[Music] this happened a few Winters ago I had just finalized my divorce about 6 months earlier and to put it lightly I needed a reset Christina my girlfriend at the time suggested we take a trip somewhere quiet something different from the chaos I'd been dealing with we found a rental on a lake in Upstate New York and I booked it for a week without much thought the place was exactly what I was looking for a modern but cozy house positioned right on the lake surrounded by woods with only a handful of other property scattered along
the shoreline most of them were empty it wasn't exactly peak season for lakefront living I welcomed that though I really just wanted to be as far from civilization as possible the host wasn't going to be there but he gave us some detailed instructions on where to find the keys some stuff about the house you know all the standard Airbnb stuff we arrived in the morning and when we got there there was a small package sitting on the front steps waiting for us there was no return address just a little handwritten note that said enjoy your
stay make sure to stay warm that part was kind of cute but there was something else in the package a tiny box of matches we figured it was some kind of welcome gift a weird one but harmless enough Christina left left and made a joke about how the upstate people have always been a little odd and that was that the next two days were exactly what we wanted long hikes through the snow hot drinks by the fireplace total peace and quiet oh yeah I should probably mention that the snow had been steadily falling since we
arrived not quite a blizzard because there wasn't that much wind or fog but there was enough snow to make the landscape feel untouched it was perfect I think it's a good time to describe the layout of the house at least somewhat the master bedroom where we slept was on the second floor it had these massive Windows across from the bed that Overlook the lake the roof or at least the windows must have been pretty thin because we could hear the patter of snowflakes from inside which was a really nice touch there was also a skylight
in there so we could fall asleep to the beautiful sky and snow sometime after midnight on the third night I woke up to a sound it was barely audible over the sound of the Wind wind and the snow the first thing I noticed was actually the storm the snowfall had gotten considerably heavier since I had fallen asleep and the outdoors was starting to resemble more of a blizzard I shifted my focus back to the sound and realized why it stuck out it sounded man-made almost mechanical unlike the natural sounds you'd expect to hear out in
the wilderness I quietly got out of bed careful not to wake up Christina and I made my way across the room I looked out the window and saw the last thing I expected to see a snowmobile it was moving slowly across the ice I know it's not the most abnormal thing people drive snowmobiles on frozen lakes all the time but I was just so confused given how late it was like I said the snow was falling more heavily now so visibility wasn't great but I could still make out the shape the driver was moving cautiously
like they weren't completely sure about the ice and then they just stopped enti ly I watched as the person climbed off and started waving their hands like they were in distress it looked like they were shouting but I couldn't make out what they were saying to my horror I realized that they were facing in the direction of our house did they know we were there it was impossible either way it looked like they needed help so I woke Christina and told her what was happening then I got dressed went downstairs and stepped outside onto the
deck it was freezing even with the layers I was wearing as soon as I opened the door I got hit with another surprise the person on the ice was a woman I could tell because she was shouting for help saying thank God someone's there and repeating that she lost her little boy somewhere in the snowstorm it sounded like she was crying or borderline hysterical it wasn't a question of whether or not I'd help if there was a child out there in that weather all alone they weren't going to last long I laced my boots and
made my way toward the lake telling Christina to stay inside as I approached the woman I started to make out more details of her appearance she was bundled up in a thick fur coat and her hair was pulled back into a tight braid the ice was completely solid there wasn't even a chance of falling through so I started to relax knowing that it would have been impossible for that little boy to have fallen through as I got closer she started saying that he had run away from home and that she was looking for him that
that statement gave me some pause I had expected her to say something like he had fallen off her snowmobile and she hadn't noticed and then I started to think about how ridiculous even that story was how the hell do you not notice your own kid falling off a snowmobile the adrenaline must have been clouding my judgment because I hadn't even thought about that until right then I was just about to ask her for more details when she said something that literally made me freeze she asked me if I still got those matches and I could
tell she was smiling for a split second I had no idea what she was talking about and then it all clicked at once the matches that package from the first day the note she had left it not our host before I could react she reached into her coat and pulled out a gun she demanded my wallet and phone and I gave them to her I had no other choice the whole interaction happened within the span of not even 30 seconds without another word she climed climed back onto the snowmobile and disappeared into the white out
as she was speeding away I turned towards the house and ran as fast as I could on the ice shouting for Christina to call the police the whole time she was already on the phone with them when I finally made it back to the house I lock the doors and paced the room still shaking I kept looking outside half expecting to see that snowmobile circling back the cops showed up about an hour later by that point the fresh snowfall had already covered any trap that woman had left behind Christina was hysterical but I was mostly
angry I had come here for peace there was hope though I couldn't think of a reliable way that that woman had gotten her snowmobile onto the lake so I expected the police to at least find the vehicle abandoned somewhere unfortunately I was wrong the police searched the area and found an old boat ramp on the far side of the lake their best guess was that she had come from there I was Furious and insisted they keep look looking but they told me the same thing I already knew there wasn't much they could do even if
