1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:04,000 Story number one, this happened years ago when I was a sophomore 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,680 in college. I had gone back to my hometown 3 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:09,960 during fall break, and one night my best friend and I decided to 4 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:13,320 catch a midnight movie. It was late and we didn't want 5 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:16,480 to walk the long way around, so we cut through the graveyard 6 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:20,040 that sat behind the Main Street. The path through it wasn't an 7 00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:23,480 official one, just a beaten track where others had done the 8 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:25,920 same. It's shaved off about 20 9 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:29,680 minutes, and since we both done it before in daylight, it didn't 10 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:32,479 seem like a big deal. At night though, it was a 11 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:35,960 completely different place. The only light came from the dim 12 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:39,600 orange St. lamps posted along the perimeter, and inside the 13 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,520 graveyard it was just a massive uneven stones and shadows. 14 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:46,880 The air felt colder the moment we stepped past the iron gate, 15 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:49,920 and I remember noticing how the smell of damp earth seemed 16 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:52,800 heavier, like the place hadn't been touched in weeks. 17 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:55,920 We were about halfway through when one of the lamps near the 18 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:59,160 far end began flickering. The sudden flashes of light 19 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:02,880 stretch the shadows long across the grass, and in one of those 20 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:06,560 brief bursts I saw something between 2 old leaning 21 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:08,320 gravestones to the tall silhouette. 22 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:12,400 It wasn't moving, but it's head was tilted sharply to the side 23 00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:15,440 like it was studying us. By the time the light blinked 24 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:18,720 again, it was gone. My friend laughed it off, saying 25 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:21,240 it was probably just shadows or my eyes playing tricks. 26 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:24,720 I wanted to believe her, but I couldn't shake the way my 27 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:26,320 stomach had dropped when I saw it. 28 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:30,640 There had been definition to it, a presence, not just a shadow. 29 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,040 We kept walking, but that's when the noises started. 30 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:37,600 At first it was faint, like a car crash somewhere in the 31 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:39,880 distance. Then the sound of windows 32 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,640 slamming, a door creaking, and even the sharp twist of a door 33 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:46,200 knob being rattled. The weird part? 34 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:48,640 We were in the middle of a graveyard. 35 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:51,560 There weren't any houses or roads close enough for those 36 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:54,000 sounds to make sense. They felt like they were 37 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:57,240 happening a few feet from us, but there was nothing there. 38 00:01:57,640 --> 00:01:59,960 Just rows of gravestones and empty grass. 39 00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:03,760 I tried to ignore it, but the noises kept coming, changing 40 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:07,320 every few steps, like walking past invisible houses that 41 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:11,039 shouldn't exist. My chest felt tight, but I told 42 00:02:11,039 --> 00:02:14,280 myself it could be wind moving through broken stones, maybe 43 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:17,840 even echoes from the street. Still, I noticed the silence 44 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:21,640 between each sound was too sharp, too expectant, as if the 45 00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:23,440 place was waiting for our reaction. 46 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:26,320 About then, I stopped to tie my shoe. 47 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:28,800 My friend kept walking a few paces ahead. 48 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,080 When I bent down, I felt the strange urge to glance to my 49 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:34,360 side. That's when I saw it again. 50 00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:38,600 The same tall silhouette, closer now, standing by a small stone 51 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:40,800 Angel statue. It didn't move. 52 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:45,360 It just stood there, head still cocked unnaturally, body thin 53 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:48,720 and rigid against the night. I stood up fast, my heart 54 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:50,720 pounding. I wanted to call out to my 55 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:52,920 friend, but when I looked ahead, she was gone. 56 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:56,600 Not walking ahead, not waiting, just gone. 57 00:02:57,120 --> 00:02:59,560 The path stretched empty all the way to the far gate. 58 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,640 I spun in circles, thinking maybe she'd stepped off the 59 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:04,680 path, but there was no sign of her. 60 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:07,640 My voice caught my throat when I tried to call out. 61 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:10,360 Every instinct screamed at me to get out. 62 00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:13,960 That's when the lamps began going out, one by one, starting 63 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,440 from the farthest edge of the graveyard and coming toward me. 64 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:20,120 Each bulb flickered before dying, throwing the stones into 65 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,600 deeper shadow, as if something was chasing the light itself. 66 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:27,680 I couldn't breathe right. The air felt thick, freezing, 67 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,280 and I could swear I heard a faint rhythmic sound behind me, 68 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:35,120 like breathing that wasn't mine. I didn't look back. 69 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:38,520 I just ran. The path stretched longer than 70 00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:42,400 it ever had in the daytime. My chest hurt, my vision 71 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:46,480 blurred, but all I could think was that the light above me was 72 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:50,280 the last one left, and when it died, I'd be standing in total 73 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:52,720 darkness. Just as I reached the Main 74 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:54,440 Street, the lamp above me sputtered. 75 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:57,680 I stumbled out past the iron gate onto the sidewalk. 76 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:00,960 The night air outside the graveyard felt different, less 77 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:04,600 heavy, but still freezing. My heart was racing, and I 78 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:06,480 thought I'd made it until I felt it. 79 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:10,280 A light tap on my shoulder, I spun around, ready to see. 80 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:14,440 I don't even know what, but it was my friend standing right 81 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:17,720 behind me, calm, as if she'd been walking with me the whole 82 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:20,000 time. I didn't ask her where she'd 83 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:22,440 gone, and she didn't offer an explanation. 84 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:26,560 We walked home in silence, but the entire time, something felt 85 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:29,120 wrong. Her footsteps sounded 1/2 beat 86 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,000 out of sync with mine. Her breathing didn't quite match 87 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:35,480 the pace, and when we passed under another street light for 88 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:38,720 just a second, her shadow on the ground didn't look like her at 89 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:41,120 all. I never brought it up again. 90 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:44,880 We stayed friends through college, but after that night I 91 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:47,440 couldn't shake the feeling that something had followed me out of 92 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,040 that graveyard and maybe it wore her face. 93 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:53,760 Even now, thinking back, I can explain parts of it if I really 94 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:55,920 try. The silhouette could have been 95 00:04:55,920 --> 00:05:00,240 shadows, the noises just echoes, and the lamps shutting off could 96 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:03,720 have been electrical issues. Stress and exhaustion could 97 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:07,440 explain why my friend seemed off afterward, but I'll never forget 98 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,600 that moment I turned around. I can still feel the tap on my 99 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:13,720 shoulder and the way my gut dropped when I saw her standing 100 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:18,040 there like it wasn't her at all. Story number two, I'm not the 101 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:19,960 kind of person who believes in ghosts. 