1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:04,520 Story one fear starts small, you think you can ignore it, but if 2 00:00:04,520 --> 00:00:06,600 you're not careful it takes over everything. 3 00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:09,800 I didn't understand that until the night something I said as a 4 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:12,040 joke came back to me in the worst possible way. 5 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:16,280 I was about 14 at the time. A group of us went walking with 6 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:18,680 some of my friends parents through the scrubland near our 7 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:21,240 village. We've done it before, just 8 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:25,760 wandering along the dry trails, talking, kicking rocks, nothing 9 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:28,760 special. That evening felt normal until 10 00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:31,520 we stumbled across something that instantly froze everyone. 11 00:00:32,119 --> 00:00:36,000 Lying just off the path was the carcass of a wild boar, or at 12 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:39,120 least what was left of it. The flesh had rotted away, 13 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:43,880 leaving mostly bones, and it was almost intact, like someone had 14 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:47,440 just stripped the animal clean and set the skeleton down hole. 15 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:49,720 Even the skull was still attached. 16 00:00:50,160 --> 00:00:53,080 For some reason, instead of being creeped out like I should 17 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:54,840 have been, I thought it was funny. 18 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:58,760 I picked up the skull, held it in my hands, and started making 19 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:01,400 a scene, pretending to threaten people with it. 20 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:05,400 I shouted dumb stuff, laughing about eating them. 21 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:09,440 Everyone groaned or laughed it off, but I kept it going longer 22 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:12,080 than I should have. Eventually, I tossed it back 23 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:14,600 onto the pile of bones and walked away like it was nothing. 24 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,400 We didn't stay out much longer. It got dark quickly and we all 25 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:20,920 headed home. By the time I got inside, I was 26 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:23,640 wiped out. I remember feeling unusually 27 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:27,080 tired, more than I should have from just walking around, and 28 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:30,240 instead of showering or even really saying goodnight, I just 29 00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:33,160 collapsed into bed. Normally I'd scroll through my 30 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:35,400 phone or read, but not that night. 31 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,440 I was out within minutes. At some point I woke up. 32 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:42,360 The room was hot and I was drenched in sweat, but not the 33 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:43,960 kind you get from a stuffy night. 34 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:47,640 It was cold sweat, the kind you feel before throwing up or 35 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:51,040 passing out. My skin was clammy, my heart was 36 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:54,840 racing, and I had this wave of nausea that made me think I was 37 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,040 about to get sick. I wanted to sit up and go tell 38 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:00,960 my mom something was wrong, but when I tried to move, I 39 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:03,760 couldn't. My head and my fingers twitched, 40 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:05,960 but the rest of my body felt pinned. 41 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:09,880 My elbows felt like someone was pressing down on them, my chest 42 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:12,920 like there was a heavy stone across it, and no matter how 43 00:02:12,920 --> 00:02:15,360 much I tried, I couldn't push myself up. 44 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:19,680 That's when I realized I wasn't just paralyzed, I was struggling 45 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:22,800 to breathe. My chest rose in shallow gas, 46 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:26,320 each one harder than the last, and my vision blurred at the 47 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:30,400 edges like I was about to faint. Panic kicked in, and I started 48 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:33,600 to cry in my head. The only explanation that made 49 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:36,880 sense in that moment was that someone had broken into my room. 50 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:41,000 I thought a stranger was sitting on top of me, holding me down, 51 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:43,040 and I was too weak to fight back. 52 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:46,840 Then came the worst part. I heard something in my head. 53 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:50,840 Not out loud, not with my ears. It was more like a thought, 54 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:53,840 except it wasn't mine. The words were sharp and 55 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:57,360 mocking, repeating the same thing I had said hours earlier 56 00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:00,480 while holding that skull. It told me it was going to eat 57 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:02,120 me. Over and over. 58 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:06,080 The same phrase, like someone was inside my head, using my own 59 00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:09,760 voice but twisting it. The words didn't sound external, 60 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:12,360 but they didn't feel like they belonged to me either. 61 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:15,280 They just filled my mind until it was all I could hear. 62 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:19,640 I tried to fight it, tried to scream, but nothing came out 63 00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:23,200 except a strained whimper. The pressure on my chest grew 64 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:27,080 worse until I thought I'd pass out, and then nothing. 65 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:31,560 It's like I blacked out. I don't remember falling asleep. 66 00:03:31,920 --> 00:03:35,160 One second the voice was hammering inside my skull, and 67 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:38,240 the next I was waking up in the morning, light streaming through 68 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:39,960 my window as if nothing had happened. 69 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:43,520 At first I tried to convince myself it was just sleep 70 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:47,040 paralysis. I'd read about it before waking 71 00:03:47,040 --> 00:03:51,120 up, but not being able to move, feeling pressure, hearing things 72 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:54,520 that aren't there. It fit, mostly, except for how 73 00:03:54,520 --> 00:03:56,640 it lined up with what I'd said earlier that evening. 74 00:03:57,080 --> 00:03:59,360 The words I'd shouted as a joke weren't random. 75 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:02,920 They came back to me in the exact same way, except this time 76 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:06,160 they were turned against me. That part I can't explain away. 77 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,400 For days after, I felt uneasy in my room. 78 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,400 Every time I closed my eyes, I half expected to wake up frozen 79 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:15,800 again, with that same voice in my head. 80 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:19,519 I kept thinking about the carcass, how fresh the bones had 81 00:04:19,519 --> 00:04:22,600 looked, how wrong it was to pick up the skull like that. 82 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:27,040 It wasn't just stupid, it felt disrespectful, like I'd crossed 83 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:29,920 some line without realizing it. People can say it was a 84 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,240 coincidence, that my brain just latched onto the last memorable 85 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:36,120 thing from the day and replayed it in a nightmare. 86 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:39,680 Maybe that's all it was, but it didn't feel like a dream. 87 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:43,240 It felt targeted, like whatever I had done that evening had 88 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:46,720 followed me home and decided to show me how serious it was. 89 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,400 I used to laugh at people who talked about ghosts or curses or 90 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:52,800 spirits. I always figured there was a 91 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:55,400 scientific explanation if you looked hard enough. 92 00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:58,880 After that night, though, I stopped dismissing people so 93 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:00,800 quickly. I don't know what really 94 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:03,120 happened to me, but I know how it felt. 95 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:06,320 And sometimes the feeling alone is enough to make you believe 96 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:09,400 story two. I was a freshman in high school 97 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:11,560 when my mom and I settled into that rental. 98 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:14,680 It wasn't a bad place, just old and a little creaky. 99 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:18,240 The kind of house where you expect the pipes to groan and 100 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:20,680 the walls to shift when the wind pushes against them. 101 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:24,040 I told myself from the start that I wouldn't let the noises 102 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:27,400 get to me because old houses always have their quirks. 103 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:33,240 At first, everything was normal. School, weekends, sick days, it 104 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:36,200 was all the same routine. But then I started noticing 105 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:38,440 something that I couldn't write off as easily. 106 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:42,920 Every single day, without fail, at exactly 1:00 in the 107 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:45,480 afternoon, I would hear footsteps on the roof. 108 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:49,160 Not light scurrying like a squirrel or the slow drag of 109 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:52,400 tree branches. These were heavy, deliberate, 110 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:57,400 and fast, like a person running. What made it even stranger was 111 00:05:57,400 --> 00:06:00,360 that the footsteps only ever came from directly above my 112 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:03,120 room. I would sit there listening as 113 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:06,720 they started in the back corner above me, then raced across in a 114 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:09,800 straight line until they stopped right above the edge of the roof 115 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:13,640 that overlooked the front yard. Then silence like whoever or 116 00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:16,280 whatever it was had just launched off the edge. 117 00:06:16,840 --> 00:06:19,480 The first couple of times I tried to tell myself it was an 118 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:22,240 animal. Maybe raccoons or stray cats, 119 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:25,960 but animals don't run like that. In perfect human sounding 120 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:29,800 strides, it was always 2 distinct feet hitting the roof, 121 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:32,640 one after the other, pounding across the shingles. 