she left something behind they'd never find it in all the snow with Christina's help I tried tracking my phone but by that point it was already offline the one good thing about the whole ordeal was that the Airbnb host refunded the entire trip he sounded genuine on the phone and confirmed that he knew nothing about a welcome package but something about the whole thing didn't sit right with me how could that woman have possibly known we'd be staying there and why go to such elaborate lengths just for a simple robbery I couldn't help but think
the host had something to do with it but I had no proof I brought it up with Airbnb but they were about as helpful as you'd expect I know I've always been a paranoid guy but for the longest time after that I couldn't help but feel that my ex-wife had something to do with it it honestly makes me angry writing about this I can just imagine her stupid face laughing at my expense I've since come to terms with how likely that possibility is but the whole thing still doesn't make any sense even now I have
no idea why someone would do all of that just for a wallet and phone unless they were seriously messed up in the head and got some kind of sick pleasure out of it my family owns a northern California lake house that we visit for a couple of short weeks out of the Year during Prime Time summer weather it's two stories tall with an attic when my younger sister and I were little we used to climb into the attic and pretend we were camping with sleeping bags we would even bring our puppy up there there was
one small window in the Attic that we would peer through to look down at the lake we always got a kick from watching people in our early teenage years we got a bit too big for both of us to stay in the Attic comfortably so that put an end to our sleeping bag Antics looking back it was a little little sad but everyone's got to grow up eventually when our grandparents died my parents inherited the remainder of their Furniture we had some space to fit the bigger Furniture pieces but the attic ended up getting stuffed
with the smaller hand me- down items my parents didn't really have the heart to get rid of any of it as it was all they had left of my nana and pop it felt Bittersweet putting all of my grandparents stuff up there but it felt reassuring knowing that little pieces of their most cherished items were still watching over us in a way that whole period honestly felt like the ending of my childhood and I bet my sister would agree as we got older it got harder for my family to make it out there to the
lake house due to my studies and my parents work at best we could all maybe get a singular week off for a family trip but nothing beyond that my parents didn't really want to rent it out during the many months we weren't there because they were scared of getting their antiques ripped off or broken by sketchy tenants so for most of the year it was more or less a abandoned only really being kept up by the landscapers my parents had to deal with but a few years back they met a local elderly veteran now working
as an antique craft restorationist and eventually signed a year-long lease with him trusting him not to rough up the place he was a small disfigured man with white hair and one of those Gruff greasy beards we all thought he looked a bit bizarre with a grally off-putting voice to match but my dad bonded with the guy over his military background grounds my dad told us reassuringly that none of us understood what it was like to lay your life down for your country and that guys like him were deserving of a good deal on a place
to stay we didn't really have a say in what my Dad decided to do but I can tell firsthand that this elderly man seriously creeps me out besides just that we were all a bit sour about my dad's signing the lease with the guy because it also meant that we wouldn't be able to visit the lake house in the summer anyways my parents could use the extra cash while putting us through college so my sister and I got over it even though our parents trusted him to keep the place from burning down they would periodically
check in on him through a little prodding from the landscaper workers plus my parents had to make sure he hadn't fallen or had any issues that had gone unnoticed these indirect check-ins seemed like the perfect solution we stayed out of his nose but still got peace of mind you might call that a little invasive but this guy was getting a great deal on the place anyway I guess an elderly crusty guy in his Twilight years couldn't really care less about occasional questions from laid-back landscapers now and then it wasn't like he was going to be
able to physically keep the lake house in shape by himself anyway my dad reasoned that his rent at least covered the maintenance despite it looking like he'd been a decent tenant that all went out the window when the maintenance guys pointed out his predatory behavior to my mom over the phone they told my mom that while doing landscaping for the Neighbors yards they'd often spot him sitting weirdly on the porch staring at the children by the lake they said they had caught him doing other things too that I don't really feel comfortable repeating my mom
was a real Saint and absolutely loathed the idea of a disfigured old man eyeing children while being a tenant in her beloved Lakehouse for months she talked my dad's ear off about it until he couldn't take it any longer I still remember my mom screaming at him about how irresponsible it was for us to be accommodating a potential Predator my dad finally cracked when the end of the year-long lease was up my Dad tried to let him down easy he had high respect for him as a veteran my dad lied and told him that they
planned on having some work done to the house that would leave him without electricity or Plumbing for a few months the guy left without too much of a fuss it wasn't like the money my parents had made off of him was great they assumed he'd be able to find another spot just fine my mom told my dad to stop worrying about him so much my mom wanted him out of there as quickly as possible so we even paid the Landscaping guys a little extra to help him grab his belongings admittedly I was also kind of
