foreign [Music] I rent out my South Carolina House on Airbnb whenever I'm not using it it's a modest three bedroom one bathroom house by the beach two of the bedrooms are guest rooms which are accessible to the people renting it the master bedroom I keep locked with my clothes and certain belongings in there that room is for me and I have to keep my stuff somewhere instead of lugging it back and forth every time I go down there I have a regular lock and then a deadbolt to lock on there so no one's ever getting
in there unless they chop the door down or break through the window but also it's not like I keep anything super expensive in there mainly just clothing this was early last spring it was still chilly up in Massachusetts where I live most of the year I wanted to take a drive down to my South Carolina house for the week for the most part I work remotely so luckily I'm able to do this when I want to ordinarily I'd have my usual cleaning lady come and clean the house after each guest leaves the cost of her
service is baked into the price of the rental on Airbnb but since I was going down right after the current renter would leave I just pocketed the cleaning lady money and planned on going down to clean it myself the last renter was a guy named Ramon through our messages he told me he was renting with his fiancee and asked for good restaurants to eat at in the area he seemed trustworthy I always prefer to rent a couple's or smaller groups of women as opposed to groups of young men because they're usually the ones to come
and get shit-faced and potentially damage the place I started my drive very early in the morning it was about a 16-hour Drive stopping only for a quick bite and to use the bathroom by the time I got to the house it was about 10 o'clock at night I went to unlock and open the front door first before going back to my car to grab my bags and go inside I was shot from driving I didn't even bother checking the place out or anything for a mess I just went straight to my bedroom door to unlock
it I collapsed into the bed without brushing my teeth or anything for those that haven't done it a 16-hour straight drive will absolutely kill you I crawled under the covers and I was out like a baby in a matter of minutes you'd think I'd have slept through the night but no I woke up in a black room the clock next to my bed read 11 30 PM I had only been asleep for a little more than an hour something woke me up I grabbed my phone to check for any texts out of habit then I
turned on the bedside lamp I looked around the room then got up and went out to the living room I took this moment to start analyzing the place I didn't notice a single thing moved not a pillow not a can of beer nothing I went to the bedrooms both were void of any people though the covers on a bed in one of the rooms seemed to have been moved so yes they did come I thought they may have been the cleanest couple to have ever stayed in my place I have a camera set up on
the front porch of the house I never really think to check it unless a customer is giving me any kind of hard time but I was curious I opened the app to the camera system on my phone and went to the movement history it picked up on a man entering the house via the code lock three days earlier just a man though he had no woman with him strange I checked for any other movement updates from then until the moment I showed up which it also caught on video and there was nothing I checked it
over like five times I suddenly got the chills I went to the Airbnb app to message Ramon and asked if he checked out okay even though it was late at night I went to check the bedroom where I presumed he slept in I started checking under the bed and in the closets I was yanking the closet doors open as if I were ripping off a Band-Aid each time I was greeted with an empty closet I moved along to the second guest bedroom both twin beds in here were still neat and untouched as I yanked open
the last closet he could have been in I saw that it was empty I sat on one of the beds for a second to just stare at the conversation between Ramon and I that's when I heard the master bedroom door click shut quietly in a way that a person would have done it not a drift I went out to the living room and looked at the master bedroom door I said Ramon are you still in here with a shake in my voice no response I could see the light was still on in the room through
the bottom crack of the door I got on all fours to look under the crack of the door and I fell backwards when I saw two feet standing not far behind the door maybe a couple feet away [Music] I went to the knife holder in the kitchen planning to grab the biggest carving knife and it was already taken by this point my only logical option was to leave the house and call 9-1-1 and that's what I did I waited out front until the police showed up then as we went inside there was Ramon waiting in
the living room no knife in hand he spoke in this Portuguese accents acting all Innocents saying he just needed a place to stay for one more night which was complete [ __ ] he denied ever picking up the knife which was conveniently placed back in the knife holder now after 30 minutes of two police officers outside talking to Ramon and two inside talking to me they actually let him go and told me I should contact Airbnb and try to work it out with them and I was just shocked I felt like the police didn't do
their job after everyone left I changed the lock code on the door and I contacted Airbnb about what happened though I didn't receive payment for the extra day Ramone squatted in my house they did apparently ban him from ever using the app again it doesn't really feel like proper Justice though when he was potentially waiting to stab me in my own house in my own bedroom [Music] I'm 26 years old still living with my parents I'm not content with my job and I'm in a relationship that I'm not too sure about to say I've been
