[Music] when my dad was around 50 he got an African gray he always loved parrots his whole life so I was happy for him to get one after his retirement he named the bird Kevin my dad taught Kevin a whole vocabulary of words and he actually trained him to understand the meaning behind certain words like hello what's up food thank you good and a few other my dad passed away at 70 and with that came the time to figure out amongst my siblings and I what would happen to Kevin my brother and sister didn't want
the responsibility of taking Kevin into their homes plus their spouses were against it too but I couldn't bear the idea of giving him away to a new home Kevin was and is one of my last connections to my dad in a sense that was his best friend so I decided I would take him into my home I put his cage in the den of my house my house doesn't have a basement so the den is considered the lowest level of the house Kevin is a moderately noisy bird he could be a chatterbox some hours of
the day usually earlier on but later in the day and at night he quiets down when he's too noisy I'll throw a blanket over his cage and that normally quiets him down I watch TV in the den at night to keep him company then around 10: I'll migrate to my room to let him go to sleep that's pretty much the backstory behind Kevin I've been taking care of him for 2 years now so I know exactly how he behaves and when he's is acting out of the ordinary speaking of out of the ordinary there was
one night in December around 11:00 p.m. that Kevin started making sounds while I was trying to sleep I sleep with the door open since I live alone and need to be able to hear anything if something's going on in the house hearing him making his squawking noises past dark especially this late at night was unusual Beyond doubt and something was irritating him I went down to the dent to see what was bothering him he was wide awake on the lower perch of the two in the cage he looked looked at me and was saying things
like hello and what's up and his name all the while he was nodding his head up and down moving his whole body in the process as if he were dancing I tried to feed him but he didn't eat so I covered him with the blanket hoping he would stop I was in the kitchen when I stopped inside because he was still making the noises and I had a feeling he wasn't going to stop having work the next day I couldn't afford to lose sleep because of him I really didn't know what to do I'm still
to this day not exactly a bird expert I went back downstairs and uncovered him he was still doing his little dance popping his head and body and making his distress sounds it didn't click with me until thinking I heard something in the pantry closet a few feet away from his cage I walked over to it and hovered my hand over the light switch to the pantry which was outside of the door the door has one of those big glass panels that many pantry doors have so when I flicked the light switch I saw the outline
of a body on the inside my flight or flight response kicked in and I chose fight I opened the door screaming trying to get my adrenaline rushing and I grabbed the man in the pantry closet out and threw him to the floor he tried to fight back but I easily overpowered him and had him what I could best describe as a choke hoold he was a 50s something-year-old Homeless looking man with the smell to match it I yelled at him who are you why are you in my house he tried grabbing my face to possibly
gouge my eyes or something but I continued to ring his NE and punch him during all this Kevin was going berserk in his cage when the man on the floor seemed weak enough I literally sprinted for the nearest phone and came right back and kept him on the ground while I called 911 the man was taken to jail but he had no idea on him nothing he was homeless and had nothing to his name and as such he was considered what some people call judgment proof meaning even if I tried to sue him I wouldn't
get anything from him he had raided my pantry closet that night and had opened jars of peanut butter boxes of cookies and crackers and all sorts of other boxed and canned foods if it weren't for my dad's parrot I don't know what else that man would have taken or done in my house I'm grateful for Kevin and I like to think part of my dad is watching over me in that [Music] bird this story takes place when I was a junior in high school for context here's a little background information back in the day I
was a pretty involved student took all the hard classes and was in a few Varsity Sports in one of these ways I was always busy and didn't have much time for myself and part of me was thankful for that it provided me an escape from a world where my parents had recently parted ways and my older brother had just gone to college it was just me and my little brother then he also was a swimmer and a smart kid in his own right we were really similar even to this day but probably because of the
stress as our family situation put on us at the time we didn't get along near at all one of those wet winter days in the midwest I'd put in my time at school and swim and I still had to sit down for several hours of homework this time I had to write an essay for some advanced class that I wasn't really interested in I dropped my swim bag at the door when I got home and looked around my house to see if anyone was home empty dad must be out with re at swim practice his
club team had the slot at the pool after the high school team was done I popped in a mouthful of Cheez itss and headed down to the basement to my office to get some schoolwork done the house was a middle class two-story with an unfinished basement with the exception of what I referred to as my office from a career past my dad used to work from home but no longer did I was the only one who used this place so my family or what was left of it just called it Quinn's office so I made
my way across the concrete floors and unattached carpet sampes down there to the one finished out room in the basement I flicked on the CFL light it was like any other night after practice I still had hours of homework to do so I turned on the computer and started typing away I was typing typing for what seemed like an hour trying to bring to words to what the concept of Hedonism and The Picture of Dorian Gray meant to me as best I could or as convincingly as I could out of the dark I heard my
little brother call out to me Quinny Quinny come up almost reflexively I called back to him Reese I'm working what do you need we would yell through the house like brothers do but it took me a minute to realize I didn't hear him come home I got no response only for a couple minutes though again I heard my little brother's voice sing out Quinny Quinny come up it felt strange hearing those words carry across the dark concrete floor he's supposed to be at swim practice I called back out to him asking if he needed anything
