[Music] what I'm about to tell you was one of the last memories I can still remember from middle school and not for a good reason I'd argue that it was the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to me when I was in Middle School I didn't have a lot of friends the friends I did have were all a little odd but then again so was I we spent a lot of time together and enjoyed a lot of the same things there was Greg Jay Mark and myself we were inseparable back then it seemed like
the four of us would last forever looking back though it was pretty clear that Jay and I were beginning to distance ourselves from Mark and Greg but that's neither here nor there one summer Greg invited the three of us on a week-long trip to Maine Greg's family had a summer home up in Maine on one of the little Islands in Casco Bay to be completely honest his family was really Secret ative about the place and none of us even knew it existed until he invited us there his family was strange in general but that's a
story for another time the drive was long and uncomfortable I had a runny nose and was sneezing the entire time which I could tell was really pissing off Greg's dad he was one of those over-the-top germaphobes and I got really uncomfortable anytime he'd look at me Mark and I were also bickering about something stupid but the two of us tended to get into that a lot we had to drive the car onto a ferry in order to make it to the island that part was actually really fun the house was small but pretty I remember
feeling detached from reality in that house I can't really explain it it was like a whole other world on that island I still feel like it would be easy for a person to get lost in that house if that makes any sense the island had a really dreamy feel everyone knew each other and random people on the street would recognize and say hello to Greg when they saw him we spent most of our time biking around an activity that never got boring at our age I'll skip the boring stuff I don't remember all of it
anyway the second day of the trip I couldn't find my Barcelona Snapback cap anywhere I was really upset since I was a huge soccer fan and it was one of the only pieces of merch I had Greg said he thought I left it on the beach but I was almost certain I'd brought it back I remember crying to Greg's dad who basically told me to get over it and not let something small ruin the trip so that's what I did the next day after a long day of biking around I realized one of my pens
was missing I had a pen collection at that time which I brought everywhere like I said weird kid I couldn't remember whether or not I had taken that specific pen out of my case but Jay said he remembered seeing me holding it on my bike I was devastated to me losing a pen was the equivalent of losing a limb that's how serious I was about them I refused to cry again in front of Greg's dad so I claimed I wasn't feeling well and opted to spend the rest of the evening in bed I ended up
falling asleep really early because of that so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep I was rolling around trying to fall back asleep when I picked up on something I froze for a few seconds to confirm what I was hearing someone was whispering almost inaudibly I had to focus really hard to even hear it was I dreaming there was no shot I tried as best as possible to make out what they were saying but couldn't understand a single word it sounded like it was
coming from Mark's bed the top bunk across the room from me but I couldn't be certain I waited a few minutes but the whispering continued for some reason I was scared to say anything or reveal that I was awake eventually I blocked the whispering out of my mind and fell asleep the next morning I tried to forget about what had happened the night before I debated asking my friends which of them had been doing it but decided against it we were playing some dumb game in the yard when Mark said he had to use the
bathroom he was gone a while but that was typical for Mark he took a lot of time to do everything eventually I shot a glance back at the house and had to do a double take in one of the second floor Windows was Mark staring blankly out at us I figured he was in the bathroom but that's when it hit me Greg's house didn't have a second floor bathroom I turned to see if either Greg or Jay noticed but neither of them were looking when I turned to look back at the house Mark was gone
Greg's dad was planning on taking us to dinner that night but I didn't want to go I pretended to be sick again and told him I wanted to nap instead he said that was fine and told me he'd bring me back something as I was lying in bed I realized there was no way I was going to fall asleep I started thinking things over in my head I just couldn't get over how weird it was that Mark was watching all of us from the house and the whispering was even creepier I'm not sure what compelled
me to do it but I got out of bed and started snooping around Mark's bunk my jaw basically hit the floor when I found my Barcelona cap in his duffel bag I dug around some more and found a bunch of my personal belongings that I didn't even know were missing there was a nail clipper my mom had packed for me in there along with my extra toothbrush and most disturbingly a pair of my underwear I didn't know what to think I was about to cry when I noticed something else in the bag his notebook sometimes
even to this day I still regret picking up that notebook my middle school brain was not prepared for what was in there it was completely filled with drawings pencil drawings some sketched so aggressively that there were holes in some of the pages there were drawings of monsters creatures and things out of nightmares there were really disturbing acts of violence drawn in there people getting run over by cars stabbed mutilated tortured it was sick worse than sick it was demonic there was honest to God demonic [ __ ] in there there were drawings of me in
there the image that was never and will never leave my brain is a drawing of me on a cross with my legs missing the last few pages were basically all of me and one of the pages was just my name scribbled a 100 times it makes me sick thinking about everything I saw in there and there's stuff I haven't even mentioned the last page was the worst my name was at the top of the page and big letters and below it were four words I'll never forget I'll do it tomorrow when everyone got back home
I got Greg's dad alone and told him about what was going on in a low voice while my friend started a movie in the living room he didn't believe me until I showed him Mark's notebook which I could tell he found equally disturbing he didn't know what to do he told me to put everything back the way I found it I didn't want to but he was the adult and I couldn't tell him no as I was putting the notebook back I made a split-second decision and tore one of the pages out meanwhile Greg's dad
then ran out to the living room and told everyone there was a family emergency and that we had to end the trip early as we were frantically packing our things I could feel Mark's eyes burning a hole in my back I was scared to look at him we pulled out of the driveway caught the first F off the island and drove the whole way back without stopping once Greg's dad dropped markall first then James James and Greg lived on the the same street so he let Greg out of the car with James as we were
