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

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Let's get into it. I'd signed on for a seasonal

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

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

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Each of us got a section mine with Section D.

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

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no paved access roads, just a mess of old mining

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

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

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

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us in total. We each got his own to cover

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at a radio with a chicken schedule three times a

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

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even had a trail. I had to hike in from

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the south side and follow a flag rat that one

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

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a cleave brush flagged new erosion and made notes using

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

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

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

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and I wanted to reach an old clearing that had

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been logged in the records as the sight of a

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

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close to forty five minutes just to hike in. The

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trail twisted through ferns and down timber, and I had

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

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Once I reached the clearing, I set my pack down

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beside the first marker and got to work. It had

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slid half way out of the slope over time, but

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the top paff still had some inscription left. I cleaned

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

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

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

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

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I stood up to stretch and something caught my eye.

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Up at the top of the slope, maybe twenty or

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twenty five yards away, there was a wooden stake sticking

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

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of any state marker, and tied to the top was

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

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

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I reached for my radio cold in just to document

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

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

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

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pat by the marker, and climbed up to take a

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

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

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had been buried and pulled up. There were markings on

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the stake toohallow carvings, almost like some one had used

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

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just rough outlines like they were doing it in a

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

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a note into the recorder. Then I turned round and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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I went back up toward the stake. The cloth was

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gone now. The impression from where it had been tied

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was still visible in the bark, by the cloth itself

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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it was red canvas with the torn zipper and an

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

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

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I got to the site that afternoon, the co ordinator

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said Marla had called him sick. I asked if she

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dropped off the pack before leaving. He looked at me

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

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

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feeling like the dream was already waiting for me and

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

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

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graving the dirt and the bandanna. It was tied around

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

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up with my shirt stuck to my back. Checked my

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

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

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to Section E F though I just needed to see

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it from myself. I followed the mark of flags she

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had left, bright orange strips, tided low spaced every twenty

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yards five minutes in they just stopped up. Ahead was

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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exact voice. I turned it off to the record of

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the pack what was left of it, and left straight

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

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

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

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wait for the last check. The job at Breebird Mining

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Museum sounded like a dream gig. When I first got

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it night security. The guy who used to cover the

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shift had just retired and they brought in a contractor

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

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had to do was walk the circuit a few times,

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signed the log sheet every ire and make sure nobody

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

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

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to be an act of cold processing center back in

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the fifties. Now most of it was cleaned up in

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section into walkable exhibits with baccars and manequins and ulgear.

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There was a freight elevator that ran all the way

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down to the basement archive. That area was off limits

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

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

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to my belt with the rest of the ring, along

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

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

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

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

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

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coffee from the little break room, and plant myself behind

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a main desk with whatever book I was working for.

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

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

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

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But on the forty to night something changed. It was

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

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one of my usual laps. I was settling back into

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my chair when I heard a scraping sound from the

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

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to get my attention. It sounded like someone dragged a

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

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There were shells and displays back there. Not everything was

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

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

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

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The manequins were where they always were, frozen mincewing with

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rusted pickaxes. The mining cut was still on its little

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

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

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louder from behind the seal double doors that led to

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the old freight tunnel. That tunnel was sealed off on

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

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From what I heard. There was even a plaque near

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the door that mentioned the cave in and how the

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

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

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for the rest of the night. I sat with one

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eye on the hallway that led to those doors. Told

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myself it was old pipes or an echo from some

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way deeper in the building. But then it happened again

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

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

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

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

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

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swear I heard something else like rebel shifting verily audible,

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

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

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just still heavy air on the other side. I gave

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

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

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

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

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

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

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was down in the hall and around the corner. I

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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I heard the hum gears turning, then the thunk as

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

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

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Nobody inside that There was a footprint in the dust,

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just once smaller than mine. Facing the wall in the

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

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

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

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note in the lock. Maintenance requested elevator cycling to it

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as soon as I pot almost drove back, but the

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side entrance had been left open for a delivery. I

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

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and deal with it tomorrow. Everything seemed fine until I

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

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

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as it rose to the ground floor and stopped. The

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

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

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My legs started to lock up. Then the doors slid

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upen empty, or at least it looked that way. The

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walls were clean, floor bear but the air. But the air.

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The air felt runlike something heavy was hanging into the

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silence in that moment felt physical, like pressure on my chest.

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

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The next night, I brought the keys and decided to

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take a look for it. I had to see what

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

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then took the elevator to the basement. The moment I

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

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like the whole place had been under water a few

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hours before and was still drying off. My flashlight cut

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

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

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

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

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not as he cold, more like walking into a stone

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

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

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00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:40,120
just stood there for a long second, staring that door

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

275
00:13:31,399 --> 00:13:34,200
o paint in the smaller bedroom. I'd usually work until

276
00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:36,600
above ten, eat something quick, and crash on the catch

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

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

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

280
00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:48,399
wrapped up in a blanket on the couch when the

281
00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:51,519
soft thull knocking pulled me back up. Not from the hallway,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

432
00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:36,240
when logging dispos awaits, they were gone. I didn't see

433
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:40,359
any one. The yard was empty, no wind, no animals, nothing.

434
00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:43,640
I left early that night told the supervisor of the

435
00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:46,079
sorting bay was leaking coolant and someone needed to look

436
00:21:46,119 --> 00:21:48,839
at it. Two mornings later, I woke up to a

437
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,319
soft sound from the front room, like something metallic shifting

438
00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:54,440
against linoleum. I sat up too fast, pulled something in

439
00:21:54,519 --> 00:21:57,279
my neck. When I walked into the living room, one

440
00:21:57,279 --> 00:22:00,720
of the panels was there, just one standing up right

441
00:22:00,799 --> 00:22:04,319
beside my brookshelf. I hadn't brought it home. I hadn't

442
00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:07,319
even touched one since I left them outside. I stood

443
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:11,279
across from it for a while, didn't move closer. Eventually

444
00:22:11,319 --> 00:22:13,960
I got a heavy blanket, wrapped it up, carried outside,

445
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,160
and shoved it in the trunk of my car. I

446
00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:18,160
drove it all the way up past Grainger Hill and

447
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,680
dumped it in the old cory lot behind some broken fencing.

448
00:22:21,279 --> 00:22:24,240
Didn't think twice, but the next night it was back,

449
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,480
same spot in my living room, same dust on the

450
00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:31,039
bottom edge. I don't know how it got there. Nothing

451
00:22:31,079 --> 00:22:34,559
in my apartment was broken, the door was locked. I

452
00:22:34,599 --> 00:22:37,599
saw it staying at a friend's place for a while. Janna,

453
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:40,119
some one I knew from back when Ewart Municipal inventory,

454
00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:43,279
she had to pull out, SOFO didn't ask too many questions.

455
00:22:43,839 --> 00:22:46,519
When I finally came home, the panel was gone, but

456
00:22:46,599 --> 00:22:48,799
there were three small indentations in the floor where it

457
00:22:48,799 --> 00:22:51,400
had stood, deep enough to mark the vinyl. That's when

458
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:54,359
I stopped sleeping properly. I tried burning one of them.

459
00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:57,519
Took it up behind the reclamation lot. Dalsa with ethanol

460
00:22:57,599 --> 00:23:00,960
lit it it burned sure, or at least the casing

461
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:05,839
did melt, a plastic, stinking smoke that The next morning,

462
00:23:05,839 --> 00:23:07,880
when I pulled into the lot, a matching panel was

463
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:11,599
waiting at my station, brand new casing, no bear marks,

464
00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:15,759
same serial number etched on the corner. I stopped touching them,

465
00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:21,559
started documenting everything with photos, dated logs. I even recorded audio.

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

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

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

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

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

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

472
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:40,200
was probably electromagnetic interference. Then he asked if I'd been

473
00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:43,880
recording in a room with any live transmission equipment. I hadn't.

474
00:23:44,519 --> 00:23:47,480
Then Verrel came back out of nowhere. One night, I

475
00:23:47,519 --> 00:23:49,880
pulled into the lot and his truck was there. Parkside

476
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:53,519
was near the exit gate. He was sitting inside, engine off,

477
00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:56,640
windows down. When I walked over. He didn't look at me.

478
00:23:57,279 --> 00:23:59,279
He said, I saw it again, but it's not staying

479
00:23:59,319 --> 00:24:02,039
underground anymore more. I didn't ask what he meant, but

480
00:24:02,079 --> 00:24:04,519
I noticed his hands were shaking. I asked if he

481
00:24:04,599 --> 00:24:06,960
needed help. He just looked at me and said, it

482
00:24:07,279 --> 00:24:10,480
wants patrons, That's how it spreads. Then he started his

483
00:24:10,559 --> 00:24:13,799
track and drove off. The next day, the Riclamation Office

484
00:24:13,839 --> 00:24:19,079
hit of fire electrical fault, total loss. They never found Farrell.

485
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:23,480
I quit, didn't even give notice, just packed up, turned

486
00:24:23,519 --> 00:24:25,759
off my phone and drove until I ran out of highway.

