during a period of my life where I was mostly living on the road I often made money through house sitting and dog sitting it was super easy and convenient to get temporary jobs that way and it also paid me to stay at sometimes really nice houses for several days or even weeks I was scheduled to dog and house sit at a place in Washington this week I drove up there on a Thursday and met the owners and the dog it was a large Golden Retriever named Apple she was extremely friendly and loving right from the start and only an hour after arriving the owners left for their vacation with them gone I decided to explore the house a bit just to make myself more comfortable as I was going to be there for 5 to 6 days it was a really large home in a very remote area of the national forest I mean this place had to be at least worth a million bucks and it honestly felt surreal to be staying there that first day I played with apple and just got used to the home then ate dinner and took her out for a walk around 700 the sun was slowly setting and the whole road I was walking along was a peaceful wooded area there were no other houses visible in any direction I brought Apple down the road for about 15 minutes then turned around and headed back as we got back to the driveway though there was a guy he was walking down the driveway and as he passed by me he kept his head down and didn't say anything he looked like he was 30ish with short black hair and some baggy jeans now this was a really long driveway like it took a full 3 minutes of walking just to get to the house but there were no other houses connected to this so where the hell could he be coming from other than the house I hurried Apple up to the home and got us both inside locking the doors just in case the only thing I could think of was that he was exploring the woods or something and just happened to pop out by the driveway seeing him walking away though I hoped that whatever it was it wasn't something to worry too much about nothing else happened that day and I went to bed that night around 10: this next day I didn't do much I relaxed inside with apple and watched a movie while eating leftovers from yesterday I felt like staying up late though and the house had this really awesome upstairs balcony with a fire pit so once the sun set I lit up a campfire and sat on the lounge chair Apple stayed with me for a while but she ended up going back inside to lay in her bed 30 minutes passed and it was maybe 11:30 when I heard Apple start barking from inside the house it wasn't just a typical bark though it was very sudden and frantic and knowing she was such a friendly dog this really caught me off guard I jumped up from the chair and ran inside she was still barking and it was coming from the other side of the upstairs hallway when I looked down I saw one of the doors to a spare bedroom was open and I could see apple in the room with her tail between her legs staring at one side of the room I called her name but she just continued to bark so I hurried into the room her gaze was fixed on a door I could feel my adrenaline start kicking in as I moved toward it and slowly cracked the door open it was Pitch Black in there and I didn't know where the light switch was but it was a large walk-in closet full of clothes hanging everywhere and somehow my eyes locked on a small Gap there was an eye staring right back at me for a moment I froze before quickly slamming the door I could hear the clothes rattling inside the closet as I grabbed Apple's collar and rushed her downstairs and straight into my car I drove away hands shaking on the steering wheel and called 911 once cops arrived I waited anxiously for 10 minutes as they searched the home but came out alone the guy had already left we went over everything and I told them about the person that I saw yesterday but that was really all I knew and I really couldn't confirm if it was the same person what the officers told me is that the man probably knew the family was going on vacation and thought the house would be empty what he intended to do is unclear though and honestly I'm not convinced that he broke in and hid in the closet without knowing I was there I think he knew which only makes it more terrifying thankfully Apple noticed him and got my attention because without her I don't know what would have happened that night I'm a maintenance worker for a small business they run all their operations during the day so I work overnight it makes my job easier because I don't have to work around them and vice versa it's technically just a part-time job though I work from 8: to 12: on the week days this night I arrived a little late but clocked in right away and got to work an hour went by and as I was cleaning off one of the desks the phone in the front of the building started ringing obviously the place was closed and I didn't have any business answering it so I let it ring through but a couple minutes later it rang again and then again and again I knew it wasn't my boss or anyone else that worked here because they would have just texted or called me directly from my cell phone it's not like they were calling right after the place closed either the servic has stopped at 6:00 p. m. and it was around 900 right now after the fifth time it rang I walked up to the front desk and looked at the caller ID it just said unknown caller I tried to decide whether to just mute the phone and leave it or to just quickly answer and let them know we were closed ultimately I didn't want to deal with it so I just decided to mute it I walked away from the front and continued with cleaning off the desks probably 30 minutes went by and I had totally forgotten about the phone I kind of assumed that by now they had to have given up anyways it was about 10 p.
m. and I was upstairs taking a break in the small coffee room when I heard a sound from below me it was a beep just a single electronic beep sound that I'd never heard before I didn't think much of it at first until I heard a door open and closed I literally turned my head toward the stairwell and just looked completely stunned for a moment who could possibly be coming into the building right now it was way too late I was a little nervous but really hoped that it was just a worker that forgot something I walked up to the open stairwell and listened for a second before calling out hello is someone down there I heard subtle footsteps abruptly stop as soon as I called out there was a pause hello I said again my body slowly filled with tension as I started to worry about the possible other scenarios then I heard a couple more footsteps getting closer to the bottom of the stairwell I quietly leaned over and looked down at the doorway there was a shadow of a man they were standing still probably just a foot or two from the entrance to the stairwell it looked like they were waiting for me or something after a really unnerving few seconds I backed away and moved further into the coffee room then quietly pulled my phone out and called 911 I just hid behind the bar table and whispered to the operator as I stared at the empty stairwell it only took a couple minutes for the first officer to make it I heard him come in and yell for everyone to come out I didn't hear anyone else say anything and he made it all the way upstairs without seeing anyone we didn't get any answers until we got hold of the security tapes disturbingly the guy stood at the bottom of that stairwell for several minutes holding a knife and looking absolutely unfazed by anything he didn't seem to have come in with the intention of hurting me actually it seemed like he had no idea I was there until I called out however once he knew I was there it looked like he was 100% willing to harm me if I came in his way after a couple minutes and just before the officer arrived he left out the front door I guess the biggest mystery is how he got a key card to unlock the door that's what the beep sound was was even I didn't have a key card I just had a normal Metal Key the search is still open for the guy and I still work there hopefully this was just a onetime thing but it definitely still has me feeling uneasy Some Nights my name is Trevor and I'm a freshman in college I don't have a lot of bills to pay as I'm lucky to have a supportive family however I still have to pay for my own food and for whatever random activities that I want to do with my friends I do Uber Eats every once in a while just to make enough to afford these things I drove an old beater Honda Accord that probably belonged in the scrapyard but it did the job I guess anyway I had been delivering for a couple hours on this day and it was about 10: p. m.