102 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:23,920 I'm a software developer. My world revolves around cause 103 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:28,720 and effect logic, clean code and debugging problems until they 104 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:31,960 make sense. For the last 10 years I've been 105 00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:36,560 a runner. Same routine, same route, early 106 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:38,280 mornings before the streets wake up. 107 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:41,960 It's quiet, predictable. That's how I like it. 108 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,600 My route cuts through Greenwood Memorial Cemetery. 109 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:49,560 People think it's morbid, but to me it's just a park with better 110 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:52,520 landscaping. It's peaceful, the paths are 111 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:55,960 smooth, no traffic, and the trees are beautiful when the sun 112 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:58,800 filters through them. I never gave much thought to the 113 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:01,080 fact that I was running among thousands of graves. 114 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:03,560 There's one landmark I always pass. 115 00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:08,760 A life-size statue of a weeping Angel, white marble wings 116 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:11,120 folded, face buried in its hands. 117 00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:15,200 It sits on the grave of a family that died in the early 1900s. 118 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:18,880 I've run past it hundreds of times, never really paid 119 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:22,600 attention beyond registering it as part of the scenery, until 120 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:25,200 about a year ago. That's when things started to 121 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:27,840 feel off. At first it was nothing I could 122 00:06:27,840 --> 00:06:31,360 put my finger on, just this prickling sensation as I ran 123 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:33,600 past. Like the air around the statue 124 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:37,680 was heavier, thicker somehow. The first change I noticed was 125 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:40,560 tiny one morning. It looked like the folds of the 126 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:42,920 angels robe were carved a little differently. 127 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:47,080 Deeper maybe. I dismissed it immediately, my 128 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:50,720 brain filling in details I hadn't noticed before, Nothing 129 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:52,800 more. But then it kept happening. 130 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:55,640 The tips of the wings looked a little wider one day. 131 00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:59,160 The angle of the bold head seems slightly different than next 132 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:01,480 things. No one else would even notice. 133 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:05,760 But I knew I'd seen that statue so many times it was practically 134 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:09,040 etched into my brain. And now, piece by piece, it was 135 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:11,800 wrong. I told myself I was imagining 136 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:15,560 things. Stress, sleep deprivation, bad 137 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:20,040 lighting, logical explanations. But around the same time, I 138 00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:21,920 started hearing faint crying at night. 139 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:26,160 Not loud, more like muffled sobs just on the edge of hearing. 140 00:07:26,920 --> 00:07:29,680 I jolt awake, convinced someone was in my room. 141 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:33,040 I live alone. Every time I checked, there was 142 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:35,440 nothing. Still, the crying persisted. 143 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:38,960 Always at night, always when the house was dead quiet. 144 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:42,560 I even left my phone recording once thinking I'd catch it. 145 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:45,800 The playback was silent, except for me turning in bed. 146 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:50,720 I laughed it off, called myself paranoid, but there's no way to 147 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:53,560 explain the feeling of waking up to the sound of someone weeping 148 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:56,040 right beside your bed and finding nothing there. 149 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:00,840 I decided to prove myself wrong. Next time I ran past the Angel, 150 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:02,560 I brought my phone and snapped pictures. 151 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:05,880 When I looked at them, the statue was exactly how it was 152 00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:09,320 supposed to be. Hands covering its face, wings 153 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:12,960 folded neatly, no differences. I felt ridiculous. 154 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:16,400 Of course it hadn't moved. Statues don't move. 155 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:19,520 I chalked everything up to my brain messing with me. 156 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:22,120 Vindicated, I kept running through Greenwood. 157 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:24,520 Then came the morning that changed everything. 158 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:28,800 I was halfway through my route, the cemetery completely still, 159 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:33,600 just me, my shoes hitting the gravel, my breath puffing in the 160 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:36,360 cold. I reach the spot where I usually 161 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:38,919 scratch the path with my shoe before Sprint intervals. 162 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,799 I looked up just casually, not even planning to stop. 163 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:45,720 And then I froze. The angels hands weren't 164 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:49,080 covering its face anymore. Both arms rested in its lap, 165 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:51,960 palms up, as though offering something invisible. 166 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:56,920 It's face, hidden for more than a century, was exposed, only 167 00:08:56,920 --> 00:09:00,040 there were no features. No eyes, no nose, no mouth. 168 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:04,400 Just smooth marble shaped vaguely like a human face from 169 00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:07,560 the place where it's eyes should have been. 2 black streaks ran 170 00:09:07,560 --> 00:09:11,520 down its cheeks, staining the whitestone, and it was angled 171 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:14,120 toward me. I can't describe the terror. 172 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:18,480 It wasn't just fear, it was the kind of primal, body shaking 173 00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:20,840 panic that bypasses reason altogether. 174 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:25,080 Something in me screamed that I shouldn't be seeing this, that I 175 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:28,120 wasn't supposed to. My legs locked for what felt 176 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:30,360 like forever, but must have been a few seconds. 177 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:33,400 Then instinct took over. I turned and sprinted. 178 00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:37,360 I didn't stop until I was inside my house, door slammed, chest 179 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:38,960 heaving like I'd never run before. 180 00:09:39,640 --> 00:09:43,800 I stayed like that for a long time, palms on my knees, sweat 181 00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:47,080 dripping onto the floor. My logical brain tried to 182 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:49,800 rationalize. Maybe vandals had altered it. 183 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:51,600 Maybe the shadows had tricked me. 184 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:54,280 Maybe my mind was breaking from lack of sleep. 185 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:57,920 But no excuse could erase the image of that blank face with 186 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:01,720 black tears angled toward me. I avoided Greenwood after that, 187 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:04,920 added an extra mile to my run just to stay clear. 188 00:10:05,680 --> 00:10:09,520 Problem solved, Or so I thought. But avoiding it didn't make the 189 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:12,800 unease go away. Some nights I'd wake up to find 190 00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:16,160 the faint sound of wings rustling, like fabric brushing 191 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:19,360 against itself. Other times, I'd catch a shadow 192 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:23,440 in the corner of my vision, tall and winged, gone the instant I 193 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:26,520 turned my head. Once I came home and found fine 194 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:29,600 white dust on my window sill, like marble shavings. 195 00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:33,240 My windows were locked. The crying continued closer now, 196 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:36,280 no longer muffled. It sounded as though someone was 197 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:38,160 sobbing into their hands right next to me. 198 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:42,160 I'd wake up drenched in cold sweat, staring into the dark, 199 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:45,040 convinced I'd see that blank face looming over me. 200 00:10:45,680 --> 00:10:48,720 I stopped running all together for a while, stopped sleeping 201 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:51,640 much too. My Co workers noticed I was 202 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:55,760 zoning out, red eyed, twitchy. I didn't tell them why. 203 00:10:56,560 --> 00:10:59,320 How do you explain that a statue might be following you home? 204 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:01,920 Finally, I forced myself to confront it. 205 00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:05,200 I needed closure. I drove to Greenwood one 206 00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:08,520 afternoon, broad daylight, just to prove it was normal. 