[Music] hello welcome to scary stories for a Rainy Night Before We Begin I just want to give a couple reminders to all of my listeners if you have any scary stories of personal experiences you can actually get paid to have them featured on my channel just click the link in the description to visit my subreddit where you can post your stories and read others as well if your story is chosen To be featured in a video I will send you $20 for each one and you can post as many as you want just as long
as they are your stories to share second reminder there are only three ads in this video after the first three stories and Last Thing Before We Begin Please Subscribe if you enjoy these kinds of videos and leave a comment and introduce yourself if you're new here my audience is the nicest and they'll be very quick to welcome you to the family thank you For choosing to be here when I know that there are many other options now let's begin [Applause] when we moved into our new apartment we were relieved to finally be out of the
market for a rental property times had been really tough and the struggle many people face just trying to find adequate housing in our country is intense the apartment was Small but it was sufficient for the time being it was the top unit of an old Victorian house that had been converted into duplexes decades ago the exterior facade spoke of a different era than the interior and subtle hints of the apartment's age were evident if you looked closely namely in the width of the stairwells the style of the doors the layout of the piping and the
way the house carried sound and echoed as it settled in the otherwise calm dead of Night as our family was growing the timing of it all couldn't have worked out better for us however we soon began to realize that something strange was happening in our new home I had come up to look for work and find us a place to stay when we received the news that we were expecting our first child leaving home in the 7th month of my wife's pregnancy was one of the hardest and most emotionally Demanding things I have ever done
but I'm glad to say that in the end it was the right decision for us and it worked out perfectly I got the news that we had secured the apartment on the very day that we were informed of the induction date for Labor it was all so perfectly timed and I had enough notice to comfortably make it back home and be there for my wife and our upcoming child everything went smoothly and before we knew it we were the proud parents of a Beautiful little boy with bright blue eyes and hair that would eventually settle
on a pale strawberry blonde he was and is perfect and I am intensely proud of both my son and the work we did to prepare for his arrival after the delivery I stayed the night in the hospital with my wife at 6:30 in the morning I took the world's most expensive Uber ride from London Ontario to Niagara on the Lake to go to work early that afterno afternoon and Meet up with the realtor the next day for the code to the lockbox that held the keys to our unit when I got the keys I spent
the first night alone in the house it was just me in the upper unit for about 10 days while my wife prepared to move in from a few counties away on that first night I slept on a mattress on the floor that I had picked up from a local Big Box store along with a few essentials and odds and ends to tide me over until my family arrived With the rest of our belongings in the dark Silence of the living room where I was sleeping I heard what seemed like a knocking sound in the stairwell
leading to the main door of the unit I couldn't be sure but it registered in my mind as footsteps the kind made by a hard Soul stepping slowly up our side stairs and stopping at the door I went to check but found nothing The stairway was empty and darker than any other part of the unit though still light enough from the Moonlight peeking Through the Windows to confirm that there was indeed nothing there I went back to bed half asleep and convinced myself that I was just hearing things that it was an old house that
I wasn't used to and the sounds would eventually soften as the house settled I figured it was something I would eventually get used to and learn To tune out as time went on about 20 minutes later as I lay in bed I began to hear a shuffling at the door on the other side with my back facing the doorway and my ears attuned to the direction of the stairwell I started to notice the sound of footsteps again only this time they were silent more deliberately placed and softened as if someone was trying to sneak I
didn't dare move a muscle as I listened the steps came right about Where my mattress was and I could still hear the presence of someone standing right next to my mattress the sound of feet weighing down on the creaking floorboards while standing in place a displaced creaking made only by a person or living thing standing over the old floor I didn't hear anyone come in I knew it was impossible for someone to be standing there right next to me in my living room so I lay there with my eyes closed and pretended to Sleep eventually
the feeling of presence seemed to vanish I slowly inched my head around and opened my eye a crack to examine the room I was indeed the only one in the room I didn't leave my bed for the rest of the night and eventually drifted off to sleep waking up to the sun beaming through the east side windows the distant hum of traffic on the Highway and the chirping of M birds in the trees lining the Laneways the year went by quickly and many good things happened just under 2 weeks later my family was together again
and we quickly settled into our new house and adjusted to city life we celebrated our first Halloween together dressing our son up as a little skunk and had our first Christmas as a family which was a magical experience that I look forward to to repeating as the years go by there weren't many creepy encounters just the usual bumps and Creeks in the night which I still told myself was just the house settling a year passed and we received the news that my wife was pregnant again excited though a bit financially stressed I sprang into action
as the responsible father to our Good Fortune we discovered that the tenants below us would be moving out at the end of August I quickly jumped at the opportunity and asked the landlord with whom we had built a good rapport if we could take Over the whole property we now have a full house and more than enough space for our growing family despite money worries and growing pains it is a beautiful house and having the entire property to ourselves is a refreshing contrast from sharing the building with other tenants there's a front parlor adjoining the
master bedroom and enough space for a small workshop for me in the basement I eagerly set up my woodworking Shop and other Hobbies my wife and I finally had a full bedroom to ourselves and moved into the main floor bedroom we were a little anxious about being separated from the baby as we slept but a baby monitor resolved that issue we got the best model that we could afford and set it up close to his crib with the speaker next to our bed head downstairs in the master bedroom one day early in our rental of
the whole house I was downstairs alone Organizing the basement to set up my workshop when I noticed the unmistakable pattern of hard sold shoes walking on the hardwood floors above it sounded exactly like the footsteps that I had heard on the first night I spent alone in the house a year ago but this time it was coming from the main floor and occurring in broad daylight I quickly headed up the stairs and checked all the then unfurnished rooms and like on that first night found them Just as empty as I expected I was alone and
my son was upstairs fast asleep after being put down for his nap maybe I'm just stressed about the change again I told myself and went back downstairs to finish up what I had planned for the day I mentioned it to my wife who didn't think much of it she she had heard all those pops and Creeks before too but I had never told her about the presence I felt on the first night I didn't want to freak her Out and I couldn't confirm whether it was the house settling an intruder or something else then one
