when I was a kid I had an irrational fear of our basement though if I do say so myself our basement was kind of scary for a kid it was a pretty big basement there was an L-shaped couch right in the middle of the basement that sat right in front of a wooden support column in front of the couch was the big old Bo TV we had down there which had all of our video game consoles plugged into the layout of the basement was set up as a big circle that went around the couch basically
there was a booth and table in one corner an old bar in the other Corner which had the door to the laundry room behind it and then in the other Corner closest to the stairs was the doorway to my dad's little workout room my dad rented out the upstairs of the house to an old lady named Ruth so we only had access to the first floor and the basement my dad would usually hang out in the living room on the first floor hence why our video games were all downstairs on the crappy TV because our
dad didn't really hang out down there I'm the youngest sibling I have two older brothers I was anywhere from 6 to 8 years old when this happened my older brothers weren't home so they must have been having playdates with other kids it was just my mom and I home at the time my dad was likely at work usually I'd be playing video games with my brothers in the basement so I wouldn't be scared but since I was alone I remember being kind of creeped out as I walked down the stairs that basement door sucked because
it wouldn't stay open by default it would just slowly creep shut unless something was propped in front of the door to keep it open so it just made me feel even more isolated from the upstairs and my mom I was playing whatever old video games I was into at the time alone on that gray fluffy couch any little sound in the basement would make me pause my game and look in whatever Direction I heard it there would always be creepy sounds that would come from the laundry room and even though I grew to expect them
they'd still sometimes creep me out they were usually familiar sounds though and so when I heard an unusual sound come from inside the laundry room I paused my game it wasn't the sound of the laundry machine or the boiler clacking it was the sound of something dropping to the floor and bouncing once or twice I remember jumping off the couch and running upstairs to find my mom saying there's someone in the basement and I remember my mom's calm reaction and asking me what happened and then explaining to me that nobody is down there to make
me feel better she went back down to the basement with me and she opened the door to the laundry room turned on the light and looked inside for a few seconds then she shut the door and said there's no one in there so naturally I felt better and she went back upstairs and I went back to playing video games I can't remember how much time passed before I went back upstairs to eat a snack my mom was already preparing dinner I remember it being dark out now which only added to my fear of the basement
the basement had two small Windows which did allow some light in during the day so at night it was just completely pitch black down there I did end up going back down there though and then eventually I heard the sound of the heater in the laundry room turn on only it was extremely loud I turned around and noticed the laundry room door was now open I got off the couch and slowly walked to the laundry room door it was Pitch Black inside of there I was scared to turn on the light I just wanted to
shut the door I gathered up enough courage to run at the door and slam it shut and then run back to the couch for some reason I just felt safer on the couch I guess for whatever reason I didn't once think that it was strange that the door was magically open now even after my mom had closed it earlier the next thing I remember was hearing a man's voice from behind me and at first my brain didn't register what the I just heard it didn't seem real at first I turned around and saw some sickly
looking man sitting in the booth in the corner of the basement with his arm on the table and his head resting on his fist he said my God how you've grown I was frozen stiff I couldn't even scream I just looked at the man in the corner with my mouth hanging open twitching he slowly stood up in this crooked hunched over posture and it seemed like he was slowly starting to walk towards me as he said your mother won't let me see you guys I finally was able to scream and I just bolted for the
stairs I was screaming mom the whole way up to the kitchen I slammed the basement door and locked it I screamed and cried to my mom that there's a man downstairs I saw the look in her face and she was petrified she called 911 and I strangely don't remember what happened to the moments before the police showed up I just remember a bunch of police officers getting there and going down to the basement I was with my mom and a police officer in a safe room while they found him and the man they found was
my my uncle my estranged Uncle my mom's brother who was basically excommunicated from our family for being a child rapist our parents never wanted him anywhere near us nor did my mom want any contact with him he broke into the house and had been hiding in the basement for God knows how long I didn't even know his face as the last time I'd seen him I was a baby I haven't seen him since then he went back to prison for another 4 years for another sex crime we don't know where where he is now it
was approaching Halloween we were in the middle of October my cousin Andy's birthday is October 15th so for his 12th birthday we all went over to our uncle John and Aunt Melissa's house as they were throwing him a family birthday party we have a pretty big family and so our family gatherings can often get hectic it was still warm outside so the party was mostly in the backyard their house is pretty big and we always used to love playing hideand-seek type games because of it Andy and I are the same age my older brother Chase