122 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:36,840 I counted once and the rhythm was exactly what you'd expect 123 00:06:36,840 --> 00:06:39,040 from a grown man sprinting at full speed. 124 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:44,520 No pauses, no scrambles, no skittering claws, just running. 125 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:48,400 It happened so consistently that I started to dread 1:00. 126 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:52,200 I would check the clock and like it was on a timer, the sound 127 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:54,760 would begin. Sometimes I would even try to 128 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:59,600 distract myself, turn the TV up loud or put on music, but I 129 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:02,600 could still feel it through the ceiling, the vibration of the 130 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:05,240 weight above me. There were even days when I 131 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:09,200 swore dust shook loose from the rafters when the steps hit hard. 132 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:12,960 I didn't tell my mom for a while, partly because I thought 133 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:16,120 she would laugh it off, partly because I didn't want to admit 134 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:19,240 how much it was bothering me. But after a few months, I 135 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:22,080 couldn't keep it in anymore. I mentioned it to her one 136 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:24,800 evening, half expecting her to say she'd heard it too. 137 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:28,600 Instead, she just went quiet for a long moment before explaining 138 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:30,840 that the landlord had told her something about the house's 139 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:33,560 history. The story was that the previous 140 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:36,880 owner had been a postal worker, according to what she'd been 141 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:40,760 told, he used to come home from work and sit on the roof, almost 142 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:43,880 like it was his routine. One day, though, things went 143 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:46,160 badly. He climbed up there and jumped 144 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:49,360 straight off the edge in front of the house, ending his life 145 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:52,040 right in the yard. That hit me hard because it 146 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:54,040 lined up perfectly with what I was hearing. 147 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:58,920 The footsteps always started on the far side, ran across, and 148 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:00,920 ended right where the drop would have been. 149 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:05,480 Every single time, my mom tried to soften it by saying maybe it 150 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:09,240 was just the house settling in a weird way, or maybe birds were 151 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:12,320 nesting inside the attic, but I had lived there long enough to 152 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:15,400 know that wasn't it. These weren't random noises, 153 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:18,880 they were footsteps. The more I thought about it, the 154 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:21,800 more I noticed little things that I'd ignored before. 155 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,720 The air in my room sometimes felt heavier in the afternoons, 156 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:28,520 like it was harder to breathe until the noise stopped. 157 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:32,320 I also started waking up at night with this odd sense that 158 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:35,679 someone was standing outside, even though I never saw anyone 159 00:08:35,679 --> 00:08:38,679 through the window. Once when I was homesick, I 160 00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:42,400 swore I caught a shadow flicker across the ceiling just as the 161 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:45,440 footsteps ended. It looked exactly like someone 162 00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:49,160 passing by outside the window, only I was on the 2nd floor and 163 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:52,200 there was no balcony. I can still remember how my 164 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:55,480 stomach would tighten every day as the clock tick closer to 1. 165 00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:59,520 No matter what I was doing, I would stop and wait for it, part 166 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:02,720 of me hoping it wouldn't happen, part of me knowing it would. 167 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:07,240 And it always did. Same rhythm, same path, same 168 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:10,240 sudden stop at the edge. Eventually, I stopped trying to 169 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:13,920 explain it to myself. The pattern was too exact, too 170 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:16,440 human. It wasn't animals, and it wasn't 171 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:19,240 the house settling. It was like whoever had been 172 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:22,920 there before me was stuck in the same loop, reliving that final 173 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:26,480 run every single day. I never saw anything more than 174 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:29,840 shadows and never heard anything except those steps, but it was 175 00:09:29,840 --> 00:09:32,080 enough. I went into that house a 176 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:36,120 skeptic, always looking for the reasonable explanation, but by 177 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:38,760 the time we moved out, I didn't need convincing anymore. 178 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:44,000 I believed Story 3. When I moved into that flat, it 179 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:46,440 didn't feel perfect, but I made it work. 180 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,560 It wasn't perfect, but it was mine, and after years of 181 00:09:50,560 --> 00:09:54,240 struggling, I was just glad to have a place where my kids and I 182 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:56,760 could feel settled. The layout was odd. 183 00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:00,200 One bedroom was tucked downstairs near the entry and 184 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:02,480 the other was upstairs alongside the living room. 185 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:05,640 To make life easier, I turned the living room into my own 186 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:08,720 bedroom so that both me and the kids could sleep on the same 187 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:11,560 level. It felt safer that way, having 188 00:10:11,560 --> 00:10:14,160 them close. The first few weeks were normal. 189 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:18,200 I was exhausted most nights. Balancing a newborn and a four 190 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:21,840 year old leaves little room for anything else, so I'd collapse 191 00:10:21,840 --> 00:10:23,280 into bed without a second thought. 192 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:26,080 But one night something different happened. 193 00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:29,400 I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of breathing. 194 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:33,320 It wasn't loud, but steady, like someone was standing just a few 195 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:35,640 feet away. At first I thought it was my 196 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:37,960 son. He had a habit of crawling into 197 00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:40,640 my room, and I assumed he'd wandered in again. 198 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:44,320 Still half asleep, I rolled over, expecting to see him 199 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:46,800 curled up on the floor, standing near the bed. 200 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:50,360 Instead, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed movement near the 201 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:53,120 curtain. Someone was there, standing 202 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:55,880 behind the fabric. Normally, I would have panicked. 203 00:10:56,240 --> 00:10:59,840 I should have jumped up, check the doors, maybe even grab the 204 00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:02,240 phone to call someone, But I didn't. 205 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:06,400 Instead, I felt this strange calm wash over me, almost like 206 00:11:06,400 --> 00:11:09,720 my body had been sedated, like nothing in the world could touch 207 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:13,120 me in that moment. I sat up slowly, my heart 208 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:15,600 strangely steady, and look closer. 209 00:11:16,400 --> 00:11:19,880 The figure stepped forward, and I realized it wasn't my son at 210 00:11:19,880 --> 00:11:23,440 all. It was a boy, maybe around 15. 211 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:27,280 His face looked ordinary, but his clothes were what caught my 212 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:29,520 eye. He was dressed in what looked 213 00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:33,800 like an old school uniform. Dark blazer, white shirt, neat 214 00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:36,000 trousers. His expression wasn't 215 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,680 threatening, if anything he looked tired, as if he just 216 00:11:39,680 --> 00:11:42,960 walked a long way to get there. He told me his name was Tom. 217 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:46,520 He explained that he had died in a fire, though he didn't go into 218 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:48,880 detail. He didn't seem sad about it, 219 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:52,400 more like he was stating a simple fact, the way someone 220 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:54,240 might mention what street they lived on. 221 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:58,960 I asked why he was there, what he wanted, but all he said was 222 00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:02,200 that he was just there. That was it, nothing else. 223 00:12:02,840 --> 00:12:05,240 The next thing I remember was waking up in the morning to the 224 00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:07,160 sound of my newborn crying to be fed. 225 00:12:07,680 --> 00:12:11,160 For a while I convinced myself it had been a dream, a very 226 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:13,680 vivid dream, but still just a dream. 