night about a week later my thoughts began to change and I started to believe that we might not be alone in the house we were sitting in silence in the master bedroom scrolling rolling through social media and listening to the sounds of our son on the baby monitor when the speaker began to hiss with loud static And crackle before returning to the usual sounds of the nursery on the top floor over the speaker I heard an unmistakable voice Gruff and low as if a man was standing by the speaker talking to our baby did you
hear that I asked jolting up and looking at my wife yes what is that she replied it's a man we both quickly sprang out of bed and ran up the stairs to his room finding him sitting upright Playing blowing spit Bubbles and babbling away nonchalant and carefree I don't know what I heard but I have been sleeping in the nursery for the past couple of days I was never a huge believer but now I'm not sure what to think the thought of a stranger being alone with my son disturbed us both deeply after that I
told my wife everything the footsteps on the first night the Presence everything I was already having a hard time sleeping away from my son but now for the time being I think I'll go back to sleeping on the floor upstairs if you want to call it sleep [Applause] when my older cousin Harper was younger he had a pretty sketchy encounter with two people on the trail in broad daylight this happened in the middle of summer a few years ago he used to be Quite the Avid athlete often running from town to town via the network
of trails that cut through the field yields and concessions throughout the county at that time the town was in an economic lull and things were rough for many people while this was long before the opiod crisis the whole region had experienced a significant influx of opiates mostly notably oxy conton with the cheap rent in the surrounding semi- rural community the recession brought in An influx of newcomers from the cities I don't mean to generalize most people who relocated were good honest individuals who commuted long distances to their jobs in the city but struggled to make
ends meet in an urban setting unfortunately with this influx came many social changes that people didn't exactly like the most prominent of which was drug abuse and vagrancy accompanying a struggling job market like a line of dominoes set to fall some Of the town's most beloved shops closed down their Windows boarded up pan handlers became a common sight along the sidewalks and the scuffling and occasional arguments of squabbling junkies echoed through the Alleyways concerned preachers from paranoid congregations seemed to preach about the evils of sin and vice on every corner times were tough and the
town became no stranger to Newfound cracks in its once solid Foundation theft became a regular occurrence shoplifting burglary and even mugging started dominating the local gossip like many of us he loved spending time in this beautiful and symbolically important region he enjoyed seeing and feeling the transitions from forest to Meadow and back to the cool tree canopy of the dense wooded Valley which led the local River to the Shoreline of the nearby lake to the South while it was common to see people enjoying the Wilderness along the trails you could also spend hours in the
countryside without encountering anyone as you ventured into the Forest summer days however tended to bring people out of their houses and onto the trails just to get fresh air or cool off in the evening Breeze through the Aged Groves and Whispering grasses of The Meadows that wo through the Lush Greenery of the countryside one day as Harper jogged Along the trail he noticed two men off in the distance who seemed to be slowly making their way towards him they were aimlessly wandering back and forth along the trail doing something he couldn't see clearly they were
so far away that they appeared as mere specks on the horizon growing larger as he approached as he got closer he saw that one man was Meandering down the path on a chopper style bicycle and the other was some distance behind him waving what Seems to be a large Branch at the grass along the trail as he drew nearer he realized the two men were blaring music from a loudspeaker the man on the bike who was tattooed from head to toe gave Harper a crooked smile and a tough guy nod as he approached Harper wanting
to avoid interaction slowed down and pretended to browse through his playlist as an excuse to disengage as he passed the first man he Glanced up discreetly and noticed that the man with the stick wasn't waving a stick at all but a large machete Harper's heart began to pound as he scanned the second man and he went into fight ORF flight mode his sense of time seemed to slow as his sense of danger intensified and he tried his hardest to remain as disengaged and inconspicuous as possible he walked by silently trying to stay calm the man
with the machete SE to be in a days Waving the weapon around in a bizarre display Harper wasn't sure if they were looking for something or pretending not to notice him whatever the situation was he was just glad to pass by unnoticed once he had put about 30 ft of distance between him and the men he started to pick up his pace and went into a full Sprint as he kicked up gravel behind him the man on the bike shouted to the man with the machete what about him I bet he asked something Harper heard
the man turn around and yell something at him as he sped away but he didn't look back and kept running for dear life from the two strangers that he had narrowly escaped according to Harper when he was about 150 ft away he veered off into the low hanging branches of the Box Elders lining the trail and took a sharp left onto a narrow path where the trail branched off without hesitation he leapt over the thicket like a deer fleeing From encroaching Predators as someone who frequented those Trails regularly he knew the woods like the back
of his hand and he could navigate them even in complete darkness as he made his way down into the valley he slowed to a stop to find his bearings and squatted low behind the thick trunk of an old tree in the midst of uprooting as his heart began to settle he could hear the two men coming up the main trail shouting at each other And trying to figure out where he had gone but it was no use these men were unfamiliar with the woods the forest was dense some of the trees were ancient and wide
enough to hide behind and by the grace of God he had found a point in the valley where he could make his way down relatively safely despite the stinging nettle of thorn brush that kept most people away he sat there in the middle of the woods waiting until he could be sure the Men had moved on mindful of the noises above him he must have been sweating heavily in the sticky humid summer heat even as the sun began to set and the choir of bullfrogs and crickets started up the seasonal heat lingered especially after an
afternoon of running or hiking although he wasn't clear on the exact location within the conservation area where the events took place once you're down in the valley you can follow the Riverside straight into Town if you don't mind getting your feet wet or your clothes muddy as it happened I ran into Harper that night as he was coming into town it was late and he had come up the pathway through the park that adjoins the conservation area just on the edge of town it was well into the evening and the sun had set hours ago
when I saw him he looked absolutely exhausted covered in sweat caked with mud and soaked from The knees down he had a stunned look on his face wide vacant eyes and a weary demeanor I immediately recognized where he was coming from though I wasn't expecting his explanation for why he was in such a state oddly it took a while for him to tell me but I can still remember the shock of hearing his account of the events that led him to walk the Riverside back into town this was the first time I recall hearing about