207 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:11,360 People were tending graves, walking dogs. 208 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:15,440 Ordinary, mundane. I approached the Angel, heart 209 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:17,680 pounding. Its hands were back over its 210 00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:21,640 face, wings folded exactly as it had always been. 211 00:11:22,280 --> 00:11:25,160 Just a statue. I almost laughed out loud in 212 00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:27,480 relief. The black streaks I remembered 213 00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:29,960 weren't there. Maybe they never had been. 214 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:32,440 Maybe I'd had a breakdown, plain and simple. 215 00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:36,440 I walked away feeling foolish. But as I passed the cemetery 216 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:39,160 gates, I caught sight of something in my peripheral 217 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:43,680 vision, like the faint curve of marble fingers peeking between 218 00:11:43,680 --> 00:11:47,120 feathers of folded wings, just enough to suggest the Angel 219 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:48,760 wasn't covering its face entirely. 220 00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:52,760 I didn't go back again. Now, every time I pass the edge 221 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:56,240 of Greenwood on my longer route, I speed up without realizing it. 222 00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:59,640 I don't look through the gates. I don't want to know if the 223 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:01,640 angel's hands are still where they should be. 224 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:04,160 I tell myself it's all in my head. 225 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:09,440 Stress, exhaustion, imagination. But last week I woke up with 226 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:12,840 grit in my bed. White dust streaked faintly with 227 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:15,840 something dark, like dried stone mixed with ash. 228 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:19,200 I brushed it off, convinced it was plaster from the ceiling. 229 00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:21,680 Except when I looked up, the ceiling was clean. 230 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:24,360 I'm logical. I don't believe in impossible 231 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:27,880 things, but I also don't run through Greenwood anymore, and 232 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:31,360 sometimes when the house is still, I hear wings shift in the 233 00:12:31,360 --> 00:12:33,920 dark and the quiet sound of someone weeping. 234 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:40,720 Soft, Patient, waiting story #3 About five years ago, I had one 235 00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:42,720 of the weirdest experiences of my life. 236 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:45,640 I don't talk about it much because it sounds like something 237 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:49,000 you'd read in a bad ghost story thread, but it really happened. 238 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:52,600 Or at least I think it did. I still don't know how much of 239 00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:56,480 it was real and how much was my brain messing with me, but I 240 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:58,480 can't shake the unease it left behind. 241 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:02,080 I'd gone to Hopewell Cemetery to leave flowers on my grandma's 242 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:04,680 grave. It was a cool autumn afternoon, 243 00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:08,040 sun dipping lower but still bright enough that the place 244 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:11,160 didn't feel too creepy. I parked in the gravel lot, 245 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:14,960 walked the narrow path between the older stones, and spent a 246 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:18,520 while at her grave. Nothing unusual there, just 247 00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:20,840 quiet. On the way out, though, 248 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:24,160 something caught my eye. Off near the tree line, where 249 00:13:24,160 --> 00:13:27,880 the older part of the cemetery sloped down toward the woods, I 250 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:31,400 saw a chipped headstone leaning sideways, half sunken into the 251 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:34,120 dirt. It was almost buried, like it 252 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:36,000 hadn't been tended to in decades. 253 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:40,360 No name on it, at least not one I could see from where I stood. 254 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:42,880 I don't know why I felt pulled to it. 255 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:46,840 Maybe it was curiosity, Maybe guilt for walking past all the 256 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:49,080 forgotten graves while I was only there for one. 257 00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:52,000 Either way, I left the path and walked over. 258 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:56,600 The ground was soft there, muddy in spots, and the headstone was 259 00:13:56,600 --> 00:13:58,720 covered in leaves, Moss, and dirt. 260 00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:03,520 I knelt down, brush some of the mess away, trying to see if 261 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:06,560 there was any engraving. That's all I remember doing, 262 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:10,240 just brushing dirt off stone. It couldn't have been more than 263 00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:13,800 a minute or two, but when I finally looked up, everything 264 00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:17,120 was different. The sun was gone, not setting, 265 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:20,680 gone. The cemetery was shadowed, lit 266 00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:24,000 only by that pale bluish glow the sky gets after dusk. 267 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:27,040 My phone said over 2 hours had passed. 268 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:31,280 I thought maybe I'd zoned out, lost track of time, but the 269 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:33,560 panic in my chest told me it was more than that. 270 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:37,920 My hands were caked in mud, nails packed with it like I'd 271 00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:40,600 been digging. I don't remember digging. 272 00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:43,200 I don't remember doing anything except brushing dirt. 273 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,160 The lot was nearly empty when I sprinted back my car, the last 274 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:49,520 one there. As I left, I heard something 275 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:53,600 behind me, Soft, almost like a whisper, a sound more than 276 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:56,120 words. It reminded me of a lullaby, 277 00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:59,600 faint and rhythmic. My whole body went cold. 278 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:04,080 I didn't turn around, just ran, unlocked the car with shaking 279 00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:06,040 hands and drove out without looking back. 280 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:10,400 When I got home, I washed my hands and that's when I saw it. 281 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:14,200 Tiny scratches on the back of my skin, like letters carved 282 00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:16,880 backward. I couldn't read them clearly. 283 00:15:17,240 --> 00:15:20,880 It looked like nonsense, reversed and faint, but they 284 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:23,360 were there. An hour later they were gone, 285 00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:27,320 just red smudges left behind. That night I hardly slept. 286 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:30,960 My sheets were clean when I crawled into bed, but when I 287 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:33,600 woke up they had streaks of dried mud across them. 288 00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:37,320 Since then, I haven't set foot in Hopewell Cemetery again. 289 00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:40,680 But The thing is, whatever happened didn't stay there. 290 00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:44,760 Sometimes, as I'm drifting off to sleep, I hear the same soft 291 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:47,840 tune in my head. Not a melody I recognize, just a 292 00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:51,520 faint rocking rhythm, like someone humming close to my ear. 293 00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:54,800 When it happens, I usually jolt awake, heart pounding. 294 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:58,280 Other times I do fall asleep, but I wake up to muddy sheets, 295 00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:01,640 dirt under my nails, or damp footprints leading from my 296 00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:05,000 bedroom door toward the bed. The first few times I told 297 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:06,680 myself I must have been sleepwalking. 298 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:09,440 Maybe I'd gone outside without realizing it. 299 00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:13,560 But the doors are always locked, windows too, and nothing ever 300 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:16,680 looks disturbed. Still, that's the explanation. 301 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:21,720 I cling to sleepwalking stress, something normal, but the 302 00:16:21,720 --> 00:16:24,840 details eat at me. Once, I woke up with twigs 303 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,040 tangled in my hair. Another time the sheet smelled 304 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:32,160 like fresh earth, sharp and metallic, like turned soil after 305 00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:34,560 rain. There was one night where I woke 306 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:38,640 up gasping, my pillow damp, and found a clump of Moss pressed 307 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:41,840 flat against it, like it had been set there on purpose. 308 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:45,680 It doesn't happen every night. Weeks will pass with nothing, 309 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:47,720 and then suddenly it'll start again. 