when I was in college I used to house sit for a family for a few years when they would go on their annual family vacations I've had a handful of other scary creepy experiences but the one I want to talk about today was the one that forced me to quit house sitting for them I was in my 20s and was trying to make ANS meet house sitting was one of the many side hustles I had the family would be going on a 2 we vacation abroad and wouldn't have any service so if anything went wrong
I would have to call the police or their relatives depending on the situation please keep in mind that I've already had a few creepy experiences with their house prior to this but it was never scary enough to deter me because they paid me very well I used to work at an animal shelter so I was well versed in Animal Care and I knew about cat behavior this family had four cats who were all very well behaved for the first few days all was well I slept in the guest bedroom and went to school from their
house because they lived close enough to where I could just walk to class and didn't have to pay for parking or bring lunch since I could just go back to their place then the issues began after a few days my boyfriend at the time came over with dinner to keep me company as he knew I was always a bit creeped out by the house we sat in the guest bedroom and watched TV for a few hours eating until he said he needed to go home sometimes he'd sleep over but he told me on this particular
night that but he had a strong gut feeling he needed to sleep at home he urged me to go home because that gut feeling he had was really bad at that point it was around midnight and to be honest I didn't want to go home to put it bluntly I have a complicated home life and didn't get along with my parents the only time I'd get a break from home was the annual house sitting once a year and I didn't feel like wasting it my only sibling who's also my best friend moved out due to
the toxicity and honestly home wasn't home without them anymore I told him that I'll be fine and I'll lock up after he left he was still really uneasy and tried to persuade me to go home once again he tried to explain that while he had slept over before for some reason tonight the house just felt unsettling I thought it was because the house was over a century old but it was just renovated so I felt better about it I reminded him that there was a home security alarm that I always said the neighborhood was safe
and I had four friendly cats with me he relu stly left and drove home and that was when it started happening I shut all the doors and windows locked everything and set the security alarm once I got comfortable in bed the TV started to turn on by itself we were just using the TV so I thought I accidentally sat on the remote but I saw the remote on the nightstand I quickly turned it off just as it went off it turned back on I thought it was strange since the TV was working perfectly the entire
night but it was even stranger that when the TV turned on by itself it went to this off Channel like it was just black and white like it had no signal so I kept turning it off and it kept turning on I began to freak out and unplug the TV entirely even though I'd had creepy experiences before in this house this one had never happened before I told myself that the house was just renovated maybe there were some wiring issues I still didn't go home and went and slept on the couch instead the next next
day my boyfriend came over again I told him about what happened the night before and he told me that I should have just went home I was pretty freaked out but honestly it was still not as bad as having to deal with my family that night we had dinner together again and watched a movie in the living room for this next part I do have to explain the house structure the house is two floors there's the first floor where you come in through the front door straight into the living room and the second floor is
actually the basement which is essentially a big living room with another room that can be used as a spare bedroom the stairs leading downstairs are incredibly creaky and creepy I don't understand why they didn't fix it during the renovation as for the cats they love to be everywhere and anywhere they all had the personality where they wanted to be around you but not necessarily held or cuddled they were all pretty calm cats that liked quieter environments of the four cats there was one cat that was the youngest at around 3 years old and he was
just a a bit smaller than the other three that night as we watched the movies my blood ran cold as I heard sounds from the basement that sounded like an infant crying my boyfriend froze as he slowly turned to look at me as if signaling to me silently if I heard it too I remembered from my time working in the animal shelter during my training that sometimes cats sound like babies especially if they're in duress as I mentioned earlier the cats like to be around people and will follow you around the house but not close
enough to cuddle I counted and only counted three the little younger cat was missing I figured it must be the younger cat and went downstairs to the basement where I found it stuck in the spare room he was smaller but more energetic than the other cats he somehow closed the door behind him and was stuck in the room all alone I carried him up the stairs and we resumed the movie mid movie we did pause it as it was time to feed the cats the owners had a strict food schedule for their cats the cats
