --> 00:06:59,959
chalk it up to stress or just being scatter brained.

143
00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:02,959
The night shift does weird things to your memory. You

144
00:07:03,079 --> 00:07:05,120
find yourself putting cereal in the fridge and the milk

145
00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:07,759
in the pantry without realizing it. But still that feeling

146
00:07:07,759 --> 00:07:10,360
crept in, like something was just a little off. Then

147
00:07:10,399 --> 00:07:13,279
came Sunday. I had the whole day off and decided

148
00:07:13,279 --> 00:07:15,720
to deep clean the bathroom, just one of those spur

149
00:07:15,759 --> 00:07:18,360
of the moment things. I was scrubbing under the sink,

150
00:07:18,399 --> 00:07:20,480
trying to get rid of this weird, musty smell that

151
00:07:20,519 --> 00:07:22,839
wouldn't go away, when I noticed something carved into the

152
00:07:22,879 --> 00:07:25,560
inside of the vanity door. At first I thought it

153
00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:26,879
was just a crack in the wood, but when I

154
00:07:26,920 --> 00:07:30,480
looked closer, I saw small, deliberate scratches, like some one

155
00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:32,879
had used a nail or a house key. It said

156
00:07:32,920 --> 00:07:35,160
don't sleep in the back room. Not bold or dramatic,

157
00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:38,439
just there, quiet and scratched in like a note men

158
00:07:38,519 --> 00:07:41,560
only for me. That' stopped me cold. I had been

159
00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:44,160
sleeping in the back bedroom since day one. It was

160
00:07:44,199 --> 00:07:46,439
cooler than the front one, and the windows didn't rattle

161
00:07:46,439 --> 00:07:49,360
as much. I just stared at that message for a while.

162
00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:52,439
Then I closed the cabinet walked down the hall and

163
00:07:52,519 --> 00:07:55,759
moved my stuff into the other room. No hesitation. The

164
00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:59,120
front room wasn't great. It got too hot in the afternoon,

165
00:07:59,199 --> 00:08:01,279
and it smelled a little like dust and old fabric

166
00:08:01,319 --> 00:08:04,000
no matter how much I cleaned, But I didn't care.

167
00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:07,040
I didn't tell any one about what I found. I

168
00:08:07,079 --> 00:08:11,120
didn't want to explain something I barely understood myself. Three

169
00:08:11,199 --> 00:08:13,600
days later, I got home from work just after midnight.

170
00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:16,839
Same as always, I walked into the front bedroom and stopped.

171
00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:20,040
My bed. Now in the new room was completely stripped.

172
00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:24,399
Every pillow, blanket and cheek one not crumpled or thrown off,

173
00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:27,519
just missing. I searched everywhere, laundry, hamper, under the bed,

174
00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:29,720
inside the closet, even the old room nothing, just a

175
00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:31,680
mattress sitting the bell like it had never been made.

176
00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:33,240
The night, I curled up on the couch with the

177
00:08:33,279 --> 00:08:34,799
hoodie and if for a blanket I found in the

178
00:08:34,799 --> 00:08:36,840
trunk of my car. After the things spiraled, one night,

179
00:08:36,879 --> 00:08:38,799
I came home and the bathroom force it was running

180
00:08:38,799 --> 00:08:41,440
full blast water everywhere I hadn't used it that morning.

181
00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:44,720
My boots, which I always lined up neatly by the door,

182
00:08:44,799 --> 00:08:48,360
were turned backwards. Another time, while I was eating dinner,

183
00:08:48,399 --> 00:08:50,399
the first door creaked open behind me. I just sat

184
00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,000
there frozen, watching it slowly swing out, like some one

185
00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:55,360
was expecting me to get up and close it. Then

186
00:08:55,399 --> 00:08:58,039
came the photo. We had a storm one night, one

187
00:08:58,039 --> 00:09:00,480
of those sudden, heavy Southern storms that knocked out power

188
00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:02,519
for an hour or two. I went to check the

189
00:09:02,519 --> 00:09:04,879
breaker panel in the whole way closet. While I was

190
00:09:04,879 --> 00:09:07,440
poking around and there with my PHAM flashlight, I noticed

191
00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:10,639
something stuck behind a metal panel cover. I pulled it out.

192
00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:14,720
It was a polaroid. They did slightly warp from moisture,

193
00:09:14,759 --> 00:09:17,240
but the image was clear enough. It was a picture

194
00:09:17,240 --> 00:09:19,720
of the back bedroom, my old one. The bed was

195
00:09:19,759 --> 00:09:22,840
stripped bare, the walls were stained like something had sook

196
00:09:22,879 --> 00:09:25,399
through the plaster, and in the corner sat a girl,

197
00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:28,720
maybe sixteen or seventeen, curled up, her face hidden behind

198
00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:31,399
her hands. You couldn't see her expression, just the way

199
00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:33,799
her shoulders were hunched, like she'd been crying for eyars.

200
00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:36,360
Someone had ridden on the white border of the photo.

201
00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:39,080
This is where she stayed. I sat down right there

202
00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:40,960
on the hallway floor and stared at the photo for

203
00:09:41,039 --> 00:09:44,480
what felt like forever. I didn't sleep that night. I

204
00:09:44,519 --> 00:09:46,519
stayed on the couch with every light on in the house.

205
00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:49,440
I even turned on the TV for background noise, just

206
00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:52,120
to make the silence feel less sharp. At some point,

207
00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:55,399
around two a m. I heard footsteps in the hallway, slow,

208
00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:58,879
heavy ones. Not the creaking of a house settling, not

209
00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,240
the scurrying of something in the walls. These were measured steps.

210
00:10:02,919 --> 00:10:05,200
They started by the bedrooms, moved past the couch where

211
00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:07,759
I was called up, and stopped near the kitchen. That

212
00:10:08,039 --> 00:10:12,840
was it. No door opened, no sound. After the next morning,

213
00:10:12,919 --> 00:10:16,000
I found every kitchen cabinet open, every drawer pulled out.

214
00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:18,639
All of my silver Whale was scattered across the floor

215
00:10:18,679 --> 00:10:21,000
in a messy, deliberate pile, like some one had emptied

216
00:10:21,039 --> 00:10:23,039
the drawers while looking for something or trying to send

217
00:10:23,039 --> 00:10:26,000
a message. I finally broke down and called Everett, the

218
00:10:26,039 --> 00:10:29,200
guy from work. We weren't exactly close, but I remembered

219
00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:31,559
he mentioned once that he grew up in Marion. I

220
00:10:31,639 --> 00:10:33,639
told him I need to ask him something about the house.

221
00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:36,960
He came by that afternoon, clearly a little uncomfortable just

222
00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:40,000
being there. He didn't even sit down, just walked around

223
00:10:40,039 --> 00:10:42,639
quietly looking at the rooms. Then he turned to me

224
00:10:42,679 --> 00:10:45,279
and asked, you ever hear about what happened here? I

225
00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:48,759
shook my head. He nodded like he'd expected that. There

226
00:10:48,759 --> 00:10:50,720
was a girl about your age rented this place a

227
00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:53,519
few years back, worked night shifts at the CVS office view.

228
00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:57,159
One day she just stopped showing up. Nobody heard from her.

229
00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:00,759
After a few days, some one came to check house

230
00:11:00,879 --> 00:11:04,559
was locked, no sign of struggle. She was just gone.

231
00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,879
I asked him what they found. He hesitated, then said

232
00:11:07,919 --> 00:11:09,960
there was a stain in the back bedroom, like old blood,

233
00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:14,679
but nobody, no evidence, nothing was missing. It went cold.

234
00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:17,960
Her name was Leelah. I showed him the polaroid, unasked

235
00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:20,399
is this her? He looked at her for a long time,

236
00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:23,080
long enough that I almost regretted showing him. Then he

237
00:11:23,159 --> 00:11:25,679
just gave one, so no. I didn't go back to

238
00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:28,360
the house after that. I packed a duffel, left the

239
00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:30,399
key in the mail books and texted the landlord to

240
00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:32,679
let him know I was gone. I was twenty eight

241
00:11:32,759 --> 00:11:35,679
when we bought the place in northern Georgia. The realdar,

242
00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:38,120
a woman named Meyer, told us an older couple had

243
00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:41,159
lived there for ages. The husband died a few years ago,

244
00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:42,759
and the wife had gone to live with her daughter

245
00:11:42,799 --> 00:11:45,759
in South Carolina. We closed in early April and moved

246
00:11:45,799 --> 00:11:48,080
in a week later. It was raining that day and

247
00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:50,639
our mattress got so carrying it in we had to

248
00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:53,120
sleep in the couch for the first two nights. It

249
00:11:53,159 --> 00:11:55,279
was cramped, and the couch smelt faintly of the previous

250
00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:58,840
owner's old cologne, like stale cedar and aftershave, the kind

251
00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:00,759
of scent that lingers in for ancho long after some

252
00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:03,960
one's gone. My partner's job was in Dalton about an irow.

253
00:12:04,559 --> 00:12:07,679
They left early, came home late. I worked from Humphrielance

254
00:12:07,799 --> 00:12:12,840
editing mostly articles, educational material, that kind of thing, quiet work.

255
00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:16,360
The days were peaceful. At first. I'd opened the windows,

256
00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:18,600
let the breeze in, try to ignore the never ending

257
00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:20,879
to do list. The house came with. We had peeling

258
00:12:20,919 --> 00:12:23,200
wallpaper in the hallway, water stains in the ceiling ab

259
00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:25,360
of the guest bathroom, and one room that still smelled

260
00:12:25,399 --> 00:12:27,639
like cigarettes no matter how long we aired it out.

261
00:12:28,279 --> 00:12:30,720
That first week was just unpacking, figuring out where the

262
00:12:30,759 --> 00:12:33,399
sun hid in the mornings, which utlets actually worked, which

263
00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:37,480
draw stuck the usual. I wasn't looking for anything strange.

264
00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:40,159
I didn't even notice the cross pace door until the

265
00:12:40,159 --> 00:12:42,799
third or fourth day. It was a loave, squarehatch in

266
00:12:42,799 --> 00:12:45,080
the whole way, near the laundry closet I as seemed.

267
00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:48,159
It led under the house, no stairs, just a drop

268
00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:50,279
down panel with a metal latch and a wooden handle.

269
00:12:50,879 --> 00:12:53,039
It wasn't until I passed it one afternoon and noticed

270
00:12:53,039 --> 00:12:55,639
it was slightly open, maybe two inches, that I even

271
00:12:55,639 --> 00:12:58,960
thought about it. I showed it without much thought, but

272
00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:01,639
the next time I walked it was open again, a

273
00:13:01,679 --> 00:13:04,559
little wider. This time. I figured I hadn't latched it

274
00:13:04,639 --> 00:13:10,360
right old house hinges shift floor's bow. I closed it again,

275
00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:13,360
this time pushing hard until I heard the click. Later

276
00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:16,360
that evening it was open again. I found a rubber

277
00:13:16,399 --> 00:13:18,639
doorstep in one of our moving boxes the next morning

278
00:13:18,639 --> 00:13:21,039
and jammed it in front of the panel, left it

279
00:13:21,039 --> 00:13:23,480
there while I ran to the store. I came back

280
00:13:23,519 --> 00:13:26,000
with groceries and found the hatch wide open again and

281
00:13:26,039 --> 00:13:28,039
the wedge sitting several feet away across the hall, where

282
00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:31,120
like someone had kicked it aside. Nothing else was touched.

283
00:13:31,679 --> 00:13:34,559
The doors were still locked, the windows shut. I even

284
00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:37,840
checked the ring camera redisinstalled by the front door. Nothing

285
00:13:38,639 --> 00:13:41,799
just squirs. I didn't say anything to my partner that night.