310 00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:53,120 Always the lullaby, first faint and slow, then the dirt, the 311 00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:56,840 mud, the strange half dreams where I'm kneeling in the dark, 312 00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:00,000 scraping at something in the ground that never fully reveals 313 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,560 itself. I've tried recording myself 314 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:05,319 while I sleep, setting up my phone on the dresser. 315 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,640 Most of the time it just shows me rolling over, snoring 316 00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:13,400 lightly, but one clip still makes me sick to my stomach. 317 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:17,920 About an hour into the night, I sit up in bed very slowly and 318 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:21,000 start humming. The audio is grainy, but the 319 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:24,760 tune matches the one in my head. After a while I turn toward the 320 00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:27,160 camera, but my eyes don't look open. 321 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:31,040 The clip ends there, like the phone died even though the 322 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:34,120 battery was nearly full. Of course I showed it to a 323 00:17:34,120 --> 00:17:38,400 friend and he laughed it off, Said I was sleep humming, maybe 324 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,720 acting out a dream. Phones glitch all the time. 325 00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:44,800 He's probably right. I want him to be right. 326 00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:47,920 But here's the part that keeps me from shaking it off 327 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:50,920 completely. Every time the humming starts up 328 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:54,680 again in my sleep, I wake up more tired, more drained. 329 00:17:55,120 --> 00:17:57,760 My nails are dirtier, the sheets messier. 330 00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:01,240 And once, when I woke up in the middle of the night, I swore I 331 00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:03,320 saw a shadow crouched at the foot of my bed. 332 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:07,200 Not standing. Crouched like someone kneeling, 333 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:10,880 the way I had by that headstone. It faded the second I blinked. 334 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:14,240 I've tried not to think about that day at the cemetery too 335 00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:16,880 much, but sometimes the memory pushes in. 336 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:21,440 That sensation of lost time, the backward scratches on my skin, 337 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:24,960 the whisper that wasn't quite words but almost was. 338 00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:29,240 If I was just imagining things, then why did the scratches look 339 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:32,280 like letters? Why do I still wake up with dirt 340 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:36,240 under my nails years later? The skeptic in me says it's all 341 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:40,240 sleepwalking stress, subconscious guilt tied to my 342 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:44,760 grandmother's death, Whatever. Maybe I saw the old stone and my 343 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:48,360 brain spun it into something bigger, and now it leaks into my 344 00:18:48,360 --> 00:18:50,920 dreams. Maybe the dirt is from me 345 00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:52,800 wandering outside without realizing. 346 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:55,880 That's the story I tell myself when people ask why I won't 347 00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:59,280 visit Hopewell anymore. But every now and then, late at 348 00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:01,960 night, when the house is quiet and the tune starts humming 349 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:05,680 faintly in my head, I wonder if it's not me moving toward the 350 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,160 ground, but something from the ground moving closer to me. 351 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:13,200 Story #4 I work for a flower delivery service that sometimes 352 00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:17,040 handles tributes for graves. Usually it's quiet, uneventful 353 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:19,640 work. People assume cemeteries are the 354 00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:24,040 scariest part, but most of the time they're just empty. 355 00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:27,280 I never liked the crowd. Either ways, it's routine. 356 00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:31,680 I get the address, drive out, place the flowers, maybe say a 357 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:34,440 quick mental apology for stepping over someone's resting 358 00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:36,800 spot, and leave. That's it. 359 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:40,360 This happened on one of those miserable mornings when the rain 360 00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:44,080 doesn't fall hard, but hangs in the air, cold and constant, 361 00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:47,360 soaking everything. The kind of rain that crawls 362 00:19:47,360 --> 00:19:50,160 down your back, no matter how well your jackets zipped. 363 00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:52,640 The request that day was for a new grave. 364 00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:56,840 Nothing unusual about that. Fresh dirt, the smell of wet 365 00:19:56,840 --> 00:19:59,040 earth. The kind of heavy silence you 366 00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:01,440 only get when you're standing in a field of headstones. 367 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:04,480 I remember my boots sinking a little as I carried the 368 00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:07,920 arrangement over. I set the flowers down, adjusted 369 00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:10,680 the card, and stood up to brush rain from my face. 370 00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:14,560 That's when I saw her. Across the field, near the older 371 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:17,360 section, a woman stood in front of a blank stone. 372 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:21,440 Her veil was bright red, but it was so soaked it clung to her 373 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:25,400 like a second skin. She didn't move, not even when 374 00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:28,760 the wind cut through the trees and sent the rain sideways just 375 00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:32,960 perfectly still facing the stone, I told myself it was none 376 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:35,960 of my business. People mourn in their own ways, 377 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:38,840 but the longer I looked, the more wrong it felt. 378 00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:43,160 The grave she stood at wasn't marked, just a stone slab with 379 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:46,200 nothing carved into it. No flowers, no offerings. 380 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:49,480 I tried to turn away, but I made the mistake of letting my eyes 381 00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:51,360 slide toward her face, just for a second. 382 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:54,200 I don't even know how to explain it properly. 383 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:57,760 Her skin looked torn, like strips had been carved out with 384 00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:00,680 something sharp. Blood was smeared across her 385 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:04,560 cheeks, soaking into the veil. Her mouth was a mess of jagged 386 00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:07,040 cuts. For a split second, it looked 387 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,000 like her lips had been sewn, then ripped open again. 388 00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:14,160 The eyes were worse. Hollow, sunken, like looking 389 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:16,800 into the sockets of something that should not still be 390 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:19,080 standing. And then she looked at me. 391 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:24,200 I swear I felt heat rush through me, burning from the inside out. 392 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:28,280 Not panic, not embarrassment. Literal heat. 393 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:30,360 Like my skin was about to blister. 394 00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:33,280 My chest tightened like I couldn't breathe. 395 00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:37,360 I blinked hard, trying to clear rain from my lashes. 396 00:21:37,360 --> 00:21:39,840 And in that split second, she was gone. 397 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:45,320 The spot was empty except there were footprints, waterlogged 398 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:48,200 impressions in the mud leading away from the stone. 399 00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:52,960 They stretched on for maybe 6-7 steps and then stopped dead, 400 00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:55,240 like the earth had swallowed her whole. 401 00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:57,760 The ground everywhere else was untouched. 402 00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:01,360 I tried to shake it off, told myself someone had been there 403 00:22:01,360 --> 00:22:03,920 and left, and my brain had filled in the rest. 404 00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:07,400 When you work alone in graveyards, your imagination can 405 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:10,720 do weird things. I packed up fast and left. 406 00:22:11,120 --> 00:22:14,240 Later that week I went back to the same cemetery with another 407 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:17,080 delivery. The sky was clearer, no rain 408 00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:20,200 this time, but the ground was still damp from the storms. 409 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:22,560 I didn't expect to see her again. 410 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:26,120 I didn't want to. But the same spot caught my eye. 411 00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:30,520 The same blank grave, only now there were flowers laid on it. 412 00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:35,520 Not from us wildflowers, damp and pressed flat like they've 413 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,960 been torn up in a hurry. Something about the way they sat 414 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:42,440 on the bare stone made me uneasy, too deliberate, too 415 00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:44,760 careful. I ended up asking the 416 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,600 groundskeeper, an older guy I see around sometimes. 