a real verifiable Encounter with vagrants on the conservation [Applause] Trail this took place a long time ago for me so admittedly it is a little difficult to recall but I'll try I grew up in Canada just south of the city of Brandford in rural Southwestern Ontario the area that I grew up in is proudly Rural and is comprised of scattering of small towns and hamlets amid a seemingly endless expanse of Fields Farmland forests and Roads leading you anywhere else but here while it is historically Farm country and very much reflects that reality it isn't entirely
rural my hometown is a small town in the Twilight of its Heyday what was once a bustling place for my parents' generation and earlier is now surrounded by sprawl and a hollow downtown core things have changed but in communities like this you could paint over the most Weather-beaten facade and it would still be the old barn behind a quaint bed and breakfast exterior in short people are set in their ways they want the same old things and seek no change for growth there are very few jobs left and in this age there isn't much Merit
in town like that for someone trying to carve out a life nobody Young from around here sticks around for long after high school if you have any sense or a pull greater Than your sense of nostalgia to seek better things you go and nobody blames you it's not that anybody really hates it here the vast majority of people who grew up here have a myriad of great memories of a mostly tight-knit Community most of us love the outdoors and many live by hunting and fishing farming is still the backbone of the region and you would
be hard pressed to find people who don't have agricultural experience or at least a LoveHate Relationship with Farm culture culminating in Pride if nothing else but sometimes you have to go elsewhere to seek your fortune and that's that's what most of us ended up doing since leaving home I have moved around the province working and gaining experience practical knowledge and perspective for wherever life took me it never ceases to amaze me just how small the world really is if you pay attention you'll run into people from your Childhood everywhere you go like a patchwork quilt
the small town diaspora is interwoven into the fabric of every corner of the province country and indeed the continent you never know where you will end up and more often you never know where your path will cross with others and with whom when I do happen to run into people from home they often share the same sentiment thoughts quickly turn to old Houses Old neighborhoods parks and Old Woods what fascinates me is that more often than not these conversations tend to turn toward paranormal whether it's a hot spot or just country boredom permeating Our Lives
who knows but as time goes on I find myself in similar conversations more frequently which leads me to want to share my own personal encounters growing up if there were ever a town that was haunted in its entirety its Home the overwhelming major majority of people I know have at least one story about personal Ghost Encounters creepy experiences house hauntings and hand me- down stories from Elder relatives obviously I'm no different the house I grew up in was small and relatively new there was nothing particularly spooky or seemingly haunted about it the first family to
live in the house and presumably the Family that built it were recent immigrants from Portugal probably in the 1960s or '70s like most of the houses in our neighborhood it was a three-bedroom Bungalow with a concrete foundation my mother would call it quaint we would call it small the property was along a small deadend side street next to a goalie that led into a wood lot on the other side of the wood lot was a park and a baseball diamond bordered by a massive Hill where all the neighborhood Kids would bogging down in the winter
the house itself had a simple layout the front porch led into the entryway and the living room and the hallway passing through the living room by the kitchen stretched to the far wall of the house down the kitchen stairs and around a winding set of basement stairs was the laundry room and two large rooms in the basement one was converted into a secondary kitchen and Pantry area with a Living room and a fireplace adjoining it and the other was an unfinished space intended for storage originally this basement kitchen would have been the main area of
the house when it was a Portuguese household traditionally many rural Portuguese families hes center around finished basements with kitchens fireplaces and ample space for living and dining at one time this would have been where families escaped the summer heat and kept warm During the winter months naturally this is where the bulk of the activity would have occurred and incidentally any odd occurrences during the time I lived in that house happened from the vantage point of the basement for the first couple of years nothing particularly abnormal happened the kitchen in the basement had long since been
disconnected and the appliances were removed before we moved in in those days the old kitchen counter Was where we kept the Box TV next to the disconnected sink that we used to store all our cart video games for systems like the NES and Nintendo 64 we would spend hours sometimes whole days down there in the dark basement endlessly trudging through whatever video games we were playing we would often have friends over for sleepovers and set up in the basement sprawling out our games and staying up until 4:30 in the morning just being kids and getting
Up to our usual Shenanigans I was always the kind of kid with a wild overactive imagination I was prone to hearing all the little bumps in the night the rustling of the tree branch on the neighbor shed outside my window the creaking of the old exhaust fan in the kitchen the gradual settling of the floorboards in the house as the dead of night passed while everyone else was fast Asleep I was accustomed to having regular nightmares to the point where it was something I just expected over the years like any other kid I was told
by my parents that it was normal that there wasn't anything wrong with that that I just had an overactive imagination I gradually came to accept that the noises and their Origins were just in my head so when my friends who had stayed over the previous weekend approached me at school on a Monday Morning I didn't know what to think when I heard what they had to say hey I know you wanted us to come over next weekend but how about we stay at r 's house instead uh yeah that's fine that's fine by me I
replied a little confused because Rowan's house didn't have that much space for the whole crew and his parents were a bit more uptight than mine so all nighters were definitely out of the question which was our usual Mo But why I asked trying and apparently failing to hide my disappointment oh well you know we don't really go there that often I could tell that my friend was dodging the question so I persisted no just tell me just tell me why it's fine look we know how you are we just didn't want to say anything but
your place is starting to give us all the creeps man While You Were Sleeping Saturday night Rowan woke up to what he Said sounded like creaking something like that coming from upstairs it freaked him out so much that he woke me up and I heard it too I heard it it lasted for about 20 minutes man I couldn't help but let out a small laugh and a subtle sigh of relief it was most likely the old exhaust fan in the kitchen it had been a little rainy that night and sometimes when the wind hit it
at the right angle it could be kind of loud and a little Eerie I told him that But he shook his head no I know what you mean you've pointed that out before I'm telling you this was different man I mean this was really loud it sounded like something dragging along the floor and then stopping over and over again like a body or something perplexed and a little creeped out by what my friends had experienced I Shrugged it off and told myself that it had to be them playing some kind of prank on me after
all I had been friends With these guys for years we grew up together and as they said they knew how I could be when it came to this sort of thing the bell rang and like like yearling sheep we hurted ourselves into the school and into our respective classrooms I got on with my morning my day and the grinding monotony of my school week as it dragged on by the time Friday came it was all out of my head and I was relieved to be done with school for another weekend of sweet Freedom to be