227 00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:17,360 I even laughed it off in my head, thinking that the stress 228 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:21,280 of moving, the lack of sleep and the constant exhaustion of 229 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:24,680 parenting had probably cooked up something strange in my mind. 230 00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:27,480 But I couldn't shake how real it had felt. 231 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:31,440 The calmness, the way the boy had looked, the weight of the 232 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:34,480 whole interaction. It didn't feel like the usual 233 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:38,400 chaos of a dream. And then, a few days later, I 234 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:42,160 mentioned it to my mother. I said it in passing, not 235 00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:45,440 wanting to sound too serious, just joking that maybe the flat 236 00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:48,440 was haunted. Her reaction stopped me cold. 237 00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:52,280 She told me that a boy named Tom had died in the garages under 238 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:55,560 the building a few years back. He had been trapped in a fire. 239 00:12:55,960 --> 00:12:59,000 She didn't remember the exact details, but she said he would 240 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:01,200 have been about the same age I had described. 241 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:04,120 That piece of information changed everything. 242 00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:07,440 What had seemed like a dream suddenly carried weight. 243 00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:11,000 I hadn't known anything about a boy named Tom before that. 244 00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:14,360 And to make it even stranger, when my eldest eventually 245 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:17,520 started school, I became friendly with a woman whose last 246 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:20,160 name rang a bell. It turned out she was Tom's 247 00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:22,040 sister. I never told her what I'd 248 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:23,880 experienced. How could I? 249 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:27,360 What would I even say? That I'd seen her dead brother 250 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:28,760 standing by my curtain one night? 251 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:31,280 I tried to reason it out afterward. 252 00:13:31,680 --> 00:13:34,880 Maybe I had heard whispers about the fire at some point and store 253 00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:36,720 the information in the back of my mind. 254 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:40,320 Maybe my brain stitch those details together into a dream 255 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:44,360 and that's why it felt so vivid. But no matter how many times I 256 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:47,200 ran it through in my head, I couldn't shake the sense that it 257 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:50,240 had been real. The calmness I felt that night 258 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:53,240 is what really sticks with me. That wasn't normal. 259 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:56,920 If a stranger had been standing in my room, curtain drawn or 260 00:13:56,920 --> 00:13:58,800 not, I should have been terrified. 261 00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:01,520 I should have grabbed my kids and run out of the flat. 262 00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:05,600 Instead, I felt almost like I was meant to see him, like the 263 00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:07,880 fear had been taken away so I could focus. 264 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:12,240 Since then, I haven't dismissed strange experiences so quickly. 265 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:16,000 I used to be the type who would laugh at ghost stories and 266 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:18,600 insist there was always a logical explanation. 267 00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:22,520 And maybe there still is. Maybe the brain is powerful 268 00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:25,160 enough to create things that feel real when they're not. 269 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:29,080 But after that night, I couldn't call myself a skeptic anymore. 270 00:14:29,720 --> 00:14:32,920 I don't tell the story often, mostly because I don't know what 271 00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:35,280 people will make of it. Some will say it was sleep 272 00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:37,920 paralysis, others will say it was just a dream. 273 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:40,200 But for me, it was something else. 274 00:14:40,640 --> 00:14:44,360 I know what I saw, I know what I felt, and no amount of second 275 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:47,000 guessing has ever taken that certainty away from me. 276 00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:50,440 Story 4. Back when I was younger, I spent 277 00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:52,240 a lot of nights at my best friend's house. 278 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:55,920 His parents were easygoing and his place was the hangout spot. 279 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,080 On weekends, I usually ended up crashing on the floor of his 280 00:14:59,080 --> 00:15:01,760 room because we'd stay up too late playing games or watching 281 00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:04,680 movies. It was normal for me, nothing 282 00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:07,080 unusual, just another night away from home. 283 00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:10,360 This particular night, we'd gone to bed past midnight. 284 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:13,720 He climbed into his bed and I stretched out on the carpet with 285 00:15:13,720 --> 00:15:16,960 a blanket, close enough to see the glow from the hallway light 286 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:18,680 seeping under the crack of the door. 287 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:22,600 The room was quiet except for the faint hum of a fan, and I 288 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:24,240 drifted off without much trouble. 289 00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:26,800 At some point, I woke up suddenly. 290 00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:30,720 I couldn't say what stirred me, but my eyes opened as if I had 291 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:33,360 been nudged. The room was darker than before, 292 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:35,640 the hallway light no longer visible. 293 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:39,160 In the doorway, about 10 feet away, there was a figure. 294 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:42,960 At first I assumed it was just my friend messing around, maybe 295 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:46,400 trying to freak me out. The shape was human, standing 296 00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:49,240 still, blocking the faint outline of the door frame. 297 00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:52,800 I rolled over, half annoyed, and tried to ignore it. 298 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:57,640 But then something struck me. I hadn't heard him move, his bed 299 00:15:57,640 --> 00:16:00,400 hadn't creaked, and there was no sound of footsteps. 300 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:03,840 That thought nagged at me until I turned back for another look. 301 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:06,440 What I saw then made my stomach tighten. 302 00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:08,840 The figure was no longer at the doorway. 303 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:12,160 It was closer. The shape had taken on a faint 304 00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:15,600 glow, like a blue haze surrounding it, just bright 305 00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:18,400 enough that I could make out the form of arms and shoulders. 306 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:21,800 My body locked up. I wanted to believe I was 307 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:25,560 dreaming, but every detail felt too sharp, too real. 308 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:29,440 Before I could process what was happening, the figure bent down 309 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:31,720 over me. It didn't feel like a person 310 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:35,160 leaning close, it was more like the air itself, bent inward. 311 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:37,200 I could see the glow clearer now. 312 00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:41,560 It was thin, almost translucent, but undeniably there. 313 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:44,320 Then I felt it. A hand pressing onto my 314 00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:46,400 shoulder. The heat was immediate. 315 00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:50,560 Not warm like body heat, but searing like someone holding a 316 00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:54,480 heated object against my skin. It didn't burn, but it was 317 00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:57,480 overwhelming. My mind raced with every 318 00:16:57,480 --> 00:16:59,640 rational explanation I could think of. 319 00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:03,440 Maybe I was having sleep paralysis, maybe my body was 320 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:06,880 misfiring signals as I woke, but none of that explained how I 321 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:10,520 could physically feel weight and heat on me as real as anything 322 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:13,760 I've ever felt. I wanted to move, to shake it 323 00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:16,680 off, but I was frozen. The pressure on my shoulder grew 324 00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:19,760 heavier, and I swore I could hear a faint hum in the room, 325 00:17:20,119 --> 00:17:23,280 low and vibrating as though it was coming from the walls 326 00:17:23,280 --> 00:17:26,599 themselves. My breathing grew shallow, and 327 00:17:26,599 --> 00:17:29,080 all I could think was that I wasn't supposed to be awake for 328 00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:32,440 this, that whatever it was hadn't wanted me to notice. 329 00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:36,200 Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, the figure was gone. 330 00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:38,800 The weight lifted, the heat faded. 331 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:42,560 I sat up instantly, clutching my shoulder, and looked around. 332 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:46,120 The doorway was empty, the room silent again except for the 333 00:17:46,120 --> 00:17:49,200 steady sound of the fan. My friend was still asleep in 334 00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:53,200 his bed, breathing slow and even, completely unaware of what 335 00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:55,160 had just happened a few feet away from him. 336 00:17:56,040 --> 00:17:57,480 I didn't sleep the rest of that night. 337 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:00,760 I lay there with my blanket pulled tight, staring at the 338 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:03,240 ceiling, waiting for something else to happen. 