487
00:24:26,279 --> 00:24:28,880
I'm in a small town now, off the grate more

488
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:32,240
or less, no job tied to logistics or data systems.

489
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:35,119
I was clearing out brushing the old side trail behind

490
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:38,039
Bramble Creek when I noticed the rocks. I've been doing

491
00:24:38,039 --> 00:24:40,359
seasonal work with the Seat of Hollow Trails Department for

492
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:43,160
a couple of years now. That rouge section hadn't been

493
00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:46,160
touched in years, maybe longer, wasn't on the current trail maps.

494
00:24:46,799 --> 00:24:48,839
I only found it because a windsworm had knocked over

495
00:24:48,839 --> 00:24:51,079
a few trees and I was roared in hikers around

496
00:24:51,079 --> 00:24:53,960
the damage. I ended up busheroking out the side path

497
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:56,359
just to see where it led. That's when I came

498
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,319
across the stones. Later that day, when I mentioned the

499
00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:02,119
ridge trail to my supervisor Karen. She got this odd look,

500
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:05,319
like I'd said something she didn't expect to hear. EUMENI

501
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:09,319
e's fork. She asked, that thing's been closed off since

502
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:14,200
before I started. Don't mess with it too, dangerous dead trees,

503
00:25:14,279 --> 00:25:17,599
old sinkholes and stable everything. She said it casually, but

504
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,160
her voice had this word added to it, like she

505
00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,160
wasn't just talking about safety, more like she didn't want

506
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:25,720
to hear not a word about it. I let it drop,

507
00:25:26,279 --> 00:25:28,440
didn't tell her about the markers, but I couldn't stop

508
00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:31,160
thinking about them that whole week. It stuck in the

509
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:35,079
back of my mind. Those stones weren't random. Fifteen of them,

510
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:37,480
each won a little different in shape, but all about

511
00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:40,279
the same size, placed in such a precise way that

512
00:25:40,319 --> 00:25:42,039
you just knew someone meant for them to be found

513
00:25:42,039 --> 00:25:46,279
by some one? But who and why? So, like an idiot,

514
00:25:46,319 --> 00:25:49,200
I went back after work one day. I hacked him

515
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:51,440
from the south, where there are any warning signs of

516
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:54,920
flagged off barriers. I climbed the slope again, ducked under

517
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:56,839
the same dead fall, and found them right where I

518
00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:00,240
left them. This time, I looked closer. Some of the

519
00:26:00,319 --> 00:26:02,920
nails looked nearer. A few were driven so deep into

520
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:05,119
the stone I couldn't imagine how someone did it without

521
00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:09,079
breaking the rock. Others were older, crusted with rust spreading

522
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:12,039
out in faint haloes across the surface. But not one

523
00:26:12,079 --> 00:26:15,359
of them looked accidental. It was deliberate, every inch of it.

524
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:19,119
No names, no dates, just nails and stone. I stood

525
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,680
there a while trying to figure it out. My best

526
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:24,240
guess was maybe a forgotten pet cemetery, or one of

527
00:26:24,279 --> 00:26:27,119
those old mountain family plots that never got official records.

528
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:31,240
But still even those usually had a cross over initials something.

529
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:34,839
This had nothing but nails. I should have told some one,

530
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:37,960
should have at least mentioned it to Ray, He's one

531
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,039
of the old timers worked the area along before me.

532
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,119
But I didn't. That was my mistake. The third time

533
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:47,519
I went back, maybe five days later, there was a

534
00:26:47,559 --> 00:26:52,960
new stone, same shape, same nail, same placement. It was

535
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:56,039
set at the far end of the last row, perfectly aligned.

536
00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:59,200
I walked the line twice to be sure. There had

537
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:02,960
been fifteen. Now there were sistine. I stood there for

538
00:27:03,079 --> 00:27:06,160
maybe ten minutes, just staring. I tried to talk myself

539
00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:09,119
into believing i'd counted ron the first time, that maybe

540
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:11,920
I missed it. Maybe I was tired, but I wasn't.

541
00:27:12,519 --> 00:27:15,839
I turned around and left fast. About twenty yards back

542
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:18,119
down the trail, I saw something that stopped me cold,

543
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,319
A pepper tag hanging from a low branch. It was

544
00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:23,440
tied on with bright orange t wine trail marking twine,

545
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:26,759
the kind we used for warning signs, hazards, maintense boundaries.

546
00:27:26,839 --> 00:27:30,200
Except we hadn't flagged anything up here, not for years.

547
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:34,119
This whole section was off limits. I walked over slowly

548
00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:36,559
and read what was written in faint pencil, not for you.

549
00:27:37,279 --> 00:27:38,759
I stood there with the tag in my hand for

550
00:27:38,799 --> 00:27:41,240
a while. I wasn't sure what to do with it.

551
00:27:41,839 --> 00:27:44,160
I ended up just leaving it there, like maybe it

552
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:45,720
wasn't a good idea to take it with me. I

553
00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:47,640
didn't mention any of this at work. The next day

554
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,519
or the day after that. Friday afternoon, I took a

555
00:27:50,519 --> 00:27:53,240
longer lunch and drove out for a burger. I parke

556
00:27:53,279 --> 00:27:55,400
ined the shade, eating the truck, just trying to forget

557
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:57,759
about it all. But when came back out, there was

558
00:27:57,799 --> 00:28:00,920
a tag under my windshield wiper, same kind of paper,

559
00:28:01,559 --> 00:28:06,079
same handwriting, same orange wine. Don't remove the nail that

560
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:08,839
one actually made me light headed for a second. I

561
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,000
just stood by the truck, staring at it like an idiot.

562
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:14,559
I hadn't touched a single nail. I'd barely gone near them.

563
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,799
Some one was watching, some one knew. That night. I

564
00:28:18,799 --> 00:28:21,039
waited until we were closing up shop and casually asked

565
00:28:21,079 --> 00:28:23,480
Ray about the old East fork. He was packing up

566
00:28:23,559 --> 00:28:26,319
chainsaws when I brought it up. Didn't even look at

567
00:28:26,319 --> 00:28:30,799
me at first. You been up there, he asked. I shrugged,

568
00:28:31,519 --> 00:28:35,559
just wandered past thought I saw some old markers. That's

569
00:28:35,559 --> 00:28:38,599
when he looked at me, really looked at me. You

570
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:43,279
kick any No, he nodded once, slowly, like he wasn't

571
00:28:43,319 --> 00:28:46,400
totally convinced, but wasn't going to argue. You don't want

572
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,200
to find the grave that's not buried, he said, because

573
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:51,640
if you do, you won't come back, the same might

574
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:53,880
not come back at all. He said it like it

575
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:57,559
was just a fact. No drama, no trying to scare me.

576
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:02,079
You're not from here, right, he asked. I shook my head.

577
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:05,319
Then stop acting like you are. That night, I kept

578
00:29:05,359 --> 00:29:09,640
the blinds closed, lock the doors, double check the back windows.

579
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:11,960
I live alone in a rental cabin. Way out off

580
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:16,079
a gravel road, pretty isolated. Round two in the morning,

581
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,880
I heard tapping at the kitchen window. Not constant, not aggressive,

582
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:22,799
just soft, uneven, like someone lightly knocking with a knuckle.

583
00:29:23,279 --> 00:29:25,160
I stood there on the other side of the kitchen wall,

584
00:29:25,319 --> 00:29:28,880
not moving, just listening. When I finally worked up the narve,

585
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,279
I grabbed my flashlight and went outside. No one was there,

586
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:36,480
no print, no signs, nothing. But in the morning there

587
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:38,640
was another paper tack nailed to the edge of the porch.

588
00:29:39,319 --> 00:29:42,200
He stepped too close. I didn't go to work Monday,

589
00:29:42,359 --> 00:29:44,839
just said I was sick. Didn't give a return date.

590
00:29:45,599 --> 00:29:49,759
That afternoon, Ray showed up, no call, no knock, just

591
00:29:49,799 --> 00:29:52,279
standing on the porch. When I opened the door. You

592
00:29:52,359 --> 00:29:55,240
need to take a drive, he said. Now he wouldn't explain,

593
00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:58,079
just kept repeating it. It's worse if you ignore it.

594
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:00,599
So I papped a bag, got in the truck and

595
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,440
drove west. Didn't tell anyone where I was going. Ended

596
00:30:04,519 --> 00:30:07,119
up two counts over at this cheap motel off Route sixty.

597
00:30:07,799 --> 00:30:09,960
After I lost my job at a warehouse in Pittsburg,

598
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:12,640
one of those big distribution centers where everything's loud, fast,

599
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:15,119
and constantly behind schedule. I didn't have much of a PLANSO.