honest it had been a rough week and I had elected to stay home and do my own thing that weekend Rowan's house was always pretty cramped and I was allergic to their dogs I had gone out to rent a video game from the local Corner Store as these were the days before you could download games and after supper I quickly got into my game as the sun set and my Friday night began to unfold and waste away busy trying to get through some Long introductions and tutorials I ended up immersed in the game I had
rented for a few hours before I knew it it was the early hours of Saturday morning and I needed to binge on some snacks at this point in my childhood my parents didn't really mind if I stayed up late but if I was loud at this time of night I would have gotten an earful so I quietly crept up the basement steps and into the kitchen Trying not to make a sound as I gently opened and closed the cupboards and stood in the glow of the refrigerator trying to spot edible food in a fridge full
of groceries I always made sure to leave no Trace when I went on my late night snack raids and tonight was no exception I tidied up and silently descended back into the cool dark basement and the warm static Embrace of the old box television we used for Gaming it must have been about 40 minutes later when something seemed off I perked up to better sense of what had caught me off guard it was then that I heard heard it a faint creaking and dragging sound followed by what seemed to be soft deliberate footsteps from directly
above me on the main floor what is that I thought to myself as I scanned my brain for any rational explanation it couldn't be mice or something along those lines maybe Somebody was awake upstairs I listened for a solid 10 minutes growing more and more creeped out as I sat in the Silence of the basement my heartbeat progressively quickening The Sounds seemed to get louder as I tried to figure it out eventually I mustered enough courage to quietly wind up the stairs again and Peak my head around the corner into the moonlit kitchen the pitch
dark living room doorway Drew my gaze begrudgingly Toward it silence Stillness and calm in the dead of night there was nobody up there I looked up at the cupboards and noticed they were all open for some reason and I knew for a fact that I had closed them all and double checked before coming down I went to close them again and noticed one of the chairs was missing from the dining table looking into the living room I could see the unmistakable silhouette of the missing chair lightf Footed and as quiet as I could be I
shuffled into the adjoining living room to grab the chair and put it back in its proper place at this point to say I was creeped out would be an understatement while it could have been just my anxiety surrounding the situation I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched from the dark windowless hallway that connected the living room to the rest of the house I Put my head down and scurried through the kitchen and back down the stairs but when I got down to the basement and turned the corner into the main room I
saw something that I could hardly believe though it took mere seconds to get downstairs after putting away the missing chair in the basement stood all four of the kitchen chairs stacked in pairs in the center of the room for a split second that felt like a lifetime I stood staring at the chairs Confused and taken a back by the side of the chairs that I had just seen in the kitchen above me when I realized that this wasn't right and that this couldn't be anything other than paranormal I quickly came to my senses and turned
on my heels bounding up the stairs with no regard for the noise of my feet stomping up each step as I leapt up the flight of stairs I heard behind me a multitude of murmuring voices that I couldn't understand I recognized the language Almost immediately it sounded like Portuguese but I couldn't tell what they were saying even if I were fluent as the voices were all overlapping and almost Whispering a clatter of faint sounds accompanied what I knew to be voices and it seemed to follow me up the stairs I felt like I was being
followed as I stumbled through the kitchen into the dark living room and through the pitch black hallway to my bedroom when I Closed the door I practically jumped into bed and buried my face in my arms and pillow not even a minute had gone by while I tried to calm myself when I heard something out in the hallway a faint shuffling growing louder as it crept ever closer to my bedroom door it stopped just in front of my door and the floorboards creaked as if someone was standing just on the other side I lay stiff
as a board trying to remain as Calm and Silent as possible I eventually managed to control my my breath and started to sink into sleep thank God I wouldn't have to be up all night but as I started to drift off into the Lial dream state of oncoming sleep I heard the unmistakable giggle of a woman echo through my thoughts as I finally sank into my dreams morning came soon enough I awoke to a pretty normal Saturday morning in my house everyone was up my parents were Making breakfast and the soft sound of morning talk
radio played from the living room stereo they hadn't heard a thing last night although they did question me about why all four chairs were brought down into the basement I had no real answer for this and they wouldn't have believed me even if I had told them so I just played dumb I have never experienced anything like that since and nothing remotely close to That ever happened in that house again while I was there but for the rest of my time living at home no matter what I did I could never shake the sense of
doubt that any sound I heard any creaking floorboards or any bump in the night was easily explainable [Applause] I'm making this record as a warning to all who may come across it never never attempt to enter the catacombs of Paris through secret Passageways that lie hidden beneath the streets of the city for within those dark and winding tunnels there is something inexplicable and evil that resides The Forbidden tunnels lurking beneath the city of light first I would like to point out that the people I will mention here have had their names changed with the intention
of protecting their memories and their identities I hope that my decision is understood and respected by all with That in mind I will now begin the account of my Paris catacomb experience that forever marked my life like any other young person my age I was very adventurous and loved exploring unknown places always looking for Thrills and challenges my parents par were always very strict with me forbidding me to go to places they considered inappropriate like parties and going out with friends I felt trapped like I was being deprived of experiencing the outside world like Other
young people which only fueled even more of the desire to venture outside the limits imposed on me like any other young person my age I became rebellious I lied to my parents that I was going somewhere but I was breaking into an abandoned house or exploring some tunnel or underground cave with my friends who shared the same interests but that wasn't enough I wanted to go further see new things and feel more of that butterflies in my stomach that only Adventure can provide that's why when my friend Zach called me and said that he had
discovered a location on an unsealed sewer entrance to the catacombs of Paris I was all for it if you've never heard of this place or have only a brief acquaintance the Paris catacombs are a gigantic underground network of tunnels and galleries that extend for about 300 km under the City of Paris France the catacombs originally built as quaries Around the 18th century and are currently visited by tourists as a historical and cultural attraction the catacombs contain the remains of millions of skeletons who are moved there after the city's cemeteries closed due to their age and