339 00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:07,160 My shoulder still felt hot for hours afterward, like the 340 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:10,600 sensation was burned into me. In the morning, I tried to brush 341 00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:13,080 it off. I told myself it was a dream or 342 00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:16,400 a trick of half waking, but deep down I knew it wasn't. 343 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:18,920 I had seen it. I had felt it. 344 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:22,120 The logical part of me kept cycling through possible 345 00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:25,760 explanations. Sleep paralysis, hallucination, 346 00:18:26,120 --> 00:18:29,000 stress. But none of those lined up with 347 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:31,040 the raw physical detail of that moment. 348 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,480 That night was the first time I ever believed in something 349 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:38,560 beyond what I could explain. I went to sleep a skeptic, and 350 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:42,680 by morning I was something else entirely, someone who knew some 351 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:45,320 things don't fit into neat, rational boxes. 352 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:49,440 And no matter how much I want to convince myself otherwise, I'll 353 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:52,920 never forget the heat of that hand pressing down on me in the 354 00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:56,080 sense that something was watching long before I ever 355 00:18:56,080 --> 00:19:00,040 opened my eyes. Story 5 The woods where I grew 356 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:03,440 up always made me feel small once I got deep enough inside. 357 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:06,320 That's how it always felt walking through the land I grew 358 00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:09,360 up on in Kentucky. I'd spent years roaming those 359 00:19:09,360 --> 00:19:12,480 woods, hunting, fishing, and clearing paths. 360 00:19:13,120 --> 00:19:15,800 It was the last place I thought I'd ever questioned my own 361 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:17,920 senses. But one evening out there 362 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:20,800 changed all of that. I'd never really believed in 363 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:23,680 monsters or spirits. I thought maybe there were 364 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:27,000 animals people hadn't cataloged yet, and I even joked about 365 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:30,560 Bigfoot with friends, but I didn't take any of it seriously. 366 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:34,120 That changed after the night I decided to test out a new rifle 367 00:19:34,120 --> 00:19:37,320 setup. I bought my first AR style rifle 368 00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:39,840 and paired it with a new magazine I was excited about 369 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:42,560 trying out. I wasn't expecting anything 370 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:44,080 except to get the site styled in. 371 00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:47,360 Instead, I got something that pushed me from skeptic to 372 00:19:47,360 --> 00:19:50,080 believer. The property I lived on was 373 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:53,560 mostly thick woods with a few paths made by cows along the 374 00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:56,280 Creek. Beyond the Creek there was a big 375 00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:58,720 open field where I usually sighted in my guns. 376 00:19:59,360 --> 00:20:02,680 I knew every step of that land, so when I started down the path 377 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:04,480 with my rifle, I didn't think twice. 378 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:07,360 But the second I crossed the fence line into the deeper 379 00:20:07,360 --> 00:20:10,400 woods, I felt something I hadn't felt before. 380 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:13,280 It was like invisible eyes locked on to me. 381 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:16,960 Tracking my every move. I brushed it off at first, 382 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:20,320 telling myself it was just nerves or maybe a deer nearby. 383 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,240 The farther I went, the stronger it got. 384 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:27,200 The feeling wasn't vague. It was sharp, heavy, almost 385 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:29,760 suffocating. By the time I was halfway to the 386 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:31,680 field, I couldn't ignore it anymore. 387 00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:35,320 My hands went to the drum magazine I was carrying, and I 388 00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:38,840 started loading rounds into it. I'd only brought 20 rounds with 389 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:42,240 me since that was more than enough for sighting in, but my 390 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:43,920 brain told me I needed them ready now. 391 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:48,200 The second I began sliding the rounds in the woods gave me my 392 00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:50,720 first sign. The air suddenly filled with a 393 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:54,680 stench of something rotten. It was thick and sour, like meat 394 00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:58,560 left in the sun for weeks. I scanned the ground and there 395 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,080 it was. What was left of a possum, 396 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:05,080 shredded apart in pieces. It didn't look like coyotes or 397 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,200 dogs had gotten it. It was too clean in some spots 398 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:11,360 and too brutal in others, as if it had been pulled apart by 399 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:13,160 something with hands instead of teeth. 400 00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:17,800 It also didn't match the smell. The carcass looked fresh, maybe 401 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:21,480 a day old, but the stink was like it had been decomposing for 402 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:24,280 weeks. It felt placed there, like a 403 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:27,200 message. Every instinct screamed at me to 404 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:31,200 turn back, but I pressed on, convincing myself I was just 405 00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:33,760 overthinking. By the time I reached the edge 406 00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:36,640 of the woods where the Creek opened into the field, the 407 00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:38,840 pressure of being washed was unbearable. 408 00:21:39,360 --> 00:21:42,320 That's when I heard it, the sharp splash of something 409 00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:46,040 stepping into the water. I spun around, rifle ready, 410 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:47,640 though I hadn't chambered around yet. 411 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,000 And that's when I saw it. It stood across the Creek, 412 00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:55,960 towering over the bank, at least 8 feet tall but rail thin, like 413 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,280 its bones might snap under its own weight. 414 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:02,120 Its arms were long enough to hang below its knees, and every 415 00:22:02,120 --> 00:22:06,840 step it took looked unnatural, a weird half waddle, half stride. 416 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:10,880 The skin stretched across its body was light brown, almost 417 00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:15,080 deer colored, but wrong. Too smooth, too tight. 418 00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:18,920 It didn't make a sound as it moved, aside from the water 419 00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:23,000 splashing around its legs. No breath, no grunts, nothing. 420 00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:27,720 My chest locked up, my body screamed to act, and I hit the 421 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:30,800 bolt release to chamber around. That should have been it. 422 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:35,800 The magazine was new, reliable, with a reputation for never 423 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:37,760 failing. But nothing happened. 424 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:40,440 The bolt slammed forward and stopped dead. 425 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:44,440 The round stuck. I pulled, tapped, tried again, 426 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,480 jammed solid. I couldn't get a single round 427 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,160 into the chamber. The thing didn't lunge at me. 428 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:54,120 It didn't roar or scream. It just stopped and stared, 429 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:56,120 though it had no eyes, I could see. 430 00:22:56,720 --> 00:22:59,880 Then, in one fluid motion, it turned and walked away down the 431 00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:02,960 Creek, disappearing into the trees without making another 432 00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:05,800 sound. One moment it was there, the 433 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:08,920 next it was gone, like it had melted into the woods. 434 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:12,280 I stood frozen until my legs gave out beneath me. 435 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:16,000 When I finally got control again, I ran back to the house 436 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:19,400 without stopping. Magazine still jammed, rifle 437 00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:22,320 useless in my hands. That magazine never worked 438 00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:25,000 again, no matter how many times I tried to fix it. 439 00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,360 I ended up sending it back and claiming it was defective, but 440 00:23:29,360 --> 00:23:32,040 deep down I've always believed it wasn't a malfunction. 441 00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:34,440 Something made it fail at that moment. 442 00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:37,760 I've gone back to that field plenty of time since then. 443 00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:41,480 Nothing has ever happened again, and I've never felt that 444 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:45,000 suffocating pressure of being watched the same way I did that 445 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,520 night. But no matter how much I try to 446 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:52,320 explain it away, some malformed deer, a shadow playing tricks, 447 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:57,200 paranoia, I know what I saw. Something unnatural is in those 448 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:01,480 woods I didn't believe before. Now I'll never doubt again. 