happy to see him gone it had always felt weird that someone so strange had basically unlimited access to our house anyway about a year after that my younger sister graduated college so my parents seized upon the opportunity clocked in their sick days and flew us out for a summer trip at the lakeh house my parents had recently gotten a black lab mix named bear who my sister hadn't met yet so she was especially thrilled I'll skip all the irrelevant stuff but by the time we actually made it to the house the sun had just started
setting so we decided to leave bear inside while we grabbed dinner in town the house wasn't stocked with groceries or anything so we didn't really have another option before we left I noticed bear was acting strange his ears were perked up and he kept pacing like he was waiting for something I figured he was just rest from the long trip and brushed it off we weren't gone long just enough time to eat and let the heat die down but when we stepped back inside something felt off like seriously off before I could say anything I
saw bear he was sprawled out at the foot of the stairs panting hard my sister screamed and I realized there was blood smearing the floor beneath him my mom immediately pulled out her phone presumably to call 911 without a word my dad made his way into the kitchen and grabbed a knife I followed suit and the two of us slowly made our way around the house searching for the Intruder by the time we made it to the top floor my dad motioned for me to stop it took me a second but I ultimately realized what
he was looking at the attic hatch was open it wasn't wide open just cracked but enough that we could see the faint glare of a flashlight shining down I'm not proud to admit it but I was petrified in fear in that moment if it weren't for my dad I don't know what would have happened without hesitation he yanked the hatch and started bounding up the ladder I didn't follow this time I was too scared I listened expecting to hear some kind of fight but no such sound came instead a few moments later my dad climbed
back down the ladder seemingly calm he whispered to me that it was our old tenants and I could tell that he was really torn about what to do my mom eventually came running up the stairs and when she found found out what was going on she started screaming at the top of her lungs my dad wanted to let the guy go but my mom wasn't having it she had called the police already anyway so that was that when the police arrived they went up to the attic and carried the guy down the ladder he looked
like he was in really bad shape and I could tell my dad had nothing but sympathy the police found our house key on his person which also angered my mom because my dad had told her that he had changed the locks luckily bear survived although he was seriously injured as awful a thing as that man had done my dad refused to press charges no matter what my mom or sister said to convince him that was actually one of the biggest fights my parents ever had and I never understood why my dad had so much sympathy
for someone who had literally stabbed his dog this all took place about a year ago and we haven't been back to the lake house since I really hate to say it but this experience seriously tainted my childhood image of that house I can't say I want to go back anytime soon [Music] this happened last summer I was 20 years old my name is Kevin my friend James comes from a very wealthy family his dad is like an IP lawyer who contracts with the US government or something they've got a bunch of properties all over the
country and a handful of international ones too that's the kind of wealth I'm talking about one of their houses is on a relatively large but overall pretty secluded Lake the lake itself isn't so big that you can't see the houses on the other side of it but it would be a workout and a half swimming across the whole thing James parents were never around so he pretty much had unlimited access to that house and he often invited friends over with permission of course there's something about being out on the lake that makes you feel Invincible
it's a different feeling than the beach for sure I'm not really sure how to explain it but there's more of an exclusive vibe to it hopefully I can be successful enough to afford one one day like I said the lake itself is pretty secluded big fancy houses line the perimeter but most of them would usually sit dark and empty a lot of them were vacation homes for people who barely even use them it's honestly kind of a shame thinking about it there are upsides to that though James would throw the craziest parties there because there
were usually no neighbors to call the police this night was different though it was just the two of us having a more chill night I won't get into it but I had just broken up with my girlfriend of 3 years and I was in dire need of some bro time we were having a few beers out on the dock when I noticed a light flicking across the lake I can't remember exactly what time it was at first I thought it was just the sun perfectly reflecting off something into my eye but even when I moved
my head to the side I could still see it it was flashing like someone was turning a light on and off repeatedly I told James and the two of us became fixed on it trying to figure out what it could be at some point we realized the flashing wasn't random it was following a pattern three short bursts followed by three longer ones followed by three short ones I guess I'm dumb for not knowing this but James snapped his fingers and said it was Morse code I looked at him like he was crazy and asked him
when in the world he had learned mors code he told me he didn't actually know it but he knew what three short three long three short mens SOS I called BS and pulled out my phone but to my surprise he was actually right like I said maybe I'm dumb for not knowing that but I'm not really one for obscure knowledge anyway the flashing continued for another minute or so following that same pattern before stopping abruptly the two of us had just been staring at it the whole time I really didn't know what to think it
could have been a joke but there was always that chance that someone was actually in trouble James immediately suggested calling the cops but I reminded him that we'd been drinking and we weren't legal yet I was honestly fighting a DUI charge at the time so the last thing I needed was another runin with the police he wasn't thrilled about that answer and I could tell he was torn about the situation the two of us couldn't really think of a rational explanation besides a kidnapping or something along those lines we thought it might have been someone