fragility the catacombs have strict access rules to protect cultural heritage and the safety of visitors in addition the catacombs are a real underground Labyrinth it's not Difficult to get lost in there for these reasons visits are highly regulated and controlled entering the Paris catacombs beyond the permitted areas for visitation was strictly prohibited violating this rule could result in fines and other legal penalties I should have stopped there but at that time all my rebellious mind had in my head was everything forbidden tasted better we called another friend Sebastian and started planning everything when are we
going what would we take and how would we not get lost the last one was solved by Zach we would use luminescent paints and yes when I look back I realized how stupid this all was from the start I don't remember what lie I told my parents but they believed it and I was able to meet my two friends without any problem entering the catacombs of Paris Through a secret entrance in the sewers was always going to be the adventure of a lifetime I was very excited and looking forward to this adventure so different from
the ones I've done before Zach led the way it took us about 20 minutes to find that entrance because Zach actually didn't know of a location at all he just heard a rumor that there was an entrance here the entrance was narrow and dark with only a shaft of Light coming in through the crack at the top Zach was the first to enter followed by me and Sebastian we managed to smell the strong and unpleasant smell of sewage in our nostrils but that didn't stop us from moving forward it was then that we saw a
steep staircase leading even deeper we walked down the stairs cautiously carefully watching each step that we took the sound of water running through the pipes Echoed throughout the place but that didn't bother me after all I was focused on finding something new we arrived in a huge underground room with dirty Dam walls and a slippery floor the flashlights we carried illuminated only a small part of the room and the surrounding Darkness made it even more frightening at first I wasn't sure if we were Ting the uary or if it was just one of those sewer
corridors but then our Flashlight beams began to reveal a few bones here and there until entire walls adorned with bones and human skulls gave us a maob welcome as we made our way deeper into the catacombs the air grew stale and musty The Damp walls seemed to close in around us and the Darkness was all consuming but instead of feeling afraid we feel like those Brave Youtubers with channels aimed at Urban explorers who enter forbidden places like this and That was amazing the Paris catacomb was an incredible Gallery of maob Art it was impossible to
deny The Morbid beauty of that place the walls were lined with stacked skulls and human bones forming grotesque and frightening images I couldn't help feeling that I was being watched through the hollow eyes of hundreds of skulls I grabbed my cell phone and started filming around capturing every detail of the historic structures until An eerie sound echoed through the dark tunnels everything was silent until Zach said Relax it must have just been a car passing overhead he emphasized his statement by pointing to the ceiling above us we relaxed after that Zach's words made sense we
were somewhere under the city after all there couldn't be anything here the sound could only have come from the Surface as time went on my earlier enthusiasm was turning into another other feeling which I refused to show to my friends as I didn't want to tarnish my facade of a great and courageous Adventurer but I couldn't deny that little voice telling me something was wrong was getting louder filming Sebastian walking side by side to a wall full of piled up human bones as he said look at this this is so cool helped me to recover
a little until Then I noticed Zach and enter a different Corridor and move further and further away Zach don't go wandering around aimlessly you know it's easy to get lost around here I shouted but Zach just responded with his typical arrogance easy Mom I just want to take a look around these holes I'll be right back I rolled my eyes and continued filming Sebastian I was used to Zach's habit of Drifting away from the group and somehow never getting lost it was from that point on that our adventure turned into a nightmare suddenly Zach screamed
from one of the hallways causing me and Sebastian to turn around in alarm I shouted his name and shined the flashlight on all the corridor entrances nearby but I couldn't find him then sounds like bones creaking and clinking echoed through the galleries making my Blood run cold Zach this isn't funny man I yelled loudly as I shined every entrance I could see believing Zach was purposely trying to scare us and then I realized that Sebastian was frozen looking with eyes filled with utter Terror in my direction more specifically behind me and then I heard a
low inhuman snarl slow and terrified I turned Around the flashlight shook in my hands but I kept the grip as tight as I could to illuminate whatever was behind me I had explored many unknown places in my life I saw so many things so many stories to tell but never never had I ever seen anything like it before before me was a creature that could only be described as something resembling a giant centipede made up mostly of several bones of various widths and thicknesses and what appeared To be exposed tendons and muscles in place of
its head was a massive human skull with large sharp teeth stained red whose origin I refused to believe that gigantic thing moved slowly with its many Twisted legs towards us staring at us with large empty eye sockets as it rose with the front part of its long body until it surpassed our height and almost touched the ceiling for a moment we simply stared Unable to believe what we were seeing until the grotesque creature released a high-pitched screeching sound that made a shiver to the Bone we ran without looking back trying to keep a strong and
steady Pace following the Luminous paint that Zach used to Mark the way to the exit but it was then that we heard the creatures heavy footsteps and its jaws grinding that the adrenaline took over my body I dropped the backpack to get rid of the Weight and Sebastian did the same at some point in the panic I lost my flashlight and cell phone too but at that moment material things did not matter miraculously I managed to make my escape to the exit but when I looked back to see if the creature was still following me
I realized with horror that Sebastian was no longer behind me I headed back to the entryway again even though all my instincts told me not to I screamed Sebastian's name as loud as my Lungs would allow but the darkness only answered me with silence that experience changed me forever I will never be the same Fearless Adventurer I was before I managed to escape with my life but the price I paid for my recklessness was high I lost my best friends and now I live with this bitter and deserved guilt for the rest of my [Applause]
life I didn't set out to hurt anyone I Certainly didn't want to kill anyone I didn't have a choice though the pumpkin demanded sacrifice I bought the damn seeds at Reggie's vegetable stall David Decker bought his seeds from there too I was quite sure David was a bit of a local celebrity you see he had grown the biggest pumpkins in the county for The Last 5 Years in counting and for the last 5 years I had to be content with second place this year was different Though this was the year where I beat David Decker
and reclaimed my prize as the biggest pumpkin grower in the county this year was different because Reggie said that he had something special for me a secret weapon if you will and he assured me that it would finally wipe the smile off old Decker's face once and for all Reggie found some special seeds blood pumpkins I said skeptically the package was old it looked older than God the paper had taken on that soft Velvety feel of a material that had seen the fall of the second world war and the seeds inside felt hard little bullets
