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the onscreen steps to complete the setup and also add the piie shopping companion extension for coupons cash back and [Music] rewards when I was a kid around 9 or 10 my dad got a really high-paying job that forced us to move from middle of nowhere Pennsylvania to Brookmont Maryland I say forced but but that's probably not the best way to describe what happened in reality my parents were thrilled to make the move it was a decision they barely thought about in the span of about a month we went from this tiny rundown house in a
relatively lowincome area to a massive property in one of Maryland's nicest suburbs you might be wondering how I felt about the whole thing at that age I was a pretty antisocial kid and mostly kept to myself so it's not like I was leaving any lifelong friends behind I didn't really have any to begin with years later my parents would tell me that the prospect of giving me a fresh start was one of the reasons they were so willing to uproot our entire lives but that's neither here nor there the move didn't bother me much and
I was able to adjust pretty quickly it's not like adjusting was very difficult given the circumstances though like I said the house was huge and even my 10-year-old self could pick up on the fact that we wouldn't be struggling to make ends meet anymore I'm not going to bore you about the pointless details about the inside of the house I'll only tell you what you need to know I had two older brothers Shawn and Harold the backyard was easily our favorite part it had a big plot of twisting Hedges that made for perfect games of
hide-and seek tag or whatever else we came up with but the best feature by far was the treeh house at the right edge of the property each house on the Block was separated by a decently large cluster of tall trees and the Treehouse was situated directly Within in that patch I say tree house but it was more like a tree Castle it wasn't your dad's run-of-the-mill weekend projects it was massive spanning six or seven adjacent trees it had three different levels and an actual staircase built into it not those flimsy planks you're probably used to
seeing it was obvious a professional had built it for a while my brothers and I played in the treehouse every day it was always the highlight of our day but eventually my brother s got bored of the treeh house they were older and in that awful teenage phase where nothing was cool anymore eventually I was the only one who played up there which kind of sucks I was really torn up about basically being abandoned up there but my brothers refused to come back no matter what I said one day I climbed up into the Treehouse
and found a folded piece of paper sitting in the corner to this day I still remember the exact words written on that first note it said hello I'm the marshmallow man it's nice to meet you what's your name I was the happiest kid alive I assumed it was one of my brothers playing a game with me so I played along hoping to reinter them in the treehouse there was a stack of paper in the treehouse that hadn't been there before so I eagerly picked up one of the markers we had in there and wrote back
leaving a little note with my name I placed it where IID found the first one excited to play this new game that night I wanted to ask my brothers which of them was the marshmallow man but I was afraid they'd stop playing if I said anything so I kept quiet for the next few days I'd come home from school and run straight to the Treehouse each time there'd be another note waiting for me at first the notes were innocent and sounded exactly like stuff my brothers would say I was having a lot of fun with
it but as the days went on the notes got stranger the marshmallow man started asking me increasingly personal questions that I didn't fully understand things that didn't make sense for my brothers to ask like what's your favorite time of day to play outside or what do you usually eat for breakfast I don't remember every question he asked but one of them that will always stick with me was which window in the house is your bedroom I look back at that exact question and literally feel sick to my stomach at the time I still didn't think
too much of it I assumed it was still one of my brothers so I answered every question without hesitation but the next note was so unsettling that I couldn't keep quiet anymore it was something like what do your pajamas smell like or something nasty along those lines I stormed inside and confronted my brothers demanding to know which of them was behind the notes they both started laughing at me and denied it both of them swore there was no such thing as the marshmallow man and started making fun of me for still playing make believe I
started crying and ran out of the room I remember being a mixture of sad and angry I knew one of them had to be lying instead of going to my parents I hatched a plan to catch them in the ACT I was not prepared for what was about to happen that night as I lay in bed I heard tapping at my window I froze feeling my heart start to beat out of my chest I was already scared of the dark to begin with so the tapping added a layer of fear that I couldn't deal with