449 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:05,720 Story 6. Back then, my life felt really 450 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,160 repetitive. Same routine every day. 451 00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:12,280 But one train ride changed that. This was about 10 years ago, 452 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:15,480 when I still prided myself on being the kind of person who 453 00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:19,720 scoffed at ghost stories. I considered myself logical, A 454 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,240 skeptic through and through. Paranormal talk was something 455 00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:26,120 I'd roll my eyes at. But that train ride changed me, 456 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:27,760 and I've never been able to shake it. 457 00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:30,560 I was heading upstate, sitting near the window with my 458 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,520 headphones in, zoning out as the scenery passed by. 459 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:37,920 It was a normal ride, half empty car, the quiet hum of the 460 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:41,880 tracks, nothing unusual. At some point, the doors between 461 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:45,040 cars slid open, and in came a man who immediately caught 462 00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:48,000 everyone's attention. It's hard to describe him in a 463 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:51,320 way that does it justice. His face looked exaggerated 464 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:55,120 somehow, like the sharp features of a caricature, but in real 465 00:24:55,120 --> 00:24:59,480 life his clothes were bright, mismatched and filthy, layered 466 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:03,120 in a way that made no sense, almost like he had pulled pieces 467 00:25:03,120 --> 00:25:06,280 from a costume shop. There was something skirt like 468 00:25:06,280 --> 00:25:08,800 hanging off his waist, ragged and absurd. 469 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,520 And then there was the smell. The stench hit the car 470 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,960 instantly, so thick and sour it made my stomach turn. 471 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:19,480 Everyone shifted uncomfortably, but no one said a word. 472 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,120 He moved down the aisle slowly, unbothered by the looks. 473 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:27,040 I remember holding my breath as he passed, counting the seconds 474 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:28,880 until he reached the far end of the car. 475 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:32,520 Eventually he slid through the next set of doors, and the 476 00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:34,240 tension in the air seemed to ease. 477 00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:38,480 I let myself relax. Strange people pop up on trains 478 00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:40,920 all the time. This was just another odd 479 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:42,440 encounter in a city full of them. 480 00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,600 Except it wasn't. A few minutes later, the same 481 00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:48,800 doors slid open again, the very ones he had first entered 482 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:53,560 through, and there he was, the same angular face, the same 483 00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:57,080 ridiculous outfit, the same suffocating smell. 484 00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:00,040 He stepped back into the car like the whole thing was 485 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,240 starting over, shuffling down the aisle as though the last few 486 00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:06,880 minutes had been erased. At first, I tried to rationalize 487 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:08,680 it. Maybe he had looped around 488 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,080 somehow, maybe I had lost track of time. 489 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:14,400 But this was a single Decker train with one aisle. 490 00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,520 He had gone forward. There was no way he could have 491 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:19,480 come back from behind without passing me. 492 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:22,160 There were no side doors, no tricks. 493 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:24,600 He had simply reappeared where he started. 494 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:27,760 That's when my chest tightened and I felt myself panic. 495 00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:30,960 My mind started racing through wild explanations. 496 00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:34,560 Had he climbed outside the train, moved along the roof and 497 00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:37,440 come back in? The thought was insane, but I 498 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:40,400 had no better answer. The air in the car felt thick, 499 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,840 almost suffocating, and I could see that the others had noticed 500 00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:46,360 it too. People glanced at each other, 501 00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:49,640 not speaking, but their expressions told me everything. 502 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:53,640 They knew something was wrong. The man drifted through again, 503 00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:56,120 his smell lingering long after he left. 504 00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:00,960 Then, once more, the doors shut. This time, though, no one looked 505 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:03,760 relieved. It was as if we were all bracing 506 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:07,080 ourselves for what came next. When the doors eventually opened 507 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:09,760 again, I held my breath, expecting him. 508 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:13,280 But the aisle stayed empty. Only the sound of the tracks 509 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:15,960 filled the silence. The man never came back. 510 00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:19,480 I sat there, frozen, running it over in my head. 511 00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:24,520 The Deja vu was too sharp, too exact for me to dismiss as some 512 00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:27,560 lapse in attention. I knew I had seen him enter 513 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,160 twice. I knew there was no physical way 514 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:32,000 for him to have returned the way he did. 515 00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:35,880 And yet it happened plain as day, in front of everyone. 516 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,960 No one spoke a word, but the whole car seemed unsettled. 517 00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:43,920 I caught the eyes of a few passengers and saw the same 518 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,200 puzzled, almost frightened look I must have been wearing. 519 00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:49,880 We all knew we had just witnessed something that 520 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:52,880 shouldn't have been possible, but none of us wanted to break 521 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:54,680 the silence by admitting it out loud. 522 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:56,760 The rest of the ride felt endless. 523 00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:00,760 I kept waiting for him to show up again, for the doors to slide 524 00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:04,960 open and reveal that strange, angular face, but he never did. 525 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:08,360 By the time I got off, my hands were shaking. 526 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,080 I walked through the station in a daze, replaying the moment 527 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:15,600 again and again, trying to force a logical explanation into it. 528 00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:19,560 All I know is that it happened, and it shattered the certainty I 529 00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:22,560 once had before. That night, I laughed at the 530 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:25,520 idea of the paranormal. Since then, I can't laugh 531 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:27,560 anymore. I don't claim to know what I 532 00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:31,040 saw, but it was enough to make me question everything I thought 533 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:34,280 I knew about what's real. Story 7. 534 00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:36,880 I used to stay at my grandmother's house in the small 535 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:40,080 town in the Pacific Northwest. It was a big place with a 536 00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:43,320 strange history. Years before it had been built, 537 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:45,880 the land was used as the county's poor farm. 538 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:49,680 Back then, people who were homeless or had nowhere else to 539 00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:52,040 go could live there and work for food and shelter. 540 00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:56,120 Dozens, maybe even hundreds of people had passed through, and 541 00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:59,400 if you ask the older locals, they'll say that ground saw more 542 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:01,000 than its share of hardship and death. 543 00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:03,480 I didn't think much about it at the time. 544 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,880 To me, it was just my grandmother's place, old and 545 00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:10,520 creaky but still standing. One summer night, the heat was 546 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:13,120 unbearable. I went to bed with no sheets, 547 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:16,360 trying to cool down. The air was thick and heavy, the 548 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:18,800 kind of night where you wake up drenched in sweat. 549 00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:22,880 I remember stirring awake sometime past midnight, groggy 550 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,560 and annoyed, planning to get up and use the bathroom. 551 00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:28,480 That's when I noticed something that made me freeze. 552 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:31,400 In the corner near the closet, there was a shape. 553 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:35,240 At first it just looked like a darker patch against the already 554 00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:38,840 dark room, but the longer I stared the more it seemed like a 555 00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,440 figure. My first thought wasn't ghost, 556 00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:45,200 it was intruder. I lived in a small town, but 557 00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,400 break insurance weren't unheard of and the idea that someone 558 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:50,640 could have been standing there the whole time while I slept 559 00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,120 vulnerable sent a jolt of fear through me. 560 00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:57,720 I tried to reason it out, maybe it was just clothes piled up or 561 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:01,400 shadows playing tricks, but my body wasn't buying the excuse. 562 00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:05,160 My chest tightened and my skin prickled like every nerve was 563 00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:07,440 screaming. My mind was racing through 564 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:10,680 possibilities. If it was a person, what did 565 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:12,840 they want? How long had they been there? 566 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:16,440 What were they waiting for? Adrenaline kicked in. 567 00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:20,040 I decided that if someone was in the room, I'd rather confront 568 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:23,280 them than stay frozen. I pushed myself out of bed, 569 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:26,120 heart pounding, and made a run for the light switch. 