stressed would be a Monumental understatement my mom and I were not getting along one week and everyone was just bothering me I wanted to escape for a weekend I looked into Little one-bedroom airbnbs up in the mountains and found one for cheap it was in Troutdale Virginia a couple hours away from us and based on the pictures it was this nice private and peaceful looking little place surrounded by Woods it was the fall too so the foliage was going to be beautiful I told my parents I was going there for the weekends my mom seemed
overly happy about me leaving for the weekends my girlfriend was more so just confused finding it weird and suspicious that I was going away to some random Cabin in the Woods alone for a weekend when Friday came I packed a backpack full of clothes toiletries and my laptop and I headed out for the road it was around a two and a half hour drive door to door the area of Troutville was very quiet and Scenic it was a perfect escape from Suburbia back home I needed a nice weekend just to spend to myself I was
driving up a gravel road when my GPS told me I arrived I saw an opening in the trees next to the road the instructions the owner of the Airbnb gave me were to cut through this opening onto the grass and up the little Hill I did exactly this and there I saw the cute little house sitting at the top of the hill the second I stepped out of the car I inhaled the fresh rural air instantly feeling happy I did this the owner told me where to find the key to the front door I let
myself in and checked the place out it was a nice cozy living room small kitchen bathroom and one Loft bedroom that you had to climb a ladder-like Stairway to get up into and there was a circular window over the bed lots of light got into the house which was nice I went out to walk some of the trails the owner told me about about a five minute drive away on the drive back to the house afterwards I noticed these two guys walking down the gravel road and as my car was passing they literally stopped in
their tracks to turn and look at me as I passed I waved and smiled thinking they were friendly locals but they didn't wave back it was completely off-putting they looked at me as if my driving down the road was a crime I didn't look back I turned into the entrance of the property and back up the hill I started reading one of the books I brought with me in the living room with the fireplace going it was incredibly cozy the sun was on its way down and after reading a chapter of my book I realized
I was getting hungry I went outside to my car about to drive to the nearest Walmart when I noticed two men kind of running into the woods down the hill by the entrance of the property probably in response to seeing me come outside I wondered if it was those two guys from the road earlier it was incredibly strange I suddenly decided to take my laptop and backpack with me in the car while I was gone just to be safe on the drive into town I messaged the owner letting him know about this he replied saying
it's nothing to be alarmed about there's a lot of teams in the area that walk around so I dismissed it I drove like 20 minutes to the closest Walmart since there were literally no grocery stores in the area I picked up a few food items to hold me over some milk granola bars fruit frozen dinners bread and cold cuts by the time I got back to the Airbnb it was completely pitch blackout there were no street lights on these Gravelly roads and with no neighboring houses truly the only light was from my headlights it was
creepy for sure I pulled up to the hill to the little house it was almost hard to find in the dark I grabbed my backpack in the grocery bag and went up to the house in the dark using my phone's flashlight to see once inside I locked the door immediately it was creepy out there I ate real quick and went back to reading my book by the fire and pretty soon the lights to the room suddenly cut out and the only light in the entire house was from the fireplace I tried flicking on Anything Electric
but the power was gone I went to message the owner again who swiftly replied back to check the main breaker in the circuit box outside by the telephone pole near the back of the house I didn't reply there was no way in hell I was going out there I was already paranoid from earlier and why would the power be randomly cut out anyway something was off I heard a Creek in the floorboard from the darkest corner of the room by the bathroom door I looked over saw this tall looming figure in the doorway of the
bathroom lit up only by the fireplace my worst fear had been realized this was actually happening a soft yet deep and disturbing voice told me to remain calm and give him everything I had I was so scared I could barely speak I said all I had was my laptop and some clothes he told me to empty my wallet of all my money which I did as he stood in the doorway I still couldn't see his face he told me to go into the kitchen and stay there moments later I heard the door to the house
close I looked into the living room my laptop backpack and money was all gone I called 9-1-1 quietly to report a robbery 20 minutes later an officer arrived I described the two guys I'd seen walking down the street earlier that day assuming it was them working together on this basically all the officer could tell me was that they'd be on the lookout for anyone matching those descriptions I messaged the owner to tell him what happened and he was sympathetic at first or so it seemed he said I could go home the next day but he
didn't want to refund me for my horrible experience a trip I thought would be a nice detox for a stressful point in my life only made it worse luckily my laptop was only like 400 bucks I didn't pack any expensive clothing but it was still the scariest experience of my life there is a small part of me that believes the Airbnb host may have something to do with it because I still have no idea how that guy got into the house [Music] so a few years back after some friends and I graduated high school we