600
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:17,119
When my uncle Ray said I could crash with him

601
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,240
for a while, I didn't testate. Heard this trailer sitting

602
00:30:19,279 --> 00:30:21,519
near the edge of a ridge in Viaette County, West Virginia,

603
00:30:21,599 --> 00:30:23,680
sat maybe a half hour outside of a tiny town

604
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:27,200
called Hollow Creek. One gas station, one grocery store, a

605
00:30:27,279 --> 00:30:30,079
laundrum at that barely ran. If I needed real cell

606
00:30:30,119 --> 00:30:32,519
signal or something that was fried food or canned beans,

607
00:30:32,599 --> 00:30:35,359
I had to drive down to Meadowville. Still, for the

608
00:30:35,359 --> 00:30:38,480
first couple weeks, I got used to it. I'd wake up, drink,

609
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,240
burn coffee, tinker with whatever they wanted fix, then read

610
00:30:41,319 --> 00:30:43,079
or scroll my phone until I ran out a signal.

611
00:30:43,559 --> 00:30:46,240
Pretty low stakes living. Then I met this girl at

612
00:30:46,279 --> 00:30:49,640
the gas station just outside Hollow Creek, Lacey. She worked

613
00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:52,160
at the checkout counter, had this quiet confidence about her

614
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:54,759
and laughed at all my dumb jokes. We talked a

615
00:30:54,839 --> 00:30:57,079
couple times while I bought snacks or filled up the truck,

616
00:30:57,119 --> 00:30:59,119
and eventually I asked if she wanted to hang out.

617
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:01,640
First time we met up at a little dinner and

618
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,359
just talked forriars. She was funny, shop a little sarcastic,

619
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:08,480
felt like we clicked fast. A week later, late October,

620
00:31:08,519 --> 00:31:10,559
starting to get cold, she asked if we could hang

621
00:31:10,599 --> 00:31:13,960
out again. I said sure. She didn't want to go

622
00:31:14,039 --> 00:31:16,119
back to her place, said her brother was crashing there,

623
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:18,640
so I offered up mine. I figured Ray would be

624
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:21,319
out anyway. He often drove up to Glen Hollow to

625
00:31:21,359 --> 00:31:23,640
drink and walk sports with some guys he'd known since

626
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:26,519
high school. That night, I picked her up. We grabbed

627
00:31:26,519 --> 00:31:29,319
some food and headed back to the trailer. We pulled

628
00:31:29,319 --> 00:31:32,559
in a round ten hatch light was on flickering as usual.

629
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,440
I unlocked the door and noticed the doormut was pushed

630
00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:38,079
off to one side. Not a big deal, but I

631
00:31:38,119 --> 00:31:40,759
always straightened it when I came or went, one of

632
00:31:40,799 --> 00:31:43,519
those little habits you don't even think about until something's off.

633
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,079
Inside things felt normal enough, except and notice two of

634
00:31:47,079 --> 00:31:50,200
the upper kitchen cabinet doors were hanging slightly open, just

635
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,400
an inch or two. I paused, staring at them, trying

636
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:56,000
to remember if I'd left them that way. I hadn't.

637
00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:58,880
I'm not tidy, exactly, but I'm not the kind of

638
00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:01,960
guy who leaves cabinets hanging open. I asked Lacy if

639
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:04,319
she ever had raccoons or anything get into her house.

640
00:32:05,079 --> 00:32:07,799
She laughed and said, maybe my uncle was just forgetful.

641
00:32:08,319 --> 00:32:11,079
Could have been that. Still, it was a strange detail

642
00:32:11,119 --> 00:32:13,319
to let go of. We sat on the couch and

643
00:32:13,519 --> 00:32:16,079
ate half watched some old movie playing on TV. The

644
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:20,039
vibe was good, comfortable, kind of lazy. I started to relax.

645
00:32:20,799 --> 00:32:23,440
Around eleven, I got a text from her. He said

646
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:25,240
he was staying at his body's place for the night.

647
00:32:25,839 --> 00:32:28,319
That made me feel better. Knowing we had the place

648
00:32:28,359 --> 00:32:30,799
to ourselves helped me shake off the word feeling from Eller.

649
00:32:31,519 --> 00:32:35,200
Somewhere between then and midnight, the lights flickered just once.

650
00:32:35,359 --> 00:32:38,359
Lacey made a joke about haunted trailers. I laughed, but

651
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,400
didn't feel like joking. She got up to use the bathroom.

652
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,680
I wandered into the kitchen to grab a soda. That's

653
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:46,880
when I noticed the back screen door was cracked open.

654
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:50,720
Not white, but definitely not closed. It hum maybe two

655
00:32:50,839 --> 00:32:53,279
or three inches off the frame. The latch was loose

656
00:32:53,319 --> 00:32:55,279
sometimes so part of me thought it could have just

657
00:32:55,279 --> 00:32:58,839
bounced open, but I knew i'd shut it earlier, locked

658
00:32:58,839 --> 00:33:01,720
it too. I stood there for a while, staring at

659
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,839
the gap, one hand still in the ferge. Eventually I

660
00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:07,640
pushed it closed and slid the bolt tight. My shoulders

661
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:10,480
fell tense, like I was waiting for something to explain itself.

662
00:33:11,039 --> 00:33:13,119
Lacey came back and noticed the look on my face.

663
00:33:13,799 --> 00:33:15,799
I didn't want to make a big deal out of it.

664
00:33:16,079 --> 00:33:18,720
Told her the back door had blown open. She shrugged

665
00:33:18,759 --> 00:33:21,480
it off, asked if we could step outside for a smoke.

666
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:24,559
We went out the back stood in the small wooden steps.

667
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:28,000
The woods beyond the roodge were pitch black. No moon,

668
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:31,039
no stars, just this wall of trees in darkness. I

669
00:33:31,119 --> 00:33:32,759
kept looking out there like my eyes were trying to

670
00:33:32,799 --> 00:33:36,079
focus on something, but there was nothing. No sounds, no breeze.

671
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:40,160
The stillness felt heavy. We didn't stay out long. When

672
00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:43,000
we went back inside, A triple checked the door latch bolt,

673
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:45,319
and I even shoved a small folding chair under the handle.

674
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,440
Lacey gave me a look but didn't say anything. We

675
00:33:48,519 --> 00:33:51,480
went to bed. She fell asleep pretty quick, but I

676
00:33:51,599 --> 00:33:54,400
just laid there staring at the ceiling. The silence was

677
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,400
louder than usual. I couldn't shake this feeling that something

678
00:33:57,480 --> 00:33:59,960
was off. Around two in the morning, I heard it,

679
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:05,920
not a creek, not the usual trailer settling footsteps, slow,

680
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:10,079
deliberate on the hallway linoleum. I froze. The door to

681
00:34:10,119 --> 00:34:12,159
my room was shut, but the gap underneath it let

682
00:34:12,159 --> 00:34:14,039
in just enough light from the whole way to sea movement.

683
00:34:14,599 --> 00:34:17,880
A shadow passed by, slow and smooth, some one walking

684
00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:20,559
by the door. For half a second, I thought maybe

685
00:34:20,639 --> 00:34:23,079
Ray had come back after all, But I hadn't heard

686
00:34:23,079 --> 00:34:27,159
his truck, no doors, no gravel crunching, nothing, and whoever

687
00:34:27,199 --> 00:34:29,239
this was, they weren't moving like someone who lived there.

688
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,880
I leaned over and tapped Lacey's shoulder. She stared, blinked,

689
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,480
looked at me. I whispered, I think someone's in the trailer.

690
00:34:36,039 --> 00:34:39,440
Her face shifted instantly. She didn't speak, just stayed still

691
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:43,159
and listened. Two more steps than nothing. I reached into

692
00:34:43,159 --> 00:34:46,159
the nightston and pulled out raised big metal flashlight. It

693
00:34:46,199 --> 00:34:48,960
was heavy, with ship pained along the handle. Not much

694
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:52,239
of a weapon, but better than nothing. Then the doorn upturned,

695
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:58,599
thought slow, A little click, a little click, just testing it.

696
00:34:59,199 --> 00:35:02,239
Lacy shot up in out what the hell. I moved

697
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:05,000
closer to the door and called out Ray, loud enough

698
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:08,239
to carry, but not a yell. No answer. The door

699
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:11,079
knob stopped moving dick quiet. I pressed my ear to

700
00:35:11,119 --> 00:35:13,800
the door. Nothing, no shuffling, no shuffling, no breathing, your silence.