I sat there in the dark for what felt like hours too scar to move eventually I forced myself to sleep the next morning I pulled back the window curtains and almost screamed taped to the outside of my window were dozens of marshmallows it had to be my brothers I was so angry this wasn't funny anymore I decided I'd catch them red-handed the next night I pretended like I hadn't noticed the marshmallows and didn't say a thing to either of them all day later that night I was ready when the claing started again I jumped out
of bed and yanked the curtains open ready to yell at them but it wasn't my brothers on the other side of the glass was a man an old disgusting man with yellow eyes and what looked like rotting teeth he had patchy hair on his head and smiled at me when he noticed me looking I don't think I've ever screamed louder in my life I felt like I was going to die in that moment my parents came running but by the time they got to my room the man was gone it was a huge thing the
police searched the property combing through every inch of the yard and Treehouse but they didn't find anything they even checked the surrounding area but that man was never found some of our neighbors came outside to see what was going on and reacted in horror when my parents filled them in I told the police and my parents everything I knew but there wasn't much I could even say they took the notes in as evidence but I doubt they really did anything with them then man never came back my parents told me to never play in the
treehouse again but it's not like I wanted to after that incident anyway I moved out of that house a while ago but my parents still live there and I always take an extra long look at the treeh house whenever I'm back this remains one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me this memory has been on my mind a lot lately my youngest son Luke just went off to college and while I'm proud of him the house feels quieter than it ever has before too quiet if I'm being honest it's funny when the
kids are young you dream of peace and quiet but when it finally comes it's not as comforting as you thought it would be I don't know why but his going away unlocked a part of my brain that honestly forgot about what I'm about to tell you people have told my wife and I that it's normal to be thinking a little extra about memories for my kids child childhood at a time like this so I guess it's not too surprising I still remember when he was just a little kid full of energy and curiosity always getting
into something there's one memory I have of that time that is definitely not all sunshine and rainbows though Luke was 8 years old when this happens even now I can't fully make sense of it I'm a carpenter by trade so I'm pretty good with my hands always have been I will admit that I was much more lively back then willing to undertake all sorts of makeshift projects and such one of my favorite projects was The Treehouse I built for Luke in the backyard which is still standing to this day it wasn't just a simple platform
nailed to a tree I poured my heart into it walls a roof proper wooden steps leading up to the entrance it was sturdy too I wanted it to feel like an extension of our house to him and I definitely succeeded in that regard my wife Christy wasn't thrilled about At first she worried it was too high off the ground and unsafe but Luke was the kind of kid who was always climbing trees anyway and I figured it would be safer to give him a proper ladder rather than let him scramble up branches that could snap
Christy eventually came around and Luke absolutely loved it I should probably tell you a little bit about our property so that the story makes more sense our house was at the very end of a dead end Street in a relatively woodsy area the backyard actually bordered the woods which was part of why Christy and I fell in love with the house in the first place it was private and peaceful and we're kind of people that like keeping to ourselves I still laugh when I think about all the times friends and family members have gotten lost
trying to find our house the yard wasn't huge but I could clearly see the Treehouse from our bedroom window which was one of the deciding factors when I was determining where to build it I wanted to be able to keep an eye on it should Luke hurt himself or something like that I couldn't actually see inside of it because of the walls but I had a perfect view of the steps leading up to it from what I remember everything was relatively normal for a pretty long time Luke spent what I considered a normal amount of
time playing in the treehouse his older brother had kind of outgrown that phase so Luke mostly played by himself in there I can't remember exactly when but at one point he started talking about an imaginary friend named Jake we knew he was an imaginary friend because no one in the neighborhood had a child named Jake it wasn't unusual for kids to have imaginary friends but Luke was eight not exactly the age where you'd still expect that sort of thing Christy thought it was cute and innocent but I was a little more skeptical it seemed odd
to me since Luke hadn't been the type of kid to make Imaginary Friends regardless I didn't think much of it because he was only 8 years old it started to get a little more concerning when Christy and I realized that Luke was starting to spend more and more time up there which struck me as strange was that he wasn't bringing toys up there as far as I could tell he only had his imagination to play with it's not like he had a game console or anything to keep him entertained and I had been very clear