417 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:51,080 I mentioned the woman in passing, said something like 418 00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:54,160 maybe she was a relative of someone recently buried. 419 00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:57,160 He gave me this strange look and shook his head. 420 00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:01,200 Said that particular grave wasn't occupied yet, Scheduled 421 00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:03,760 for burial the following week, still unmarked. 422 00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,480 He added, almost casually, that staff sometimes saw a woman at 423 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:11,240 dawn, always dressed in red, always at graves that hadn't 424 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,200 been filled yet. No one had ever spoken to her. 425 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:19,600 No one saw her arrive or leave. Just there and then not. 426 00:23:20,360 --> 00:23:23,280 I tried to laugh it off, but his face didn't shift. 427 00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:26,800 He wasn't joking. After that conversation, I 428 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:29,840 couldn't get her out of my head. I kept thinking about the 429 00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:33,160 burning sensation, the way her eyes seem to hollow everything 430 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:35,440 out of me. The next time it rained, I 431 00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:38,600 dreaded going back, but the job doesn't stop for the weather 432 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:40,880 that day. While walking through the newer 433 00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:43,480 section, I passed by another fresh plot. 434 00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:46,600 The dirt was still raw, dark against the grass. 435 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:49,280 Out of instinct, I glanced across the field. 436 00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:53,560 She was there again. Same red veil, same stillness. 437 00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:56,840 Only this time, she wasn't at the unmarked stone. 438 00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:00,480 She was standing at the edge of a muddy trench, staring down 439 00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:03,000 into the hole itself. I froze. 440 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:05,640 The air felt heavier, harder to breathe. 441 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:09,280 My skin prickled like every hair on my arms was standing up. 442 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,760 I blinked, trying not to, but when I opened my eyes, the hole 443 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:17,160 was empty. So was the spot beside it, but 444 00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:19,840 the footprints were there again, leading nowhere. 445 00:24:20,360 --> 00:24:23,280 I didn't sleep well that night, couldn't stop thinking about her 446 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,880 face. Over the next month, I delivered 447 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:30,160 to other cemeteries, different towns, different graves, and 448 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,560 every now and then, out of the corner of my eye I'd see a 449 00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:36,960 splash of red. Always distant, never clear, 450 00:24:37,360 --> 00:24:41,400 always by the newest plots. Once I swear I smelled iron in 451 00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:45,880 the air, metallic and sharp like blood, even though I was 452 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:49,200 standing in the middle of a well kept lawn with nothing around me 453 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:52,200 but rain. Another time, while setting 454 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:56,440 flowers down, I felt that heat again, burning, crawling under 455 00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,120 my skin. I looked up and thought I saw 456 00:24:59,120 --> 00:25:02,640 her veil in the reflection of a headstone, but when I turned, 457 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:05,440 nothing was there. It's been months now, and I've 458 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:08,640 stopped asking questions. People talk about how grief 459 00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:12,000 makes you see things, how cemeteries are heavy places 460 00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:15,320 where the mind can trick you. Maybe that's true. 461 00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:19,680 Maybe what I saw was just my brain feeding off the silence, 462 00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:22,440 the weather, the loneliness of the job. 463 00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:26,360 But I can't shake the way the footprints always stop, like 464 00:25:26,360 --> 00:25:30,680 whoever or whatever makes them doesn't need to keep walking. 465 00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:34,560 And every time I walk past an unmarked grave, especially when 466 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:38,760 it's raining, I feel eyes on me, waiting, watching. 467 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:43,840 I tell myself it's nothing, just a shadow, just the wind, just my 468 00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:46,640 imagination. But I've started leaving flowers 469 00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:49,080 on blank stones, even when no one asked me to. 470 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:52,720 I don't know why it feel safer that way. 471 00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:57,160 Still, some nights when the rain wakes me up, I swear I can feel 472 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:01,080 that same burning under my skin again and I wonder if one day 473 00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,040 when my time comes, she'll already be standing there 474 00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:08,680 waiting at the empty grave. Story #5 My brother and I had 475 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:12,040 this weird hobby back in our late teens, exploring old 476 00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:14,440 cemeteries. Most of them were just forgotten 477 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:18,440 plots behind churches or tucked away in woods, the kind of 478 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:21,680 places where weed swallowed gravestones and birdsong was the 479 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:24,160 only sound. People always whispered about 480 00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:27,680 them being haunted, which was probably what made us keep going 481 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:30,040 back. I used to tell myself it was 482 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:33,520 just thrill seeking, but deep down I think I wanted proof that 483 00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:36,600 all the ghost stories I'd grown up with had some kind of truth. 484 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:41,160 Two years ago I got something close enough to proof, though I 485 00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:44,080 still can't explain it. We'd gone to this crumbling 486 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,760 church on the edge of town. It was one of those brick 487 00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:50,160 buildings where the roof had collapsed decades ago and vines 488 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:53,880 ran up the side like veins. Behind it was a stretch of land 489 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:56,200 that locals called the Forgotten Patch. 490 00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:00,240 We'd never been there before, so naturally that's where we went. 491 00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:03,560 The ground was uneven and at some point I tripped over a 492 00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:07,640 loose stone, falling face first onto fresh, soft earth. 493 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:11,480 It shocked me because everything around us looks so neglected, 494 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:14,800 yet here was soil that had clearly been dug and filled 495 00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:17,800 recently. My hand sank into it like it was 496 00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:20,920 still unsettled. I scrambled up quickly, brushing 497 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:24,400 it off, but my brother had already wandered away, picking 498 00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:26,040 through broken markers deeper in. 499 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,680 That's when I noticed the tree line. 2 glowing dots. 500 00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:34,400 They weren't eyes exactly too far apart, too steady, but they 501 00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,080 pulsed faintly, like embers in the dark. 502 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,280 At first I thought it might have been some animal caught in a 503 00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:44,400 shaft of light, but the way they hovered there, perfectly still, 504 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:47,680 made me freeze. Suddenly, my chest tightened. 505 00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:51,640 Not like a panic attack, I've had those, and this was 506 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:53,840 different. This felt like a boulder was 507 00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:56,360 being pressed into me, squeezing the air out. 508 00:27:57,120 --> 00:28:00,840 I staggered, clutching at my shirt, trying to inhale, but the 509 00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:03,880 air just wouldn't go in. And that's when the vines moved. 510 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:07,960 They uncoiled from the trees, thin tendrils at first snaking 511 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:10,560 toward me. I told myself it was the wind 512 00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:13,440 tugging them, but then one wrapped around my ankle. 513 00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:18,480 I tried to kick it off, but more followed, wrapping, twisting, 514 00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:21,960 tightening. The glowing dots flickered once, 515 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:26,080 and I swear I felt the pull. My body started sliding across 516 00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:28,200 the dirt, dragged toward the trees. 