286
00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:43,919
I couldn't think of a way to explain it that

287
00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:47,480
didn't sound ridiculous. Hey, I think the coal spaces rejecting

288
00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:50,279
my attempts to keep it closed. Wasn't exactly casual conversation.

289
00:13:50,919 --> 00:13:52,879
A few nights later, I was working in the back

290
00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:55,759
room around nine. We'd set up my desperate windows so

291
00:13:55,759 --> 00:13:58,080
I could look out over the yard. It was dark

292
00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:01,039
by then, quiet. I was caught be editing something dry,

293
00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:05,240
an educational packet about soil erosion, I think. And I

294
00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:07,919
heard a noise above me that wouldn't be unusual in

295
00:14:07,960 --> 00:14:11,159
most houses, but we didn't have an upstairs. At first

296
00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:14,240
it sounded like creaking, maybe wood expanding or pipe shifting,

297
00:14:14,279 --> 00:14:16,320
But then it got more rhythmic. Heeled to toe, slow

298
00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:20,639
and steady, not heavy stomps, not random pups, just deliberate movement,

299
00:14:21,279 --> 00:14:23,360
as if some one was walking directly over my head,

300
00:14:23,399 --> 00:14:26,440
taking their time. I didn't move afirst, just sat there,

301
00:14:26,519 --> 00:14:29,360
blinking at the ceiling. After a minute or so, I

302
00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:31,559
stood up and walked the length of the house barefoot,

303
00:14:31,759 --> 00:14:35,159
not making a sound. Every door was locked, every window shut.

304
00:14:35,759 --> 00:14:38,360
I told myself maybe the roof was settling, maybe an

305
00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:40,720
animal had gotten up there or accud maybe, but it

306
00:14:40,759 --> 00:14:43,679
didn't sit right. The noise wasn't above the roof line.

307
00:14:43,799 --> 00:14:46,960
It was between floors, except we didn't have more than one.

308
00:14:47,519 --> 00:14:50,320
Two days later, I was organizing boxes in the laundry room,

309
00:14:50,399 --> 00:14:52,879
trying to sort out what we could doss. That's when

310
00:14:52,879 --> 00:14:55,320
I found the box. It was stuffed in the back

311
00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:57,320
of an upper cabinet, behind a crumpled top and a

312
00:14:57,320 --> 00:15:00,919
stack of pink hands, cardboard box label and clean, careful

313
00:15:00,919 --> 00:15:04,679
handwriting Eximaeus lights do not open naturally. I opened it.

314
00:15:05,279 --> 00:15:07,600
Inside was six set tapes wrapped in tissue and a

315
00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:10,960
small spiral notebook with a red cover. The notebook was worn,

316
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:13,080
but the writing inside was sharp in thee each page

317
00:15:13,159 --> 00:15:16,159
numbered starting with day one. The handwriting looked like something

318
00:15:16,159 --> 00:15:19,320
from an old dress book, tight slanted, all caps. The

319
00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:22,279
tapes weren't labeled, just plain black plastic. I had an

320
00:15:22,279 --> 00:15:24,240
old player stowed in a tub of cords and cables,

321
00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:26,759
dug it out and popped in the first tape. For

322
00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:29,279
the first ten minutes, there was nothing, just faint ambient

323
00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:32,559
noise creaks, maybe breathing, then a voice, low and dry.

324
00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:36,159
It's still down there. I think it waits until I sleep.

325
00:15:36,759 --> 00:15:39,799
That was it. The next tape had more gaps of silence,

326
00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:43,600
then it moved again. I didn't dream that it was

327
00:15:43,679 --> 00:15:46,919
under the vent, and then later I don't think I

328
00:15:46,919 --> 00:15:49,840
can hold the door any more. The voice never changed,

329
00:15:50,519 --> 00:15:53,080
always the same, steady whisper, like he was sitting close

330
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:56,320
to the mic, watching something while he recorded. I listened

331
00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:59,639
to three of them. That was enough. That night, I

332
00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:01,600
left the box in the garage and didn't go near

333
00:16:01,639 --> 00:16:04,559
it again. The next morning, I passed the Crawlsby store

334
00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:07,240
again and finally looked closer at the frame. I hadn't

335
00:16:07,279 --> 00:16:09,600
noticed before, but something had been scratched into the wood

336
00:16:09,679 --> 00:16:12,879
just inside the panel. Deep grooves not carved for show,

337
00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:17,320
just gaged in quick and desper stay above. I ran

338
00:16:17,399 --> 00:16:20,639
my fingers over it. It wasn't new. It was old

339
00:16:20,639 --> 00:16:23,080
and faded, rubbed down in some places, like someone had

340
00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:26,200
run their hands over times. That night, my partner left

341
00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:29,840
for a work retreat. I stayed behind. We weren't fighting,

342
00:16:29,879 --> 00:16:32,320
were anything. They just had to go, and I said

343
00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:34,600
I'd be fine. I turned on every light in the

344
00:16:34,639 --> 00:16:37,000
main rooms, double locked the doors, set my laptop up

345
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:38,919
on the couch with the comfort movieplane in the background.

346
00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:41,759
I was determined to make the plays feel normal again.

347
00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:44,399
A two point fifteen arm, I got up for water,

348
00:16:44,559 --> 00:16:47,360
walked into the hallway. The coal space hatch was standing

349
00:16:47,399 --> 00:16:52,919
wide open, no wedge, no warning, just open. I stood

350
00:16:52,919 --> 00:16:56,159
there staring at it. Then I heard it breeding short

351
00:16:56,200 --> 00:16:58,879
and panicked like someone was hiding, but couldn't quite stay quiet.

352
00:16:59,399 --> 00:17:04,000
It was right the floor. I backed away slowly, didn't

353
00:17:04,039 --> 00:17:06,359
turn my back on it. I locked myself in the

354
00:17:06,359 --> 00:17:09,319
bedroom and sat against the door until sunrise. When I

355
00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:12,119
finally opened the door, the hatch was closed again. The

356
00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:14,240
wedge was back, but this time it was lying across

357
00:17:14,279 --> 00:17:16,279
the hall on the opposite wall, like someone had tossed

358
00:17:16,279 --> 00:17:18,720
it there just to make a point. I didn't touch it.

359
00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:21,400
My partner came home that night and found the box

360
00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,279
in the garage while looking for camping gear. They walked

361
00:17:24,279 --> 00:17:26,759
and holding it, asking if it was mine. I didn't

362
00:17:26,759 --> 00:17:30,480
even pretend. I told him everything. That night, we packed

363
00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:33,119
bags and drove to a motel and jasper. We only

364
00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:34,759
went back once in daylight to get the rest of

365
00:17:34,759 --> 00:17:38,119
our stuff. We sold the house two months later. The

366
00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:41,200
house was just outside Grayson, a quiet little town in Tennessee.

367
00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:43,559
I signed the lease on a Wednesday and moved in

368
00:17:43,599 --> 00:17:46,920
that Saturday morning. By Monday night, I was already lying awake,

369
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:49,839
wondering if I'd made a mistake. The landlord had said

370
00:17:49,839 --> 00:17:52,039
it had been empty for about a year, which made sense,

371
00:17:52,079 --> 00:17:56,160
but the inside was surprisingly spotless, no musty smell. That

372
00:17:56,279 --> 00:17:59,160
first night, everything was fine. I remember heating up a

373
00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:02,079
frozen burrito, drinking a cold beer, and passing out early

374
00:18:02,079 --> 00:18:04,160
on the fruit on. I dragged into the living room.

375
00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:06,759
The place didn't have a working ceiling fan, so I

376
00:18:06,799 --> 00:18:08,640
cracked the sliding glass door opened a bit to let

377
00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:10,880
in some air. I woke up at a round four

378
00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:13,920
in the morning, totally alert. I hadn't had a nightmare

379
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,559
or anything. I just suddenly opened my eyes and had

380
00:18:16,599 --> 00:18:18,559
the strong sense that something had woken me. I laid

381
00:18:18,559 --> 00:18:20,759
there for a few seconds, then heard what sounded like

382
00:18:20,759 --> 00:18:24,759
footsteps outside, slow deliberate crunching on gravel. I sat up,

383
00:18:24,839 --> 00:18:27,319
looked at the window beside the fruit hu nothing just

384
00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:29,359
trees across the road and a thin stretch of pavement

385
00:18:29,359 --> 00:18:32,759
reflecting a bit of moonlight. Night. I waited a few

386
00:18:32,799 --> 00:18:36,519
more seconds, no more sounds. I told myself it was

387
00:18:36,519 --> 00:18:39,400
probably a deer or maybe some stray dog wandering around.

388
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:42,480
I didn't want to start spiraling over weird noises before

389
00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:45,440
I'd even unpacked. By the third night, I had most

390
00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:47,599
of my stuff in enough to start turning the back

391
00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:51,000
room into a matchif turm office. It was the big room.

392
00:18:51,279 --> 00:18:53,279
It had just once more window that faced the side

393
00:18:53,359 --> 00:18:55,799
yard and no heating oreous event, which meant it got

394
00:18:55,839 --> 00:18:59,440
stuffy pretty fast. I unlocked the window, pushed it open

395
00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:02,359
maybefore innu It took some pressure to get the thumb

396
00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:05,079
slide latch to disengage, one of those older metal ones

397
00:19:05,079 --> 00:19:08,119
that doesn't glide so much as fight back. I didn't

398
00:19:08,119 --> 00:19:09,920
think much of it, left it cracks and sat at

399
00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:12,400
the desk to work. It was some time after nine

400
00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:15,200
point thirty when I heard it. A soft, slow knock,

401
00:19:15,839 --> 00:19:19,039
Not like someone at the door. This was different. It

402
00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:22,920
sounded like something bumping into the siding, just a dolphud,

403
00:19:23,039 --> 00:19:30,359
then another close together, not frantic, just present. I froze listened.

404
00:19:31,079 --> 00:19:35,319
Another few seconds went by, two more soft knocks. Low

405
00:19:35,359 --> 00:19:37,920
to the ground. I got up grout a flask light

406
00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:39,880
from the drawer and stepped outside through the side door

407
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:44,880
by the kitchen. Nothing the sighting looked untouched, no scratches,

408
00:19:45,559 --> 00:19:49,440
no dented spots, no animals darting off into the bushes.

409
00:19:50,079 --> 00:19:53,200
The air was dead still, even the trees weren't moving.

410
00:19:53,759 --> 00:19:56,640
I stood there longer than I probably needed to, just listening.

411
00:19:57,279 --> 00:19:59,440
The next morning, I went to shut that office window

412
00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:01,279
and noticed it was open wider than i'd left it,

413
00:20:01,839 --> 00:20:05,599
not force open, just slid up more. It was smooth, undamaged,

414
00:20:05,839 --> 00:20:07,960
like someone who knew how to work that particular kind

415
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,559
of latch had come along and adjusted it. I stood

416
00:20:10,559 --> 00:20:12,359
this staring at it, trying to remember if I had

417
00:20:12,359 --> 00:20:15,079
maybe opened it more and forgot. But I hadn't. I

418
00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:18,160
knew I hadn't. I closed it, locked it again, pulled

419
00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:19,920
the blinds down, and shut the door to that room.

420
00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:22,839
I didn't go back in for days. The thing about

421
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:25,519
stuff like that is when it happens, it doesn't feel dramatic.

422
00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:29,960
It's not a moving moment. It's subtle, annoying. He's start

423
00:20:30,039 --> 00:20:34,240
questioning yourself. You tell yourself you're being paranoid. That may

424
00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:36,920
be you were tired. Maybe you left it open wider

425
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:39,240
than you meant to. You run all the maybes through

426
00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:41,160
your head like you're trying to solve a math problem

427
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:45,160
and somehow reach shearer. It doesn't work. A few days later,

428
00:20:45,319 --> 00:20:47,559
I was in the living room watching a movie. I

429
00:20:47,599 --> 00:20:50,680
had the lights off, sound low lights, tapped under a blanket.