about not carrying anything up there alone as it was dangerous and I didn't want him to fall at one point my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to ask him about it Luke acted extremely weird when I asked him about his friend and said that Jake was shy and didn't like being talked about when I asked him why he was spending so much time up there he told me that Jake only liked to play in the treehouse and that he didn't like coming inside I honestly didn't know what to say it seemed
like a pretty bizarre condition weren't Imaginary Friends supposed to be available wherever and whenever you needed them I did some research later that day and found out that some kids only play with their imaginary friends in certain rooms of their house so as weird as it was I accepted it Christy was pretty uneasy though she thought Luke was taking this imaginary friend thing too far and I honest ly agreed we were in helicopter parents though when it came to our kids we let them spend their free time however they wanted to as long as they
were doing well in school and completing their chores most weekends we'd let Luke play with the neighborhood kids until the sun went down they'd ride bikes play tag and usual stuff they were all good kids and we trusted Luke to behave himself and stay out of trouble he wasn't the type of kid to pick on other kids or get into fights which was why I was especially concerned when Luke came home one Saturday Saturday with a black eye I cleaned him up and asked him what happened he looked down at the floor and didn't say
anything but I insisted that he tell me what happens and I wouldn't be mad at him what he said next made me shiver he looked up at me and told me that he had gotten into a fight with Jake I had to process whose kid Jake was before realizing that he was talking about his imaginary friend I told him not to lie to me and that he wasn't being funny instead of fessing up Luke just started crying and ran to his room Christy was convinced he'd gotten into a fight with one of the neighborhood kids
and didn't want to admit it I agreed with that she wanted me to take down the Treehouse right then and there but I couldn't bring myself to do it that Treehouse had taken weeks of hard work and the thought of tearing it down didn't sit right with me I told her that I'd talk with Luke and tell him that he was taking things way too far Luke refused to come out of his room or talk to me for the rest of the day so getting something out of him wasn't going to happen the next day
I decided to investigate when I climbed up into the Treehouse what I saw made my stomach churn scattered around were children's socks and sneakers all dirty and tattered I knew for a fact that none of them belonged to Luke I also knew for a fact that they weren't my older Sons either we had donated all his old shoes a long time ago that's not all that was up there there were also food wrappers bags utensils even a couple of dirty plates weirdest of all there were pencil drawings of wild animals on all the walls there
was a fox a bear some deer I don't remember all of them but I do remember that they were all animals the one that stood out to me the most was what appeared to be a gigantic spider with a face that was just completely penel over it was just downright freaky I immediately climbed down and asked Luke about the Treehouse he told me that Jake only liked to talk on a full stomach so he had to bring him food and other snacks he then told me that the shoes and socks were also Jake's and that
Jake was pretty forgetful in general that was it from that moment on I forbade Luke from going into the Treehouse I knew he was still lying to me and I wanted to punish him until he admitted to it I was 100% sure that Luke had found those things around the neighborhood and was making up stories to cover it up Christy was worried about Luke's mental health and I was too we thought about Consulting a professional should things continue but one evening I saw something that changed everything I was looking out the bedroom window when I
spotted movement near The Treehouse at first I was livid that Luke was disobeying me but then I realized what I was looking at a sickly frail looking child was climbing down the Treehouse steps it wasn't Luke he didn't look like any of the kids from the neighborhood either his clothes were dirty and he moved like he hadn't eaten in days I ran outside yelling for that kid to stop as soon as I opened the back door the boy darted into the woods I chased after him but he was freakishly fast within seconds he disappeared into
the trees Christy called every parent in the neighborhood but all their kids were accounted for we called the police who searched the woods thoroughly for over an hour but found nothing no missing children had been reported in the area either the whole thing was beyond explanation with my consent the police questioned my son about that kid and what he told them was horrifying apparently Jake claimed to be a magic boy who lived in the woods with his other friends his friends were supposedly all animals as he called them bear Fox and names like that every
time Jake would come to visit my son he'd beg him to leave his family behind and join him in the woods with the rest of his friends he'd then get mad when Luke would refuse and make these strange noises I don't know why Luke never told me any of it and there was a part of me that felt responsible for putting him in danger like that the police conducted a full search of the woods but never found a thing we never saw Jake again after that Christy has always been incredibly superstitious and theorized that Jake