517 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,560 I tried to yell for my brother, but nothing came out. 518 00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:36,320 My throat worked, my jaw moved, but my voice was gone. 519 00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:40,680 I wasn't even whispering. I was silent, as if something 520 00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:42,440 had plucked the sound right out of me. 521 00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:46,360 It was the most helpless I've ever felt, like I wasn't even in 522 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:50,200 control of my own body anymore. The vines dragged me closer, 523 00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:54,160 dirt scraping my palms raw. The last thing I remember is 524 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:57,280 staring at those dots, feeling like they were waiting for me, 525 00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:04,040 inviting me deeper then nothing. When I opened my eyes again, my 526 00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:08,120 brother was crouched over me, slapping my face lightly, panic 527 00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:11,160 in his eyes. He said I'd fainted, that I 528 00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,120 wasn't breathing right. He'd splashed water on me from 529 00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,560 his bottle, and somehow I came to. 530 00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:20,120 We left right after, though he kept making jokes to cover how 531 00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:23,200 shaken he was. At first, I convinced myself it 532 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:26,640 was all in my head. Maybe I passed out, hallucinated 533 00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,280 while half conscious. Maybe the glowing dots were 534 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:31,880 fireflies. Maybe the vines were just me 535 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,920 thrashing against weeds. That's a story I wanted to 536 00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:37,040 believe until I looked at my hands. 537 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:41,240 My palms were scratched to hell and my fingernails were packed 538 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:44,440 with dirt. Not the dry, crumbly kind from 539 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:48,640 around the graves, but wet, black soil that clung to my skin 540 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:52,160 with a strange chill like it had been pulled from deep 541 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:54,840 underground. No matter how hard I scrubbed 542 00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:56,400 that night, it wouldn't come off. 543 00:29:56,760 --> 00:30:01,160 It stayed for three whole days, wedged under every nail I see to 544 00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:03,440 the touch, even when the rest of me was sweating. 545 00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:07,360 On the third night I had a dream, or what I hope was a 546 00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:09,800 dream. I was lying in bed when I heard 547 00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:13,640 scraping under the floorboards. Slow, deliberate dragging 548 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:15,840 sounds. Then the boards warped, like 549 00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:17,880 something was pushing against them from beneath. 550 00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:22,760 A hand, Gray caked in the same sticky soil, broke through the 551 00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,040 wood. Reaching upward, the arm 552 00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:28,280 followed, elbow bending the wrong way as the figure clawed 553 00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:32,400 its way out inch by inch. It's face never came into view, 554 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:35,840 but I knew somehow that it was looking straight at me. 555 00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:40,160 I woke up drenched in sweat, gasping like I'd run a marathon. 556 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:43,880 The dirt under my nails was gone, vanished overnight. 557 00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:48,200 My sheet smelled faintly of soil, but there wasn't a speck 558 00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:49,720 on them when I checked in the morning. 559 00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:52,320 That should have been the end of it, but it wasn't. 560 00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,960 For months after, I'd get flashes of that suffocating 561 00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:58,760 weight on my chest whenever I walk past woods. 562 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,560 Sometimes when I close my eyes at night, I'd see the dots 563 00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:05,720 glowing faintly, always just behind a tree line or fence 564 00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,040 post. Once, when I was showering, the 565 00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:11,200 water pressure drops suddenly and I felt something tugging at 566 00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:14,040 my ankle. I nearly slipped, breaking free, 567 00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:16,880 but when I looked down, there was only the drain. 568 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:20,520 There were smaller things, too. Plants in my room that had 569 00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,680 always done fine started to wither, their leaves curling 570 00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:25,840 black no matter how often I watered them. 571 00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:29,080 My phone camera glitched whenever I tried to take 572 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:32,080 pictures near the church, leaving only static filled 573 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:35,240 frames. And once, while walking home, I 574 00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:38,760 found my shoes caked in the same sticky dirt, though I hadn't 575 00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:40,240 stepped off the pavement all day. 576 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:42,880 I never told my brother the full story. 577 00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:46,840 He just thinks I fainted because of heat exhaustion or maybe bad 578 00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:49,440 food. He laughs about it sometimes, 579 00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:52,280 says I was always too eager to believe ghost stories. 580 00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:55,920 Maybe he's right. A skeptic would say I 581 00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:59,720 hallucinated from lack of air, that the dirt under my nails was 582 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:01,880 just me clawing at the ground in panic. 583 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:06,240 Dreams are just dreams. Plants die for no reason. 584 00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:10,200 Phones glitch, shoes pick up grime without you noticing. 585 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,880 But even now, two years later, I can't shake the feeling that I 586 00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:15,680 was touched by something real that day. 587 00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:19,360 Something that didn't want me there and made sure I knew it. 588 00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:23,320 Sometimes late at night, I'll catch a faint smell of damp 589 00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:26,880 earth in my room. It's not strong, not enough for 590 00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:28,960 anyone else to notice, but I know it. 591 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,080 The same cloying cold soil from that grave. 592 00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:36,000 And every now and then, when I'm drifting off to sleep, I feel a 593 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,120 pressure on my chest. Not enough to stop my breathing 594 00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:41,920 completely, but enough to remind me it could. 595 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:44,720 I've stopped visiting cemetery since then. 596 00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:47,600 My brother still goes sometimes, but I make excuses. 597 00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:51,600 It's not fear exactly, it's more like respect, or maybe 598 00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,320 avoidance. Because deep down I'm afraid if 599 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:58,160 I step foot in another forgotten patch, the dirt under my nails 600 00:32:58,160 --> 00:32:59,880 won't come off so easily next time. 601 00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,120 And if the glowing dots are waiting for me, I don't think 602 00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:04,600 I'll wake up in the same spot again. 603 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:08,240 Story number six. I used to work at a cemetery 604 00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:11,720 that was being decommissioned. It wasn't glamorous, mostly 605 00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:15,040 paperwork, filing old records, locking things up. 606 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:18,560 My last responsibility there was making sure the Mortuary 607 00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:19,960 building was shut down every night. 608 00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:24,280 It was a strange place, a brick structure with arched windows, 609 00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:28,080 chipped plaster, and that massive iron bell bolted to the 610 00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:30,440 roof. People said it used to ring 611 00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:33,720 during burials, like some ritual from the older days, but the 612 00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:36,440 thing had been rusted and out of use for decades. 613 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:40,840 I laughed about it at first. Cemeteries are already creepy, 614 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:44,400 so adding a random bell to the mix felt like one of those weird 615 00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:46,760 traditions that made no sense anymore. 616 00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:50,440 Still, every time I locked that building I had to walk under it, 617 00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:54,200 and it gave me this uneasy weight in my stomach, like if I 618 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:56,680 looked up at the wrong time I'd see something. 