under my thumb the paper declared them to be blood KES and if Reggie hadn't told me what they were I would have never known everything on the package was in a foreign language and I would have sworn it was something that he had bought from a joke shop if he had not been so serious Reggie was a practical joker but his face was was Stone serious As he looked at me from across the counter of his vegetable stand blood pumpkins he intoned back with deep seriousness I don't know Reggie these things look older than God
are you sure they'll grow absolutely Reggie stretched the word into three Granddad brought them back from Germany and he said the pumpkins he saw over there were huge I scoffed your granddad was a Sodbuster just like mine Reggie when did he go to Germany during the war same as your granddad except your granddad spent it in Alaska I wanted to take offense to that but he was right Granddad got a very cushy post while Reggie's Granddad had gotten half his leg blown off by a potato masher and was sent home with honors let me get
my usual spread of regular pumpkins too Reggie just to be Safe so how did these work anyway any special instructions for these German pumpkins Granddad always said that the man who gave him the seeds said that a sacrifice was needed to see them reach their full potential what that sacrifice was the man wouldn't say but Granddad figured if anyone knows anything about sacrifices it's Farmers like us he wasn't wrong all the farming these past few years were one sacrifice after another you sacrificed your time your Your love your family your hair and damn nearly everything
else so you could afford to keep the taxes paid and the lights on year after year sod buston was nothing but sacrifice in many ways and I figured I would plant the seeds and see what came of them I honestly figured I would get more out of the other packs of seeds than those two old pumpkin bullets anyway looking back I realized that I had no idea about sacrifice yet I planted the seeds as I had done for Years and years in the East field as I stood up and rubbed the dirt off my hands
I looked across my field and felt the same sense of Pride I always felt the corn was coming up potatoes and yams beans and peanuts the fruit trees were starting to Bear fruits in the Orchard and my 20 acres was a buzz with growth the July Sun had beaten down on me as I shaded my eyes to survey my kingdom and I knew it wouldn't be long before Harvest Time packing time and time to Take another load down to Reggie so he could sell my Harvest and I could lay enough back to make it through
the winter and once I win this year's grand prize for the biggest pumpkin contest I would open my own stall in the following spring and sell my harvests like my father used to do I was such a fool the pumpkins grew slowly as pumpkins do but after a month I had my eye on three that looked to become coming along nicely I named them Hercules Goliath and Samson They outgrew the others by quite a bit it might seem silly to name a pumpkin but I always named the ones I thought would be my entries into
the fair that year the other 40 or so would be sold to pie makers and pumpkin Carvers and all sorts of other folks but these three would be weighed judged and then made into pies by the misses for the Pie Contest to be held 2 days hence I always laughed about it but I always felt a little sorry to see her make those Pumpkins into a pie after I worked so hard on their rearing I named the blood pumpkin Fritz it's a little different from the others it was underperforming Fritz wasn't even as big as
most of the regular pumpkins but I kept tending to him and hoping that maybe he was just a late bloomer when I had gotten a pumpkin at all from the seeds I had held out hope that maybe Reggie's Granddad was right And that these pumpkins would be bigger than the regular ones I usually entered I pruned it and weeded it by hand just as I did with the other three hoping that maybe it would grow bigger and I could sell it as an odity at Reggie stand while my other pumpkins were orange this one was
a deeper orange like blood orange and its leaves had a strange wilted look on them I was certain it would make someone an extra creepy jack-o'-lantern when Halloween Rolled around but I really didn't have too high of hopes for the stunted little thing other than that then one day in August I got a surprise a painful surprise I was out tending to the pumpkins my top three are still growing larger and Fuller than the others and while I was pruning around Fritz I accidentally cut my hand with the shears it wasn't a deep cut just
took a little skin off a knuckle but like any wound it bled a bit and before I could snatch my Finger back to put it in my mouth a few drops of blood splattered around the pumpkin I didn't think much of it at the time it was just a cut after all and I wrapped it in a bandana and got back to work the next day however when I went to go check on the pumpkins I noticed that something amazing had happened the blood pumpkin had grown it was smaller than even my smallest pumpkin the
day before and now it was almost as big as Samson the smallest of my three Entries I had done nothing different nothing besides giving it my blood then I remembered what Reggie said he had said that the plant required a sacrifice and I thought to myself that maybe this sacrifice was more than my time and energy the sacrifice I would give to any crop what if this sacrifice was my blood as though I was in a Daz I pulled out my buck knife and slid the blade across the meat of my palm this sting was
little more than an afterthought as I squeezed My hand I sent a dozen fat drops onto the ground beside the pumpkin the drops splashed onto the vines as well a single fat drops splattering the body of the gourd and as it fell I could swear I heard it grow it was a soft whispery noise like the trees in light wind and the ground drank up my blood and left nothing behind it seemed to grow before my eyes looking bigger than it was a minute ago and the next day I measured three Ines of growth seemingly
Overnight for the next 2 weeks I began giving the pumpkin my blood it was never much the amount you'd get from a diabetes test but in 2 weeks I noticed a change in the size of the blood pumpkin in those 2 weeks it grew as big as any of the pumpkins I had planned to enter by the last week of August it was twice as big as any of the pumpkins I had planned to enter and Fritz was my new entry for sure I imagined that anyone who cared to look would have seen the Bruises
on my fingertips and palm my wife certainly made a lot of them as she ated them at the dining room table but she was the only one I had a lot of visitors in the last week of August actually someone it seemed had seen the blood pumpkin my neighbor was the first he could hardly miss a pumpkin that was nearly 5 ft tall and 4T wide and wondered if he could come have a look after that I was visited every day by curious towns people wanting to see my Pumpkin as I spent more and more
time with the pumpkin I began to worry that this was as large as it was going to get topping out just shy of 5 ft and started increasing the amount of blood I gave it I was back to cutting my palm for the fat red drops I'd had gotten before but even that didn't make it grow the ground drank but the whispering growth didn't occur I slept poorly I began to neglect my other crops and Fritz the blood pumpkin became somewhat of an Obsession on the 4th of October I got the visit I had been
expecting he called on me early just a short series of knocks that dragged me from the table where I had been listlessly eating my breakfast he wore overalls and a blue work shirt boots with the rundown heels of many years of use and a round top brown hat that probably was meant to make him look like a cowboy but just made him look even more like a farmer from a John Wayne movie he hadn't taken The hat off just stood grinning on my front porch as though we were the best of friends David what brings
you out my way this early I asked with no real emotion he grinned well I'd heard that I might have a a spot to worry about this year seems like you've got a real Contender of a pumpkin on your hands might I get a look I considered it sure he had seen pictures and heard gossip but in the end I decided that I really didn't want him To see my pumpkin maybe it was jealousy maybe it was mean-spiritedness but I think it was something else I don't believe the pumpkin wanted him to see it sorry