food station was in the kitchen and the kitchen was the only area that connected to the basement to best explain the layout of the house the main entrance connects to the living room the living room then diverges into two different sections one connects to the kitchen and the other connects to three bedrooms one being the spare bedroom a master bedroom and another bedroom that belongs to the family's child with the living room being connected to the kitchen as well the kitchen was the connecting area where you must enter it to go to the basement or
living room for these cats the only time that they didn't want to be around humans was while they were eating and after they ate as they like to take naps or rest with their full bellies they like to nap in the master bedroom or the teenagers room as it smells like their family they always did this every year that I babysat them so it wasn't new it also wasn't unusual to not see them for a little bit after meal time we finished our movie and went into the the kitchen void of any cats as we
were enjoying dinner we both once again heard crying noises from the basement it was naturally louder because we were in the kitchen which was closer to the basement I didn't see any cats in the kitchen and I didn't think to check the living room because I was panicking internally my boyfriend was visibly creeped out and I told him I'd check it out since it was likely the cat again I couldn't help but notice that the cries sounded a little different from earlier it was more frequent and higher pitched I turned on the lights to the
basement and slowly crept down the stairs saying the cat's name with each step the crying got louder but when I finally made it down the crying abruptly stopped I checked the spare room any crevices and under the couch he was nowhere at that point I was feeling so scared and could hear my heartbeat in my head I don't even go on regular walks I definitely don't jog and I absolutely don't run but but I ran up those stairs like my life depended on it when I got back into the kitchen I felt my whole body
go cold as my heart sank my boyfriend was standing in the kitchen with a horrid look on his face as all four cats surrounded him he told me that as I went down the stairs to the crying noises the four cats came out at the same time from the area where the bedrooms were no cat had been downstairs the entire time I immediately and silently packed up my items jammed it into my backpack and we both left the house for the remaining week I would only return to the house once a day to clean the
litter box and feed them I know I was going against their eating schedule but at that point I really didn't care after the last day I locked up dropped the keys into their hiding spot thank them for the opportunity but that it was my last time and I never returned I hated that house and looking back the experiences I had each year seemed like it was escalating I should have stopped much sooner I still remember calling my sibling during the drive to my parents house after the incident I felt even worse when they revealed that
they also had their own experience in that house and kept it away from me because they knew I was trying to save money to move out and they didn't want to scare [Music] me first I'll start off with descriptions of all those involved my name is Kelsey I was 17 years old at the time of this event I'm 5'3 my friend Haley's 5'8 my friend Sammy is 5'7 it was March 19th 2016 I was dogit sitting at my mom's friend's house for some extra cash to help me out before going off to college next year
it was a Cool Spring night and the people I was dog sitting for have a super cool sun room where my friends and I like to smoke so I decided to invite two of my other friends over to spend the night and make this whole dogit sitting thing more fun Haley and Sammy were a little older with Haley being 23 and Sammy being 22 they brought over some vodka for us to drink we hung out for a couple hours drinking smoking laughing and catching up then we start to get a bunch of phone calls now
normally this would not be weird except for the fact that the phone was supposed to be disconnected we ignore the first couple phone calls thinking they'll leave a message or a call back in the morning as it was nearly midnight the calls were persistent and we could tell this person was not going to leave us alone until we answered Sammy decided to answer the phone and there was a man on the line claiming to have the owner's wallet at a gas station 25 minutes from the house which did not make sense this man insisted that
we come pick up the wallet now which we all found extremely odd after minutes of this man insisting that it was urgent that we come pick up the wallet Sammy finally got the man to understand that we were not leaving the house and that we'll get it in the morning we hung up the phone and all got a weird feeling in in our stomachs we grabb the dog Willis and run into the back bedroom shut all the blinds and lock the door we already have impaired judgment because of the weed and booze we talk things