430
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:52,559
Out of nowhere. I heard footsteps in the hallway, just

431
00:20:52,559 --> 00:20:54,720
too or free light, but definitely movement, the kind of

432
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:57,119
Sam Coppet mix when someone shifting their way amidstep. I

433
00:20:57,160 --> 00:20:59,440
knew to the TV immediately silence. I waited. My pulse

434
00:20:59,519 --> 00:21:01,519
was going like ke I just sprinted a flight of stairs.

435
00:21:01,519 --> 00:21:03,640
Nothing else came, no more steps, no creaks. I stood

436
00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:06,519
up slowly and beaked around the corner. All was empty.

437
00:21:07,279 --> 00:21:09,720
After that, I started locking my bedroom door at night.

438
00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:13,720
It felt stupid at first I lived alone, but it

439
00:21:13,759 --> 00:21:15,960
gave me just enough of a mental buffet fall asleep

440
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:19,079
without sitting bolt upright at every small sound. That held

441
00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:20,839
me over until one night I woke up at a

442
00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:25,160
round two m just totally still, no sound, no bad dream,

443
00:21:25,839 --> 00:21:28,960
just that same strange awareness, like my body had noticed

444
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:32,400
something before my mind dead. The room was dark, the

445
00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:35,400
air fell heavier than it showed of I remember breathing

446
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:38,559
slow and shallow, like making noise might invite something. I

447
00:21:38,599 --> 00:21:41,960
didn't hear anything at first. I just felt it, this

448
00:21:42,079 --> 00:21:44,279
shift in pressure, like something else was in the room.

449
00:21:44,839 --> 00:21:47,079
I finally grabbed my phone off the knife, then turned

450
00:21:47,079 --> 00:21:50,079
on the light and scanned the space. It was the same,

451
00:21:50,759 --> 00:21:54,799
same corners, same furniture, same everything except the door knob.

452
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,960
It was turned halfway down. It wasn't jiggling, it wasn't

453
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:01,920
being pulled. It had just been turned and left there.

454
00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:05,480
I did move for probably ten minutes, just stared at

455
00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:08,480
the doorn up, holding my phone like a shield. Eventually

456
00:22:08,519 --> 00:22:10,640
I got up, yanked it back upright, and shoved a

457
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:13,480
chair under the handle. I didn't sleep at all after that.

458
00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:17,200
Next day, I started asking around. I was trying to

459
00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:19,880
be dramatic. I just wanted to know if any one

460
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,759
else had ever lived there and experienced weird things. I

461
00:22:22,839 --> 00:22:25,119
went to a gas ststion off Highway nineteen, where a

462
00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:27,839
lot of the town's locals groud coffee and sandwiches. Chatted

463
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:30,480
with the guy working behind the counter. I mentioned the

464
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:33,400
address casually, like I was asking about neighborhood, not the

465
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:37,920
house itself. He gave me this look, not concerned, not surprised,

466
00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:41,920
just tired. People don't stay there long, he said, like

467
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,920
it was a fact, not a mystery. The woman behind

468
00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:46,920
me in line, who'd been fiddling with the lottery ticket,

469
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:50,319
chimed him without even turning around. It's that averro house, right,

470
00:22:50,839 --> 00:22:53,559
Folks don't like how it feels in there. I asked,

471
00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:57,119
what do you mean? She shrugged, like you're not lone,

472
00:22:57,759 --> 00:23:00,839
that's all. The worst thing was no one seemed shocked

473
00:23:00,839 --> 00:23:03,519
by what I was describing, like I was just confirming

474
00:23:03,519 --> 00:23:06,559
something everyone had already quietly agreed on. A few days

475
00:23:06,599 --> 00:23:08,559
after that, I was boiling water in a kitchen laid

476
00:23:08,559 --> 00:23:10,759
at night, just standing there, zoning out, when I heard

477
00:23:10,799 --> 00:23:13,559
the front door creak open. I mean the exact sound

478
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:16,359
the hinge is groaning, the thump as it hit the wall,

479
00:23:17,039 --> 00:23:19,960
like someone had come in. So and confident, I dropped

480
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:21,960
the spoon now was holding and ran to the front door.

481
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:26,880
Still shots still locked, dead bolts still engaged. I didn't

482
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:29,720
even check the rest of the house, I growled, my keys,

483
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:31,519
got in my car and slept in the parking lot

484
00:23:31,519 --> 00:23:33,599
of a twenty four. Iur laund from out two towns over.

485
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:36,039
The final thing that pushed me out. Happened the night

486
00:23:36,039 --> 00:23:37,920
I decided to pack the lost of the office. Stuff

487
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:41,119
I hadn't been in there since the window incident. I

488
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:44,920
was just grabbing a few things, old notebooks, extra cables,

489
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:46,880
stuff I hadn't used in weeks. When I opened the

490
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:49,720
bottom drawer of the desk, inside a small iron sheet

491
00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:52,680
of paper looked torn from a cheap notepad. The handwriting

492
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:55,839
was blocky, a little and even, but clear. It's said

493
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:57,839
if you locked the door, they come in another way.

494
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:01,480
That was it. No name, no date, no other markings.

495
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:04,319
I dropped the paper back into the drawer like it burned.

496
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,759
My throat was dry. I remembered just staring at the

497
00:24:07,759 --> 00:24:10,759
window blinds, not even wanting to lift them. I left

498
00:24:10,799 --> 00:24:13,680
everything else behind, grabbed my keys, locked the door behind me,

499
00:24:13,799 --> 00:24:16,480
and drove straight to a motel in Harbridge, thirty miles north.

500
00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:18,880
I left a voicemail for the landlord, told him I

501
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:21,279
was forfeiting the deposit, told him I wasn't coming back.

502
00:24:22,039 --> 00:24:24,960
After the break up in Winston, long drawn out and exhausting,

503
00:24:25,079 --> 00:24:27,039
I didn't have the energy to stay at a tamful

504
00:24:27,079 --> 00:24:30,480
of reminders. I wanted somewher quiet, somewhere I didn't have

505
00:24:30,519 --> 00:24:32,680
to bump into anyone who knew me or knew what happened.

506
00:24:33,359 --> 00:24:36,119
At first, that stuff made me laugh a little, I

507
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:39,200
told myself it gave the place character. I painted a

508
00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:42,119
couple of the walls, cleaned out the fireplace. Then, about

509
00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:44,279
six weeks after moving in, I came back from the

510
00:24:44,279 --> 00:24:47,279
grocery store and noticed the kitchen drawers were open, just

511
00:24:47,319 --> 00:24:49,440
a few of them, barely cracked reelly, like someone had

512
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,359
started going through them but stopped halfway. I stood there

513
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:55,200
for a second, trying to retrace my steps. Had I

514
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:57,920
opened them earlier. Maybe I'd left them that way while

515
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:00,480
looking for something. I was tired and it had been

516
00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:02,240
a long day, so I closed them and didn't think

517
00:25:02,279 --> 00:25:05,400
much of it. But after that I started noticing other things.

518
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:09,160
A spoon and the counter I didn't remember using, not dirty,

519
00:25:09,279 --> 00:25:12,279
just there. My bluetooth speaker, which always sat on the

520
00:25:12,279 --> 00:25:14,599
top shelf in the living room, randomly sitting on the floor.

521
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:17,400
One afternoon, when I got home from a walk. A

522
00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:19,440
roll of paper tells that I swore was full the

523
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:23,160
day before, suddenly gone like vanish gone, not in the trash,

524
00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:27,160
not under the sink, just missing. Still, nothing felt malicious,

525
00:25:27,799 --> 00:25:31,079
no broken windows, no signs of forced entry. The doors

526
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:34,960
were locked every night. I checked obsessively. I figured I

527
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:37,559
was just a little off. Maybe I was sleep walking,

528
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:39,839
or maybe with the drinking I'd been doing any evenings,

529
00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:42,640
I was just more forgetful than usual. By the time

530
00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:45,200
the leaves started to change, I basically taught myself out

531
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:48,319
of any real concern. I mean, what else could it be?

532
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:51,200
Then December rolled in, and with it came the sounds

533
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:55,079
from the attic. Nothing dramatic, No footsteps are banning, just

534
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,400
like creaks now, and then subtle enough that you could

535
00:25:57,400 --> 00:25:59,400
convince yourself it was the window of the house settling.

536
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,119
The attic wasn't a real usable space, just a cramped

537
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:06,279
crawl space with a low ceiling and exposed beams. I

538
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,079
toss a couple boxes up there during the move, some

539
00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,079
old clothes, photo albums, a box of stuff from my

540
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:15,039
dess garage. I hadn't had the heart to go through yet,

541
00:26:15,599 --> 00:26:18,400
but I hadn't touched it since I as seemed it

542
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:22,039
was mice or a square or some other creature finding

543
00:26:22,079 --> 00:26:24,400
its way in from the cold. Bell Ridge is the

544
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:26,359
kind of place where you're never more than a hundred

545
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:29,079
yards from something with fir and teeth. I thought about

546
00:26:29,079 --> 00:26:31,319
setting traps, but I wasn't really eager to climb up

547
00:26:31,319 --> 00:26:35,359
into that cramped, dusty space. Then sometime in early February,

548
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:37,039
I found a half eaten jar of peanut but as

549
00:26:37,039 --> 00:26:40,400
sitting on the basement stairs, not on a shelf, not

550
00:26:40,559 --> 00:26:43,519
on the floor, on the third step from the bottom

551
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:48,039
let off spoon inside. I just stood there staring at it.

552
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,440
I hadn't been done in the basement in weeks. It

553
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,440
wasn't really functional, just bere cement, a water heater and

554
00:26:54,519 --> 00:26:56,599
a broken dryer. I'd been meaning to get hold out.

555
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,480
I'd never once brought food down there, but there it was,

556
00:26:59,559 --> 00:27:02,480
my jar half empty. That's when I stopped sleeping all

557
00:27:02,519 --> 00:27:04,960
the way through the night. One night in March, I

558
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:07,119
woke up around two a m. To a shop clatter,

559
00:27:07,799 --> 00:27:11,160
not loud, but distinct, like plastic kidding wood. I grabbed

560
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:13,440
my flashlight and did a slow walk through the house.

561
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:17,559
Everything looked normal until I saw it. They add a

562
00:27:17,559 --> 00:27:21,240
catch in the hallway ceiling. It was open just slightly,

563
00:27:22,039 --> 00:27:24,240
just enough to see there just when flushlight. They usually

564
00:27:24,319 --> 00:27:26,880
were the kind of thing you'd only notice if you

565
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:29,400
were looking straight at it. I stood under it for

566
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:32,720
a long time. Flashlight ended up at the opening. I

567
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:36,599
couldn't see anything beyond the edge, just dark, and the

568
00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:40,559
are felt off cooler, like the insulation up there wasn't

569
00:27:40,599 --> 00:27:43,079
doing its job any more. I didn't own a ladder

570
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:45,000
at all enough to reach it, and I wasn't about

571
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:46,440
to draw it over her chair and put my head

572
00:27:46,519 --> 00:27:49,359
up into who knows what in the middle of the night. Instead,

573
00:27:49,599 --> 00:27:51,319
I went back to my room, locked the door, and

574
00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:53,960
slept with the flasklight next to the bed, first time

575
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:56,359
I'd ever locked a door in my own house. The

576
00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:58,960
next morning, I called a pest control company, told them

577
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:00,960
I thought maybe I had racked. Was something worse up

578
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,480
in the attic. The guy who showed up was middle aged,

579
00:28:03,519 --> 00:28:06,119
chatty at first until he went up there. When he

580
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,119
came back down, he was chatty any more. Said there

581
00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:11,559
were food wrappers, a couple of ratty blankets, even an

582
00:28:11,599 --> 00:28:14,480
anticon of beans. Told me it looked like someone had

583
00:28:14,519 --> 00:28:17,079
been sleeping up there. Might have been a squatter before

584
00:28:17,079 --> 00:28:19,200
I moved in, he said, though he didn't sound convinced

585
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:21,440
by his own theory. He looked me in the eye

586
00:28:21,519 --> 00:28:23,960
and said he should probably call the sheriff, just to

587
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:28,000
be safe, so I did. A deputy came by that afternoon.