David but if you want to see my pumpkin you'll have to wait till the contest I tried to close the door and found the tip of one of those rundown boots blocking the way come on now just a peek hell you've let half the town see it so what's the Harm in letting me have a glance I said no David you can see it in 3 weeks when it's got a blue ribbon attached to it he moved his foot then allowing me to close the door but when he nodded his head and showed me his
grin again I knew it wasn't the genial smile I had seen before suit yourself then I'm sure I'll see it in due time he was right of course but the scene would prove to be his undoing he got his look three nights Later I was in bed my wife snoring peacefully beside me and as my eyes made a map of the dark Topography of the ceiling I heard a noise from the barn it was subtle could have been the wind but I felt myself getting out of bed and walking down the Hall and into the
kitchen I moved around the dark table and stood in the screen door as I gazed at my East field it was late midnight by the clock on the stove and there should have been no way for me to see anyone in The field at all standing in the dark kitchen though I became very sure that I could see someone walking into my East field carrying something with a long handle I slept walked from the house silent as a ghost and though the October wind sent Goosebumps up my bare legs I hardly noticed I paused by
the wood pile and wrapped my scarred hand around the old splintery axe that sat buried in the Ancient stump as I approached I saw the person staring at the pumpkins staring at Fritz and in the Moonlight it was easy to see them transfixed by the silhouette of the swollen gourd he stood stock still contemplating the thing for nearly a minute and I was less than 30 ft when he raised the tool in their hand and swung it down into the pumpkin with a wet meaty thunk I started to run then bare feet slapping the Earth
and he must have Heard me because he turned in the Moonlight I got a glimpse of a round crowned hat and a face full of white snarling teeth I didn't register who it was didn't even register that he was human and my only thought was that this person would die die for harming my pumpkin I buried the axe in his chest blade biting into the wood of the hoe which he tried to use to block the swing and as the wood splintered I saw the blood Splash across my undershirt and Stain it red David Decker
looked at me with stunned and unbelieving eyes but those eyes didn't fill with fear until something wrapped around his ankle his blood had fallen on the ground between us and even now the Earth was drinking it greedily he turned suddenly axe still buried in his chest and as he did he fell to his knees as the blood began to Bubble from his lips the red fell on the face of that Unholy gourd and I saw it grow and wri before my very eyes its Vines twined around him long stalks wrapping around him like the coils
of some monstrous snake and all at once the Earth began to ride and churn as its roots came up to join its vines in his Terror David struggled his hands lashed out feebly with a broken hoe as he was dragged beneath the soil by the grasping Vines I watched God help me I watched as he disappeared into the Earth and all at once I felt my knees unhinge and I too was knee bound on the soil of my East Field as The Roots Began to slide over me as well I felt my mind slip away
way as the shadow of the blood pumpkin fell across me now 6 or 7 ft tall and 5 or 6 ft wide I could hear it growing and groaning it grew with a sound like thin trees in a high wind and as I blacked out I never expected to have another thought on God's green earth besides that last my thought was that I finally made my sacrifice and that this pumpkin would Take me into the Earth as its next meal I almost wished that it had I awoke in the field with my wife standing over
me and the Pumpkin that 7ft tall Behemoth of orange skin and green Vines towering over us both my shirt was clean the ground was undisturbed and all signs pointed to the night's events being just a dream except for the broken hoe and the ugly little scar on the left side of Fritz where the hoe had bitten into him when David swung It David Decker was never seen again the sheriff found his truck not far from my farm and they came by one afternoon to ask some questions had I seen him had he been here and
did I know anything about his disappearance I told them no I couldn't very well tell them that one of my pumpkins had eaten him and stayed out of The Nut House and they believed me they said that the visit was just a courtesy anyway and that they wouldn't keep me from my Harvest the Harvest that that year was tremendous the blood pumpkin wasn't the only thing that had benefited from David's sacrifice and the yield that year was so great that I could have bought my own stand without the money from winning the contest that hardly
mattered now though nothing really mattered at this point by this time I didn't care about anything but the pumpkin and keeping it happy October 15th 5 days before the Contest I began to notice a change in Fritz though still connected to the ground and still 7 ft tall it was beginning to take on a definite sag it was waxy looking had an over ripened look to it and I had serious doubts that it would make it to the time of the fair my blood would no longer sustain it and whatever it had gotten from David
was gone now it appeared that another sacrifice was required but I did not have the strength to catch its food for It I had not the resolve to feed my neighbors to this Unholy thing I was sitting at the kitchen table and contemplating what I would do next when the knock came at the door it was Reggie the only one left in town who hadn't come to see the pumpkin my wife was out visiting a sick friend it was just he and me and he wanted to see the pumpkin the one he had heard so
much about around the stand Reggie had walked from his farm a few Blocks away he had probably told no no one where he was going I took him to the east field and as he marveled at the pumpkin I slipped my hand into my pocket this is wild Granddad said they were big but this is huge I wrapped my hand around the buck knife I had used to feed it my own blood even if Decker hadn't disappeared I'm pretty sure that not even he would be able to grow anything big enough to compete with this
Reggie had his back to Me and thus didn't see the knife slide out what have you been feeding this thing Granddad said it took a sacrifice you must have spent a lot of time out here he was so lost in his own rambling that he didn't hear the metallic click as the knife came open unless you've been making actual sacrifices out here in your East field he said jokingly what's the secret buddy virgin's blood goats a little full moon he stopped talking talking when the Knife slipped into the side of his neck stopped talking and
started gurgling the ground accepted him and when my wife got home from her friend's house the pumpkin was 12 ft tall the judges came to my house that year to see Fritz the Behemoth and I won hands down it wasn't even a contest really the judges couldn't find a pumpkin even half as large as mine and when my wife came for her early sacrifice for the Pie Contest I gave her The other three instead she seemed disappointed maybe she had noticed what a mania this pumpkin had become for me but she took them anyway and
won The Pie Contest that year with the tastiest pie that the judges had ever tasted as she left my field her arms ladened with pumpkins I first heard the slithery voice of the serpent as it offered me its Apple the voice was Autumn Wind and Winter's promise and I had heard it before hadn't I it was the Voice that tells you that you can squeeze in one more crop before the winter the voice that tells you that it wouldn't be that cold tonight so there's no need to bring the livestock in the voice of creeping
