it was October 1st that fresh Autumn Breeze was in the air it felt like fall my favorite season it was my boyfriend Carter and I's first fall living together in our new home I wanted to surprise Carter by decorating the place with fall and Halloween themed decorations before he got home from work one day I thought it would be cute I bought a few things from a nearby Marshalls and a few other stores and I also looked on different apps and websites most notably Facebook Marketplace I simply typed in fall decorations and one listing really
caught my attention it was a picture of a big green plastic container which contained a bunch of fall decorations I clicked on it for more details and more or less it said everything must go entire container of fall themed decorations for sale for cheap the price was only 20 it was a steel that entire big container was full of decorations at the bottom of the ad it also said selling other stuff clearing out house everything must go check my profile so I clicked his profile and looked at some of the other listings he had there
was a weird assortment of things this guy was selling an allegedly new iPhone for $700 a few articles of women's clothing and Christmas decorations there were others but I didn't go through all of them the profile itself was kind of low-key every everything was Private the man's name was Cody and his profile picture was a closeup of a gray Trucker's cap on a guy's head but his face was covered by the brim of the Hat the cover photo was a blurry photo of a lake I messaged the profile and he replied instantly I asked what
kind of decorations were in the container and he said all sorts table wear outdoor decorations Etc so I excitedly told the man I would come buy them today if he were available he confirmed he would be around later on close to 9:00 p.m. as that's when he'd get home from work he sent me an address I looked up the address on Google Map street view it was not in the best town honestly but the house looked completely normal two cars in the driveway in the street view picture lawn kept nice so I agreed to meet
I had my friend Sally come with me just to be safe I went to pick up Sally across town and we were off to this Cody person's house it was a half-hour Drive Sally and I had some time to catch up on the drive there when we got off the highway entering the town that the house was in Sally started half joking around about how sketchy the area was I say half joking around because I know she was saying that partially to be funny and make light of the situation but also because everyone just kind
of knows this really isn't the best town it was dark out though so honestly we didn't see much besides street lights traffic lights and some storefronts as we got closer I saw my phone screen turning on as it vibrated in the cup holder of my car at the next light I checked my phone and saw that it was messages from Cody on messenger he said when you get here you can come right in I showed it to Sally and she said what the hell we both could agree that that was a bit uncomfortable and that
we'd ring the doorbell anyway we pulled up to the house and surprisingly there were no cars in the driveway there were dim lights on in the house though that could barely be seen through the closed blinds of the windows I messaged Cody back saying we're here can you come to the front Sally and I both watched the house as I waited for a response and then we both noticed at the same exact time at one of the windows the blind slightly shift indicating someone was watching us through them then just as quickly as we noticed
it the opening and the blinds closed a few seconds later the front door opened and Cody messaged me back saying I'm at the door you can come in it was a bit of an unsettling situation and I was just happy I brought Sally along the two of us got out of my car and walked closer to the front door door before getting too close I called out Cody's name a few times only to get no response Sally whispered we should leave I took a few steps closer and said Cody one more time really loud and
there was no response I turned and whispered let's go and we started walking back to the car when suddenly I heard a guy say hey yes I'm here inside we turned and saw a man at the doorway but only about half of him he was like peering only half of his body around the door he waved us inside Sally and I cautiously turned back and started walking back to the door as I got closer he fully opened the door but then also walked out of view we walked up the steps and into the house keeping
the front door open and right away got hit with a strong scent like that cotton scent from an old person's house mixed with something very unpleasant we heard fast and heavy footsteps moving away into another room followed by his voice saying it's over in here come here his voice was freakishly deep like it was intimidating I made sure Sally was right by my side before entering the adjacent room we were faced with a very weird sight a dimly lit living room with a depressing pinkish red carpet and really old looking furniture but the smell in
this room was putrid it smelt like actual death in the middle of the room was a red container with a green lid on top of it there was this Cody man standing just over the container this was the first time I got a good clear look at the man and he was not a friendly looking man he invited me over to come open the container I took note of the fact that this container was not the same color as the green container that was in the picture on the Facebook ad it also was a completely