570 00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:29,480 My only thought was that if I could get the lights on, I'd 571 00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:31,040 know for sure what I was dealing with. 572 00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:34,760 When I flipped the switch, the room lit up in an instant and I 573 00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:37,640 saw him. Not a shadow, not a trick of the 574 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:39,080 mind. A man. 575 00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:43,360 He looked to be in his late 50s or 60s, with a scruffy, graying 576 00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:47,200 beard, piercing blue eyes, and wearing old fashioned flannel 577 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:48,800 and work clothes like a lumberjack. 578 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:51,640 He was solid. I could see the folds of his 579 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:53,760 shirt, the roughness of his face. 580 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:57,840 For a second, my brain registered him as real flesh and 581 00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:00,160 blood. Then, right in front of me, he 582 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,200 began to dissolve. It didn't happen slowly, like 583 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:06,200 someone walking away. It was like watching smoke fade 584 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:08,960 into air. His face blurred, his body 585 00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:12,720 thinned, and within seconds he was gone, leaving nothing but 586 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:16,320 the bare corner of the room. My heart was slamming against my 587 00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:20,040 ribs so hard it hurt. My first feeling was relief that 588 00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:22,400 it hadn't been a living person with a knife or worse. 589 00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:25,640 But that relief didn't last long, because the alternative 590 00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:28,120 was worse. I had just seen something that, 591 00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:31,520 by all logic, shouldn't exist. The minutes after felt like 592 00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:34,720 hours. I stood there, shaking, unable 593 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:38,120 to crawl back into bed, afraid that if I shut the lights off, 594 00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:41,960 he'd come back. The house was dead quiet, but I 595 00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:45,280 swear the silence waited, pressing down on me. 596 00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:49,200 Eventually, exhaustion beat fear, and I sat up the rest of 597 00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:52,360 the night with the lamp on, staring at that corner until the 598 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,760 sun came up the next day. I couldn't stop replaying it. 599 00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:59,680 I tried to convince myself it had been sleep paralysis, some 600 00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:03,240 kind of between dream state, but that didn't add up. 601 00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:05,440 Sleep paralysis keeps you frozen. 602 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:08,480 I had moved, run across the room, and flipped a switch. 603 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:11,960 Hallucinations don't show you details down to eye color, 604 00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:15,680 clothing, and expressions. I even sketched them out later 605 00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:18,480 that day because I wanted to remember exactly what I'd seen. 606 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:20,840 For years. I'd enjoyed ghost stories the 607 00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:22,480 way some people enjoy horror movies. 608 00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:25,760 Fun to listen to, creepy, but not real. 609 00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:28,400 I thought everything had an explanation. 610 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:32,920 Wiring and old houses, overactive imaginations, tricks 611 00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:35,560 of light. But seeing someone with my own 612 00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:39,560 eyes clear as day and then watching them vanish change me 613 00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:43,840 in ways I can't fully explain. Even now when I look back, I try 614 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,920 to rationalize it. Maybe it was an incredibly vivid 615 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:49,240 dream. Maybe I was overtired and my 616 00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:52,480 brain glitched. That's the skeptic in me, still 617 00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,280 clinging to the idea that there must be some explanation. 618 00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:58,000 But deep down, I know that night was different. 619 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:01,760 That figure wasn't imagined. He was there, standing in the 620 00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:05,520 corner, watching. And when he dissolved, it wasn't 621 00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,680 like turning off a dream. It was like he'd been pulled 622 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:12,120 away into somewhere else, somewhere just outside what 623 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:15,000 we're supposed to see. That was the night I stopped 624 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,560 being a skeptic. I don't go looking for proof 625 00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:19,440 anymore. I don't need to. 626 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:23,360 I've already seen it, and once you see it, you can't Unsee it. 627 00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:27,480 Story 8. There was this line of old rusty 628 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,040 mailboxes leading up to Preston Castle. 629 00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:32,320 They looked weird, all crammed together. 630 00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:36,520 Kind of creepy, honestly. Rusty, crooked, all clumped 631 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:38,840 together like teeth, too stubborn to fall out. 632 00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:41,360 They seem to mark the beginning of something I probably 633 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,600 shouldn't have wandered into. I had always been a skeptic when 634 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:47,240 it came to ghost stories. Preston Castle had its 635 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:51,240 reputation, sure. Old reform school, tragic 636 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:53,320 history, plenty of urban legends. 637 00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:56,920 But to me it was just another abandoned building that people 638 00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:00,280 like to exaggerate about. I figured the creepy stories 639 00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:01,640 were half the fun of going there. 640 00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:05,400 So one late afternoon, with no real plan and too much 641 00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:07,880 curiosity, I decided to take the drive. 642 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:11,960 The place set off by itself, surrounded by dry grass and 643 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:14,760 trees that looked half dead even though it was Midsummer. 644 00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:17,920 The road leading up to it was cracked and uneven. 645 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:20,239 And that's when I noticed the mailboxes. 646 00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,800 Dozens of them, maybe 30 in a row, all clustered on the 647 00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:26,639 roadside like they were once meant for workers or families 648 00:34:26,639 --> 00:34:29,400 who live nearby. Every one of them was shut 649 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:31,880 tight, the little red flags all lowered. 650 00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:35,600 I remember thinking how odd it was that they hadn't been 651 00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:37,560 removed, but I didn't dwell on it. 652 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:40,040 I parked just past them and got out. 653 00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:43,600 The air was heavy and still, and I could hear nothing but the 654 00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:47,760 crunch of gravel under my shoes. The castle itself loomed ahead, 655 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:51,639 huge and skeletal, it's windows dark like hollow eyes. 656 00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:55,880 I made my way toward the fence line, scanning for a decent spot 657 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,200 to peek through or maybe slip past. 658 00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:02,360 The place was technically off limits, but plenty of people had 659 00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:04,800 been inside before, so I wasn't worried. 660 00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:07,560 That's when the first strange thing happened. 661 00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:11,880 From the trees just ahead of me, a massive rush of sound exploded 662 00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:15,160 all at once. Birds, hundreds of them, erupted 663 00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:19,400 from the branches, squawking, flapping, scattering in every 664 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:22,080 direction. It wasn't the natural kind of 665 00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:24,480 noise you hear when you accidentally startle a few 666 00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:27,240 crows. This was deafening, like the 667 00:35:27,240 --> 00:35:30,840 entire tree line had been alive with wings and I had set them 668 00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:33,040 off. The sky went black with them, 669 00:35:33,240 --> 00:35:35,960 and the sound of their wings beating against the air was so 670 00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:39,640 loud I had to cover my ears. My first thought was that maybe 671 00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:42,000 they were nesting there and I disturbed them. 672 00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:45,040 Still, something about it didn't feel right. 673 00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:49,120 Birds usually break off in different directions and calm 674 00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:51,440 down once they're in the air. These didn't. 675 00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,520 They circled, dipped low, then vanished into the distance, as 676 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:57,440 if fleeing from something I couldn't see. 677 00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:00,880 I turned back toward the road, instinctively checking behind 678 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:02,840 me. And that's when the second thing 679 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:04,320 hit me like a punch to the chest. 