701
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:15,280
I cracked it open in and she and aimed the

702
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,719
flosite into the hallway, empty eye, opened the door wider

703
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:19,559
and stepped out, shaped the front door, still locked from

704
00:35:19,559 --> 00:35:22,039
the inside, living room, clear, kitchen, saying bathroom nothing. Then

705
00:35:22,079 --> 00:35:24,079
I remembered the coal space. There was a square hatch

706
00:35:24,079 --> 00:35:26,280
in the hallway floor just past the bath room, covered

707
00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:28,840
by a faded old rock. I walked over and peeled

708
00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:31,559
it back. The worden cover was shifted a few inches,

709
00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:33,519
not wide open, but not sealed like it had been

710
00:35:33,559 --> 00:35:37,119
before I'd vacuumed that rugge earlier in the week. I

711
00:35:37,159 --> 00:35:40,480
would have noticed, I didn't open it. I turned to

712
00:35:40,559 --> 00:35:42,880
Lacey and told her to grab her shoes, coat, anything

713
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:46,199
she needed. We were leaving. I locked the door behind

714
00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:48,559
us and we got in the track. I drove straight

715
00:35:48,559 --> 00:35:50,320
to a motel and hollow Creek and didn't say a

716
00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:53,119
word the hallway. The next morning I called Ray told

717
00:35:53,199 --> 00:35:55,760
him everything. He came back with a shot gun in

718
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:59,280
his truck bed and opened the coal space. Inside there

719
00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:02,280
were boot prints the dirt, an empty water bottle in

720
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:05,960
the corner. Someone had been down there living, sleeping, watching.

721
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:09,639
Probably the cops came to the search. They found a

722
00:36:09,679 --> 00:36:12,119
tone scrap of flannel, a rusty pocket knife, a match

723
00:36:12,119 --> 00:36:13,800
book from a bar in Beckley, and a trail of

724
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:17,519
broken branches leading off into the woods. No id, no

725
00:36:17,679 --> 00:36:21,599
finger prints, nothing naked jews. Ray put in a steel

726
00:36:21,599 --> 00:36:24,199
grate over the hatch that same day, bolted it to

727
00:36:24,239 --> 00:36:26,800
the frame. I packed my things and left A week later,

728
00:36:27,559 --> 00:36:32,880
moved to Charleston, found work, tried not to think about it. Now.

729
00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:34,639
I live in an apartment on the third floor with

730
00:36:34,679 --> 00:36:37,679
double locks and motion lights. I check under the bed

731
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:41,360
every night. Clauset too. Thanksgiving the year was at my

732
00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:43,440
cousin Drew's place, tucked out in the woods near a

733
00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:46,239
little tongue cold Ashford, about twenty minutes pass Bluefield in

734
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:49,119
southern West Virginia. Drew met me out front when I

735
00:36:49,159 --> 00:36:52,320
pulled up, same wiry frayin, same bus, cut from college,

736
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:54,000
but now with a pair of Neon orange and a

737
00:36:54,039 --> 00:36:56,199
new fiance in named Haley, who waved from the porch

738
00:36:56,320 --> 00:36:58,599
like we'd met before. I got out of the car

739
00:36:58,639 --> 00:37:00,559
and was immediately pulled into the kail his food, smells

740
00:37:00,599 --> 00:37:02,400
pouring out of the front door, football yelling from the

741
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:05,519
TV inside, someone's toddler making siren noises for no reason.

742
00:37:06,039 --> 00:37:08,119
The house was huge, way too big for just Drew

743
00:37:08,159 --> 00:37:11,400
and Haley. Five bedrooms, wrap around porch, even a five

744
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:13,840
pit up back. He said the place used to be

745
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,960
an old hunting lodge that got gutted and renovated. Now

746
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:20,639
it was just his house, no big deal. Inside it

747
00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:24,920
was shoulder to shoulder. I counted eteeing people, cousins, in laws, kids,

748
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:27,239
people I wasn't even sure were related, but smiled like

749
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:29,719
we grew up together. The kind of party where you

750
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:31,800
start off checking your phone in the corner and by

751
00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:33,679
the end of the night you're laughing over Bier's with

752
00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:36,440
someone who once pushed you off a trampoline in fifth grade.

753
00:37:36,599 --> 00:37:40,719
Dinner was chaos, glates piled high with everything. Haley made

754
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,119
three different kinds of pie for some reason. By the

755
00:37:43,159 --> 00:37:45,119
time we sat down to eat, it was already dark

756
00:37:45,159 --> 00:37:47,559
out and the windows just showed your own reflection. That

757
00:37:47,639 --> 00:37:50,360
weird kind of night were it so quiet outside, feels

758
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:53,039
like the woods are pressing in in the house. I

759
00:37:53,079 --> 00:37:55,039
crashed in the guest room upstairs, the one with the

760
00:37:55,079 --> 00:37:56,880
floral quilt and a window that looked out over the

761
00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:00,440
gravel driveway. Around midnight, after brushing my tea than trying

762
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:02,840
to ignore the sons of someone's snoring lovely down the hall,

763
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:05,079
there was a knock at my door. It was Drew.

764
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:07,880
He leaned him with a sheepish look, scratching the back

765
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:09,400
of his neck like he was about to ask for

766
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:13,239
a ride to the airport. Amen, you'll wake kind of,

767
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,960
I said, I said, what's up? He explained that his nighbor,

768
00:38:17,119 --> 00:38:19,079
Guy n Curtis, had asked him to check on his

769
00:38:19,159 --> 00:38:22,079
dogs while he was away for the holiday. Nothing major,

770
00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:24,960
just let them out top off the water, maybe ten

771
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:28,360
minutes max. Only problem was Drew had not back half

772
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:30,840
a bottle of wild turkey and wasn't about to drive anywhere.

773
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:33,840
He'd be doing me a huge favor, he said. I

774
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:37,280
was about to say no, I was tired, I didn't

775
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,719
want to drive an unfamiliar back was at night. But

776
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:42,639
then he hit me with remember junior year that night

777
00:38:42,639 --> 00:38:45,920
in Huntington. Went I O kay, fine, I said, cutting

778
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:49,000
him off. What do I have to do? He handed

779
00:38:49,039 --> 00:38:51,199
me the keys to his truck and gave vague directions

780
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:54,079
down the main road, passed a busted mail box, then

781
00:38:54,119 --> 00:38:56,800
a gravel path to the right. After a bend, you'll

782
00:38:56,800 --> 00:38:58,719
see a tree with a bunch of reflectors nailed to it.

783
00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:03,440
He said, that's the turn. Long driveway. House sits behind

784
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:06,599
a hill. You'll know it when you see it. So

785
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:10,400
off I went. The truck was old but steady, tires

786
00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:12,679
crunched over the gravel, and headlights cut through trees that

787
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:15,559
looked like they'd been since the Civil War. I found

788
00:39:15,599 --> 00:39:18,400
the terrain barely almost missed it because the reflectors had

789
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:20,559
fallen and were now just hanging crooked, like they'd melted.

790
00:39:21,199 --> 00:39:24,360
The driveway stretched longer than I expected. When I finally

791
00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:28,639
saw the house, it looked lonely, single story, dark porch,

792
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,559
no cars. The only thing that stood at was the

793
00:39:31,559 --> 00:39:33,880
basement like glowing faintly through a window near the back.

794
00:39:34,639 --> 00:39:37,079
I parked, left the headlights on, and walked around to

795
00:39:37,119 --> 00:39:40,079
the porch. There was a small note tipside the basement door.

796
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:44,320
Dogs in back room let the mountain yard water and

797
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:47,800
bowl by sync. I opened the door. The smell hit

798
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:51,599
me first, not bad, just musty, like a space that

799
00:39:51,639 --> 00:39:54,400
hadn't seen fresh air in a while. The dogs. Two

800
00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:56,280
black labs were curled up in the corner on an

801
00:39:56,320 --> 00:39:58,960
old blanket. They perked up when they saw me, tails

802
00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:02,320
wagging low and lazy. Hey guys, I muttered, flipping the

803
00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:08,039
light switch. They stood stretched, padded over. One nuzzled my leg, friendly,

804
00:40:08,199 --> 00:40:11,079
mellow mellow. I opened the back door, let them out,

805
00:40:11,119 --> 00:40:13,840
and leaned against the door frame, waiting. My phone had

806
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:16,920
to row pause. I tried to check messages out of habit,

807
00:40:17,039 --> 00:40:20,199
but it was like holding a dead brick. Fine. I

808
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,360
watched the dogs instead. They sniffed around for a bit,

809
00:40:23,519 --> 00:40:25,199
walked toward the edge of the yard, near where the

810
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:28,159
tree lined dipped into a shallow slope. Then they stopped,

811
00:40:28,159 --> 00:40:31,559
both at once, just froze their bodice stiffened, ears up,

812
00:40:31,599 --> 00:40:34,360
tail straight. I was locked on the woods. I swinted

813
00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:38,639
trying to see what they saw. Nothing, no rustling, no

814
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:42,360
going eyes, not even a breeze. Then the bigger one

815
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:44,480
took a slow step back, keeping its eyes locked on

816
00:40:44,559 --> 00:40:47,280
whatever it thought was out there. A low growl rumbled

817
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,880
from its chest. The other one whined softly, and that's

818
00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:54,199
when I heard the knocking. Not behind me, not at

819
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:59,679
the front door, under the porch tree knocks, slow, even

820
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:02,679
like someone tapping with the knuckles against the wood beams.

821
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,039
I didn't move. It didn't sound like a brunch or

822
00:41:06,079 --> 00:41:10,440
an animal. It had rhythm intent. Three more knocks, the

823
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:13,000
dogs turned and bolted straight back to the basement door.