619 00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,880 Staring down that final night, everything felt heavier. 620 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,720 The air was damp and the smell of wet soil clung to everything. 621 00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:07,080 I was the last one there. Everyone else had clocked out 622 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:10,080 two hours earlier. I was buried in paperwork, just 623 00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:13,199 trying to finish my shift. The place was silent except for 624 00:34:13,199 --> 00:34:14,880 the occasional rattle of old pipes. 625 00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:18,800 That's when I heard it. A steady dripping sound, faint 626 00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:21,360 at first but rhythmic enough to breakthrough the silence. 627 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:25,480 It was coming from the washroom. I hadn't used it, nobody had 628 00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:28,679 since the staff left. I told myself it was just a 629 00:34:28,679 --> 00:34:32,120 loose tap, but the thought that it suddenly started on its own 630 00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:36,120 after hours felt wrong. Still, I grabbed my keys and 631 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,679 went to check the washroom door, groaned when I pushed it open 632 00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,960 and sure enough, one of the taps was running, cold water 633 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:47,280 splashing onto the cracked sink. The air was damp, musty like 634 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:49,120 mildew mixed with something metallic. 635 00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:53,120 I reached to turn it off when from the corner of the room, a 636 00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,760 broom that had been propped against the wall suddenly fell. 637 00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:00,480 No draft, no movement, it just clattered onto the tiles right 638 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:03,240 beside me. The sound was so sharp it made 639 00:35:03,240 --> 00:35:05,800 me jump back. My heart was hammering in my 640 00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:08,640 chest. For a second I just stood there, 641 00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:12,000 staring at the broom on the floor, feeling stupid for being 642 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:15,920 scared of cleaning equipment. I shut off the tap, picked up 643 00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:18,720 the broom, and walked out, telling myself it was gravity. 644 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:21,960 Old buildings, lean things slide. 645 00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:25,000 Simple. I closed the washroom door 646 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:28,280 behind me, and that's when I froze the bell. 647 00:35:28,720 --> 00:35:33,240 It rang not once, not in that long, slow toll you'd expect 648 00:35:33,240 --> 00:35:37,520 from something old and heavy. It rang again and again, like 649 00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:42,040 frantic bursts of sound, urgent, uneven, as if someone was 650 00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:44,840 yanking the rope from above, trying to warn me. 651 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:48,480 But the bell was broken, and the upper section had always been 652 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:51,360 locked. My hands were shaking, but 653 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,360 something in me needed to check, needed proof. 654 00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:58,040 I grabbed my flashlight and made for the spiral staircase that 655 00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:01,120 led up toward the bell chamber. That staircase looked like 656 00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:05,400 something ripped out of a horror movie set, narrow, twisting with 657 00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:08,320 woods so warped it wind under every step. 658 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,880 The moment I flicked on the flashlight, the beam caught 659 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:13,960 something darting across the room above me. 660 00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:18,200 A quick, shadowy movement, like a person bolting from one corner 661 00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:21,600 to another. I froze halfway up the steps, my 662 00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:25,520 pulse roaring in my ears. I told myself it could have been 663 00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:29,320 a rat, just a big rat. But in that silence, I couldn't 664 00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:30,800 hear any scratching or squeaking. 665 00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,840 I forced myself upward, each step echoing in the hollow 666 00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:37,520 tower. The air grew staler the higher I 667 00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:40,200 climbed. My chest tightened when I 668 00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:43,200 reached the top. the Hatch was locked, just like I expected. 669 00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:47,200 I stood there, breathing hard, waiting for something, anything. 670 00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:51,280 That's when it happened. I felt a push, not a stumble, 671 00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:56,080 not me losing my balance. It was firm, deliberate, like a 672 00:36:56,080 --> 00:37:00,120 hand pressed against my back. My flashlight flew from my grip 673 00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:02,800 as I tumbled. I crashed down the stairs, my 674 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,560 shoulder slamming into the banister, my legs twisting 675 00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:08,040 painfully. By the time I hit the bottom, my 676 00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:09,680 whole body was screaming with pain. 677 00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:13,200 I don't know how long I lay there gasping, trying to 678 00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:15,960 convince myself I hadn't just been shoved by something 679 00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:18,880 invisible. Somehow, I dragged myself out, 680 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:22,840 limping to my car. My only thought was to leave, to 681 00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:25,040 put distance between me and that place. 682 00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:28,800 I made it home, swallowed painkillers and collapsed into 683 00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:31,520 bed. My body ached like it had been 684 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:33,480 through a wreck, but I was alive. 685 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,560 I thought maybe it was done. Maybe my mind had just spiraled 686 00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:39,240 out of control in a creepy building. 687 00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:41,240 But the next morning proved me wrong. 688 00:37:41,720 --> 00:37:43,960 When I opened my eyes, I wasn't in my bedroom. 689 00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:47,280 I was standing, my clothes from last night still on. 690 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:49,840 The sound of running water filled my ears. 691 00:37:50,240 --> 00:37:54,160 I was in the cemetery washroom. The same tap was on, splashing 692 00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:57,480 water just like before. I nearly collapsed right there. 693 00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:00,080 I couldn't piece together how I had gotten there. 694 00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:04,160 The last memory I had was my bed, yet I was back inside that 695 00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:07,280 locked building, inside the washroom I had sworn off. 696 00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:10,680 I don't remember how I got out. I think I ran. 697 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:13,640 Maybe I screamed. I can't be sure anymore. 698 00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:16,120 What I do know is that I never went back. 699 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:19,840 The cemetery was decommissioned a week later, the Mortuary 700 00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:22,920 sealed up for good. I quit the job, didn't even 701 00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:25,680 collect my last paycheck. Money wasn't worth it. 702 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:29,640 Even now, years later, I still wake up sometimes in the middle 703 00:38:29,640 --> 00:38:33,000 of the night, certain I'll find myself standing in that washroom 704 00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:35,880 again. I still hear phantom creaks, 705 00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:40,120 like footsteps circling my bed. Sometimes, faintly, I think I 706 00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:43,920 hear the sound of a bell. I tell myself it's trauma or 707 00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:45,920 sleepwalking or tricks of the mind. 708 00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:48,000 That's the only way to stay sane. 709 00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:51,080 But in quiet moments, when the house settles and the pipes 710 00:38:51,080 --> 00:38:55,400 groan, I get that same tight feeling in my chest as I did 711 00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:59,040 climbing those stairs, that sense that something is standing 712 00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:02,600 just behind me, waiting. Maybe it was never about the 713 00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,160 cemetery. Maybe it followed me home. 714 00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:08,720 And sometimes I wonder if the bell wasn't warning me, but 715 00:39:08,720 --> 00:39:12,880 warning others. Story #7 I spent one summer 716 00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,280 working at a cemetery doing preservation work. 717 00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:18,800 It was a bit exhausting, but my parents insisted I do the 718 00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:21,760 community work. My job was mostly to patch up 719 00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:26,680 the small family mausoleums, fix cracks, replace stones, scrape 720 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:29,600 Moss, that kind of thing. It was quiet work, though 721 00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:33,800 peaceful in a strange way. Except for one crypt, it looked 722 00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:38,600 unremarkable, just a squat stone structure no bigger than a shed, 723 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:40,560 tucked at the edge of a shaded Grove. 