different shape from the looks of it I asked him to open it himself and he said well you're no fun that comment already had Sally and I inching backwards in the direction of the front door but when he lifted the lid off the container and we were suddenly blasted with another putrid smell we turned for the door and left in a hurry without looking back until we got to the car Sally kept telling me to hurry up by the time my car was on all I know is the front door to the house was already
closed I don't know if he was watching us through the window again we were gone very quickly we never actually saw what was in that container it was definitely not decorations though after telling Carter about all this he asked for the address of the place and I told him not to go there he assured me he wouldn't he just wanted to look up the house so I gave it to him the next day he returned home later than usual from work and he told me he stopped by the house and an older woman answered the
door insisting that she lived there alone he knew I wasn't lying though because I showed him all the Facebook messages with the guy which included the address upon looking up the records of that address it does list the owner as a woman in her late 60s this was an incredibly disturbing and unexplainable experience from now on when buying stuff on online I avoid going to people's [Music] houses it was 2019 when this happened I remember specifically because it was the year I was living on my own in Asheville North Carolina I moved here for a
temporary job and it was an excuse for me to live on my own for the first time I was 22 years old and just out of college I had an apartment in downtown I could walk to most things I needed but I also had my car for when I wanted to Branch out or venture out of town the thing I loved about Asheville and North Carolina in general was the sheer amount of hiking trails I'd been to many around town but one I hadn't been to was DuPont State Forest one day I decided to go
the drive was just under an hour from Asheville it was a random Wednesday in October the leaves were starting to change and it was the perfect time for a hike I didn't have work that day and it be a work day for everyone else it meant I'd probably have the trails all to myself I got to the parking area for the park and I found where one of the trails began I walked for a while and the trail was Serene I was the only one out there that day it was a cloudy day and we'd
been getting a lot of rain that week which was more of a reason I wanted to go because the trail would lead to some nice waterfalls called Triple Falls and High Falls and the waterfalls would be more impressive after a few days of rainfall I only had to hike about4 miles before getting to the Triple Falls which was a really cool site a little piece of trivia a scene in The Hunger Games was filmed at this waterfall I took a few videos and pictures as I sat on a rock for a bit I noticed a
woman in the woods on the trail she was looking at me I waved at her trying to be polite then she just turned around and slowly walked deeper into the woods until she was out of sight not really something I gave a second thought to anyway I wasn't tired yet I had literally just started hiking so I didn't sit for for too long I got up and headed back to the trail I didn't want to try climbing the rocks of the waterfall because they were incredibly slippery I continued to ascend up the trail and eventually
came to the higher point of the falls called High Falls I took a few more videos and pictures here and sat on another dry Rock for a bit I swear I felt the sense of deja vu when I saw that woman again in the Woods by the trail once again she was staring me down I didn't wave this time I instead looked down at my phone pretending not to notice or care I couldn't help but glance up after like 10 seconds and now she was gone if I had to guess the woman was like 55
she had short grayish blonde hair from the looks of it but again she was pretty far away so this was all just what I saw of her from a distance I didn't see which way she went but whatever way it was I wanted to go the opposite I kept walking the direction I'd been walking and eventually came to another landmark of the trail the covered bridge I once again stopped here to take a Scenic video and a few photos I drank a bit of my water and then looked at the end of the bridge from
the side I had just walked from I saw that woman I swear I didn't see her there before I started taking videos and pictures I also didn't hear anyone walking behind me she was once again staring right at me as if I were doing something wrong I was getting annoyed I started walking over to her and said excuse me but she just turned around and started walking away away actually the speed at which she was walking away for someone at her age was unsettling I almost felt concerned at the possibility that she may have been