588
00:28:28,599 --> 00:28:31,920
His name was Givens. I think he was calm, professional,

589
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:34,359
but the second he stepped into the attic and stayed

590
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:35,960
up there for more than a few minutes, I could

591
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:39,000
feel something shift. When he came back down, his face

592
00:28:39,079 --> 00:28:42,160
was tight. He asked if I lived alone. I told

593
00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:45,519
him yes. He asked how long I'd been there. I

594
00:28:45,519 --> 00:28:48,519
said about eight months. He noded once and told me

595
00:28:48,559 --> 00:28:50,119
he needed me to come with him to the station.

596
00:28:50,759 --> 00:28:53,759
They'd found more than just blankets. There were note books,

597
00:28:53,799 --> 00:28:56,960
pages full of messy handwriting, a jacket worn out but

598
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,000
still intact, a pair of boots with dried mud caked

599
00:29:00,079 --> 00:29:02,839
to the souls, a hunting knife tucked into a rolled

600
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:05,960
up tall On that second fallone the one that was mine,

601
00:29:06,559 --> 00:29:10,880
burnt orange case, crackscreen, it was still charged. Whoever had

602
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:13,440
been up there wasn't just squatting. They'd been living there

603
00:29:14,079 --> 00:29:17,799
for months, maybe the whole time I had the attic

604
00:29:17,839 --> 00:29:20,680
didn't block from the inside. That meant whoever it was

605
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:22,359
had to come down when I wasn't home or when

606
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:24,799
I was asleep. They must have watched me enough to

607
00:29:24,799 --> 00:29:27,000
know my schedule, knowing when it was safe to move around.

608
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:30,160
The prince they lifted belonged to a man named Grady Miller.

609
00:29:30,759 --> 00:29:32,759
I'd never heard of him before, but he had a record,

610
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,119
started with break ins, then a soul then at kidnapping

611
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:38,200
charge that got thrown out due to lack of evidence.

612
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:41,799
He served time a low security Facilitinia Canden and had

613
00:29:41,839 --> 00:29:43,720
been released less than a year before I moved in.

614
00:29:44,359 --> 00:29:46,799
They never found him. He was gone by the time

615
00:29:46,839 --> 00:29:50,920
the Sherrif's department got involved, disappeared. They found signs in

616
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:53,839
the woods behind the house, cigarette butts, trampled under brush,

617
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,400
a little clearing with a perfect view of my back windows.

618
00:29:57,039 --> 00:29:59,079
After the police packed up and left, I didn't sleep

619
00:29:59,079 --> 00:30:01,559
there again. I packed a bag and drove to my

620
00:30:01,599 --> 00:30:04,880
cousin Lorna's place in Waverley. The house was just outside

621
00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:07,000
a town cold Miller's Hill, tupped on one of those

622
00:30:07,039 --> 00:30:09,400
whining Tennessee roads where everything looks like it's been there

623
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,160
for fifty years, longer than it has. I've moved in

624
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:14,480
three days earlier and was trying to go for a checklist.

625
00:30:14,519 --> 00:30:17,039
I'd made, just boring stuff to help me feel grounded.

626
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:19,960
First up, check all the cabinets and shelves to match

627
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,000
the inspector's notes. I faded the kitchen was the best

628
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,240
place to start. It was clean, manageable, and not as

629
00:30:26,279 --> 00:30:29,200
overwhelming as they out accord the garage. I moved through

630
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:33,079
each cabinet, methodically opening doors, checking hinges lightly, pushing them closed,

631
00:30:33,119 --> 00:30:36,000
and watching how they are lined. There's something coming about

632
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:40,200
the rhythm of it, simple, tangible. It gave me the

633
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:42,680
illusion that I was settling in. Then I got to

634
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:46,279
the cabinet beside the fridge. The latch was angled slightly downward,

635
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:50,480
not a huge thing, barely noticeable if you weren't paying attention.

636
00:30:51,039 --> 00:30:54,119
But I was paying attention. I always leave latch's face

637
00:30:54,119 --> 00:30:56,640
in the same way, randad and pointing straight clean line.

638
00:30:57,039 --> 00:30:59,799
I remembered adjusting that one during the walk through, remembered

639
00:30:59,799 --> 00:31:03,000
how clicked into place. So seeing Adolf kilt Her set

640
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:05,759
off a small alarm in my brain. I tightened the screw,

641
00:31:05,839 --> 00:31:07,920
nudge it back into position, and chalked it up to

642
00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:11,559
how settling quirks. No big deal, at least That's what

643
00:31:11,599 --> 00:31:14,359
I told myself. After the kitchen, I moved down the

644
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,279
hallway to check the closet shelves. That's where the weird

645
00:31:17,279 --> 00:31:20,079
feeling really started to creep in. I opened the whole

646
00:31:20,119 --> 00:31:22,720
closet and saw my tool books, bake read a little

647
00:31:22,759 --> 00:31:24,680
dented on the corner, sitting up on the top shelf.

648
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:28,319
That stopped me. I'd carried that thing in unmove and

649
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:30,799
dem myself, and I specifically remember dropping it on the

650
00:31:30,839 --> 00:31:34,000
bottom shelf because my arms were giving out. It's not light,

651
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:37,359
definitely not something i'd absent mindedly lift up of shoulder

652
00:31:37,359 --> 00:31:40,319
height without noticing. Still, I tried to explain it away.

653
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,759
I checked for dust. There was a perfect rectangle of

654
00:31:43,759 --> 00:31:45,640
it on the top shelf, but it didn't match the

655
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,759
shape of the box. Something smaller had been there before.

656
00:31:49,359 --> 00:31:52,200
The outline was clear. Whatever used to sit up there

657
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:54,400
was gone now, and my toolbooks had taken its place.

658
00:31:55,079 --> 00:31:57,160
I moved it back down, trying to act normal, but

659
00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,839
I could feel myself fidgeting more than usual. Then I

660
00:32:00,079 --> 00:32:03,000
into the laundry room. I was setting things up back there,

661
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,359
organizing supplies. I keep my cleaning stuff in a white

662
00:32:06,359 --> 00:32:09,720
plastic bin, nothing fancy, just one of those cheap ones

663
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:12,119
with the cut out handles in the side. I always

664
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:14,079
leave it by the back wall, tucked behind the washer.

665
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:17,079
When I reached for it, it was gone. Found it

666
00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:20,440
right near the door. Instead. It had been rotated ninety degrees,

667
00:32:20,519 --> 00:32:23,599
and inside every single bottle, glass cleaner degrees or bleach

668
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,200
was arranged standing up in a single puffect vertical line,

669
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:28,519
like someone had taken the time to line them out deliberately.

670
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:30,920
The bleach was sitting at the top of the line,

671
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:33,039
which was strange because the bottle leaks if he tilted

672
00:32:33,079 --> 00:32:35,640
the wrong way. I checked the floor, expecting to see

673
00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:38,880
a puddle or drips. Nothing and the dust were I

674
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,279
usually kept. The bin hadn't been disturbed, no drag marks,

675
00:32:43,079 --> 00:32:46,279
just a clean and disturbed space that when I started

676
00:32:46,319 --> 00:32:49,559
to slow down a little still, I kept going. I

677
00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:52,759
told myself I must have moved things without noticing. Maybe

678
00:32:52,799 --> 00:32:56,720
I was tired, maybe I was flustered, but the explanations

679
00:32:56,720 --> 00:32:59,640
were starting to feel in. Later in the afternoon, I

680
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:02,559
turned my attention to the attic. The inspector had made

681
00:33:02,559 --> 00:33:04,200
a note about the tension rods and the pulled down

682
00:33:04,279 --> 00:33:08,200
ladder nading adjustment. I grabbed a screwdriver, pulled the ladder down,

683
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,039
and climbed up slowly, more out of habit than curiosity.

684
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:14,119
The attic was mostly empty, dry wood insulation and two

685
00:33:14,119 --> 00:33:17,000
wooden crates left by the last owner. They looked old,

686
00:33:17,039 --> 00:33:20,599
but not ancient. One was closed with a latch, the

687
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,559
other was webb slightly open. I gave in and opened

688
00:33:23,559 --> 00:33:26,599
the first one. Inside it was a small portable cassette player,

689
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:29,279
the kind with the big clicke buttons. The corner was

690
00:33:29,359 --> 00:33:31,319
dented and it looked like it hadn't been touched in

691
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:35,440
a long time. Definitely was mine. The second crate held

692
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:39,039
a folder, just loose papers, maybe fifty or sixty sheets.

693
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:41,559
I flipped for a few and so rows of names,

694
00:33:41,599 --> 00:33:45,079
each followed by a neat check mark. No addresses, no notes,

695
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:48,200
just names and chick marks. None of them were familiar.

696
00:33:48,799 --> 00:33:51,119
I put the folder back, pushed the lid closed, and

697
00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:54,000
climbed back down. When I stepped into the hallway, I

698
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,240
stopped cold. The tool box was back out. They were

699
00:33:57,279 --> 00:33:59,519
sitting in the middle of the floor, perfectly aligned with

700
00:33:59,519 --> 00:34:02,799
the doorway. I hadn't even been gone that lawn. That's

701
00:34:02,839 --> 00:34:05,119
than an ire, I I knew for a fact. I

702
00:34:05,119 --> 00:34:06,960
had put that box back on the bottom shelf and

703
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:11,119
shut the door. I picked it up same wait, same

704
00:34:11,159 --> 00:34:14,760
chip handle, same scratch across the lid. It was mine,

705
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:17,800
but now it was here, just waiting for me. This time,

706
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,159
I shouted back inside the closet and slammed the door

707
00:34:20,199 --> 00:34:22,800
so hard I heard the hinges complain. I needed to

708
00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:24,880
calm down, so I went to the kitchen and grabbed

709
00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:28,440
the inspection packet. Just something rational, something with ink and

710
00:34:28,519 --> 00:34:31,119
paper and dates. I flipped to the last page, for

711
00:34:31,199 --> 00:34:33,719
I had written notes earlier that morning, except they were gone.

712
00:34:34,159 --> 00:34:36,000
In their place, some one had written the word checked

713
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:38,559
over and over again, filling every line from top to bottom,

714
00:34:38,559 --> 00:34:41,760
and hand writing that looked and cannily like mine. Same angle,

715
00:34:42,039 --> 00:34:45,039
same shade to the letters. But the pressure was wrong.

716
00:34:45,679 --> 00:34:49,280
I pressed hard winter write my pen leaves grooves. His

717
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,400
marks were faint, almost shy, like someone copying the way aright,

718
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,239
but without the confidence. I pulled a blank sheet and

719
00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:57,800
walked toward the living room. That's when I saw it.

720
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,760
The cleaning bin was sitting on the coffee table, same bottle,

721
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:05,079
same weird arrangement, that leaky bleach bottle still at the top,

722
00:35:05,159 --> 00:35:08,880
perfectly upright. The laundry room door was still open. I

723
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:11,840
walked back and returned the bin slower this time. I

724
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:14,719
didn't rush. I put it exactly where it had been

725
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:18,360
that morning. Then I tried calling the realtor. Her name

726
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:21,440
was Dana, straight to voicemail. I left a quick message

727
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:23,639
asking if she knew anything about the crates in the attic.