who had fallen and needed help but that didn't make any sense because they probably would have just called the police we've always been those adventurous delinquent type guys so we decided it was worth checking out ourselves if it turned out to be serious we'd call the police then we went back inside James brother had a bunch of switch blades lying around his room he was kind of a weird kid so we grabbed a few of them Just For Peace of Mind James said he was good to drive and that we should drive around the lake
to that house but I told him I really wasn't comfortable with that for obvious reasons he J about my situation and I laughed it off if we weren't driving there was only really one other option the two of us walked back out to the yard and dragged James dad's kayak into the water we were laughing at first enjoying the adventure of it all but the further out we got onto the lake the quieter we got I think both of us realized how dumb of an idea it was but neither of us wanted to be the
one to spoil the fun the sun had almost fully set at that point and it was getting harder to see it it wasn't pitch black or anything we had light from some of the lake houses to guide us but it was still a bit unsettling as we got closer the house came into view it was big like the others but it was obviously not maintained very well for starters the dock was half collapsed literally half of it was just sunken into the water the flashing had also stopped which was kind of a bad sign too
we had planned on just tying the kayak to the dock but we obviously couldn't do that anymore given how un stable it looked luckily the yard wasn't too high up above the water so we beached the kayak on the yard instead careful not to slip on the Rocks I felt the adrenaline rush start coming on I could tell James was feeling the same thing we looked up toward the house the light had been coming from the second floor that much we knew James was freaking out at that point and insisted that we just leave and
call the police I told him we'd have to kayak all the way back to his house to even do that as there was no service on the lake and that we need to connect to Wi-Fi I reminded him that we had explored a million abandoned buildings before and this wasn't too different he wasn't thrilled with that logic but agreed anyway believe me I know how dumb this was everyone I talked to about this shares that same opinion but I've never been one to make good decisions and neither is James we didn't walk to the front
door that would have been suicide instead we crept around the house until we found a window that was unlocked the two of us silently slipped inside the house was empty not just abandoned but empty like stripped there was no furniture and no junk in there either to be frank there was no signs that anyone had ever even lived there the floors and walls were completely bare we moved cautiously through the rooms looking for the stairs there was no one in sight and all the rooms were just as empty as the first one had been we
finally found the stairs and slowly made our way up I had made a mental note of where the window was and we slowly walked down one of the hallways until we got to what I guessed was the room the light had been coming from I pressed my ear against the door and heard nothing I glanced over at James he nodded and I carefully pushed the door open the room was empty with the exception of one thing by the window I tiptoed over to it and realized what it was it was one of those old projectors
and it was facing the window alarm Bells immediately started going off in my head this was a trap someone had set this up deliberately James must have realized the same thing because I just heard him start sprinting back the way we had came not even trying to be quiet I turned without another thought and followed him as we were running down the stairs I heard a door presumably a closet door swing open from the room I had just been in followed by rapid thumping sounds we bolted down the stairs and back through the house to
the that first window James jumped through and I was next as I was climbing through I heard those footsteps from behind me again bounding down the stairs I didn't even look I just made it through the window and ran to catch up with James who was already down by the Lake's Edge as I was running to catch up to him I heard him curse and I quickly realized why the kayak was gone I turned and from the side of the house there was a person running toward us I could barely process what I was seeing
he was fast I couldn't get a good look at him but he was big definitely an adult I pulled out my switchblade ready to defend myself I expected James to do the same but instead he turned and jumped straight into the lake sneakers hoodie everything I didn't even think I just followed the water was freezing but I didn't care I swam as fast as I could trying to fight the burning sensation in my arms and legs we swam toward the light from James house which looked like it was Miles Away the swim felt endless but
on pure adrenaline We Made It by the time we dragged ourselves onto James dock I thought I had hypothermia I don't think I've ever been that cold in my life we ran straight inside locked every door and called the police it took them almost an hour to show up it was honestly kind of outrageous when they finally did they went straight across the lake to investigate they were over there for a while but when they came back they told us exactly what I expected to hear that there was no one they confirmed this house had
been abandoned for years no signs of recent occupancy no Footprints no gear no personal belongings nothing just an empty house they weren't happy with us they gave us the whole why didn't you call for a speech James's parents were even more pissed when they found out let's just say I wasn't invited back to the lake house after that James told me his parents were threatening to sue the town for allowing something like that to happen and the police for refusing to investigate further as for me I still don't know what happened that night I don't
know who was in that house or why they set that trap or what they plan to do if we hadn't run I don't think I want to most of my friends agree that it was a trap and think that whoever was planning the whole thing got cold feet until the last minute I really don't want to think about what would have happened if they had gone through with whatever they were planning on doing
