[Music] when I was 22 I got a job in New York City living in Jersey however there was no way I'd be able to do that commute daily so moving was a necessity only thing I didn't have a lot of money yet so when I saw an ad on Craigslist for an available bedroom in an apartment in the Hell's Kitchen area for a really low price I jumped on it I took a ride to the city the next day to view the apartment and the Landlord gave me a quick tour of the place the landlord himself seemed a bit socially awkward but that didn't really matter at all the police did come with a catch I'd have a roommate the landlord said he's a very quiet to himself kind of person which he said was good my roommates name would be Bren the landlord knocked on Brens door asking if he'd like to come out and say hello Bren didn't even answer the landlord suggested he might be taking a nap so we moved on to talking in the living room where I said I was interested in renting I signed an application and the next day the landlord called and offered me the room so I moved in the next week my dad helped me unload all my furniture into my little room something odd to note was that never once did this Brend character come out during all this commotion to at least say hi he was definitely home we heard him moving around in his room I came to the early realization that he probably wasn't gonna be friendly at all when we finished unloading the van my dad left and I was alone officially moved out i sat in my bed and started watching netflix on my laptop then I heard the door to brands room open and closed this seemed like my chance to go out and say hi it was his first time leaving his room I got out of my bed but before I could even get to my bedroom door the front door to the apartment slammed shut I stepped outside to the living room and no one was there I didn't know what the deal with this bread guy was but surely he had to know we'd have to meet eventually I went back to my room eat a bowl of ramen and went to sleep I woke up when I heard the front door to the apartment closed again then footsteps followed the footsteps on the creaky wood floor made their way to the outside of my door then stopped i sat up and looked at the crack below the door the outlines of feet could be seen through the light creeping in under the door why was he just standing out there like a creep of course I didn't say anything I just waited for him to walk away I didn't have my door locks I was low-key terrified of him entering my room but thankfully he walked away from my door and back to his room and I heard him shut his door I tried to go to sleep but all night all I heard were thumps coming from his room I had no idea what he could possibly be doing I was tempted to go knock on his door and tell him to keep it down but I hadn't even met the guy yet so I had to deal with it eventually I fell asleep and when I woke up in the morning it seemed Bren was out already maybe at work I didn't know at the time I spent most of that day shopping for groceries and basic apartment necessities when I got back I dropped all the bags on the couch in the living room to give myself a rest I cooked dinner watch some Netflix on the couch all the while Brett never came home and did a quick run to the nearby 7-eleven to get toothpaste and when I got back I noticed bren's door was cracked open and the light was on so I figured this was it the moment for me to say hello I went to his door not slightly twice and pushed the door open what I found in there was shocking or maybe I should say what I didn't find him there the room was completely empty not a single piece of furniture except for a single chair sitting in the corner of the room the kind of chair you'd find in a high school classroom my heart suddenly started racing and I started to shake I turned off the light in that room and shut the door this brand person have been in the process of moving out I went to my room locked the door and sat on my bed suddenly getting a really bad headache I took out my phone and decided to call the landlord to ask him what the hell was going on after dialing his number I put the phone to my ear and suddenly heard a loud ringing sound coming from my closet I felt like my heart which was already racing was now in my stomach the phone rang twice then went to voicemail I got out from the bed ready to open the closet but I stopped and realized that given that the phone rang twice that means he had his phone and he declined the call I had the sick realization that the landlord was likely in my closet and there never even was a Brent I ran to the bathroom locked myself in and called the cops they got to the apartment shortly and searched the whole apartment with me sure enough we found the landlord hiding under my bed I tried pressing charges for trespassing trying to get myself out of the lease but it turned out there never even was a lease but dude wasn't even an actual landlord he didn't even own the apartment I didn't get the rest of the story like how he got the keys in the first place I had my dad come the next day to help me move all my stuff back home I found another apartment the next week it was a huge hassle going through the whole moving process again I knew from the start the so-called landlord gave off bad vibes but who would have ever imagined the events that were about to take place [Music] there was an ad on Zillow for a shared apartment near the chicken farm I worked at I moved in because it was convenient and already furnished I just dropped off my clothes and a mini dresser and I already had a bed to sleep in in the