728
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:27,559
Not ten minutes later, my phone buzzed again. Call Aerody

729
00:35:27,599 --> 00:35:29,639
said the house land line was calling me. I hadn't

730
00:35:29,639 --> 00:35:32,559
said up the land line, I answered, expecting statock or

731
00:35:32,599 --> 00:35:35,440
maybe some confused technician. What I heard was a slow,

732
00:35:35,679 --> 00:35:38,159
soft tapping, like some one gently tapping their nail or

733
00:35:38,159 --> 00:35:41,079
a pen on the receiver. Tap tap, tap, even was based,

734
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:45,039
almost thoughtful. It went on for about ten seconds before

735
00:35:45,039 --> 00:35:47,679
the line went dead. I stood there for a moment,

736
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:50,400
staring at the phone, and then walked back toward the attic.

737
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:53,880
The ladder was still up, folded into the ceiling. I

738
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:56,639
pulled it down, clanned up again and checked the crates.

739
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:00,639
One was open, the cassette player was gone. The folder

740
00:36:00,719 --> 00:36:03,119
was now sitting on top of the other crate, partially open,

741
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:06,039
like some one had just threw it. I didn't touch anything,

742
00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:08,880
just closed the crates again, climbed down and folded the

743
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:12,199
ladder away. After that, I went through the entire house,

744
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:16,440
every cabinet, every drawer, every closet. I wasn't looking for

745
00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:19,639
anything in particular. I just needed to know where things were.

746
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:21,719
I wanted to feel like I was the one in

747
00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:24,840
control of my space. Everything was fine until I reached

748
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:28,159
the back door. The dead bolt was unlocked. That one

749
00:36:28,199 --> 00:36:31,039
detail made my stomach turn. I had locked it that morning,

750
00:36:31,599 --> 00:36:34,639
I remember checking it. I relocked it, then I flipped

751
00:36:34,639 --> 00:36:37,920
the bolt again. It moved easily, like nothing had happened.

752
00:36:38,639 --> 00:36:41,599
And maybe nothing had, but it didn't feel that way.

753
00:36:42,199 --> 00:36:44,119
I went back to the kitchen, picked up that final

754
00:36:44,159 --> 00:36:47,119
page again and held it under the overhead light. On

755
00:36:47,199 --> 00:36:49,440
the back, in the same strange soft handwriting was a

756
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:52,159
new list of names. The first few matched the ones

757
00:36:52,199 --> 00:36:55,480
from the attic folder. The last one was mine. That

758
00:36:55,679 --> 00:36:59,039
was the line. That was the line. I folded the

759
00:36:59,039 --> 00:37:02,280
paper slowly, grabbed keys, and left. I walked out the

760
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:04,159
front door, shut it behind me, and waited for the

761
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:07,519
latch to click. That click felt solid, reel, like the

762
00:37:07,519 --> 00:37:10,320
world was still holding together. I drove into town and

763
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:12,480
bought new locks, new bolts, a steel bar for the

764
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,039
back door. Back at the house, I installed every new

765
00:37:15,039 --> 00:37:18,000
piece before I even sat down. Then I packed the folder,

766
00:37:18,079 --> 00:37:20,280
the out of papers, and the strange curried items into

767
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:23,079
a box and silted shut. I've been renting for over

768
00:37:23,119 --> 00:37:26,440
a decade, basement apartments, noisy duplexes, a two year stint,

769
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:30,159
and converted garage that somehow still haunts my lower back. Finally,

770
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:33,039
after years of budgeting and bouncing between jobs, I scraped

771
00:37:33,039 --> 00:37:35,159
together enough for a down payment and bought a house.

772
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:37,960
The price had been suspiciously low for the area, but

773
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:42,239
the inspection came back clean, no foundation issues, no major

774
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:45,320
electrical problems. The sailor was a quiet guy in his

775
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:48,039
late fifties, moves out of state for a job and

776
00:37:48,119 --> 00:37:50,880
left the place mostly empty. Said he hadn't lived there

777
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:53,360
much the last couple years, just use it for storage.

778
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:55,360
I moved in the second week of May with my

779
00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:58,079
two dogs, sparing Muffy and Mattress, and about a dozen

780
00:37:58,079 --> 00:38:00,960
boxes that held what little I owned. First night, I

781
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:03,159
slept on the foe with the dogs curled up beside me.

782
00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:06,559
It felt good, like a recept button. I remember thinking

783
00:38:06,599 --> 00:38:10,199
how quiet the area was. No traffic, no upstairs neighbors

784
00:38:10,199 --> 00:38:12,559
stomping around, just the occasional owl and the wind. Threw

785
00:38:12,599 --> 00:38:15,480
the trees out back. The first two weeks were normal,

786
00:38:15,559 --> 00:38:18,280
peaceful even I fixed a loose fence posts so the

787
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,000
dogs could run in the back yard without supervision, swapped

788
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,159
out the busted bath room light, got a new mail book,

789
00:38:23,199 --> 00:38:25,639
started and packing slowly, making the place field like come.

790
00:38:26,199 --> 00:38:28,960
The dogs adjusted fast, they were used to new environments,

791
00:38:29,119 --> 00:38:32,360
but by week three they started acting strange. It started

792
00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:34,320
with a weird bundle I found behind the water heater.

793
00:38:35,039 --> 00:38:37,960
I wasn't even looking for anything in particular. I was

794
00:38:38,039 --> 00:38:40,719
just clearing out cobboards, figuring out what pipes went where.

795
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:43,920
I noticed something toughed way back in the corner. It

796
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:45,719
was wrapped in a dirty piece of what looked like

797
00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:47,559
campusle lin. It tied ship with what I swear I

798
00:38:47,599 --> 00:38:50,519
was human hair. It looked brittle and some bleached, but

799
00:38:50,599 --> 00:38:53,719
still tightly knodded. I probably should have just left it alone,

800
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:56,119
but of course I opened it. Inside were a few

801
00:38:56,119 --> 00:38:59,159
small items, a worn child's shoe about the size of

802
00:38:59,159 --> 00:39:02,880
a toddler's smith's coined completely blank on both sides, like

803
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:05,519
the face had been sounded off, and what I think

804
00:39:05,519 --> 00:39:10,679
were teeth, not human teeth, too small, too sharp. I

805
00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:14,280
honestly didn't examine them Laan. I just wrapped everything back up,

806
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:16,639
walked it straight to the outdoor trash ben and tossed

807
00:39:16,639 --> 00:39:19,599
it in. I remembered standing there afterward, wiping my hands

808
00:39:19,599 --> 00:39:22,000
on my jeans, thinking O ka, that was word, and

809
00:39:22,079 --> 00:39:24,800
trying to move on. That night, the Dodge refused to

810
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:26,480
go into the hallway that led to the bedrooms and

811
00:39:26,559 --> 00:39:29,239
laundry room. Just start cold in the living room and growled.

812
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:32,719
I called them like normal, nothing bare let out this

813
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:34,880
litow rumble I had never heard from him before, and

814
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,199
Murphy pressed herself against the back of the couch like

815
00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:39,679
she was trying to vanish into it. I walked down

816
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:42,920
the hall myself, every light, aunt, checking each room. Nothing

817
00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:45,400
was out of place. I even said out loud to

818
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:49,519
see nothing's there. But they still wouldn't come. The next morning,

819
00:39:49,639 --> 00:39:52,239
same thing. They wouldn't go near the back half of

820
00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:55,480
the house. Berr started sleeping under the kitchen table, and

821
00:39:55,559 --> 00:39:58,599
Murphy called up behind the couch cushions that entire hall

822
00:39:58,639 --> 00:40:00,239
we might as well have been a close air edge.

823
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:03,159
I even tried tossing treats to cooks them down the hall,

824
00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:05,119
and Bear just sat down and stared at me. Like

825
00:40:05,159 --> 00:40:08,880
I betrayed him. Then the lights started acting up. First

826
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:11,559
it was the bedroom. The overhead light would flicker, then

827
00:40:11,599 --> 00:40:14,159
cut out completely for about ten minutes before snapping back on.

828
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:17,079
A few days later, the living room lanted the same.

829
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:19,800
Eventually the entire back half of the house had this

830
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:23,000
strange rhythm. Lights would flicker out, stay dark for a stretch,

831
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:26,159
then hump back to life like nothing happened. I figured

832
00:40:26,199 --> 00:40:29,480
it was bad wiring, maybe rodents chewing through insulation, so

833
00:40:29,559 --> 00:40:32,320
I called an electrician. He showed up, took a look

834
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:34,800
at the panel, checked every socket and switch, and eventually

835
00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:38,440
shrugged taut. Everything looked wodly clean for a house this old.

836
00:40:38,679 --> 00:40:44,519
No moisture damage, no freed wires, nothing loose. Honestly, he said,

837
00:40:44,639 --> 00:40:47,519
I've seen were set ups some brand new builds. Then

838
00:40:47,559 --> 00:40:50,719
he laughed and joked, maybe you've got a ghost. I

839
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,480
laughed too, but it didn't feel funny. It was around

840
00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:56,519
then I stopped sleeping, well not, and saw meare exactly

841
00:40:57,159 --> 00:40:58,960
more like. I kept waking up at the same time

842
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:01,719
every night, just after three in the morning. I wouldn't

843
00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:03,800
hear anything, but I joled awake with this tightness in

844
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:06,719
my chest like some one was pushing on it. I'd

845
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:08,800
lie there frozen for a minute or two hot poundings,

846
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:11,559
struving to catch my breath. Then it would pass and

847
00:41:11,639 --> 00:41:15,119
I'd be wide awake, completely alert, no dreams, no explanation,

848
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:18,280
just up. The dogs would be sitting up right in

849
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:21,000
the corner of the bedroom, not called up, not a sleep,

850
00:41:21,159 --> 00:41:23,320
just sitting there facing the hallway like statues. And then

851
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:26,519
started hearing it. It was always the same sound, a low, wet,

852
00:41:26,599 --> 00:41:29,880
dragging noise, like something heavy being pulled across tile. It

853
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,079
came from the laundry room, always late at night, always

854
00:41:32,119 --> 00:41:34,920
after the lights flickered. The first time, I sat up

855
00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:37,679
in bed and just listened, it didn't get louder, didn't

856
00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:41,159
move toward me. It just paced back and forth, slow, deliberate.

857
00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:45,920
The dogs didn't bark, they whimpered. Murphy climbed half way

858
00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:48,840
on to the bed and shook until sunrise. After that,

859
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,440
I stopped going into the laundry room at night. A

860
00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:53,960
few days later, I noticed the crossbay s door was open,

861
00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:56,480
just a crack, but enough to see the dark behind it.

862
00:41:57,039 --> 00:41:59,039
When I moved in, that door was sealed with layers

863
00:41:59,079 --> 00:42:01,320
of old paint. I had to break just to check

864
00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:04,280
it during the inspection. I shut it afterward and hadn't

865
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:07,320
touched it since. Now it moved freely, like it had

866
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:09,920
always been loose. I shut it and pushed a heavy

867
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:12,559
storage box in front of it. The next morning, the

868
00:42:12,559 --> 00:42:14,920
box was across the room. I stared at it for

869
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:17,960
way too long, tried to convince myself i'd moved it

870
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:21,000
and forgot, But I hadn't. That box was filled with

871
00:42:21,079 --> 00:42:23,880
power tools and old books, easily forty or fifty pounds.

872
00:42:24,559 --> 00:42:27,880
It doesn't just slide around. I moved it back. Then,

873
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:30,039
without even thinking, poured a line of sol across the

874
00:42:30,079 --> 00:42:32,559
Cross Bay store. I don't know why I did it.