somebody with special needs that needed help but I didn't convince myself to go chasing after her I just leaned on the edge of the bridge for a few minutes before deciding to turn back I had already been hiking for about 45 minutes and it would take another 45 to get back down to the car walking back down the trail I came in the direction that that woman had gone I passed a younger woman and walking her dog so I decided to stop her and ask if she'd seen an older woman pass by she said no
and just trying to make conversation about it talk to somebody about it I told her how I kept seeing that woman popping out of nowhere and looking at me then just walking off she laughed and said that's really really strange I didn't want to take up too much of her time so after we both shared a laugh about it I continued on my way the entire way down the trail I grew a bit paranoid that I'd see that woman lurking around in the background somewhere again but all was quiet on the way down I passed
one other person who gave me a friendly smile and a nod other than that I made it back to my car undisturbed later that day I went on a date with a girl I was seeing there we went to our favorite local bar to get some pumpkin spice beers and watch baseball I told her about the woman on the trail and she found it amusing because honestly it did sound funny after that I went home fast forward to that night when I was in bed I hardly ever wake up in the middle of the night
I'm a pretty heavy sleeper normally so me waking up in the middle of the night in the dark was unusual I was still coming too when I heard something at the foot of my bed I looked up and saw the figure of a woman at the foot of my bed I felt as though my insides had just fallen out of my body I started screaming so loud that I'm sure my neighbors could have heard it even with the windows closed I started crawling against my headboard trying to distance myself as as much as possible from
the female figure at the foot of my bed then she just turned and walked out of the room I stopped screaming now more so trying to just catch my breath and slow my rapidly Beating Heart I flicked on the lamp and started shouting who's there I listened but there was dead silence I grabbed the knife I had in the nightstand next to my bed and jumped out of bed I flicked on every light switch I passed until the entire apartment was lit up there was no one there not in the closet not behind a couch
not under any beds and so I called my father I didn't know what else to do I needed to share what just happened with somebody my father groggy picked up the phone and after explaining to him he said I must have hallucinated it while I was still in my half asleep State he said I wasn't fully awake yet and so I could have been seeing things I knew deep down he was probably right but it didn't make the image I saw any less real looking or horrifying and then I told him about the woman in
the park and how the figure at my bed actually resembled her he said if anything that further proves his point that my brain conjured up a familiar image from earlier that day somehow I went back to sleep that night with my bedroom door barricaded with my dresser just in case it wasn't until 2 days later that I heard from my mom that her sister in Germany died I'd never met my Aunt she'd been basically estranged from my mom as she hadn't left Germany in over 25 years my mom and Uncle flew to Germany to attend
the funeral and it wasn't until she got back home and I saw the prayer card with my aunt's face on it that once again I felt like my organs dropped out of my body when I realized she looked identical to the woman I saw on the trail that day and hallucinated at the foot of my bed this story shook my whole family especially because I told my dad about all of it and the hallucination before we even got news of my aunt's passing I was born a Catholic but never found myself to be super religious
after confirmation but godamn does this really send shivers down my spine and make me question what exactly I believe [Music] in my friend Carlos and I like to do stupid things together we've been friends since we were 10 and when we were 21 we became roommates we lived in Brunswick Georgia where we grew up a little coastal town that had its pros and cons but overall was an okay place to grow up but it got boring as we entered at our 20s anyway that's neither here nor there while we did live there we knew about
a creepy looking house that differed from the rest of the houses in town and that it looked like it was built in a different Century it had long been abandoned and we and our friends would make up stories about its history it was mid October and everyone was in Halloween mode people were doing Halloween themed activities like haunted houses and corn mazes and such we thought it would be fun one Friday night to go break into that house and explore so we after we were both home from our jobs we both grabbed baseball bats to
bring with us stopped for some fast food and beers on the way and drove to the house we parked all the way down the road just not to be suspicious the houses around there were not that close together so each property was pretty big which meant we were less likely to get caught snooping around we both grabbed a couple beers each and threw them in our backpacks not sure why we thought we were going to drink in there but along with that we stuffed our baseball bats into the sides just so no one would see