spare room the man who was renting the room out to me was old he was like 70 or something and his name was Ben it was a non contractual agreement meaning I'd pay him by the week but he was more or less still a roommate he was very old fashioned and then included everything in the house I've never exactly come from a wealthy family so trust me when I say this was a steal for me one night after getting home from a long day of work I collapsed into bed and fell asleep like a baby but suddenly I woke to the bedroom door opening light poured into the wind from the hallway and standing in the doorway was the old man then with his hand on the doorknob he said in his deep hoarse voice stay out of the basement he said he knew I went down there I defended myself and assured him I didn't because I actually didn't he shut the door and I heard him walk down stairs i sat there I think and this guy must be unstable or something the next day I was off from work then took his old jalopy down the road I'm guessing to the store well I was alone I stared at the basement door I knew it was the basement door because I'd seen him go down there before I went to open it just a peek downstairs but obviously it was pitch-black down there I would have never been compelled to go down there if it weren't for his bizarre remark about not going down there but I figured he wasn't gonna be home anytime soon so I continued down I found the light switch at the bottom step for some reason it was for the most part a normal basement so far but there was a door in the corner behind that door was something unimaginable the door was very hard to open because there was some rubber concealer under the door I'm guessing to keep that awful smell out of the rest of the basement and house the inside of this little room was a nightmare bloodstains on the concrete floor black bags stacked in the corner of the room stretched long enough to be carrying bodies or body parts and the smell the smell of rotting life I had to refrain from puking right there I noticed the camera hung in the top right corner of the room aimed down at some workbench I took a quick picture of the room and hurried out of there I went up to the spare bedroom packed all of my clothes in a garbage bag and heard the front door slam shut down stairs he was back I played it cool and greeted him from the upstairs hallway he didn't respond I heard him open the basement door and stomp downstairs I saw that as my cue to sprint to my car I made it to my car and without looking back drove away from there I drove 15 miles back to my brother's farm and showed in the picture he said I was an idiot for not calling the sheriff sooner so i called 9-1-1 and told them to bring a search warrant to ben's address and check the basement before he could clear it out I made it clear I was simply his temporary roommate or tenant living with him and came across it a few hours later someone from the Sheriff's Department came to my brother's farm asking for my ID and some other information I complied with them they gave me the relieving news that Ben had been arrested he was in the process of clearing any evidence from his basement but he wasn't quick enough the deputies didn't go into much detail about what exactly they found in those bags or anything else but I don't think they were allowed to they thanked me and went on their way my brother let me stay with him for a few weeks till I was ready to get back out there and find another apartment I'm not sure how many of you went to college but for those of you who did you most likely remember that feeling of walking into your dorm for the first time meeting your roommate the person you're supposed to ideally be friends with for the next four years I certainly remember mine I walked into my dorm for the first time and there was my roommate he had fair skin black hair glasses and a slightly feminine tone in his voice there was nothing wrong with any of that but to me he just immediately struck me as the gaming type which was not exactly someone who I was going to vibe with easily from the moment I shook his hand and he gave me a dead fish handshake I was a little put off I'll call him John for the purpose of this story I left the room to go say hi to the other kids on the floor and meet as many people as possible I instantly vibed with some of the other kids more than I did it with John anyway that first night consisted of a lot of unpacking and hanging around in the room so I did try to get to know John a little bit it wasn't that he was a mean person it was just he didn't seem to really know how to converse I would ask him questions about himself and he'd give me one word responses or responses that barely even made sense he even went to bed really early shutting off his lamp at like 10 o'clock no one had classes the next day so I just found it odd I put headphones in and watched videos on my phone until around 12 then I went to sleep the next morning a few of the guys on my floor and I went to the dining hall together when I got back to my room I noticed my duffel bag was moved I looked at John and we're sitting on his bed I went to go through my bag to see if anything was missing I couldn't find what it was but my bag just seemed lighter I straight-up accused John of going through my bag and he denied it with a very aggressive tone what could I do though I didn't have cameras in the room so I couldn't prove it the next night I tried inviting John out with me and a couple of the other kids from the floor he didn't want to go claiming he was trying to stay on top of his work as soon as