875
00:42:33,039 --> 00:42:35,519
I don't believe in any of that stuff. It just

876
00:42:35,559 --> 00:42:38,159
felt like the right thing to do, like something people

877
00:42:38,159 --> 00:42:40,440
do in stores when they are out of options. The

878
00:42:40,519 --> 00:42:43,760
salt held for two nights. Then on the third morning

879
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:46,400
it was swept into a perfect crescent shape, not scattered,

880
00:42:46,639 --> 00:42:49,199
not stepped through, just carefully curved like someone had drawn

881
00:42:49,239 --> 00:42:51,880
it was the edge of their hand. That's when I

882
00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:55,559
bought the camera. Basic motions answer nothing fancy. I set

883
00:42:55,559 --> 00:42:57,679
it up in the laundry room facing the Crossby store.

884
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:00,440
That night, I stayed awake in the living room, waiting

885
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:04,320
to see if anything triggered it. Nothing happened. Next morning

886
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:06,920
I checked the camera. It had been flipped face down

887
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,239
some time in the middle of the night. The footage

888
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,119
ended abruptly at two point forty eight a m. No movement,

889
00:43:12,480 --> 00:43:15,159
no sound, just a cut. That was enough for me.

890
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:18,800
That evening, I packed a suit case, groad some essentials,

891
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:22,119
and left for my sister's place across town. After the divorce,

892
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:25,719
things in Bridgeport just felt stale. Too many familiar corners,

893
00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:28,440
too many people who knew too much. The condo soul

894
00:43:28,559 --> 00:43:30,800
fast enough, and once that check hit, I didn't stick

895
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:33,440
around my body. Neil's cousin had a line on a

896
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:36,760
place down south outside a little town in Tennessee, Cold Alberge.

897
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:39,960
According to the realtor, an older couple had owned it forever.

898
00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:44,039
Husband passed, wife left the state soon after, just an

899
00:43:44,039 --> 00:43:46,000
old house waiting for someone to live in it again.

900
00:43:46,559 --> 00:43:49,599
I didn't waste time signed everything after a ten minute

901
00:43:49,599 --> 00:43:52,320
walk through. The place was dusty but solid, and I

902
00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:55,440
told myself that the isolation would be good for me. Irissett.

903
00:43:56,159 --> 00:43:58,679
The first few days were spent and parking, fixing things

904
00:43:58,679 --> 00:44:01,199
here and there. There was no cell service inside the

905
00:44:01,199 --> 00:44:03,559
house unless I stood on a specific towel near the sink.

906
00:44:04,159 --> 00:44:07,800
Closest grocery store was fifteen miles out. Mail came twice

907
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:09,920
a week, but it didn't bother me. I was fine

908
00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:13,719
being alone. The silence out there was different. It wasn't empty.

909
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:16,920
It just left you alone. Then on the fourth evening,

910
00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:19,400
around sunset, I was hauling some old lumber behind the

911
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:22,719
shade when I noticed someone walking up the driveway. No car,

912
00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:26,519
just a guy, maybe in his forties, worrying faded como

913
00:44:26,599 --> 00:44:29,719
and one of those orange chanting caps. He was built solid,

914
00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:32,440
probably six feet tall, and walked like he knew exactly

915
00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:35,079
where he was going. When he saw me, he lifted

916
00:44:35,079 --> 00:44:36,840
his hand a little, not a wave of more like

917
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:39,519
a sol motion salute. I walked up to meet him,

918
00:44:39,519 --> 00:44:42,079
half way between the house and the tree line. Before

919
00:44:42,119 --> 00:44:44,039
I could say anything, he nodded at the house and

920
00:44:44,119 --> 00:44:47,320
said all moved and quick. I told him I had

921
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:50,159
mentioned Linda, the woman who'd rented me the place. He

922
00:44:50,199 --> 00:44:53,000
didn't really react, just kept looking past me, eyes fixed

923
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:55,239
on the woods, like he was watching for something. She

924
00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:58,320
never came back for her dogs, he said. I blinked,

925
00:44:58,320 --> 00:45:01,079
told him I hadn't seen any dogs around. He didn't

926
00:45:01,119 --> 00:45:04,039
respond to that. Instead, he tilted his head a little

927
00:45:04,039 --> 00:45:06,599
and asked he opened up the lower call yet, I

928
00:45:06,639 --> 00:45:09,639
said no. I knew there were two course bass one

929
00:45:09,639 --> 00:45:11,800
near the front, one built into the back slope, but

930
00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:15,039
I hadn't gotten around to either. He nodded once. Don't

931
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:17,800
not alone at least. Then he turned and walked off,

932
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:19,880
not down a driveway, into the woods, just disappeared like

933
00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:21,840
he'd walked through an open door. Nobody else could see.

934
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:23,880
It didn't scare me, not exactly, but I did start

935
00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:25,880
locking the doors at night, and I moved Kroba from

936
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:28,119
the shed to the living room. The next week was uneventful,

937
00:45:28,159 --> 00:45:30,360
but a little harder to relax. I kept thinking about

938
00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:32,119
the guy, wondering if he'd been a neighbor or just

939
00:45:32,159 --> 00:45:35,079
some drifter who knew the place. Then came the barking.

940
00:45:35,639 --> 00:45:38,519
First time. It was around midnight, woke me up of

941
00:45:38,519 --> 00:45:41,360
a dead sleep. It wasn't close, but not far either,

942
00:45:42,079 --> 00:45:45,440
sharp panicked barks like something chapter frantic. I got up,

943
00:45:45,519 --> 00:45:50,039
looked out the windows. Nothing. Next night, same thing, this

944
00:45:50,239 --> 00:45:53,440
time closer, same bark, same urgency, but had always gone

945
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:54,679
by the time I made it to the door. I

946
00:45:54,679 --> 00:45:56,400
stayed up the night after that, sat in the dark

947
00:45:56,440 --> 00:45:58,440
with a blanket and a warm beard by the front window.

948
00:45:58,480 --> 00:46:00,239
Some time around to you, I heard it again, only

949
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:02,360
it wasn't barking. It was footsteps on the deck, heavy ones,

950
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:04,199
one step, then another, then nothing. I didn't move for

951
00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:05,960
a while, just sat there, holding my breath. When I

952
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:08,119
finally stood up and flipped on the porch light, I

953
00:46:08,159 --> 00:46:11,159
threw the door open fast, like that would catch somebody

954
00:46:11,159 --> 00:46:14,360
of guard. But no one was there, just the hum

955
00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:16,199
of bugs and the faint creak of trees shifting in

956
00:46:16,199 --> 00:46:19,960
the wind. Next morning, I walked the property. Didn't expect

957
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:22,119
to find anything, but by the back cross base there

958
00:46:22,119 --> 00:46:26,840
were footprints, work boots, big ones, the kind that leave

959
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:29,280
deep tracks. Is someone's been standing still for a while.

960
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:32,639
I didn't call the cops. What would I even say.

961
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:35,519
I some one might have been watching my house last night,

962
00:46:35,559 --> 00:46:38,559
but left politely and didn't steal anything. I just kept

963
00:46:38,639 --> 00:46:40,920
checking the locks and started sleeping with the shotgun Ey'd

964
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:44,039
used once for skeet shooting a decade ago. That weekend,

965
00:46:44,119 --> 00:46:47,280
I called deryck All, friend from college. He lived in

966
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:49,880
Knoxville and always liked excuses to drink beer and swing

967
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:52,599
a hammer. I told him the place needed some work,

968
00:46:52,639 --> 00:46:55,320
and I was spooked by some weird noises. He showed

969
00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:57,840
up Saturday afternoon with a cooler, a bluted speaker, and

970
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:01,199
a baseball bat just in case. We grilled, patched up

971
00:47:01,199 --> 00:47:02,880
a bit of siding, and I told him about the

972
00:47:02,880 --> 00:47:06,159
guy in the woods, the barking, the steps. He didn't laugh,

973
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:11,400
which surprised me. Derek laughs at everything. Instead, he got quiet, nodded,

974
00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:14,599
and said, let's check the crawl. We went around back

975
00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:17,639
and I unlocked the rusted hatch. They suck a little,

976
00:47:17,679 --> 00:47:19,719
but eventually gave way to reveal a concrete slope that

977
00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:23,440
disappeared into a dark, musty crawl space. No lights, no

978
00:47:23,559 --> 00:47:27,599
real insolution, just poured concrete and shadows. Derek crouched and

979
00:47:27,639 --> 00:47:31,320
went first, using the flashlight on his keychain. Smells like pis,

980
00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:35,039
he muttered. He crawled in a few feet, then he stopped,

981
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:38,840
there's something down here. I dropped to my knees and followed,

982
00:47:39,400 --> 00:47:42,559
cold concrete on my hands. The light hit two large

983
00:47:42,559 --> 00:47:45,320
metal cages in the back corner, rusted stained with deep

984
00:47:45,360 --> 00:47:48,480
scratches along the bars next to them were several torn

985
00:47:48,519 --> 00:47:51,079
dog fruit bags, some half rotted, and a bundle top,

986
00:47:51,159 --> 00:47:54,840
lumpy and damp. We dragged the top toward us. Inside

987
00:47:54,840 --> 00:47:58,079
were three dog collars, the leather had decayed and curled.

988
00:47:58,719 --> 00:48:03,039
Two are tags, dusty and chopper that there didn't have one.

989
00:48:03,159 --> 00:48:05,920
Derek stout for a long time. Then he crawled out

990
00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:08,719
without a word. We stood in the yard, not talking,

991
00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:11,159
not moving like our feet didn't quite believe they were

992
00:48:11,199 --> 00:48:14,239
back on solid ground. That night, Derek left the shotgun

993
00:48:14,239 --> 00:48:16,679
with me and drove home. He didn't offer to stay,

994
00:48:16,679 --> 00:48:20,079
and I didn't ask. Three days later, the barking came back,

995
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:23,559
Only this time it was underneath me, not outside, not

996
00:48:23,679 --> 00:48:26,599
in the woods, under the floor. I stood frozen in

997
00:48:26,639 --> 00:48:29,360
the hallway listening to it echoed through the walls. Not

998
00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:37,079
a recording, not some distant animal. It was right there, hasten, barking, clawing. Maybe.

999
00:48:37,519 --> 00:48:41,679
I ran outside, flashlight in one hand, shot gun in

1000
00:48:41,719 --> 00:48:45,719
the other, and opened the back crawl hatch. Instant silence,

1001
00:48:46,400 --> 00:48:50,320
no movement, no sound, just the thick stillness that comes

1002
00:48:50,360 --> 00:48:53,280
when something leaves. The next morning, the crawl space was

1003
00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:58,079
empty plane, the cages were gone, the top was gone,

1004
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:01,800
even the moldy bags had vanished. I took pictures sent

1005
00:49:01,840 --> 00:49:05,360
them to Derrick. He replied, you cleaned it out. I

1006
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:08,760
didn't respond. Instead, I called lind Of, the woman who

1007
00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:10,880
rented me the place, told her I'd found something odd

1008
00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:13,679
in the crawl. She went quiet long enough that I

1009
00:49:13,679 --> 00:49:16,320
thought we'd lost the connection. Then she said, you found

1010
00:49:16,320 --> 00:49:19,559
the cages. I asked why they were there. She got

1011
00:49:19,559 --> 00:49:22,519
bad toward the end. I tried to clear everything before

1012
00:49:22,519 --> 00:49:25,280
renting it. I don't think anyone would go down there.

1013
00:49:25,920 --> 00:49:28,000
She hung up before I could ask what bad meant.