celebrated in the White Mountains National Forest Preserve we only lived two or so hours away so it wasn't much of a hike we all packed inside my friend Alexis's car also with us was my friend Rob his girlfriend Stephanie and our friend Kelly Alexis's car was a Hyundai Accent so a very small vehicle we didn't pack much we were headed to this Airbnb in Carroll New Hampshire at the height of the summer it was a gorgeous Drive once we got to the house it was just as depicted in the photos only the pictures didn't include
the shambling looking shed next to the house it seemed like it had seen better years I probably could have knocked it down myself Alexis joked around that maybe some old crazy guy lived in there and that's why the place was so cheap but we all laughed it off and unpacked our things I'll be honest I was really into Alexis and I think she was into me on account that she said we should share a bed more so because the third bedroom had two doors leading to the outside and had a perfect view of that old
shed so she didn't want to sleep there and she wouldn't let me we both put our things in the living room and made the pull-out couch our bed not much happened the first night a little later we all sat in the hot tub in the garage slash rec room Alexa sat next to me and we faced the woods while Rob and his girlfriend were opposite of us Rob's girlfriend couldn't step completely into the water on account of the stitches she just got Stephanie and I were always good friends and carried on with stories and joked
about high school sipping on our potentially illegally acquired booze Kelly on the other hand was changing and not with us Rob kicked my leg from under the water and winked seeing how close Alexis was getting to me but that wasn't too much of a deal we tried to plan out our next day and talked about hiking to Mount Washington and The Flume Gorge after a good soak I eased into bed with Alexis and we watched Rick and Morty for a while until the Clock Struck 2 am and we sat outside the stargazing here was supposed
to be amazing and a bit later Kelly tagged along with us what happened next was hard to explain in front of the house was this huge deck that we were sitting on it was Pitch Black and no cars were around more or less we were in the middle of nowhere no one really understands true silence until you're away from cars or planes for that matter the sky was brightly lit purple blue Full of Stars Kelly hushed me one time just a few feet away from the porch she heard some crunching as if something was approaching
the deck there was definitely something walking out there I waved it off as a raccoon or Fox until the steps sounded heavy and I looked at Alexis the fear began to set in as I noticed her gaze was looking towards the old shed where the footsteps had began quickly I ushered the girls into the cabin and locked all the doors I tried to explain to them that it's still possibly an animal especially if animals had taken over that old shed easily both of them calmed down Kelly walked back into her room and I again laid
down beside Alexis the next morning I woke up to Rob and his girlfriend cooking breakfast in the kitchen which was just across the room from Alexis and I we had a big day planned out and we did quite a lot of hiking with most of us forgetting what had transpired last night other than Alexis when we came back from hiking Alexis suggested exploring the old shed that was beside the house now that it was Daylight nothing that bad could happen right and I'll be honest I didn't want to but I didn't want Alexis to think
I was a wuss we opened the screen door investigating the first room there was an old rickety rocking chair seemed it might break if I tried to sit in it the next door had one of those brass doorknobs but it was rusted and dented I looked at Alexis before grabbing the door and she groaned as she opened the door there wasn't much to the room the floor was dirt there was dirt caked windows and some trash on the floor Alexis made a point that it smelt of cigarette smoke it may have been the designated smoking
spot in the Airbnb we both Shrugged it off and joined the others out back Rob was starting a fire some typical conversation was going on Rob poked fun at Alexis and I the sunset and I turned off the floodlight out back to make the Ambiance of our fire nicer some Chuckles and stories are passed around Rob and I boasting about our feets and whatnot then there grows a silence that same crunching from last night is heard behind us just against the tree line except it was faster and headed in our Direction and just like that
there was a flash of green light lighting up the entirety of the backyard for just a moment whatever was running towards us halted but my thoughts were ruptured by Stephanie screams as she bolted towards the house behind us a blood-curdling cry or Yelp was heard a deafening sound that at first we thought was a siren I instantly stood up yelling for everyone to get inside Stephanie must have saw whatever it was that made that cry in my bolt I accidentally knocked over Kelly who hadn't gathered the entire scene yet I turned around to help her
up Rob was already halfway to the house I ran to help Alexis gather our food items last thing we wanted if it was a bear for them to stay any longer after that I rushed Alexis to the back door where Rob was waiting for us with some kind of bear spray I already at this point had my buoy knife out I commanded him to go in but he yelled at me to go in because he's got the range the two of us saw this black mess walking along the outskirts of our fire we didn't stay
long enough to find out what it was after meeting the girls in the living room we called the police immediately the officer reported to the house and looked all around with his flashlight finding nothing he clarified to us that the flash was due to lightning striking a nearby power line or Transformer as for the thing he said it was likely a fisher cat or something but Stephanie said that she saw a man hunched over with a cloak or blanket hung over him least to say we didn't stay the next night over the sheer paranoia of
someone or something stalking us in the woods was reason enough to say the least we haven't returned to the mountains since who knows what's crawling around in those woods