wasn't real I don't believe in stuff like that but the way she talks about it always gives me an unsettling feeling I honestly don't know which explanation is freakier the fact that some paranormal entity was interacting with my son or the thought that there might be Woods folk lurking around somewhere in the forest behind my [Music] house this happened a few weeks ago so it's still fresh in my mind I live in a quiet suburb in Delaware but I'm a sophomore in college out in California this happened during fall break in October when I was
back home for a few days I come home every chance I can which honestly always feels a little Bittersweet I love seeing my parents but they're really traditional which can be suffocating one of the things that drives me crazy is how uptight they are about weed even though it's recently been legalized here they lose their minds if they knew I smoked they've never really gotten used to the idea that I'm an adult now I can't really understand their position on the whole thing but at the end of the day they are my parents and I
would never disrespect them especially while I'm under their roof roof whenever I'm home I have to sneak around to avoid getting caught I hate to admit it but sneaking around my parents is a skill I've mastered over the years I can't even count the number of times I've snuck out of the house late at night let alone all the other mischievous I used to do my dad has the nose of a Blood Hound so smoking inside isn't an option thankfully my old Treehouse is still standing in the front yard my parents built it for me
when I was a kid and even though it's weathered and creaky in some spots it's held up surprisingly well it's high enough in the trees that it's basically hidden from view especially from the house from up there I can see everything the yard the street some windows of the house but no one can see me unless they know exactly where to look when I was younger that Treehouse was the place I went when I needed to escape which if you knew what I was like as a child was relatively often it's honestly kind of hard
to talk about with all the old memories flooding back but I'll get to the point on the Saturday before I was supposed to fly back to school my parents were out at some banquet or something that was going to run late into the evening I knew they wouldn't be home for hours but I didn't know exactly when they'd be returning I didn't want to risk getting caught in the backyard so I climbed up into the treehouse with my stash just to be safe it was chilly out and I could see my own breath in the
air I have this theory that cold weather induces more Nostalgia but that might just be me it was quiet and peaceful up there and it was nice being the only one around I've always liked being up high too so that definitely added to the experience I watched the sunset as I thought about school excited to go back by the time I finished it was mostly dark outside meaning I had timed things just right that's when I noticed it as I was panning my eyes across the yard A light turned on in the house I froze
knowing I was the only one home my heart started racing as I stared at the window feeling that instinctual sense of fear that only arises from True danger my f of vision began closing in around that single source of light as if it were drawing me in a few moments later movement in the backyard snapped me out of my disassociative state three hooded Figures were circling the property clearly trying to move quickly my stomach dropped as I realized what was happening I watched as the three figures moved to the front steps that's when a fourth
figure opened the door and let them in my chest tightened as it hit me my house was being robbed I didn't know what to do but I couldn't Look Away part of me was still frozen and another part of me was still trying to convince myself that what I was seeing was real that's the best way I can explain what I was feeling in that moment one of figure stayed outside pacing the yard I think some subconscious part of me clicked because I looked down and my phone was in my hand open to the keypad
on my phone app without thinking I dialed 911 and whispered into the phone trying to stay as quiet as possible I told the operator what was happening and hung up but as I was putting my phone away the light from the screen must have caught the guy's eye because he whipped his head to look up into the trees I ducked but I was worried he had seen me not 3 seconds later I got my answer I Heard a Voice yell out hey clearly directed at me I peaked around one of the wooden floor pieces and
saw a dark figure walking towards the base of the tree he knew where I was I was sure of it he got to the base of the the tree and started climbing the wooden planks that led up to the treeh house I screamed that police were on their way hoping to scare him off but he didn't stop he just kept climbing his hands gripping the planks like he was determined to get to me without thinking I grabbed my bong the only thing Within Reach and threw it as hard as I could it hit him in