824
00:41:13,559 --> 00:41:16,639
I opened it without thinking. They ran in, tails tucked,

825
00:41:16,639 --> 00:41:18,880
and immediately huddled in the farthest corner like they couldn't

826
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:21,559
get far enough way. I locked the door, didn't check

827
00:41:21,599 --> 00:41:24,679
into the porch, didn't even glance back. I walked fast,

828
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:27,320
almost jawed back to the truck, climbed in, and peeled

829
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:29,960
out down the gravel. When I got back, Drew was

830
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,800
still up, sitting on the porch with a beer. You God,

831
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:37,199
he asked. I told him what I heard, the dogs,

832
00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:40,920
the knocking. He raised his eyebrows but didn't say much.

833
00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:45,000
Just muttered something about sound carrying in the hills. Probably

834
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:48,679
a possum or raccoon messing around under there. Possums don't knock,

835
00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:53,039
I said. He just shrouked. Weird place. That house has

836
00:41:53,079 --> 00:41:56,119
been empty on and off for years. Curtis inherited it

837
00:41:56,239 --> 00:41:59,400
last spring. I didn't sleep great a round three in

838
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:01,840
the morning. I woke up with my mouth dry. I

839
00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:05,239
slipped downstairs, quietly stepping over bodies in sleeping bags and

840
00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:08,719
half finished puzzles. As I opened the fridge, something outside

841
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:11,199
caught my eye. There was a woman standing in a

842
00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:14,679
field behind the house. No flashlight, no jacket, long hair

843
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:18,320
hanging down, not blowing even slightly. She was walking, wasn't

844
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:21,280
looking around, just standing face in the house, directly toward

845
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:24,039
the window. I was looking through a blink. Still there.

846
00:42:24,679 --> 00:42:27,599
I leaned back, slowly, hort knocking against my roops. We

847
00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:32,639
did looked again. Fun. I didn't check the field, didn't

848
00:42:32,639 --> 00:42:35,840
ask about her in the morning, just acted like nothing happened,

849
00:42:36,559 --> 00:42:40,360
help clean up, thank Cayley for the pies at my back,

850
00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:42,159
and planned to be back on the road before four.

851
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,639
As I was loading up my car, Drew came out. Hey,

852
00:42:45,719 --> 00:42:49,920
he said. Curtis texted said thanks again for helping out.

853
00:42:50,599 --> 00:42:53,039
But now the dogs won't go near the yard. They

854
00:42:53,159 --> 00:42:56,639
just bark at the basement door. I paused, wait what

855
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:00,000
He nodded like it was nothing. They wouldn't even eat

856
00:43:00,079 --> 00:43:02,920
this morning, just sat there growling. He said, it started

857
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:05,639
last night. I told him again about the knocking the

858
00:43:05,679 --> 00:43:08,480
porch for the dogs. He just gave me a crooked smile.

859
00:43:09,119 --> 00:43:13,280
That house's weird man. Always has been, always has been.

860
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:16,039
Someone said his uncle guy who used to live there,

861
00:43:16,119 --> 00:43:19,639
died in the basement. That was enough. I didn't say

862
00:43:19,639 --> 00:43:22,840
goodbye to anyone else, just got in the car and drove.

863
00:43:23,599 --> 00:43:26,000
We were living in this quiet stretch of southern West Virginia,

864
00:43:26,119 --> 00:43:28,320
the kind of place where the highway eventually fades into

865
00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:31,159
nothing and the wood start to reclaim everything. Our house

866
00:43:31,159 --> 00:43:32,880
sat just a couple miles up from what used to

867
00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:34,920
be a mining zone. One of the older one's lawns

868
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:37,519
shut down. Most of the shafts were boarded up and

869
00:43:37,559 --> 00:43:40,000
slowly collapsing, and the forest had been creeping back in

870
00:43:40,039 --> 00:43:43,199
for years. You'd see rusted metal half sunk into the dirt,

871
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:46,360
old fencing tangled in vines, warning signs that had faded

872
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,280
to wide. Nobody really paid attention to it any more.

873
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:52,559
That land still technically belonged to a private company, though,

874
00:43:53,199 --> 00:43:55,360
some offshoot of an energy group that didn't you anything

875
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:58,360
with it anymore except keep liability at bay. My uncle

876
00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:00,239
Rick worked for them, not in any kind of a

877
00:44:00,239 --> 00:44:03,199
Fisher badge in uniform way, just low key contract security.

878
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:06,000
His job was to make sure people weren't messing around

879
00:44:06,039 --> 00:44:08,679
on the property, mostly keeping drunk teenages out and keeping

880
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:12,199
scavengers from getting crushed in old structures. That fall, Rick

881
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:14,119
fell through a rotted floor while checking an old up

882
00:44:14,119 --> 00:44:16,880
buildingier Chaft three, broke his leg bad enough to need

883
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:19,840
sogery in a long stint on crutches. A few days

884
00:44:19,840 --> 00:44:21,599
after it happened, he asked me if i'd cover a

885
00:44:21,599 --> 00:44:23,920
few of his night patrols until he could get around again.

886
00:44:24,519 --> 00:44:26,480
Said it would just be temporary and off the books,

887
00:44:27,199 --> 00:44:32,000
cash pay, no paperwork. He'd vouch for me. At the time,

888
00:44:32,079 --> 00:44:36,320
I didn't think twice. I was between things, some odd jobs,

889
00:44:36,519 --> 00:44:38,960
no college plans yet, and not much else going on.

890
00:44:39,519 --> 00:44:43,760
It sounded easy enough. Walk a loop, shine a flashlight,

891
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:47,960
make sure no one's around, maybe bring a snack. He

892
00:44:48,039 --> 00:44:49,960
gave me the key to the axis gate, a rough

893
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:51,880
map of the area, and a short checklist on a

894
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,039
couldboard I was supposed to fill out during each shift.

895
00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:57,159
The loop itself was about a half mile around. It

896
00:44:57,239 --> 00:44:59,480
started at the perimeter events and curved around two old

897
00:44:59,519 --> 00:45:02,599
mining strokes long since guttered, and then circled the main

898
00:45:02,719 --> 00:45:04,639
entrance to Shaft three, which had a gate over it.

899
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:07,440
And fencing that extended a good thirty feet on either side.

900
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:09,559
All I had to do was walk the loop once,

901
00:45:09,639 --> 00:45:13,000
check the locks, and log anything unusual. The first couple

902
00:45:13,079 --> 00:45:17,960
nights were uneventful, quiet, actually almost too quiet out there

903
00:45:18,119 --> 00:45:20,039
past midnight. It was the kind of still where your

904
00:45:20,039 --> 00:45:22,719
own breathing felt loud. You could hear animals moving in

905
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:26,519
the brush rockings, mostly maybe the occasional deer, and sometimes

906
00:45:26,519 --> 00:45:28,559
you'd hear snapping twigs from way off in the woods,

907
00:45:29,159 --> 00:45:33,000
but nothing ever felt close. I always stayed outside the buildings.

908
00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:36,039
Rick told me not to bother unless something really looked off.

909
00:45:36,679 --> 00:45:40,639
The structures were dangerous anyway, no floors, sharp metal masts.

910
00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:44,039
I didn't argue, just gave them a wide breath and

911
00:45:44,159 --> 00:45:47,039
kept moving. But on the third night something caught my eye.

912
00:45:47,039 --> 00:45:50,000
Near the shaft gate. One section of the fence looked nearer.

913
00:45:50,599 --> 00:45:52,920
The chain links were cleaner, like they hadn't been sitting out,

914
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:56,360
and the weathers long. The posts were brighter too. At

915
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:58,679
first I figured maybe the company had sent some one

916
00:45:58,679 --> 00:46:01,159
out to patch it recently, be after Rick's accident, but

917
00:46:01,199 --> 00:46:02,960
there wasn't any note about it on the checklis store.

918
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:05,679
In the low book, I knelt down for a closer look.

919
00:46:06,519 --> 00:46:10,239
No rost nowhere, and then I noticed the lock on

920
00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:12,639
the gate was different. The one I'd seen the past

921
00:46:12,639 --> 00:46:15,280
two nights was old and dull, all scratched up. This

922
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:19,840
one brand new, shiny. You could still see the barcode

923
00:46:19,840 --> 00:46:22,480
sticker in the bottom. It hadn't been there before, and

924
00:46:22,559 --> 00:46:25,320
no one had told us to expect any replacements. I

925
00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:27,800
jotted it down on the clipboard and finished my loop.

926
00:46:28,239 --> 00:46:31,000
Nothing else seemed out of place. The next night, I

927
00:46:31,039 --> 00:46:34,000
showed up like usual around quarter after midnight, walked the path.

928
00:46:34,599 --> 00:46:36,679
When I got close to the chaft gate, I stopped.

929
00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:39,880
The new lock was gone. The gate was wide open.