out and we decide we were just being paranoid and the man was just trying to make sure we get the wallet back to the owner safely hours go by of us drinking and smoking some more then we decide to watch a funny movie and make some food to calm down and get ready for bed that night we moved from the sun room to the living room and pop in a DVD the sun room is located in between the kitchen and living room of the house and the backyard by the pool the door in between the
pool and the sun room does not have a lock on it but the door that's in between the kitchen living room and the sun room does not have a dog door for Willis to go out back to go to the bathroom so we all agree that although we were a little spooked by the phone call we were in a safe neighborhood and Willis would bark if anything were to come to the door time creeps by we were laughing on the couches Haley and I sitting next to each other on one and Sammy across the room
on the other the Clock Struck 3:00 a.m. and that's when things started to get creepy remember earlier how we left the lockable door open to the sun room so that Willis could get outside to pee that's where he entered from I'm fully emerged in the comedy but do you ever get that unexplainable feeling that you're being watched by somebody that feeling suddenly became overpowering I turn towards the kitchen and see a dark Mass hunched over in the kitchen I freeze and for a second think I'm seeing things I watch as this Mass reaches up into
the cabinet and that's when I realize there's someone in the house I nudge Haley's side with my elbow and say real quietly Haley I think there's somebody in the house she looks into the kitchen and screams bloody murder this dark mass then whips his head around and looks directly at me we make eye contact and I felt my entire body tense up all I could see were his piercing blue eyes contra casting against the orange lamp just below the cabinet on the table everything else was covered by his black hoodie pants shoes and gloves he
even wore a ski mask that covered up to his nose and mouth Sammy then gets up to look at what Haley and I are staring at and somehow musters up the courage to yell get the [ __ ] out he calmly closes the cabinet and slowly walks out the sunro doors we immediately get up and rush to the corner of the room farthest from where he was crouching and call 911 they arrive 3 minutes later and search the entire apartment take our statements and sit outside the house for the rest of the night to see
if the Intruder would come back the three of us did not stick around long enough to see if he would we leave our booze weed and my car all at the house with the cops and the dog and head home we come back the next day to find clothes all throughout the house messed with and crumbs by the doggy door understandably so Willis wouldn't bark at whoever came in to this day we still have no idea who called us and or who came into that that house I have not been back [Music] since I'm 28
years old I've been an animal lover ever since I was a child which led to me pursuing a career path that had to do with animals I'm a veterinary assistant but for a while I also had a little side gig in which I'd offered a house set animals for people going away on vacation and such this ranged from cats to dogs bugs to birds I had actually house had entire weekends a few times for people who presumably didn't have any family available to watch them being a young female who also already works at a Veterinary
Hospital most people weren't intimidated by the idea of me staying in their house while they're gone I wasn't just some random person off the street my credentials were all over the internet I got a response to my ad one day from a man named jery seeking my services he had a 20s something-year-old mcau and a cat that he needed to have watched for a weekend while he went away he brought up a price right away and offered me $300 for the entire weekend I accepted that offer because that was a fair deal I have experience
dealing with birds of all types including Maca but this would be my first time I'd ever watched one for an entire weekend I met Jeremy at his house it was a basic normal Corner House for the neighborhood he was a short man in his late 50s if I had to guess he had graying hair and a graying mustache he seemed very friendly in my my experience most animal lovers are after meeting Jeremy I met his bird Ringo and his cat Casper Ringo was huge I've handled Maca in the past which I assumed was part of
the reason Jeremy hired me he told me about Ringo's personality and quirks and how to get him to quiet down if he makes noises Ringo kept saying Daddy's home as Jeremy would handle him he laughed and said that's what he says when he sees him Ringo said a few other phrases along with that all of them two or three-word phrases after showing me how to clean the cage and everything like that he showed me the rest of the house and told me how often to feed Casper he asked that I don't go into any other
bedrooms upstairs besides the guest bedroom where I'd be sleeping which was understandable there was a bathroom upstairs right next to the bedroom and he told me I could help myself to his food however I'm a vegan so I brought my own food for the weekend after all of this and him getting to know me a bit he gave me the key to the house and left I watched through the window as he drove off and I was left alone with Ringo and Casper it was already late in the day at this point like 8:00 p.m.