possible so I went out and when I got back John was fast asleep it was kind of late so I just went straight to bed - it started to rain pretty heavy outside a storm was in the forecast I woke up in the middle of the night hearing thunder crashing I was too comfortable and lazy to roll over and look outside but even with my eyes closed I was noticing the constant flashing from the lightning if anything had actually helped put me back to sleep next morning I woke up and my backpack was open and moved I didn't accuse John this time I decided I was going to stay up that night and waits listen to what he was doing so after a long rainy day night King as did the time for me to hit the hay I stayed on my phone for a long time listening to the rain outside the window around 1 or 2 a. m. they flipped on my side and pretended to be asleep I did this for a long time eventually I started noticing the flashes again - were three actually I turned to my other side and saw John sitting upright in his bed I only caught a glimpse of him quickly putting down his arms as I flipped over suddenly all those flashes made sense it wasn't lightning it was him taking pictures of me I played dumb and said what are you doing he stuttered and said he couldn't sleep the next day I told the other kids on the floor about it and how weird John was overall they said I should request a room change I agreed with them and whatever point I went back to the room John was actually gone for once I couldn't believe it his laptop was also in his bed with the lid cracked open I had to snoop it was too curious I opened the laptop and I was on John's desktop which was littered full of folders programs and images it was the messiest desktop I've ever seen I started opening the random pictures on his desktop most of them were weird but then I got to the disturbing ones pictures of me upon opening one of them I realized it was a picture of me in bed taken with an iPhone with the flash he had stored all the pictures he'd taken of me on his computer he even had pictures of my duffel bag in the inside of my backpack I took a video of the laptop screen and deleted every picture I could find from his computer and closed his laptop I went straight to the hall that dealt with dorm life and showed them the video I requested a new roommate immediately I don't know how John was disciplined by the school but I was going to be given a new room across campus the next day however a my last night with John I couldn't sleep at all I heard the springs under his mattress kinky as he got up from his bed at some odd hour in the night then silence silence until I heard a short quiet exhale come from right above my bed he was standing over my bed I just knew it but I was just simply too afraid to turn around less than a minute later I heard the springs under his mattress again and the rest of the night was silence it was out first thing in the morning my new roommate was like a breath of fresh air a normal guy it's a little creepy knowing that John kid still has all those pictures of me sleeping on his phone I don't know what his goal with those pictures were I don't know why he just stood over my bed like that the last night I was there I don't know why he went through my bags the kid was an insane creep and I'm happy I got away from him when I moved out from home my dad's friend Kathy was subletting her apartment with two bedrooms she said she'd give me a good deal however I'd have to share it with some older woman she found she was tight on money so I understood Kathy introduced the woman and I the day I moved in her name was Betty she was like 60 years old it felt weird knowing I'd have a roommate who could almost be my grandma since Kathy was subletting the apartment it already had furniture I just had to bring my own bed and dresser the weirdness started on the second night I was watching TV in the living room when Betty's head appeared from behind the wall to the hallway and she stared at me intently she started muttering these strange faint noises Betty you okay I asked she groaned and disappeared back into the hallway I immediately got on the phone with Kathy and asked if there was something wrong with Betty Kathy said there was nothing wrong with her as far as she knew though she only met her a week ago when I told her about what Kathy just did she was surprised the next day I ran into Kathy cooking eggs in the kitchen she said good morning and asked her if she was okay last night she seemed confused what I was referring to and I mentioned the way she was staring at me and making those noises she claims she had no recollection of it all I could chalk it up to in my head was some kind of psychotic break fast-forwarding through normal unnecessary fluff I was laying in my bed on my laptop with the light off there was a knock at my bedroom door I muted my laptop and heard the same moaning and groaning sounds of Betty from the night before quite frankly I was uncomfortable with going out there but this confirmed that something was definitely wrong with this woman she kept knocking it wouldn't stop but the door was unlocked if something was really wrong I figured she'd come in I really think the knocking and moaning went on for a full minute before I heard her walk away it seemed these little episodes of hers would only happen at night I almost wanted to be able to lock the door because it was kind of creepy actually but the door had no lock but she left so I was okay to go to sleep now I woke up expecting it to be like 9:00 a.
m. but it was pitch black I looked at my clock and it was 1:30 a. m.