930
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:43,440
It was just cracked, maybe four or five inches, but

931
00:46:43,639 --> 00:46:45,719
enough that someone could slip through if they wanted to.

932
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:49,199
I stood there for a while, just listening. I didn't

933
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:52,639
hear anything, no wind, no movement, but that tiny opening

934
00:46:52,679 --> 00:46:55,119
just sat there waiting. I got the weirdest sensation that

935
00:46:55,159 --> 00:46:57,519
if I stood still long enough, something would step out

936
00:46:57,559 --> 00:47:00,880
from the darkness behind it. I didn't go here, I

937
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:03,840
didn't touch the gate. I backed up, walked the entire

938
00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:07,239
loop again and logged the anomaly. Later that morning, I

939
00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:09,880
told Rick he just stared for a second like he

940
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:12,800
was surprised. Then he sighed and said, just don't go

941
00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:16,159
near it, let them handle it. I wanted to ask

942
00:47:16,159 --> 00:47:18,960
who them was, but I didn't. Two nights after that,

943
00:47:19,039 --> 00:47:21,280
the gate was shut again, but the lock still wasn't there.

944
00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:24,199
Someone had twisted a piece of wire around the latch

945
00:47:24,199 --> 00:47:27,599
ins dead, like a temporary fix. That night I noticed

946
00:47:27,599 --> 00:47:31,519
something else. There were no signs of activity, no footprints,

947
00:47:31,559 --> 00:47:34,559
no drag marks, no tie trucks in the axis road

948
00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:37,360
the dirt they were usually held marks pretty well, but nothing.

949
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:40,719
Then came night six. It was just past two way

950
00:47:40,960 --> 00:47:43,519
m I remember because I just checked my phone. After

951
00:47:43,519 --> 00:47:46,360
passing the northern corner of the loop, I was coming

952
00:47:46,440 --> 00:47:48,199
up toward the shaft again when I heard a sound

953
00:47:48,719 --> 00:47:52,000
something inside the tunnel. It was to an animal. I

954
00:47:52,039 --> 00:47:54,800
know what to sound like. I know what raccoons. When

955
00:47:54,800 --> 00:47:59,119
foxes sound like this, will swoller have you? It was

956
00:47:59,159 --> 00:48:02,519
a dragging sound, like something thick and heavy being pulled

957
00:48:02,559 --> 00:48:06,400
across stone. I froze. I didn't shine a flashlight straight

958
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:08,639
at the tunnel, just kept it aimed a few feet

959
00:48:08,639 --> 00:48:11,039
ahead of my boots. My heart was studding in this

960
00:48:11,079 --> 00:48:13,119
weird off hythmway, like it was trying to warn me.

961
00:48:13,679 --> 00:48:17,440
The dragging stopped, then a few seconds later started again,

962
00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:20,760
but this time it sounded farther away, like whatever it

963
00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:23,119
was had moved deeper into the tunnel. I turned and

964
00:48:23,159 --> 00:48:27,320
walked away. I didn't log anything, I didn't speak. I

965
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:30,079
got in the truck and drove home. Seventh night. The

966
00:48:30,079 --> 00:48:32,159
air felt off before I even got out of the truck,

967
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:35,280
still and heavy, like the whole area was holding its breath.

968
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:37,639
I got half way through the loop before I noticed

969
00:48:37,679 --> 00:48:39,960
the smell. It hit me like wet meat left in

970
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:43,159
the sun, thick and clinging, not sharp like rogugil, but deeper,

971
00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:46,320
like something had been rotting under ground and finally cracked

972
00:48:46,360 --> 00:48:49,719
the surface. I kept walking slower now, trying to figure

973
00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:52,119
out where it was coming from. The closer I got

974
00:48:52,119 --> 00:48:54,679
to the shaft gate, the stronger it got. The wire

975
00:48:54,800 --> 00:48:57,920
was gone. The gate was slightly open again. I should

976
00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:01,679
have walked away, I told myself that. I remember thinking,

977
00:49:01,920 --> 00:49:04,639
just finish the loop, just turn your back and leave,

978
00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:08,239
but I didn't. I stood there at the fence, not moving,

979
00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:10,480
staring into the dark space behind the gate, like it

980
00:49:10,519 --> 00:49:13,880
was staring back. That's when I saw it something was

981
00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:16,639
lying on the ground just inside the gate. It looked

982
00:49:16,679 --> 00:49:18,559
like a bundle at first, like a top or maybe

983
00:49:18,559 --> 00:49:20,280
a big sack of tools. But it had a shape

984
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:22,519
to it, a long cuff pale against the stone, almost

985
00:49:22,519 --> 00:49:25,320
like a spine. There was no blood, but something about

986
00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:27,719
it looked wrong. It looked opened, like it had been

987
00:49:27,719 --> 00:49:31,559
torn along the side. Then it twitched, not fast, just

988
00:49:31,559 --> 00:49:35,599
a tiny reflexive jerk. That was enough. I turned and walked,

989
00:49:35,679 --> 00:49:38,639
not where'm walked, but fast, kept my flash light on

990
00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:41,880
the path, didn't look back. I didn't even drive home.

991
00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:44,400
I went straight to Rick's house, pounded on the door

992
00:49:44,440 --> 00:49:48,079
until he answered. I told him everything, start to finish.

993
00:49:48,519 --> 00:49:51,679
He listened, didn't interrupt. When I was done, he just

994
00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:54,800
nodded and said, don't go back. He left the job

995
00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:57,440
a few weeks later. About a week after all that,

996
00:49:57,480 --> 00:50:02,840
the company posted signs private secure enforced no trespassing that

997
00:50:02,960 --> 00:50:07,079
sort of thing. The patrol stopped. They didn't hire replacements.

998
00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:10,679
I was working maintenance at the courthouse in Briarfield, Virginia.

999
00:50:11,239 --> 00:50:15,320
The records lived in the basement, old court documents, marriage

1000
00:50:15,360 --> 00:50:18,840
licenses from couples, probably long beared, land deeds from back

1001
00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:21,760
when half the town was still forest floor to sealing

1002
00:50:21,800 --> 00:50:24,559
boxes down there. The woman who used to handle all

1003
00:50:24,599 --> 00:50:27,159
that had passed the year before I started. No one

1004
00:50:27,199 --> 00:50:29,119
replaced her, so the basement just stayed the way she

1005
00:50:29,199 --> 00:50:31,840
left it. I was told not to touch it unless

1006
00:50:31,840 --> 00:50:35,480
someone needed something specific. One Thursday evening, I was tightening

1007
00:50:35,519 --> 00:50:37,280
a valve in the break room sink, one of those

1008
00:50:37,280 --> 00:50:39,239
little leaked jobs where you know the wash is gone,

1009
00:50:39,239 --> 00:50:41,400
but you're still hoping it'll holt together for another month,

1010
00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:43,800
when Melinda kin downstairs with a paper in her hand.

1011
00:50:44,440 --> 00:50:47,440
Melinda was a clerk, always polite but sharp. She didn't

1012
00:50:47,519 --> 00:50:50,440
like wasting time. Can you grab a probate file for me,

1013
00:50:51,079 --> 00:50:53,599
she asked, handing me the slip. It hit the box,

1014
00:50:53,679 --> 00:50:56,599
numbered shelf code, and you're written on it. I nodded,

1015
00:50:57,159 --> 00:51:00,400
easy enough. Gave me a reason to stretch my life.

1016
00:51:00,920 --> 00:51:02,920
The lights in the basement had been a problem since

1017
00:51:02,960 --> 00:51:06,079
I started. I replaced the bulb's check to fixtures, even

1018
00:51:06,119 --> 00:51:08,199
swapped the few wires, but they always flickered like a

1019
00:51:08,199 --> 00:51:10,840
bad horror movie. So I kept a flash like click

1020
00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:13,880
to my belt. Not out of fear, just habit. He

1021
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:17,039
learned to come prepared when I pushed the basement door open.

1022
00:51:17,159 --> 00:51:19,880
I felt that flat kind of error again. Not coal,

1023
00:51:20,079 --> 00:51:22,599
not musty, just stale, like whatever circulated down there had

1024
00:51:22,599 --> 00:51:25,159
stopped trying a long time ago. I'd been in the

1025
00:51:25,159 --> 00:51:27,400
week before Fury under the old water heater, so it

1026
00:51:27,440 --> 00:51:29,199
wasn't like it was sealed off or anything, but it

1027
00:51:29,239 --> 00:51:33,159
didn't feel used. It felt forgotten. The filing system was

1028
00:51:33,159 --> 00:51:37,599
simple enough. Floor tiles had numbers, Shells were labeled with letters.

1029
00:51:38,360 --> 00:51:41,239
Rows were divided by year. Follow the grid and you'd

1030
00:51:41,280 --> 00:51:43,679
end up in the right corner. Eventually, I'd used it

1031
00:51:43,719 --> 00:51:47,639
maybe twice before, Shell fourteen b, third row from the bottom.