is 2 years older than me he would play with us too our other cousins were a little older but they'd still play with us too we just make teams and take turns as hiders and Seekers and give each other time limits to find the opposing hiding team if you were found you'd have a chance to run outside to the backyard to be safe if you managed to not get tagged we could use the whole house minus our aunt's and uncle's bedroom and I'm not exaggerating when I say there were hundreds of places to hide in
the basement there's a separate room that's considered Aunt Melissa's fashion room as we call it she's a fashion designer and inside of it she has a bunch of mannequins with different pieces of clothing she's designed some are full body mannequins others are just torsos without heads and regular stands underneath them she also has some studio lights some official camera equipment and a green screen drop we had been playing the game for a little while already Chase and I were hiding now we both chose to hide in the basement Chase hid somewhere in the main section
of the basement while I headd in the fashion room I actually grabbed two blankets from the ottoman in the basement and brought them into the fashion room one for me to hide under and the other one I was going to throw over one of the mannequins as a decoy with the blanket thrown over it it genuinely looked like it could be a person hiding underneath I thought it would be a funny little gotcha moment whenever someone yanked the sheet off of it so I got into my Hiding position under a desk in the corner of
the room and I hid under the blanket now it was a waiting game that was honestly a big chunk of the game if your hiding spot was good after quite a long time I heard commotion outside in the main room of the basement as Chase and one of my cousins were laughing and yelling presumably as Chase was being chased around the basement I heard them then stomping up up the stairs by the sound of it Chase was trying to make it to the yard without being tagged but after that I waited in silence for over
10 minutes easily I was getting uncomfortable in this position and quite honestly bored finally Chase came downstairs into the room and called my name and then he said the food was being served outside so the game was over I was starving I hurriedly rushed upstairs into the backyard where all the catered food was now out and being served at some point after eating and having a conversation with Aunt Melissa I remembered that I totally left those two blankets in her fashion room most importantly that I left one over her mannequin which she would not be
happy about so after going to the bathroom I went back down to the basement and to the fashion room where I turned on the light and saw that the blanket was no longer on that mannequin but rather the blanket was covering something else it appeared to be another mannequin though this one seemed to be propped in a seated position which I wasn't aware of any mannequins that were in a seated position the closer I got I started to realize that it was moving and I heard breathing on top of that there was this funky smell
that wasn't there before there was a person under there but who I laughed and said who is that they didn't answer I felt this feeling of uneasiness growing in my stomach I looked down to see if I could see the shoes they were wearing but what I saw was the bare feet of a black person nobody at this party was black back I turned and headed for the door I rushed back outside and said to my uncle to call the police there's someone in the basement others overheard me and panic quickly ensued my uncle and
a few others rushed down to the basement I followed behind when we got to an Melissa's fashion room the blanket was now on the floor and whoever was underneath it was gone I swore up and down someone was just underneath it explaining the bare feet and the smell a bunch of family members searched the whole house and ultimately Ely my uncle called the police taking my claims very seriously when the police showed up it was kind of a whole scene and everyone at the party was concerned neighbors even came out to see if everything was
okay every possible hiding place was checked and no one was in the house I didn't make it up though it was genuine what I saw and I just wish he did turn up so that everyone would have seen I was right even if mostly everyone did believe me I still just wanted them to see what I saw for themselves during parties they leave the doors unlocked since family circulating in and out for hours so it's no shocker that someone off the street could have just walked right in maybe a homeless person which would account for
the smell the whole thing still just felt so crazy and it's a haunting memory for [Music] sure this story takes place when I was 9 years old I'm now almost 25 I was at my great grand grandfather's house in Idaho during Christmas break visiting family and whatnot this was also the first year my mom's boyfriend came with us because my parents had divorced the summer before my grandpa used to live in a small Indian Reservation town which has about 1,000 people my grandpa's house was a small two-story house that had a lot of field and
Forest it was a beautiful house in property and I miss it dearly anyway about a day after we got there my aunt uncle and cousins who lived in the same town as us came in Surprise Us by driving 10 hours to visit with us as well after telling us they weren't going to be able to because of work it was fun because at the time my cousins and I were close one night my uncle my step a and my cousin who lived just next door to my grandpa came over and visited with everybody the grown-ups