it was dark out so there wasn't much left to do that night Casper was already fed and Jeremy already left enough food in Ringo's cage for the night the cage was in the living room in the center of the house right next to the TV so I turned on the TV and plopped down on the couch Casper was hiding somewhere in the house out of sight Ringo was just sitting in the cage watching me after a couple of hours of watching TV and eating my little dinner I went to bed no reason to stay up
super late I slept with the bedroom door open and I woke up in the middle of the night to a sound the best way I could describe it was two loud cracking sounds I sat up and listened for a second nothing so I laid back down and went back to sleep there was a giant bird in a cage downstairs hearing sounds was not unexpected the next day was pretty easy I cleaned up cast litter box fed him and fed Ringo I let Ringo out to play for a couple of hours he perched on the back
of the couch behind me as I watch TV Jeremy told me that Casper and Ringo typically ignore each other so I wouldn't have to worry about one attacking the other fast forward a few hours and I left the house to go explore the area a little bit I went for a walk in the park and facetimed a couple of my friends I did a little driving around too and picked up some food for dinner that night before returning to the house it was around 7 :00 when I returned I interacted with the pets for a
couple of hours as I ate my dinner and watched TV Jeremy was supposed to be returning home late tomorrow I called it a night early again I went to sleep with the door open again however once again I woke up to a sound this time I believe it was the sound of the bedroom door closing I looked up and saw that the bedroom door was now closed while the windows were open there was little to no when to create a draft this was weird I also could hear sounds from downstairs it sounded like Ringo moving
about in his cage talking I got out of my bed to check on him and make sure he's okay as I was walking down the stairs I heard him talking more clearly I got to the cage and saw he was wide awake and walking around I remember what Jeremy told me to do to get him to quiet down hand him a particular treat I dug into the bag to grab one but then he said the phrase daddy's home I found that odd and slightly unsettling I put a treat in front of Ringo's face and he
grabbed it this ultimately did end up getting him to stop making noise but it still felt weird that he'd wake up in the middle of the night I went back to the bedroom and left the door open I fell back asleep and I [ __ ] you not I woke up once again maybe a little more than an hour later this time I didn't hear what woke me up but I looked up in the room in a dazed and in the near pitch black darkness of the room room I saw a black mass in the
center of the room moving away from the bed and out the door I sat up and almost screamed until I fully came to I now had to wonder if what I just saw was a hallucination or not I grabbed my phone to turn on the flashlight but on the screen I saw I had gotten a text from Jeremy around an hour ago it was him telling me that if Ringo makes noises in the middle of the night it's normal and to ignore it I stared at my screen rereading the text at least 10 times that
text was sent conveniently around the same time I got up to give Ringo a treat I felt ill all of a sudden that black mass in the room I just saw what if that were real what if it wasn't a hallucination I got out of bed and turned on the lamp I started packing my bag as quickly as possible I didn't bring many clothes so I was packed very quickly I quietly went to the bathroom next to grab all my toiletry quick and then I tiptoed back out of the bathroom and I was in the
near pitch black upstairs hallway with all the bedroom doors I looked down the hallway and I could swear I heard the faintest sound coming from one of the bedrooms I don't know why but this overwhelming curiosity almost hypnotized me and I crept down the hall to what I presumed to have been the master bedroom I put my ear up close to the door and I heard a rattling sound sounded like a bed rocking he was in there that [ __ ] creep I knocked on the door and said Jeremy are you in there the rocking
sound stopped St and there was now dead silence I repeated myself and this time said if you're in the house I need to know right now before I leave still silence I left the house in a hurry leaving the key on the table and I didn't look back on my drive home I sent him a long voice text saying I'm considering reporting this to the authorities as some sort of stalker or breach of privacy situation and that I was extremely Disturbed that he was in the house he immediately tried calling me three times but I
was honestly too scared to pick up he then sent me a text apologizing and stating that his brother unexpectedly came home that night I knew it was complete horseshit I demanded he just pay me and I won't pursue this any further he sent me a payment via zel and that was that I hate to even mention this part but the next day I realized I was missing a certain article of clothing from my bag that I know for a fact was grabbed out of my bag by him I have largely chosen to block this memory
out this will be the first and last time I ever write a DE detailed recounting of this experience