1032
00:51:48,159 --> 00:51:49,880
When I got to it, the box I needed was

1033
00:51:49,920 --> 00:51:51,960
already sticking out a bit, like someone had set it

1034
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:54,840
down in a hurry, same kind of box as the others.

1035
00:51:55,559 --> 00:51:58,719
Dull cardboard, black mark, a label, old masking tape, yellowed

1036
00:51:58,719 --> 00:52:01,599
in the corners. That something about it didn't sit right.

1037
00:52:02,159 --> 00:52:05,280
The libel was too crisp ink, didn't bleed like theyellows,

1038
00:52:05,960 --> 00:52:09,920
no smatging, no age. Still it matched the coat, so

1039
00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:12,480
I pulled it down, rested it on a low shelf,

1040
00:52:12,559 --> 00:52:14,920
and opened the lid. Right on top was a file

1041
00:52:14,960 --> 00:52:18,400
with my full name, not initials not. I just stared

1042
00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:21,039
at it for a second. Could have been a coincidence,

1043
00:52:21,239 --> 00:52:24,320
maybe maybe someone filed a complaint or left a note.

1044
00:52:24,760 --> 00:52:27,559
But when I opened it, it was the complaint. It

1045
00:52:27,599 --> 00:52:31,840
was a maintenance report, standard form, but all the handwriting

1046
00:52:31,880 --> 00:52:35,159
inside was mine. I knew it. The weird little col

1047
00:52:35,199 --> 00:52:38,159
I make on my FSS, the way I underlined dates

1048
00:52:38,159 --> 00:52:40,920
when amonoid. It was like I'd filled it up myself,

1049
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:44,840
only I hadn't. The report listed a light fixture repair

1050
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:48,320
in the second floor hallway, scheduled for the fall and Tuesday.

1051
00:52:48,920 --> 00:52:51,760
I hadn't been assigned anything like that yet. I closed

1052
00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:54,400
a folder, lifted the box to slide it back in

1053
00:52:54,440 --> 00:52:57,760
the shelf, but the space behind me had changed. The

1054
00:52:57,840 --> 00:53:00,400
spot where I'd set it down was empty. And now

1055
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:03,440
there were three more boxes at my feet, all stacked,

1056
00:53:04,199 --> 00:53:07,000
all labeled in my handwriting. Each one had a date.

1057
00:53:07,719 --> 00:53:11,000
None of them matched. One said July twenty second, two

1058
00:53:11,079 --> 00:53:14,559
years ago, one said next month. The third didn't have

1059
00:53:14,599 --> 00:53:17,800
a year at all, just a range on mowing. I

1060
00:53:17,920 --> 00:53:21,280
opened one, then another. Every fowl was a job I

1061
00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:25,920
hadn't done yet. Some I didn't even understand. Easterwell inspection,

1062
00:53:26,679 --> 00:53:30,679
wal cavity exploture. We didn't have any stairwell. One form

1063
00:53:30,719 --> 00:53:34,519
mentioned a mechanical subbasement access deny. I'd never seen that

1064
00:53:34,599 --> 00:53:38,239
space on any blueprint. Another said storage room three B

1065
00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:42,679
sound observed, lock jammed. There is no storage room three be,

1066
00:53:43,480 --> 00:53:47,039
not in that building. I stepped back. I hadn't even

1067
00:53:47,079 --> 00:53:50,239
realized how far i'd walked in. The shelves looked taller now,

1068
00:53:51,039 --> 00:53:53,800
or maybe I just felt smaller. I turned, trying to

1069
00:53:53,840 --> 00:53:56,760
get my bearings, but every row looked the same, stacks

1070
00:53:56,760 --> 00:53:59,360
of old card board and stale air. That's when I

1071
00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:01,960
noticed the cab. It It sat low in the corner,

1072
00:54:02,519 --> 00:54:06,320
beige metal, medical, looking like something pulled from a nurse's

1073
00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:09,760
office in the sixties. It didn't belong in there, not

1074
00:54:09,840 --> 00:54:12,280
with the rest of the records. The top drawer was

1075
00:54:12,320 --> 00:54:15,880
opened just a little inside was a folded maintenance jumpsuit

1076
00:54:16,480 --> 00:54:20,719
identical to mine, same navy color, same patch in the arm,

1077
00:54:21,360 --> 00:54:23,400
same tear in the knee from crawling under the boiler

1078
00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:26,760
last month. I hadn't left a spare down here. I

1079
00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:30,159
didn't touch it. I turned back to the stairs. I

1080
00:54:30,239 --> 00:54:34,519
needed to leave it air ad air, pretend I didn't

1081
00:54:34,519 --> 00:54:37,239
see any of this. Right as I reached the top step,

1082
00:54:37,280 --> 00:54:40,880
the door slant shut pod like someone had yanked it.

1083
00:54:41,519 --> 00:54:43,719
I ran up and shoved at it, but it wouldn't move.

1084
00:54:44,239 --> 00:54:47,639
There's no lock on that side, no bolt, but it

1085
00:54:47,639 --> 00:54:53,320
didn't budge. I knocked, then again, louder. Then I stopped

1086
00:54:53,960 --> 00:54:58,800
because I heard something. It was footsteps, not breathing, just

1087
00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:01,400
a soft sum right bef behind me, the kind of

1088
00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:04,639
dry scrape you hear when cardboard slides across concrete. I

1089
00:55:04,719 --> 00:55:07,440
turned around. There was a box on the step below me.

1090
00:55:07,559 --> 00:55:10,880
I hadn't heard it move, hadn't seen it fall, but

1091
00:55:11,000 --> 00:55:14,400
it was there. No label this time, just my name

1092
00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:17,320
and big block letters across the lid. I opened it.

1093
00:55:17,960 --> 00:55:22,599
Inside was a photograph, black and white, Brueni looked like

1094
00:55:22,639 --> 00:55:25,480
a still from a security camera the time stump match

1095
00:55:25,559 --> 00:55:29,280
that day. It was me then over, flashlight in hand,

1096
00:55:29,320 --> 00:55:32,119
standing at shelf fourteen by, just like I had ten

1097
00:55:32,159 --> 00:55:35,519
minutes earlier. I dropped the box, shoved the door again,

1098
00:55:35,559 --> 00:55:39,400
harder this time it gave. I almost fell forward into

1099
00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:42,039
the hallway. Milinda looked up from her desk like nothing

1100
00:55:42,079 --> 00:55:45,719
had happened. You find it, she asked, No, I said,

1101
00:55:46,360 --> 00:55:50,239
records are a mess. I'll try again later, she nodded,

1102
00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:53,639
already typing again. I went home and didn't sleep that night,

1103
00:55:54,320 --> 00:55:56,679
just lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to

1104
00:55:56,719 --> 00:56:01,840
convince myself. I'd imagined that I was tired, stressed, anything

1105
00:56:01,880 --> 00:56:05,039
but what it felt like. Next morning, I showed up early,

1106
00:56:05,679 --> 00:56:07,920
told the county manager I wasn't going into the basement

1107
00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:11,840
any more. Exterior jobs. Only. I didn't tell them about

1108
00:56:11,880 --> 00:56:16,639
the files, or the boxes or the photograph. They wouldn't

1109
00:56:16,639 --> 00:56:19,400
have believed me. I'm not sure I do now. I

1110
00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:22,000
don't even go near the basement level. If a pipe

1111
00:56:22,039 --> 00:56:24,119
burst down there, some one else can figure it out.

1112
00:56:24,679 --> 00:56:26,760
Deyna called me in late August, just as I was

1113
00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:29,559
wrapping up a rough week at work. She was moving

1114
00:56:29,559 --> 00:56:31,800
into a rental house near Lake in West Virginia and

1115
00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:34,079
asked if I could come help her settle in. She

1116
00:56:34,239 --> 00:56:36,400
landed a librarian job at small college out there and

1117
00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:38,519
found a cheap place not too far from campus. I

1118
00:56:38,519 --> 00:56:41,199
figured why not. I had some p DEO saved up

1119
00:56:41,239 --> 00:56:44,280
and hadn't seen her in months. The house was remote,

1120
00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:48,039
one story older, and surrounded on all sides by woods

1121
00:56:48,039 --> 00:56:49,920
that seemed to krawd close so the further you drove

1122
00:56:50,000 --> 00:56:52,480
in the road it sat on didn't even show up

1123
00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:55,599
by name on Google Maps, just a thin gray line.

1124
00:56:56,079 --> 00:56:58,239
Her nearest neighbors were an older couple who lived two

1125
00:56:58,239 --> 00:57:00,760
lots over and Bailey. Came outside and a broken down

1126
00:57:00,760 --> 00:57:02,920
house cross the road that looked like a half collapsed barn.