the head and shattered into a million pieces and he let out a loud curse before falling to the ground he wasn't very high up but it was enough to make him reconsider instead of of climbing back up again he ran back towards the house and shouted at the other guys who were still inside the next thing I saw was all four of them running to my backyard where they presumably entered and exited from my heart was still beating like crazy not even 3 minutes later the police arrived I was shaking so badly as I climbed
down from The Treehouse that I thought I was going to fall I tried to tell them what had happened but my words were a mess I told them that I hadn't seen a getaway car and that I didn't get a good look at any of their faces my parents pulled in not long after that they were really sympathetic about the whole thing which I was grateful for the police told us that the robbers must have known my parents would be out that night it seemed like a planned job but what they didn't plan for was
me being there I still don't know how to feel about it I especially don't want to think about what would have happened had that guy gotten all the way up to the Treehouse I'm back at school now but if I'm being honest I haven't had a good night's sleep since this incident I'm terrified those people people might come back and even more terrified that my parents are there all alone I'm worried sick about their safety and I just hope that's the last we ever hear of them I hope I never have to give an update
but I will if God forbid something comes [Music] up when I was a kid I had a very nightmarish experience at my childhood home my family moved to this house when I was like 4 so I really don't remember anything of the house we lived in when I was born we lived in what I call my childhood house from when I was 4 to when I was 14 so exactly 10 years I loved that house I have very good memories from growing up there we moved out of state when I was just beginning High School
which was a nightmare in of itself but that's nothing to do with this story in the backyard of my childhood home was a tree house it was built by the previous owner for his kids believe it or not when my parents viewed the house a major selling point was the kid-friendly nature of the house and the backyard for my older brother and I my brother Kyle is 2 years older than me so he was six when they bought the house and my brother and I apparently were very excited over the Treehouse aspect in the backyard
according to my parents my brother and I would play in the treehouse with friends we'd made over the years but as the years passed I would stop playing in the treehouse like that at a certain age by the age of 12 I was obviously not playing in the treehouse anymore but I was admittedly a troublemaker around this age and I would often get in trouble with my parents I'd get grounded often and in general I'd just throw a lot of temper tantrums and there would be a lot of yelling in the house one weekend my
dad grounded me for a repeat complaint from my guidance counselor about my behavior and grades in school and like an angsty annoying pre-teen I thought I hated my parents at that moment that night I refused to sleep in the house I took a couple blankets and pillows and went outside to the Treehouse to sleep up there it wasn't the first time I'd done this and my parents would know about it when I do it they didn't care it was my little way of rebelling little did my dad know that I had my Nintendo DS with
me even though I wasn't allowed to play video games or watch TV I played Animal Crossing for literally hours before getting tired and eventually going to sleep but I think I was only asleep for a few moments I don't think I even entered REM sleep yet when I woke up to a voice from outside calling my name Tommy Tommy I was still confused as I was waking back up it could have been my dad's voice Tommy are you up there the voice said all I remember is it being a deep grown man's voice I didn't
reply my heart started to race for some reason I heard the steps of the ladder squeaking as someone was coming up and then at the near pitch black darkness I saw someone poke their head through the opening in the floor I couldn't see their face I just saw the shadow of the outline of their head he said ah there you are I replied dad but this was where he stopped responding entirely for about 20 seconds I stared at this head that I presume was staring back at me I was waiting for my eyes to readjust
to the darkness but something told me that that wasn't my dad I stood up and went to the window of the Treehouse and started screaming dad as loud as I could I saw the light in my parents room turn on and I also heard footsteps hurrying down the ladder to the Treehouse moments later my parents burst outside through the back door and my dad swore to me that he wasn't out there playing a prank on me my parents believed me it wasn't like some stupid horror movie where the parents don't believe a word the kid
says my uncle was still an active cop at the time and so my dad called him for advice and my uncle made a report on the incident the next day not much information I could give besides I heard a deep man's voice and saw the outline of his head and that he knew my name not much the police could work with obviously I never spent a night in the treehouse again my dad for a while thought it was one of the neighbors directly across from us but he could never prove it for years whenever I'd
see him outside and he'd say hi to me I'd try to think back to the voice from that night but I just couldn't remember it clearly enough to make a comparison it Still Remains a very unsettling mystery in the back of my mind