680 00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:08,960 The mailboxes, every single one of them, thirty in a row, was 681 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:12,800 now standing wide open, each little door gaping, each flag 682 00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:15,200 raised straight up. I froze. 683 00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:18,200 I knew for certain they had all been closed when I parked. 684 00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:22,240 I had looked directly at them. And yet in the few minutes I've 685 00:36:22,240 --> 00:36:25,160 been walking toward the fence, they had all changed. 686 00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:28,480 I stood there, staring, trying to make sense of it. 687 00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:32,480 When couldn't have done that. Even if a storm had blown 688 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:35,680 through, the flags wouldn't all be up, the doors wouldn't all be 689 00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:39,640 open in perfect unison. My mind started racing, coming 690 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:41,680 up with every possible explanation. 691 00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:45,080 Maybe a prank, maybe someone hiding nearby. 692 00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:48,800 But there was no sound, no movement, no one laughing or 693 00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:52,800 watching from the trees. Just silence, Heavier now than 694 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,360 before. I backed away slowly, the hairs 695 00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:59,360 on my neck standing up. My stomach felt like it was 696 00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:01,400 dropping even though I was standing still. 697 00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:04,320 The castle didn't seem fascinating anymore. 698 00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:08,000 It felt like it was watching me, like I had crossed a line I 699 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:10,640 wasn't supposed to. I didn't even bother with 700 00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:13,960 pictures. I got back in my car, locked the 701 00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:17,840 doors, and pulled away so fast I nearly tore the bumper off on 702 00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:20,840 the uneven pavement. The whole time I couldn't bring 703 00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,920 myself to look in the rear view mirror because I didn't want to 704 00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:27,600 see if those boxes were still open, or worse, if something 705 00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:31,040 else was standing there instead. When I finally got back into 706 00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:34,760 town, I tried to calm myself down with rational explanations. 707 00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:38,440 Maybe I had missed someone working on the mailboxes, though 708 00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:41,960 that didn't explain the flags. Maybe I'd imagine them being 709 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:44,200 shut, though I knew that wasn't true. 710 00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:47,200 And maybe the birds had been nothing more than bad timing, 711 00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:50,040 though the sheer number of them felt unnatural. 712 00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:52,760 That's the thing about experiences like this. 713 00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:56,120 You tell yourself there's a reasonable answer because the 714 00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:57,800 alternative makes your skin crawl. 715 00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:01,440 But every time I think back to that line of mailboxes opening 716 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:05,400 in unison, I can feel the same sick twist in my gut I felt that 717 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,520 day. It didn't matter if there was a 718 00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:09,880 logical explanation waiting somewhere out there. 719 00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:12,880 In that moment, all I could think was that something had 720 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:15,720 been trying to get my attention, and it had worked. 721 00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:18,320 I've never gone back to Preston Castle. 722 00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:20,680 I won't even drive near that road anymore. 723 00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:24,000 For me, that was the line between skepticism and belief. 724 00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:28,320 I can laugh off ghost stories all day, but I know what I saw 725 00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:32,000 and I'll never forget how it felt standing in front of a 726 00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:35,960 building that seemed to breathe while 30 silent mouths opened 727 00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:40,200 all at once. Story 9 Working nights is weird. 728 00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:43,520 Feels like you're stuck while everyone else just keeps living 729 00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:45,880 their lives. You just wait for morning to 730 00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:47,800 come. That's how it felt when I 731 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:50,040 started covering overnight renovation shifts at the 732 00:38:50,040 --> 00:38:51,880 restaurant I managed a few years back. 733 00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:56,040 I needed the money, so I didn't complain, but juggling 10:00 PM 734 00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:59,240 to 7:00 AM shifts and then opening up again after a nap 735 00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:02,760 wasn't exactly easy. The building itself was old 736 00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:06,760 downtown Savannah, the kind of place where history feels like 737 00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:09,880 it seeps through the bricks. People always mention the 738 00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:13,720 tunnels beneath, supposedly once used during yellow fever 739 00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:16,640 outbreaks. Tour guides love to point at our 740 00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:19,080 corner and tell spooky stories to their groups. 741 00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:22,840 The staff played along, too. They called the supposed ghost, 742 00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:26,480 Peter, joking that he was responsible for misplaced items, 743 00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:28,680 flickering lights, or random noises. 744 00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:32,720 I never bought into it. I figured old pipes, faulty 745 00:39:32,720 --> 00:39:35,880 wiring, and careless employees explained everything just fine. 746 00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:39,680 One particular night, I was helping a contractor update the 747 00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:42,280 sound system. By around 5:00 in the morning, 748 00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:44,040 the two of us were wrapping things up. 749 00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:47,040 The air in the restaurant felt heavy, like the night had 750 00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:50,000 stretched too long. The contractor asked me to run a 751 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:52,480 walkthrough while music played to test the speakers. 752 00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:55,920 It sounded easy enough. I plugged my phone into the 753 00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:58,200 system. I turned up the volume and 754 00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:00,520 started walking through each section of the restaurant. 755 00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:04,720 The music filled the empty space, bouncing off walls that 756 00:40:04,720 --> 00:40:07,720 usually echoed with customers voices and clinking glasses. 757 00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:11,320 For a while it almost felt normal, like the place wasn't 758 00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:14,160 under construction but just waiting for the next crowd to 759 00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:16,760 walk in. Then the first strange thing 760 00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:21,000 happened as I passed by the bar. The overhead lights flickered, 761 00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:25,120 not a quick pulse like a bulb about to go, but a long, slow 762 00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:28,160 dim, as though something was pulling the energy out of the 763 00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:30,640 room. The hair on my arm stood up, but 764 00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:34,320 I kept moving, telling myself it was old wiring reacting to the 765 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:37,680 sound system being tested. Halfway through, that's when the 766 00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:41,200 noise came from the kitchen. There was this sudden explosion 767 00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:45,840 of sound, metal clattering, loud bangs, and the distinct crack of 768 00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:49,720 something ceramic shattering. It was so violent that I jumped, 769 00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:53,160 nearly dropping my flashlight. I cursed under my breath, 770 00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:56,080 thinking the vibration from the music must have knocked over 771 00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:59,960 some precarious stack of pans. I rushed back to shut off the 772 00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:03,160 music, and the silence that followed was almost worse than 773 00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:06,520 the noise itself, but I could still hear the faint echo of 774 00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:10,000 something settling like a bowl spinning on tile before coming 775 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:12,800 to a stop. The contractor came upstairs 776 00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:16,400 from the basement wide eyed, saying he'd heard the crash too. 777 00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:20,440 We both headed into the kitchen. What we found didn't make sense. 778 00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:24,640 Nothing was out of place. Not a single pan had moved, not 779 00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:27,520 one dish was broken. Every shelf and hook looked 780 00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:29,880 exactly as it had when we started the shift. 781 00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:33,280 I even checked the floor for shards, convinced I must have 782 00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:35,320 missed something, but there was nothing. 783 00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:39,240 The room smelled faintly of iron though, sharp and metallic, 784 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:42,680 almost like blood. We looked at each other, both 785 00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:44,240 waiting for the other to explain it. 786 00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:47,760 I wanted to say it was the sound system vibrating through the 787 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:51,520 walls, but the volume hadn't been that high, and ceramic 788 00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:53,400 doesn't shatter without leaving a trace. 789 00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:56,000 The contractor muttered something about old buildings 790 00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,360 making strange noises, but his voice didn't sound convinced. 