1127
00:57:03,480 --> 00:57:05,360
The back corner of its roof was carved in and

1128
00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:07,599
there were no cuttains in the windows, just bag glass

1129
00:57:07,599 --> 00:57:10,280
of flecked in trees and sky. I drove down from

1130
00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:13,519
Pittsburgh on a Monday, made good time. Dana didn't have

1131
00:57:13,559 --> 00:57:15,760
a lot of furniture, just boxes and a few bigger

1132
00:57:15,760 --> 00:57:18,960
pieces she bought secondhand. We had it all inside by dinner.

1133
00:57:19,599 --> 00:57:21,760
That evening. We sat out in the yardard drinks, still

1134
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:24,639
sweaty from hauling stuff, letting the cicades hum in the background.

1135
00:57:25,199 --> 00:57:27,079
There was a quite stillness out there that was peaceful

1136
00:57:27,079 --> 00:57:28,960
in theory, but the kind of quiet that also makes

1137
00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:31,679
you keep glancing over your shoulder. We kept looking at

1138
00:57:31,719 --> 00:57:34,480
the old house cross the road. It wasn't boarded up,

1139
00:57:34,679 --> 00:57:37,519
just neglected, like someone meant to fix it once but

1140
00:57:37,559 --> 00:57:40,400
gave up half way through. The windows looked fogged up

1141
00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:43,320
from the inside. There wasn't even a wheel driveway, just

1142
00:57:43,360 --> 00:57:46,280
a patch of gravel sinking into weeds. I joked that

1143
00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:48,039
if any one was living in there, they were either

1144
00:57:48,039 --> 00:57:50,800
a ghost or a meth head. Dana laughed sort of,

1145
00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:52,880
then said her real stagage and told her the place

1146
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:56,039
had been empty for six years. She didn't sound convinced.

1147
00:57:56,719 --> 00:57:58,800
The next morning, I woke up to this soft, steady

1148
00:57:58,800 --> 00:58:02,079
hammering just enough to the quiet. I rolled out of bed,

1149
00:58:02,159 --> 00:58:03,800
looked out the window and saw a man in a

1150
00:58:03,800 --> 00:58:06,000
blue shirt standing next to that house across the road.

1151
00:58:06,639 --> 00:58:08,599
He was nailing something to a wooden post, not the

1152
00:58:08,719 --> 00:58:11,360
edge of the yard. I couldn't make out his face,

1153
00:58:11,519 --> 00:58:14,400
and there was something worried about how he moved slow,

1154
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:17,239
like his joints didn't quite work right. I figured i'd

1155
00:58:17,280 --> 00:58:19,239
go out and say something, but by the time I

1156
00:58:19,280 --> 00:58:22,639
got dressed and stepped outside, he was gone, just gone.

1157
00:58:23,159 --> 00:58:26,519
No sound, no truck, no footsteps on gravel. I asked

1158
00:58:26,559 --> 00:58:29,079
Diana if she saw him. She hadn't heard a thing.

1159
00:58:29,719 --> 00:58:31,679
We walked across the road together to see what he'd

1160
00:58:31,679 --> 00:58:34,000
been doing. There was a piece of weather wood nail

1161
00:58:34,000 --> 00:58:36,760
crookedly to a splindid poilt covered in rusted nails and

1162
00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:39,480
tangled wire, not like a sign or anything, more like

1163
00:58:39,519 --> 00:58:41,559
something meant to hurt someone or warn them. We just

1164
00:58:41,599 --> 00:58:43,920
stood there staring at it for a while. Then we

1165
00:58:43,960 --> 00:58:45,840
went back to the house and didn't bring it up again.

1166
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:49,159
That night, I had trouble sleeping. I don't know why.

1167
00:58:49,239 --> 00:58:51,280
It wasn't hot and it was nassy, but every time

1168
00:58:51,320 --> 00:58:53,719
I closed my eyes I felt like something was slightly off,

1169
00:58:53,800 --> 00:58:56,280
like I'd left a door cracked open. Around one in

1170
00:58:56,320 --> 00:59:00,239
the morning, I heard tapping, not banging, na, not king,

1171
00:59:01,039 --> 00:59:03,800
just a soft, deliberate tapping. It was coming from the

1172
00:59:03,800 --> 00:59:06,400
front room. I got up, trying not to wake Dana,

1173
00:59:06,480 --> 00:59:10,119
and walked slowly down the hallway. The tapping didn't change rhythm.

1174
00:59:10,440 --> 00:59:12,039
It was coming from the front window, the one that

1175
00:59:12,079 --> 00:59:15,360
faced the road. I pulled up the blind. The old

1176
00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:19,239
house had a light on second floor left window. There

1177
00:59:19,239 --> 00:59:22,159
had never been a light on in there, no electricity,

1178
00:59:22,280 --> 00:59:25,079
no movement, nothing, But now it glowed with a soft

1179
00:59:25,119 --> 00:59:27,199
yellow light, and behind the gloss dot of figure a

1180
00:59:27,280 --> 00:59:30,960
dog shaped still a stone. I just stood there watching it.

1181
00:59:30,960 --> 00:59:34,599
It didn't move, the light didn't flicker. Then, after what

1182
00:59:34,679 --> 00:59:37,840
felt like a full minute, the light snapped off, no fade,

1183
00:59:38,639 --> 00:59:41,360
just dark. I stepped back from the window and sat

1184
00:59:41,360 --> 00:59:44,239
on the floor until sunrise. Couldn't bring myself to go

1185
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:46,519
back to bed. The next day of over coffee, I

1186
00:59:46,559 --> 00:59:49,480
told Dana she was already stressed from the job orientation

1187
00:59:49,559 --> 00:59:52,719
and just waved it off. Save maybe someone was checking

1188
00:59:52,719 --> 00:59:55,679
on the property, maybe a squatter brought in a generator.

1189
00:59:56,199 --> 00:59:58,599
She didn't want it to become a thing. I didn't

1190
00:59:58,639 --> 01:00:02,519
press it. But that afternoon something else happened. We were

1191
01:00:02,519 --> 01:00:04,840
outside and loading groceries from her car when a man

1192
01:00:04,840 --> 01:00:07,880
stepped out of the woods behind the abandoned house. Same

1193
01:00:07,920 --> 01:00:12,039
blue shirt, same build, same with stiff walk. He didn't approach,

1194
01:00:12,119 --> 01:00:13,880
as just stood at the tree lion and stared. His

1195
01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:16,039
face was long and pale, blank as paper. I called

1196
01:00:16,039 --> 01:00:18,079
out as if he needed something. No response. After a

1197
01:00:18,119 --> 01:00:20,480
few seconds, he turned around and walked back into the trees.

1198
01:00:20,519 --> 01:00:22,760
Not sand nor TwixT cracking, no leaves rustling. He was

1199
01:00:22,840 --> 01:00:24,679
just absorbed back into the woods. That night, I didn't

1200
01:00:24,719 --> 01:00:26,519
even pretend to sleep, but kept the TV on low

1201
01:00:26,519 --> 01:00:29,039
and sat up in the arm jinney the hallway, just listening.

1202
01:00:29,559 --> 01:00:31,480
For around midnight, the light up of the kitchen sink

1203
01:00:31,519 --> 01:00:34,239
started to pulse. It didn't flicker like a bulb about

1204
01:00:34,280 --> 01:00:37,920
to go. It poles like it was breathing. Then it stomped.

1205
01:00:38,519 --> 01:00:41,119
Then the hallway life looked on. I was still staring

1206
01:00:41,119 --> 01:00:44,800
at it when the smell hit me. Smoke, chop backward,

1207
01:00:45,559 --> 01:00:48,039
kind that catches in the back of your throat. I

1208
01:00:48,159 --> 01:00:52,920
ran into the kitchen. Nothing. The stove was cold, no fire,

1209
01:00:53,599 --> 01:00:56,119
but the smell was thick, like something had just burned

1210
01:00:56,159 --> 01:00:59,920
and vanished. Then it came out, coughing, scared. We searched

1211
01:01:00,079 --> 01:01:03,360
the house top to bottom, checked every outlet, every one nothing.

1212
01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:05,880
Then I opened the front door to let the air out,

1213
01:01:05,920 --> 01:01:08,159
and that's when I saw it. Right at the edge

1214
01:01:08,159 --> 01:01:10,440
of the yard, near the ditch was a mound of dirt.

1215
01:01:11,159 --> 01:01:13,920
It hadn't been there earlier. I walked toward it with

1216
01:01:13,920 --> 01:01:17,360
a flashlight. The sail was loose, damp, uneven, like someone

1217
01:01:17,400 --> 01:01:19,719
had just dug it and covered it up again. Dinna

1218
01:01:19,760 --> 01:01:22,679
stood in the porch behind me, whispering, we need to leave.

1219
01:01:23,400 --> 01:01:25,920
We didn't argue about it. We packed what we could

1220
01:01:25,920 --> 01:01:28,920
in five minutes and left everything else behind. We got

1221
01:01:28,960 --> 01:01:32,239
a room at a cheap motel near Combass and that

1222
01:01:32,400 --> 01:01:34,760
is the end. Thank you for listening and I will

1223
01:01:34,800 --> 01:01:43,760
see you in the next one.