us walking around with baseball bats in our hands late at night looking like trouble we quietly walked down the street just whispering to each other it took less than 5 minutes to get to the house it was so dark on this part of the street because this house along with the house across the street had no lights on there weren't any street lights on the street whatever light there may have been would have had to come from one of the few houses with their lights on from here on we used our flashlights we brought the
front lawn had a bunch of dirt patches and the patches of grass were overgrown lot lots of weeds everywhere it seemed we walked around to the backyard to look for an entry point because doing that out front seemed stupid for obvious reasons shockingly the back door was already unlocked the place wasn't boarded up or anything the back windows weren't even smashed we knew that the place was abandoned though everybody did we walked right in navigating inside of there would have been impossible had it not been for our flashlights the house was bigger than some of
the neighboring houses yet the inside felt very cramped like there were a lot of rooms but they were smaller almost giving the house a mazike feeling Carlos stepped into another room away from me and at that moment I was alone I heard his voice say from another room yo there's still Furniture everywhere I responded yeah this place must have been abandoned in a hurry everything seemed ancient like Furniture in my grandma's house only not used in years I walked around the first floor somewh and came to a tiny Corridor with a few doors to that
led to bedrooms I entered one of the bedrooms and it was incredibly cramped the bed took up 80% of the room I went through some of the drawers in the dresser but they all seemed like they'd already been gone through same with the closet anything left behind besides this old furniture just looked like junk I heard Carlos say he's going upstairs I said back okay we were speaking at a volume that was just loud enough for each of us to hear after checking out the other bedroom down on the first floor which was was equally
cramped I went back out to the corridor there were two other doors one that led to a bathroom and then when I opened the final door I was looking down a long Stairway to a basement I decided [ __ ] it I'm walking down I started descending the steps each step squeaking and cracking under my weight I got about halfway down the steps when I realized there was a faint glow coming from down there I turned off my flashlight and yes there was still a little f glow coming from down there I should have turned
and left in that moment like any normal person but I do stupid things like I die first in a horror movie most likely I continued down the stairs with my flashlight off and when I got to the bottom I looked around the wall separating the stairs from the rest of the basement and I saw what was just barely lighting up the room it was two tall candles sitting on a table but that wasn't the first thing I noticed what I saw first was what was next to that and it was some kind of sofa rocking
chair and it was rocking someone was seated in it it was facing away from the stairway all I could see was a hand on one of the arms of the chair I had to get out of there I started going back up the stairs as quietly as I could with each crack and squeak causing me to cringe in fear I was halfway up the stairs now I looked back down and could still see the faint glow of the candles so I continued as quietly as I could I was almost to the top and one stare
creaked especially loud I paused for a moment clenching my teeth so hard I proceeded up the final steps and made it to the top I turned to shut the door but I noticed it was Pitch Black down there now the thought of the candles having been put out sent a shiver down my spine I quietly closed the door and then I tiptoed around this cramped Maze of a house until I found the stairway going upstairs I stood at the bottom of the stairs and quietly called up to Carlos he wasn't responding I sighed and started
quietly going up the stairs repeating Carlos's name still no response I had to go all the way up to the top of the stairs repeating his name and he still wouldn't respond so I said If you're trying to scare me stop joking around there's someone in the basement we need to get out of here that got his attention because he stepped out from a dark room and asked if I was serious I told him I'd explain outside but that I'm not kidding he followed me down the stairs I was trying less so to be quiet
now because I just wanted to get out of that house we were heading back to the back door where we entered but when we passed the corridor with the basement door we both saw the silhouette of a man standing in front of the door the time for sneaking round was over I kept repeating just go as we booked it outside and ran for my car we made it to the car in like 30 seconds I was already winded by the time we made it back I backed the car off that street and started driving us
home in the car ride was when I explained in detail what I saw all Carlos kept saying was yo what the [ __ ] to everything I said he was in just as much disbelief as me so while no I don't think anyone legally lived in that house I do think someone was squatting in there down in that basement who knows who it was honestly who cares I just never returned anywhere near that street