1014
00:49:28,599 --> 00:49:31,480
I was twenty seven when I moved to Tennessee. Things

1015
00:49:31,480 --> 00:49:34,239
had kind of unraveled all at once. The leaseaw my

1016
00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:36,760
apartment in Dayton was up, and my relationship six years

1017
00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:39,599
long with a shed dog and a Spotify account. I

1018
00:49:39,599 --> 00:49:42,039
didn't want to catchself when we've back in with my parents,

1019
00:49:42,119 --> 00:49:44,119
And right when I was figuring out what came next,

1020
00:49:44,199 --> 00:49:47,199
my aunt Lena called. She owned this place outside of town,

1021
00:49:47,239 --> 00:49:51,159
colt Stonebrook, real quiet, mosley trees, maybe two gas stations.

1022
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:53,800
I hadn't seen the house since I was a teenager,

1023
00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:55,800
but I remembered at being set way back off a

1024
00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:59,119
gravel road, surrounded by woods. She told me nobody was

1025
00:49:59,199 --> 00:50:01,239
using it, that I could stay as long as I wanted,

1026
00:50:01,880 --> 00:50:04,639
said she kept it for family transitions, which was her

1027
00:50:04,679 --> 00:50:08,239
polite way of saying emotional breakdowns to vorces or tax problems.

1028
00:50:08,840 --> 00:50:10,920
It sounded like exactly the kind of place where no

1029
00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:13,360
one would ask how I was during the house was

1030
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:16,320
small but solid, just two bedrooms and one bathroom, with

1031
00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:18,719
furniture that looked like it hadn't moved since the early

1032
00:50:18,760 --> 00:50:22,159
two thousands. The kitchen at those fake would laminade cabinets

1033
00:50:22,159 --> 00:50:23,920
the kind of peel if you spill anything hot, But

1034
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:25,800
it wasn't abandoned. It just felt po as there were

1035
00:50:25,800 --> 00:50:28,199
still kangreene beans and dusty rice in the pantry, sheets

1036
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:30,280
on the bed, even a flasklight with working batteries in

1037
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:31,960
the drawer by the sink. I drop my bags in

1038
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:33,800
the bigger of the two bedrooms, and just too there

1039
00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:35,480
for a second. Let in the quite settle over me.

1040
00:50:35,559 --> 00:50:39,400
No upstairs neighbors, no street noise, no passive aggressive fridge notes.

1041
00:50:40,079 --> 00:50:43,159
It was weirdly comforting. The fast couple weeks were peaceful

1042
00:50:43,199 --> 00:50:45,159
in a way that made me realize how tightly wind

1043
00:50:45,159 --> 00:50:47,440
I'd been. I didn't have a job yet, so I

1044
00:50:47,480 --> 00:50:50,599
spent most days fixing little things, replacing old bobs, were

1045
00:50:50,599 --> 00:50:53,000
sealing the shower grout, tightening the kitchen cabinet hinges so

1046
00:50:53,039 --> 00:50:55,719
they stopped squeaking every time I opened one. The place

1047
00:50:55,760 --> 00:50:57,559
slowly started to feel less like a left of her

1048
00:50:57,559 --> 00:51:00,840
and more like something mine. Then maybe three weeks in,

1049
00:51:01,039 --> 00:51:04,199
I noticed something odd about the bedroom. It was the closet,

1050
00:51:04,679 --> 00:51:08,159
nothing dramatic, just off center. I don't know why I

1051
00:51:08,199 --> 00:51:10,599
caught my attention one day, but I remember staring at

1052
00:51:10,599 --> 00:51:12,719
it while brushing my teeth and thinking, why would someone

1053
00:51:12,719 --> 00:51:14,920
build it like that? It was too far to the

1054
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:16,719
right on the wall, and when I opened it it

1055
00:51:16,800 --> 00:51:19,039
was only about two feet deep, which didn't make sense

1056
00:51:19,719 --> 00:51:22,119
that wall backed into the same room. There should have

1057
00:51:22,119 --> 00:51:26,400
been more space. Curiosity kicked in. I grab tape measure

1058
00:51:26,519 --> 00:51:28,480
measured the bedroom wall from the corner to the edge

1059
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:30,920
of the closet, then measured the inside of the closet itself.

1060
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:34,440
There were about four feet unaccounted for. At first, I

1061
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:36,360
thought maybe there was some kind of coal space or

1062
00:51:36,360 --> 00:51:39,280
old utility access. The house was old enough to have

1063
00:51:39,320 --> 00:51:42,239
wood quirks, so I knocked along the wall inside the closet.

1064
00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:45,039
Most of it gave that soft, hollow sound of drywl,

1065
00:51:45,559 --> 00:51:47,400
but there was one section about chest tight and a

1066
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:50,679
foot wide that sounded different, duller, like something solid behind it.

1067
00:51:51,159 --> 00:51:53,239
I stood there for a while, just holding my hand

1068
00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:57,400
against that spot. I wasn't scared, exactly, more curious, more curious,

1069
00:51:57,440 --> 00:52:00,320
and I had nothing but time. I ended up cutting

1070
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:02,639
out a small square of drywall, just enough to peep behind.

1071
00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:06,559
That's when I found the first door. No knob, no hinges,

1072
00:52:07,239 --> 00:52:09,320
just old royalwood wedged into a frame like it had

1073
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:11,920
been fitted there by hand. It didn't match the other

1074
00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:15,119
doors in the house. This one looked much older, maybe

1075
00:52:15,199 --> 00:52:18,840
original to whatever had been here before renovations. I pried

1076
00:52:18,880 --> 00:52:21,239
it open with a flat head in my bomb. Behind

1077
00:52:21,239 --> 00:52:23,760
it a short hallway five feet long, may be less.

1078
00:52:24,440 --> 00:52:26,920
The walls were just dry, well painted white, no markings,

1079
00:52:27,039 --> 00:52:29,599
no lights. At the end of the hallway was a

1080
00:52:29,679 --> 00:52:33,400
second door. This one did have a knob, rassed harnish

1081
00:52:33,480 --> 00:52:36,159
called to the touch. There was no sound coming from

1082
00:52:36,159 --> 00:52:41,360
behind it, no smell, no air movement, just stillness. I

1083
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:44,320
opened it. The room inside was maybe six feet by

1084
00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:48,920
six feet, no windows, just a chair, one plain wooden

1085
00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:51,320
chair in the center of the room. Sitting in front

1086
00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:53,280
of it was a mirror, full length leaning against the

1087
00:52:53,320 --> 00:52:58,239
far wall. Nothing else, no cobwebs, no dust like some

1088
00:52:58,320 --> 00:53:01,480
one had cleaned it recently. Behind the chair, scrolled across

1089
00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:04,280
the wall and thick black marker were four words sit, wait,

1090
00:53:04,480 --> 00:53:07,880
watch until a cop is. That's when I started feeling off,

1091
00:53:08,599 --> 00:53:10,800
not scared exactly, but luck I had walked into the

1092
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:13,679
wrong scene of some one else's story. I stood there

1093
00:53:13,719 --> 00:53:16,800
for maybe thirty seconds, not moving. Then I backed out,

1094
00:53:16,880 --> 00:53:19,519
shook both doors, patched the drywall, and shoved the dresser

1095
00:53:19,519 --> 00:53:21,960
in front of the closet. I told myself it was

1096
00:53:22,039 --> 00:53:24,239
just a weird left of a room, maybe someone's old

1097
00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:27,519
meditation space. Maybe Lena used it for storage back in

1098
00:53:27,559 --> 00:53:30,239
the day and forgot about it. I told myself all

1099
00:53:30,320 --> 00:53:32,480
kinds of things, and that probably would have been the

1100
00:53:32,559 --> 00:53:35,039
end of it. But two nights later, around one in

1101
00:53:35,079 --> 00:53:37,239
the morning, I woke up to a sound, a soft Greek,

1102
00:53:37,360 --> 00:53:39,679
then another, the kind of sound you'd expect from floorboards

1103
00:53:39,719 --> 00:53:43,000
under slow, careful steps, except they weren't in the room.

1104
00:53:43,559 --> 00:53:46,519
They were behind the wall. It sounded like someone pacing,

1105
00:53:47,079 --> 00:53:52,039
not stomping, not driving, just walking back and forth behind

1106
00:53:52,039 --> 00:53:55,239
the drywall in space where the hallway was. The next morning,

1107
00:53:55,360 --> 00:53:59,199
I checked the closet. Everything looked untouched. The dresser was

1108
00:53:59,239 --> 00:54:02,360
still tied against it, drywall still sealed. I tried to

1109
00:54:02,360 --> 00:54:04,880
brush it off, but the pace and came back. Not

1110
00:54:05,079 --> 00:54:08,280
every night, just often enough that I started dreading the silence.

1111
00:54:09,079 --> 00:54:11,280
Sometimes I'd wake up just before it started, like my

1112
00:54:11,360 --> 00:54:13,679
brain knew it was coming. The steps would go on

1113
00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:16,400
for five, maybe ten minutes, then stop poll up once,

1114
00:54:17,199 --> 00:54:19,400
like whoever or whatever was back there didn't want to

1115
00:54:19,440 --> 00:54:22,039
be hear too long. Then one afternoon I came in

1116
00:54:22,079 --> 00:54:25,159
from stacking firewood and something was off. The bedroom door

1117
00:54:25,280 --> 00:54:30,119
was shut. I never closed it, not Once I stepped inside.

1118
00:54:30,760 --> 00:54:33,639
The closet door was wide open. My chest locked up

1119
00:54:33,679 --> 00:54:36,519
for a second. Everything else in the room looked normal,

1120
00:54:37,079 --> 00:54:41,000
fed and touched, window shut, dress of drawers closed, but

1121
00:54:41,119 --> 00:54:44,239
that closet. I walked over slowly, half expecting to see

1122
00:54:44,280 --> 00:54:47,159
something waiting on the other side, but it was just dark.

1123
00:54:47,840 --> 00:54:50,880
I pulled the drywall panel aside. The narrow hallway was

1124
00:54:50,880 --> 00:54:54,719
still there at the end the second door. I opened it.

1125
00:54:55,320 --> 00:54:57,519
The room looked the same, except the chair had moved.

1126
00:54:58,199 --> 00:55:00,719
It wasn't dramatic, just turned slightly to the right like

1127
00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:03,519
someone had sat in it, shifted and gotten up. That

1128
00:55:03,679 --> 00:55:06,039
night I didn't sleep. I lay in bed with the

1129
00:55:06,119 --> 00:55:09,480
light on, fully dressed, waiting. At two point fourteen I

1130
00:55:09,519 --> 00:55:14,039
saw it movement, not big, just something in the far

1131
00:55:14,079 --> 00:55:17,320
corner of the room, A shape shifting slightly, like someone

1132
00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:20,079
adjusting their posture. I sat up, looked right at it.

1133
00:55:20,639 --> 00:55:23,360
There was nothing there. The next day I drove into

1134
00:55:23,360 --> 00:55:25,400
town and bought a trail cam, one of those cheap

1135
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:28,800
hunting models that snaps pictures when it sendses movement. I

1136
00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:30,639
set it on the shelf across from the closet and

1137
00:55:30,679 --> 00:55:33,400
aimed toward the wall. The next morning, I checked the

1138
00:55:33,480 --> 00:55:36,400
card at one point forty am. The footage skipped just

1139
00:55:36,400 --> 00:55:39,000
for a second, then it came back. There was a

1140
00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:41,800
figure standing in front of the closet. At first I

1141
00:55:41,800 --> 00:55:44,599
thought it was a glitch. The lighting looked weird, but

1142
00:55:44,639 --> 00:55:48,199
then I leaned in closer. It was me. Same hoodie,

1143
00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:50,880
same socks, same slightly and even posture. I have one

1144
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:54,360
on half asleep, but it was me. The figure stared

1145
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:56,760
at the wall, then took a step forward and disappeared

1146
00:55:56,760 --> 00:55:59,400
behind it. I should have packed my things right then

1147
00:55:59,440 --> 00:56:01,440
and left. Something about it pulled at me like the

1148
00:56:01,480 --> 00:56:04,760
room itself was waiting. That night, I opened the wall again,

1149
00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:07,039
walked through the narrow hallway, and sat down in the chair.