724 00:39:41,240 --> 00:39:44,640 I'd been warned it was empty. The family who built it never 725 00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:47,800 ended up using it, and records showed it had never housed a 726 00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:50,120 body. Still, there was something off 727 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:52,280 about it. The first time I noticed 728 00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:55,680 anything, I brushed it off. I leaned close to inspect the 729 00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:59,080 stone door, checking for signs of weather damage, and heard 730 00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:01,680 something faint. It was like murmuring. 731 00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:05,240 Not clear words, more like the sound of two people talking 732 00:40:05,240 --> 00:40:08,640 under their breath. Urgent, hurried, constant. 733 00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:13,240 I chalked it up to sound traveling weirdly, maybe traffic 734 00:40:13,240 --> 00:40:15,080 noise, maybe wind through the trees. 735 00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:18,840 But it wasn't just once. Every time I press my ear 736 00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:22,880 against the door, day or night, I'd hear that low mumble like 737 00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:25,240 someone trapped inside, endlessly whispering. 738 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:29,440 I tried laughing it off, told myself I was spooking myself for 739 00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:31,800 no reason. But it got harder when things 740 00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:35,520 escalated. 1 hot afternoon, while hauling my tools across 741 00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:38,800 the grounds, I spotted something seeping from beneath that crip 742 00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:41,680 door. Dark, thick liquid pooled at the 743 00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:44,040 base. I thought it was rainwater mixed 744 00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:48,360 with dirt at first, but when I got closer it looked red. 745 00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:54,080 Not rust, red, blood red. Before I could even react, a 746 00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:57,640 sound slammed into me, fist pounding from the other side of 747 00:40:57,640 --> 00:41:01,080 the stone door. Violent, desperate, constant 748 00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:03,840 hammering. Each thud shook the ground 749 00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:06,000 slightly, echoing through the still air. 750 00:41:06,720 --> 00:41:08,840 My body locked. I couldn't breathe. 751 00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:13,880 Whoever or whatever was inside wanted out badly. 752 00:41:14,520 --> 00:41:17,320 I remember staring down at my boots and realizing the liquid 753 00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:20,320 had spread under them. It wasn't just pooling anymore. 754 00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:24,560 It was flowing, continuous, like a leak that couldn't be stopped. 755 00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:28,520 My instincts finally screamed at me to run, and I did. 756 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:31,680 By the time I dragged A colleague back, everything was 757 00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:35,320 gone. No blood, no pounding, no noise. 758 00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:38,680 The crypt looked as undisturbed as it had the first day I saw 759 00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:40,840 it. My colleague cursed me for 760 00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:43,720 wasting time and walked away, shaking his head. 761 00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:47,480 I stood frozen there though, because as soon as he was out of 762 00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:51,320 sight, I saw it. Faint light glowing around the 763 00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:54,680 doors edges. Not bright, not like a Lantern, 764 00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:57,400 more like a pale pulse from inside. 765 00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:01,400 I blinked, and suddenly I wasn't standing there anymore. 766 00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:05,000 I was back at the main hall, near the tool shed, like I'd 767 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,000 skipped a memory. I had no idea how long it 768 00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:11,120 passed, but I was holding the same hammer I've been carrying 769 00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:13,440 before. That was the first time I 770 00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:15,160 admitted to myself something was wrong. 771 00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:18,920 Still, I had to keep working. I couldn't just quit because of 772 00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:22,280 a bad feeling. So I stayed, And I kept noticing 773 00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:25,240 little things. One morning, while scraping Moss 774 00:42:25,240 --> 00:42:29,160 off a different mausoleum, I heard someone say my name clear 775 00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:31,560 as day, whispered right against my ear. 776 00:42:32,240 --> 00:42:35,000 I spun around, expecting to see one of the grounds crew messing 777 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:36,880 with me. Nobody was there. 778 00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:39,320 Nobody was even within shouting distance. 779 00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:42,800 When I mentioned it to the older groundsman, he smirked and said 780 00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:44,560 it was just an echo from the road. 781 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,800 But here's the thing, that Crip doesn't face the street. 782 00:42:48,240 --> 00:42:50,320 There's a Grove of trees blocking it entirely. 783 00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:54,960 Another time, while polishing a stone slab nearby, I felt a 784 00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:57,840 sudden drop in temperature. I mean sharp. 785 00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:01,800 One second I was sweating in the sun, the next I could see my 786 00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:04,400 breath in the air. The Crip door stood right in 787 00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:06,800 front of me. I swear the stone surface 788 00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:09,880 glistened as if something wet pressed against it from the 789 00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:11,840 inside. I never opened it. 790 00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:14,920 I don't think I could have even if I wanted to. 791 00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:18,800 The door had no handle, only a sealed seam of stone and rusted 792 00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:22,320 iron, but I often caught myself staring at the gap at the bottom 793 00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:24,840 half, expecting something to seep out again. 794 00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:28,400 On my last day, I tried to tell myself I was imagining at all 795 00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:32,040 that it was just the quiet getting to me, but the cemetery 796 00:43:32,040 --> 00:43:34,760 seemed to disagree. Everywhere I turned I heard 797 00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:38,600 those whispers, not just at the crypt anymore, but around the 798 00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:42,640 gravestones, drifting through the air, always low and hurried, 799 00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:46,760 like dozens of people talking at once, just out of earshot. 800 00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:49,560 By the end of my shift, I was practically running for the 801 00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:51,800 gate. When I finally got home, I 802 00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:54,720 thought I'd left it behind. But that night I woke up 803 00:43:54,720 --> 00:43:58,200 drenched in sweat. A nightmare had jolted me awake. 804 00:43:58,520 --> 00:44:02,480 Murmuring voices pressed against my skull, hissing right into my 805 00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:04,680 ears. When I turned toward my bedroom 806 00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:07,920 door, I froze. From the gap beneath the door, I 807 00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:12,800 saw liquid spreading across the floor, the same deep red winding 808 00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:16,840 slowly toward my bed. I blinked hard, rubbed my eyes, 809 00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:19,680 and it was gone. Just the faint yellow glow of 810 00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:21,720 the hallway light seeping through the crack. 811 00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:25,560 That wasn't the only time. For about a month after I quit, 812 00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:30,200 I had those same dreams. Whispering in the dark, blood 813 00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:33,880 leaking into my room, the pounding of fists on stone. 814 00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:38,440 Always the same, always so real. I'd wake up and check my door. 815 00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:40,680 Eventually, the nightmares faded. 816 00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:44,960 I don't see blood anymore, and I don't hear whispers, at least 817 00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:47,760 not every night. Still, every once in a while, 818 00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:51,080 when I'm lying in bed in silence, I swear I catch a faint 819 00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:53,800 sound. Not outside, not upstairs, but 820 00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:57,920 right against my ear. The same urgent low mumble, the 821 00:44:57,920 --> 00:45:00,520 same voices that once came from an empty crypt. 822 00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:05,080 And sometimes I wonder if the crypt was truly empty, who was 823 00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:08,000 whispering? And if it wasn't, what exactly 824 00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:11,840 did I hear trying to get out? I'll never really know, but 825 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:15,080 whenever I think about it too much, I get this sinking feeling 826 00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:17,160 that maybe I didn't leave that place behind. 827 00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:19,480 Maybe something from it followed me home.