started talking grown-up talk so me and my cousins Sam who was nine Evan who was 12 and Kennedy who was 10 decided to go downstairs to the basement and play our Monster game the way this game was played is where Sam and Evan were monsters and they hid down in the basement with the lights completely off and then Kennedy and I would have to find them they would make noises so we could kind of have easy access to find them but not fully then if we got near them they would make monster noises and Chase
Kennedy and I and we had to go back to the top of the stairs which was our safe Zone I know it was a kind of stupid game thinking about it now but at the time it was pretty scary but really fun anyway Sam and Evan went downstairs to hide and they told us to wait 2 minutes before going down to start finding them Kennedy and I waited upstairs for 2 minutes and then we went downstairs to find Sam and Evan Kennedy went down first and we started looking for them we just did our normal
thing for this game it was completely pitch black downstairs the only light down there was the pellet stove and the moon shining through the window although we knew it was just our cousins hiding it was still pretty scary just because it was Pitch Black and completely silent about 5 minutes later Sam and Evan jump out and scare us and then they chased us we go back upstairs and decided to play another round we did our normal thing by waiting for 2 minutes then heading downstairs this time I went first as we went downstairs we heard
Evan or Sam hit the wall which made me jump we continued walking down when I noticed a figure standing outside the window I stopped walking and put my hand out to stop Kennedy she got a little irritated and said come on why are you stopping I didn't say anything but I pointed towards the window showing her the figure Kennedy noticed the figure then she whispered Sam Evan we need you to stop the game there's someone standing outside surprisingly Sam responded to us I figured he would have wanted to continue the game and not say anything
he said you guys are lying you're just scared I was starting to get upset because they wouldn't believe us guys seriously look at the window above the TV then we saw Sam and Evan emerge from underneath the pingpong table my grandpa had for us and they looked up Evan just laughed a little and called us saying it's probably uncle Stan just outside smoking I knew it wasn't my uncle Stan because he always smoked outside on the front porch right by the front door I then told Evan that Sam then said very annoyed then it's probably
grandpa just checking out the house because you know him he's always checking to see if the house has any problems if you guys are worried about it then go upstairs and check I then go upstairs to check check but I pretend that I'm just looking for something I go into the living room and everyone I knew that was there were all in the living room it wasn't my uncle Stan nor my grandpa or anybody everyone was sitting in the living room my stomach dropped there was definitely someone out there I didn't want to tell the
adults because I was worried they wouldn't believe me I go back downstairs as I'm shaking and I tell them guys everyone's in the living room no one is missing there is someone out there Sam and Evan finally realized this wasn't a joke and their jish facial expressions turned into scared Expressions Kennedy began to cry a little I told her not to make too much noise we all went to the top of the stairs to figure out what we should do of course Sam and Evan were giving dumb ideas like shooting the guy or something we
didn't want to tell the adults so we just stayed at the top for 5 minutes then we went back down when we were back down the figure was gone we assumed that the figure just left and went their way we decided we didn't want to play the game anymore so we would just play pingpong instead we turned the light onto the basement and when they come on we noticed the window was cracked open I thought to myself was the window cracked open this whole time I looked towards the furniture and my heart suddenly dropped there
was a man in his mid-40s sitting in one of the sofa chairs staring at us we were so scared that we just stood there Frozen the guy began smiling all creepy-like at us he then began to stand and then I yelled run we ran up the stairs and slammed the door to the basement then we ran into the living room crying to our family that there was a man downstairs one of my uncles who's a cop went and grabbed one of my grandpa's guns and headed downstairs my uncle came back up after a few minutes
and said there was no one down there so we assumed he climbed back out the window and ran the adults believed us when we said there was someone down there because outside there were footprints in the snow and they led to my grandpa's driveway nothing was stolen downstairs so that was good we were all so scared that we just sat with our moms and hugged them that night when we went to bed I was still afraid so I slept in bed with my mom my cousins and I haven't played that game since my grandpa was
pretty upset because he thought his windows couldn't be opened from the outside but he was glad that my cousins and I weren't harmed my grandfather passed away October of 2017 and I missed that guy dearly but ever since that incident I have always been afraid of going into any basement by myself even as I've gotten older although I haven't been back to my grandpas in almost a year I still am scared of that basement or any basement to this day