1150
00:56:07,599 --> 00:56:09,559
I moved out before the week was over. Told my

1151
00:56:09,559 --> 00:56:11,599
aunt the house had a mole problem. Said I couldn't

1152
00:56:11,639 --> 00:56:13,679
breathe for right at night. Now I live in a

1153
00:56:13,719 --> 00:56:16,119
third floor apartment with loud pipes and neighbors who slammed

1154
00:56:16,119 --> 00:56:18,760
their doors at all ives. I was twenty seven when

1155
00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:20,639
I moved into a house just outside a little place

1156
00:56:20,679 --> 00:56:23,920
called Whalen, Tennessee. I just packed what fit in my car,

1157
00:56:24,039 --> 00:56:26,199
left a note for the landlord in Atlanta, and started

1158
00:56:26,239 --> 00:56:28,920
driving north before the city woke up. I didn't tell

1159
00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:31,639
many people didn't really want to. Sometimes you are not

1160
00:56:31,719 --> 00:56:34,360
leaving for a better place, just a different one. The

1161
00:56:34,400 --> 00:56:37,079
house was a foreclosure. I bought it online for what

1162
00:56:37,119 --> 00:56:40,599
felt like park a change. No inspection, no walk through,

1163
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:42,679
just a few grainy photos and a list of minor

1164
00:56:42,760 --> 00:56:45,320
repairs needed. It looked like it had been empty for

1165
00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:47,199
a while, long enough with the grass to swallow the

1166
00:56:47,199 --> 00:56:49,360
mail books and for birds to start nesting. In the eaves,

1167
00:56:50,039 --> 00:56:52,559
but it was mine, cheap, isolated, and more or less standing.

1168
00:56:53,159 --> 00:56:54,840
It sat at the end of a craft travel road,

1169
00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:57,239
one of those stubborn Marnch style places with red brick

1170
00:56:57,280 --> 00:56:59,440
and a porch that leaned just enough to make you nervous.

1171
00:57:00,159 --> 00:57:03,039
The back yard ran into an acre of woods, nothing

1172
00:57:03,079 --> 00:57:06,199
but trees and dead leaves so thick you couldn't see

1173
00:57:06,199 --> 00:57:09,920
ten feet in quiet, though you could hear yourself think.

1174
00:57:10,519 --> 00:57:14,000
I spent the first week cleaning, or trying to. Every

1175
00:57:14,079 --> 00:57:16,800
room had its own brand of gram. The kitchen smelled

1176
00:57:16,800 --> 00:57:19,519
like milty. The bathroom mirror had this sway fog that

1177
00:57:19,559 --> 00:57:23,360
wipe away. I replaced floorboards, cleared up dead bugs, and

1178
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:25,519
duck taped a broken bench up because it rattled when

1179
00:57:25,519 --> 00:57:28,840
the wind hit it. All the normal stuff right. By

1180
00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:30,760
day four, I thought I was doing okay, and then

1181
00:57:30,800 --> 00:57:33,800
the back door started and locking itself. At first I

1182
00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:36,480
figured it was just me. I was tied distracted, running

1183
00:57:36,480 --> 00:57:39,320
on fast food and lukewarm coffee. The door was all

1184
00:57:39,400 --> 00:57:41,880
would swollen from years of humidity, with a stubborn brass

1185
00:57:41,880 --> 00:57:43,559
handle and a dead bolt that needed some muscle to

1186
00:57:43,559 --> 00:57:47,000
click into place. I remember locking it one night, really

1187
00:57:47,039 --> 00:57:49,880
locking it, putting my back into the twist. I even

1188
00:57:49,960 --> 00:57:53,199
hugged the knob to check. Next morning it was wide open,

1189
00:57:53,880 --> 00:57:58,199
not cracked, not halfway, just standing open like some one

1190
00:57:58,239 --> 00:58:01,079
wanted me to notice. I stood there a long time,

1191
00:58:01,199 --> 00:58:04,519
staring out at the trees. I didn't move, didn't say anything,

1192
00:58:04,599 --> 00:58:08,079
just listened. No wind, no birds, just the stillness you

1193
00:58:08,079 --> 00:58:10,760
will only get in places far from people. I finally

1194
00:58:10,800 --> 00:58:13,360
closed it, locked it again and forced myself to move on.

1195
00:58:14,039 --> 00:58:17,840
Told myself I'd probably just been careless. But it happened again,

1196
00:58:18,440 --> 00:58:21,199
and then again, and then again. I bought a new

1197
00:58:21,199 --> 00:58:23,960
de bowl, brushed off some bisky tube tutorials, and installed

1198
00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:27,079
it myself. It felt solid, better than the first for sure.

1199
00:58:27,760 --> 00:58:30,880
Next morning door was open. That's when I stopped sleeping

1200
00:58:30,880 --> 00:58:33,159
in the bedroom. It faced the back yard and I

1201
00:58:33,199 --> 00:58:36,079
couldn't deal with that any more. I started crashing and

1202
00:58:36,119 --> 00:58:38,960
the couch with the TV onlow. Nois helped, even if

1203
00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:40,559
it was just a muffled drone of some late night

1204
00:58:40,599 --> 00:58:43,480
in commercial. Every night I double checked the dead bolt,

1205
00:58:43,519 --> 00:58:45,519
shove a kitchen chair under the knock, even pile of

1206
00:58:45,519 --> 00:58:47,400
feep hands in front of it like a makeshift alarm.

1207
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:49,960
Some nights the chair was still there in the morning,

1208
00:58:50,119 --> 00:58:53,039
but the lock would be undone. Other times the chair

1209
00:58:53,039 --> 00:58:54,800
would be tipped over or slid a few inches to

1210
00:58:54,840 --> 00:58:56,599
the side, like some one had quietly moved it out

1211
00:58:56,639 --> 00:58:59,400
of the way. Once I found my sneakers outside the

1212
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:01,519
back door side by side, like someone had taken them

1213
00:59:01,519 --> 00:59:04,280
for a walk and brought them back. I started writing

1214
00:59:04,320 --> 00:59:08,559
things down, times, details, tiny observations. I made a kind

1215
00:59:08,559 --> 00:59:10,840
of checklist, locked the door at eleven thirty, used the

1216
00:59:10,880 --> 00:59:13,039
green jet a night, left brown boots by the mat,

1217
00:59:13,119 --> 00:59:15,519
trying to prove to myself that something was happening, that

1218
00:59:15,599 --> 00:59:18,800
I wasn't just losing it. Eventually I bought a security camp,

1219
00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:20,920
just to cheap, indoor model from a big Buck store.

1220
00:59:21,519 --> 00:59:23,239
I set it up in the kitchen, aim straight at

1221
00:59:23,239 --> 00:59:27,760
the back door. First night, Nothing happened. Second night's aim.

1222
00:59:28,079 --> 00:59:30,079
Then on the third night, I woke up to the

1223
00:59:30,119 --> 00:59:33,199
door open again, checked the footage, only there wasn't any.

1224
00:59:33,679 --> 00:59:37,239
The recording just stopped, not for the whole night. It

1225
00:59:37,320 --> 00:59:39,280
cut off a few minutes before the door opened, like

1226
00:59:39,320 --> 00:59:42,199
someone had turned it off. I thought the battery had died,

1227
00:59:42,280 --> 00:59:46,079
so I plugged it in. Still happened every night I tried,

1228
00:59:46,840 --> 00:59:48,639
the file would cut off right before the moment I

1229
00:59:48,679 --> 00:59:51,920
needed to see, so I got sneaky, set up a

1230
00:59:51,920 --> 00:59:54,199
second camera hidden behind some caned food in the pantry,

1231
00:59:54,239 --> 00:59:57,039
angle to catch the first one. That way, if someone

1232
00:59:57,119 --> 01:00:00,679
was messing with it, i'd see them. Didn't work. Both

1233
01:00:00,679 --> 01:00:03,920
feeds went dark. That's when I started sleeping with a hammer,

1234
01:00:04,519 --> 01:00:06,639
not because I thought it would do much, but holding

1235
01:00:06,679 --> 01:00:08,480
it made me feel like I had a little control left.

1236
01:00:09,079 --> 01:00:11,280
I'd lay there on the couch, one eye on the door,

1237
01:00:11,440 --> 01:00:14,280
one hand wrapped round the handle. By that point I

1238
01:00:14,360 --> 01:00:16,960
wasn't really sleeping, more light drifting in and out with

1239
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:19,159
the TV buzzing and the hammer warm in my palm.

1240
01:00:19,639 --> 01:00:23,440
Then the light started flickering, always the same pattern, three

1241
01:00:23,480 --> 01:00:28,400
quick blinks, pause, one lawn flicker, only in the hallway.

1242
01:00:29,360 --> 01:00:31,800
I counted it. Time to try different bulbs, foot breakers,

1243
01:00:31,840 --> 01:00:34,960
even called an electrician. He came out, poked around, didn't

1244
01:00:34,960 --> 01:00:38,880
find anything wrong. Old houses, he shrugged. They do word

1245
01:00:38,920 --> 01:00:42,000
stuff sometimes. One night I was standing in the kitchen

1246
01:00:42,039 --> 01:00:44,880
eating cereal out of the box, lights doing their usual

1247
01:00:44,880 --> 01:00:47,840
flicker when that last lawn blinkit and the back door

1248
01:00:47,880 --> 01:00:52,639
clicked open. Not swan, not creaked, clicked like some one

1249
01:00:52,639 --> 01:00:56,360
turned the handle gently. I froze the door east opened

1250
01:00:56,400 --> 01:00:58,320
an inch or two, just enough to feel the night air.

1251
01:00:58,920 --> 01:01:02,760
I didn't go investigate. I grabbed the hammer, stepped outside barefoot,

1252
01:01:02,800 --> 01:01:05,159
and stood there, just breathing, staring into the trees like

1253
01:01:05,159 --> 01:01:09,000
I expected something to walk out. Nothing did, just black

1254
01:01:09,079 --> 01:01:12,239
trees and brittle leaves. I stayed outside until the sky

1255
01:01:12,320 --> 01:01:16,239
turned gray. Next day I nailed the back door. Shut, woodplank,

1256
01:01:16,320 --> 01:01:19,960
big nails, no gaps. I checked it three times. It

1257
01:01:20,039 --> 01:01:23,599
stayed shut. That night, I finally crashed in the bedroom again.

1258
01:01:23,719 --> 01:01:25,960
Woke up cold round three a m. And realized the

1259
01:01:25,960 --> 01:01:28,599
window was open. It had been painted shut when I

1260
01:01:28,639 --> 01:01:31,199
moved in. I remembered scraping at the frame with a

1261
01:01:31,239 --> 01:01:34,239
screwdriver and giving up. Now it was wide open, screen

1262
01:01:34,239 --> 01:01:37,360
popped out, blinds fluttering in the breeze. I closed it,

1263
01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:41,519
repainted the edges. Didn't sleep, just sat in the living room,

1264
01:01:41,559 --> 01:01:44,280
watching the whole way light to its little dance. Next

1265
01:01:44,320 --> 01:01:46,519
morning I went to leave and both doze on my truck.

1266
01:01:46,559 --> 01:01:51,599
Will wide open, no broken glass, no scorches, nothing missing,

1267
01:01:52,400 --> 01:01:54,719
just open. That was it for me. I drove to

1268
01:01:54,760 --> 01:01:58,320
a cheap motel off the highway and that is the end.

1269
01:01:58,920 --> 01:02:00,639
Thank you for listening and I will see you in

1270
01:02:00,639 --> 01:02:10,920
the next one mm hmm.