winter that's hungry for its sacrifice The Voice told me that if I gave it my wife my fame would be Eternal on that day I turned away from it on that day I was strong that year at my annual pumpkin Patch I was not so strong I had arrayed my smaller pumpkins for sale and even Hercules sat amongst them since he had been spared the people milled about the patch looking in awe at Fritz the Behemoth as they made their choices and I saw the kid when he stepped a little too close to the massive
pumpkin he was a porker a hefty kid from a family of heft the adults and he had stopped to stare at the pumpkin as he held one of its smaller cousins in his pudgy hands All at once he shifted the pumpkin under his arm and stepped towards the mountainous gourd with a hand outstretched to touch I started to stop him I should have stopped him but as I started to rise from my chair and raise my voice to warn him I heard the voice of the serpent again commanding me to stand aside I sat back
down and cast my eyes away but even that didn't fully save me from witnessing the end the police were Called when they noticed his absence and they searched my field in the forest beyond for a week without finding anything his parents sat at my kitchen table his mother crying into a square of silk as my wife poured tea and assured her that he would turn up until nearly 10:00 that first night I am lucky my wife was such a Hostess because all I could do was sit sh shocked in a chair as she puttered about
and made Small Talk everyone thought I was broken about The kid and in a way they were right after all it's not every day you watch a child get pulled under the soil while no one's looking I won the contest the next year too people said I had a knack for growing pumpkins but really it was the same one when it got 18 ft tall and 12 ft wide it started to attract to tourists some of them never made it back to wherever they were from by that point I was numb to the Sacrifices the
pumpkin ate the pumpkin grew and as the tourists began to pay to see it I found that I no longer had to grow anything to get by the pumpkin made my farm a natural stop for tourists on the road and they never grumbled too much about a few dollars here or there to see it this was the year we took it on the road we loaded it up on a flatbed trailer and took it to County Fair after County Fair so the whole state could see the world's biggest pumpkin we did it For 5 years
and in those 5 years I remember hearing about a suspected serial kidnapper plaguing the state they dubbed him County Fair kidnapper as I recall and in 5 years he abducted more than 20 children and five adults from state fairs across the state the state police even questioned questioned me not as a suspect but to see if I had seen anything a miss and I always told them no what choice did I have as I told you when the pumpkin took Decker I would Have been slapped into a looney bin if I had come to them
with stories of killer pumpkins or blood sacrifices I am not blameless in this whole Affair I know that and I have never claimed otherwise but the pumpkin was good for my family the pumpkin pumpkin was good for the town my pumpkin brought in the crowds and the crowds stopped in the cafes to have a bite they stopped at the gas station for gas and Road snacks and Stopped at the farmers market to buy fresh produce they spread their money up and down the street from May till November and the town always had a corn maze
or a fair of some sort to draw them away from the pumpkin and back into the town proper at one point my face and a picture of the pumpkin were even on the town sign when you drove over the city limits come see the world's biggest pumpkin it stated in bold black letters and at one point you could damn near see The thing from the city outskirts in its Heyday it towered up nearly 30 ft high and was wider than my house it was blind to its feedings for the most part hell I suppose you'd
say I was complicit in the murders I killed two for Fritz and I'm responsible for all the rest and that I turned aside but I didn't really grasp its sness its cunning until the last time I watched it kill when I watched it take my wife I was standing in the back door Watching her trying to ignore the creeping voice as it told me it must feed she was out in the field tending some vegetables in the space I no longer used and as I watched her I began to wonder if I might res resist
this evil and win free I had been this pumpkin's puppet for nearly 8 years eight long years of dragging its burden around my neck and my heart was growing heavy with the burden of that Sin as I watched her watched her in her Purity and her love I began to think that I might escape this evil thing and be the man I once was we could leave just pack our things and go and leave this cursed Earth behind behind us as we set out to start a new she had noticed something was off likely noticed
from the start that something was off but she was dutiful and she was obedient and she loved me more than I could ever love her if I had loved her I would have never Let her get near that field again she was coming in carrying a basket of produce and I remember the way she smiled when she saw me her face that old young face of hers stretched into a smile and she raised her hand to wave as I stood framed in the doorway I think I waved back can no longer remember really but whatever
I was doing ended abruptly when she dropped into the Earth dropped dropped is the right word she didn't sink she wasn't pulled it was as though A hole had opened up and swallowed her in one gulp her basket fell tumbling vegetables across the dirt and it was all the evidence that I had that she was there at all it laughed at me as I dug up the field dug it up in Furious crumping sweeps of the shovel but I never found a trace of her she was the last sacrifice I was a part of I
set up a fence after that and never let the tourists get close they could pay their money and observe from a distance but no One was allowed to go into the field again again it caught at me as I stood in my chair by the fence saying that this was a useless gesture but I ignored it and kept my silence people will ask me why I didn't destroy it didn't burn it to the ground and to them I would ask how stupid they think I am I threw coal oil on it the night it took
my wife got loaded on Whiskey first to muster my courage and had intended to walk into the Flames Myself but the bastard wouldn't burn burned any damage I did to it just healed and all the while it laughed at me so I kept my vigil kept my silence and as we both lived the town shriveled around us it had gotten too powerful you see too evil to be contained and those who spent time close to it became susceptible to its voice they came in the night they died silently in the field as they were drawn
into the Earth they sustained that Cursed Thing by now they are all gone the town is deserted a ghost town in a country full of such towns and the only thing to see is Fritz Fritz the world's oldest pumpkin we are both shriveled now a couple of relics from a bygone age and if you come you too can see them and have your picture taken for $5 you can get your selfie and have a pamphlet on the ninth wonder of the world but I wouldn't stay For too long he's a shriveled old thing small as
he was before I dropped my blood on him but if you spend too long in his company you can start to hear his creaky old voice you can start to feel his influence in your head and one night you'll drain your blood for him upon the soil I'm old over 100 years old now and Fritz as a Methuselah of a pumpkin my end is soon I can feel it and I often wonder if my guardianship of This cursed thing will mean a hill of beans when I am gone who will guard the world from him
when I am dust in the ground who will keep the tourists back and the kids away at night if you're listening to this it may be you and if it is I am eternally sorry if you have found yourself in the custodian of Fritz the pumpkin then I give you only one piece of advice watch him close and keep that which you love Away don't let him have the blood don't let him take another as his sacrifice let the cycle end with me God help me and let that damned thing Wither in the field [Applause]
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