but again I received no answer I thought about just starting my essay again but the family situation was delicate at best and I didn't want to be in trouble if my little brother actually needed something I made the decision to get up and go find out for myself I bounded up the basement staircase the only way a high schooler can and I called out again for my brother reys what's up I'm really busy I checked all around the main floor looking for my little brother or even signs he was home no shoes no backpack so
he wasn't home and there was no car in the driveway either the only reason my dad would be gone right now would be to pick him up satisfied I turned back for the stairs when I heard my little brother's voice ring out Quinny Quinny come up this time every hair in my body stood on end it just didn't make sense he had to be at practice and if he really needed me he would have come to me I go to the base of the second floor stairs and called out to him one more time reys
what's going on are you okay for a minute no answer reys I'm really busy can you tell me what's up it's quiet for way too long as I stared up the dark staircase logically I had no reason to believe anyone was up there until I heard Reese's voice calmly speak this time and not call out in his sing song way those same four words Quinny Quinny come up what I asked under my breath I couldn't comprehend the situation I did quick inventory of any probable scenario Breakin wrong voice a prank I would have seen something
at this point it had to be Reese and maybe helping him would make me a good brother so I began up the stairs my heart pounded with each step and I was about to make the landing to the dark second floor then I heard the buzz of the garage door motor I ran back down the stairs and looked out the window it was my father's sedan and him and my little brother got out I stumbled from the window to the hall where there would enter and I felt my heart almost stop eating I collapsed on
the floor and just started to cry uncontrollably this was like 15 years ago now when I was a kid I was with my best friend Jackson at some abandoned family resort or Bungalow Colony type place in New York it was off a main road and then down a private dirt path driveway entrance and it was a rather large property with a bunch of old abandoned buildings including at least 10 small Bungalows a main hall a few bathroom stations and an indoor pool house along with that was an outdoor pool a shuffle boarding area and a
kids playground everything was old run down and with tall overgrown grass growing over it we found this place accidentally one time walking down Route 209 but we didn't explore it that day we came back another night by the time we went it was past Sunset the sun was kissing the sky good night it was getting very dark but we didn't want to come during the day in fear of getting caught and getting charged were trespassing we brought along walkie-talkies and flashlights with us to communicate to each other when we'd split up we started looking around
the Bungalows together most of them looked the same and were relatively small one or two beds each a small kitchen and one bathroom each some of them had these little living room areas halfway looking through these Bungalows I split off from Jackson because he was moving kind of slow I tried to enter the building that looked to be the main hall or office or something but every entrance was locked locked I walkie-talkie Jackson to tell him that the big building was locked he didn't walkie-talkie back I wondered if I was out of range from where
he was 2 minutes later I found myself at one of the two bathroom buildings it was probably a 400 squ foot building there were no doors to the building though it was unusual it just had two big openings one for the men's room one for the women's room I remember the signs being faded and worn out looking then I saw these red tracks on the dirty old concrete bathroom floor now I'm not going to sit here and say they looked like bloody Footprints but I couldn't explain what these red marks could be then and I
still can't say for certain now regardless it was Pitch Black inside that bathroom around that corner and that was the first building I was scared to enter I tried walkie talking to Jackson again hoping he was in range this time I pressed the button on the walkie and said yo where are you when I let go I heard the beep sound that the receiving walkie makes after getting a message from in inside the bathroom it gave me a near heart attack then I thought Jackson must already be in there hence the red looking footsteps I
called his name and it echoed into the bathroom I was actually about to step into the bathroom thinking he was hiding from me pranking me when I heard Jackson's voice call out from the distance behind me outside in the darkness of the night I heard him getting closer couldn't see him in the dark but he obviously saw my light so I yelled back I found your walkie-talkie I I started stepping into the bathroom but then he said back don't go in there I never went in there this is when I turned around and hurried right
out of there I pressed and released the talk button really quick on my walkie causing the beep again from inside that pitch black women's room Jackson and I looked at each other for half a second then began dashing in the direction we came we made it back to Route 209 and had to stop to catch our breaths this is when Jackson told me that inside one of the Bungalows he went into he tried walki talking me but I wasn't answering meaning we must have been out of range but then he heard a noise from the
living area of the Bungalow as he turned around his flashlight revealed an older woman almost running towards him he dropped his walkie-talkie and flashlight and ran out from The Bungalow he ran in the dark and hid refraining from making noise in fear of being followed he hid for a questionable amount of time before looking around and seeing my flashlight across the field over at the bathrooms the most likely explanation to me was that some cracked out drug addict was hiding or living in that abandoned Bungalow and for whatever reason lunged at Jackson and picked up
his walkie-talkie what she was doing in that bathroom who knows maybe drugs maybe the bathroom in the Bungalow didn't work but what I don't know is why was there a trail of what looked like blood in there those are my theories but I can't explain all of it away and that's the scariest part [Music] [Music]