791 00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:04,200 We decided to call it a night. Neither of us lingered as I shut 792 00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:06,280 off the lights. I felt like the darkness rushed 793 00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:09,840 in faster than usual, swallowing up the glow before the bulbs had 794 00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:12,800 even cooled. Locking the front door, I 795 00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:15,920 couldn't shake the sensation that something was still inside, 796 00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:19,400 watching us leave. The next morning, after a couple 797 00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:22,280 of hours of sleep, I came back to open the restaurant. 798 00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:25,880 Sunlight poured in through the front windows, making the place 799 00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:29,080 look harmless again. Still, I couldn't stop myself 800 00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,160 from walking straight to the kitchen to check everything was 801 00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:36,520 still exactly as it had been. Neat, orderly, untouched. 802 00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:39,840 If anyone else had been there, they would have thought I was 803 00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:43,440 making the whole thing up. For weeks, I kept trying to come 804 00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:47,000 up with a rational explanation. Maybe the sound carried weirdly 805 00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:49,760 through the tunnels. Maybe my exhaustion made me 806 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:53,760 imagine it louder than it was. Maybe I just wanted an excuse to 807 00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:55,240 believe something strange had happened. 808 00:42:55,720 --> 00:42:57,840 But deep down, I know I didn't imagine it. 809 00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:01,240 I heard what I heard, and the contractor did too. 810 00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:04,560 That was the night I stopped laughing at the ghost stories. 811 00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:08,480 I wouldn't call myself a full believer, but I can't call 812 00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:12,400 myself a skeptic anymore either. Something was in that kitchen 813 00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:14,680 with us, and it wanted to be heard. 814 00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:18,080 Story 10. Back in my university days, I 815 00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:21,120 rented a room in an old rectory attached to a church in the 816 00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:24,320 southwest of England. It was old, cold and drafty. 817 00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:26,880 The walls were thick and always felt chilly. 818 00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:30,080 There were five of us students living there, and while the 819 00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:33,960 house looked impressive from the outside, inside it was damp, 820 00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:38,160 uneven and constantly creaking. At first I thought it was just a 821 00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:40,640 quirky old house with a bit of personality. 822 00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:44,800 That opinion didn't last long. Even with five of us there, 823 00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:48,080 strange things happen. Doors would swing open when we 824 00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:51,120 were all in the same room, the heavy kind that didn't just 825 00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:53,800 drift with drafts. Sometimes we'd all hear 826 00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:56,800 footsteps pacing upstairs while we sat together downstairs. 827 00:43:57,320 --> 00:44:00,680 Naturally, we'd investigate, but every time we'd find nothing but 828 00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:04,200 empty corridors. It was unnerving, but easier to 829 00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:06,360 brush off when there were other people around. 830 00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:09,760 We'd laugh it off as the house settling or the pipe shifting, 831 00:44:10,240 --> 00:44:13,000 even if deep down we knew those excuses didn't fit. 832 00:44:13,840 --> 00:44:16,080 The real change came when summer rolled around. 833 00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:19,800 Everyone else went home, but I stayed behind for a temporary 834 00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:22,520 job that meant I had the rectory to myself. 835 00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:26,480 At first the quiet felt nice, but after a couple of days it 836 00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:29,320 stopped feeling like quiet. It felt like waiting. 837 00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:32,760 The first week alone, things started happening almost daily. 838 00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:35,400 Doors slammed when I knew I had closed them. 839 00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:39,600 Sometimes they didn't just slam, they banged like someone had put 840 00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:43,160 their full weight behind them. At night, deep vibrations rolled 841 00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:45,720 through the house like bass notes from a speaker turned up 842 00:44:45,720 --> 00:44:48,640 loud. Except there was no music, just 843 00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:50,720 this heavy thrum you could feel in your chest. 844 00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:54,520 I tried convincing myself it was trucks passing on the road or 845 00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:58,040 something shifting underground, but the house shook in a way 846 00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:01,280 that didn't match any of that. One of the worst parts was the 847 00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:03,640 kitchen. I'd walk in and the cupboards 848 00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:06,520 would already be open, though I knew I'd close them earlier. 849 00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:09,880 It happened often enough that I stopped bothering to shut them 850 00:45:09,880 --> 00:45:12,720 all, because it was like the house was determined to prove it 851 00:45:12,720 --> 00:45:16,280 could undo whatever I did. The strangest moment came one 852 00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,200 evening when I went in for a glass of water and all the 853 00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:23,600 cupboard doors were wide open at the same time, not cracked wide, 854 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:26,400 as if someone had swung them open in unison. 855 00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:28,480 The breaking point came one night. 856 00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:32,480 While I was watching TV downstairs, clear as anything, I 857 00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:35,240 heard footsteps moving steadily across the bedroom directly 858 00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:38,560 above me. I muted the TV, straining to 859 00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:41,040 listen in. The footsteps didn't stop. 860 00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:44,960 They were heavy, deliberate, the kind of steps you'd hear if 861 00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:49,360 someone was pacing a room. I sat frozen, trying to convince 862 00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:53,120 myself maybe I had left a window open and it was wind shifting 863 00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:56,720 the boards. But then, out of nowhere, a bang 864 00:45:56,720 --> 00:46:00,200 exploded upstairs, like someone had slammed a door as hard as 865 00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:03,560 possible. My heart was in my throat, but I 866 00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:05,600 forced myself to run up the staircase. 867 00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:08,080 I expected to find someone in the house. 868 00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:12,560 What I found was worse. Every door upstairs, 6 in total, 869 00:46:12,760 --> 00:46:15,480 was wide open. I had closed them earlier in the 870 00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:18,640 evening, I was certain of it, and none of the windows were 871 00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:21,680 open, so there was no draft strong enough to explain what I 872 00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:24,920 was seeing. I shut every door again, trying 873 00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:28,280 to tell myself I was being ridiculous, that old houses do 874 00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:30,720 strange things. But the second I went back 875 00:46:30,720 --> 00:46:33,800 downstairs and settled on the couch, the footsteps started 876 00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:37,360 again, louder this time. Then another bang. 877 00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:40,920 Then another. It was as if whatever was up 878 00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:43,240 there was mocking me for thinking I could stop it. 879 00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:47,160 At that point, I was too drained to run back upstairs again. 880 00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:50,760 I remember just sitting there, staring at the blank TV screen, 881 00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:54,040 thinking to myself that if I acknowledged it, I'd lose my 882 00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:56,560 mind. So I switched the TV on and 883 00:46:56,560 --> 00:46:59,280 tried to drown it out. Almost immediately, the noise 884 00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:02,040 stopped. The house went silent again, as 885 00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:04,200 though it had gotten bored. Once I stopped giving it 886 00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:07,640 attention for the rest of the summer, things never got that 887 00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:10,440 intense again. But they didn't go away either. 888 00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:14,480 Doors still moved on their own, the base like rumbling would 889 00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:17,920 shake the floor every now and then, and footsteps occasionally 890 00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:21,120 creaked across the hall when I knew I was the only one there. 891 00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:24,920 By the time my housemates returned, I had convinced myself 892 00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:28,360 to shrug most of it off. But deep down, I knew I had 893 00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:30,280 experienced something I couldn't explain. 894 00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:34,080 Before that summer, I would have told anyone that ghosts weren't 895 00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:37,480 real, that it was all exaggeration and overactive 896 00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:39,960 imagination. That house changed me. 897 00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:43,120 Maybe there are logical explanations hidden in the 898 00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:46,160 details. Maybe my stress and lack of 899 00:47:46,160 --> 00:47:48,640 sleep amplified things that weren't really happening. 900 00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:53,160 That's what a skeptic would say. But I know what I saw and I know 901 00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:56,360 what I heard, and to this day I can't explain it away.