driving to my house Greg's dad told me that he'd talked to Mark's parents and that it was best that I not mention anything to my parents Greg and Mark's families were really close so I guess that made sense when I got home though I couldn't last 10 minutes I broke down crying to my parents and told them everything they were Furious and called the police in the same minute my parents were also outraged that Greg's dad would try to sweep something so serious under the rug things get a little fuzzy after that I remember crying
again while telling the police what happened when they asked for proof I was able to show them the page I ripped out of Mark's notebook apparently that was enough the police obtained a warrant and actually found the notebook my items were all returned except for my pen which the police were never able to find my parents didn't tell me much about how things went but I never saw Mark again his family moved and he never showed up to school again I never hung out with Greg again either but the reason I'm writing this now is
because last week I received an anonymous letter in the mail it said I remember everything and wrapped inside the envelope was the pen Mark had stolen from me all those years ago I have no idea how he found my address or why it's taken him so long to reach out I'm honestly considering switching Apartments if anyone has any advice about my situation I'd greatly appreciate it this story is fresh in my mind since it literally happened last week as I'm writing this my extended family is odd I won't get into it but basically everyone is
either a gun nut Avid hunter or both most families go on vacation in the summer mine tends to go around wintertime we don't go on typical vacations though every season the adults chip in and rent a house for a week in some random location usually in the woods this time around it was a cabin in Vermont I say cabin but it was more like a castle it had to be to accommodate all of us now comes the strange part we play a lot of weird games as a family most of them involve shooting to some
capacity here's the weirdest one on the second to last night all the adults Gear Up in warm clothing and venture outside into the woods for a massive game of laser tag I know how ridiculous this sounds believe me I'm no stranger to people walking out of my life because of my family the winner every year gets to claim a pretty decent PR pot and a ton of bragging rights plus we played with this really cool industrial grade set my uncle Lucian made he was the most gung-ho about this whole thing the rules were simple it
was every man for himself and the last person tagged one if there were multiple people left by midnight the prize was split once you got tagged you made your way to the fire pit outside the house once the second to last person made it back everyone would fire around into the air to let the last person left know they had won I had had just turned 18 so this was literally my first time being allowed to play I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't psyched to play not even for the money but just
because it seemed fun as we were about to make our way outside Lucian made sure we all knew how the equipment worked and where to keep our marker so the game would be fair then he told all of us to set a 10-minute timer on our phones so we'd know when to begin then without warning he turned and sprinted into the woods like he was running a track race my relatives followed SU spreading in all directions I noticed that most of them had run uphill so I figured going downhill would give me a better shot
at lasting longer it was dark but the snow on the ground made things pretty visible I can't remember how many of us were playing but it was a lot at least 10 of my cousins and a couple sets of parents including mine our family's pretty huge after venturing deep into the forest I found a little perch where I could see decently far up the hill so I figured I'd wait there and catch my breath I sat there for a decent while trying to think of what to do I figured if I kept walking adjacent to
the slope I could eventually work my way upwards and maybe flank whoever was still up there so that's what I did I must have walked along the slope to the left for 15 minutes straight putting as much distance between me and the house as possible time really wasn't an issue as there were still about 2 hours until midnight I started walking up the slope just then I heard a very faint crunching sound over my left shoulder in the direction facing opposite my uncle's house I jumped behind the nearest tree praying whoever it was couldn't get
a clean shot off after a few seconds I looked in the direction of the sound but didn't see anything and then after straining my eyes I saw it a very faint almost unnoticeable trail of footprints way off in the distance they led to a thick tree about 15 yds behind me there was someone standing behind that tree I was positive of it and then it hit me why hadn't they just tagged me I was clearly out in the open oblivious to their presence and they were clearly trying to sneak up on me I started running
up the hill hoping to get out of range before they could get a shot off I was just about to continue back to the right towards the house when I noticed something further off to the left was another set of footprints this one was weird though it started from deeper in the woods came towards me and looped back into the forest had someone been outflanking even me they would have had to walk further into the woods than I had which I found pretty hard to believe before I could keep thinking I heard something from the
slope I had just run up it sounded like a person falling into the snow I continued running this time back toward the house I pulled out my phone it was past 11: I couldn't believe an hour had already gone by I kept running and stumbled upon a path of footprints heading towards the house they looked fresh so I picked up the speed hoping to catch someone off guard hard I passed a line of trees and saw my cousin corbo walking at a steady Pace laser gun in hand I crouched and pulled out my pistol I
nailed his marker and it started blinking he slammed his fist against a tree before shaking his head and continuing towards the house I grinned thrilled to have actually gotten a kill high on the adrenaline I decided to hatch a plan to get the jump on the person stalking me I sprinted ahead for another minute then doubled back until I could safely jump behind a tree without without leaving an obvious Trail it was Flawless there was no way anyone following my footprints would know I was hiding there as I was waiting there my marker started blinking
out of nowhere I was pissed the beam was coming from where I had just been it was definitely whoever was stalking me I stood up expecting whoever had just shot me to turn their laser off they didn't though the beam stayed trained on me which actually started to get on my nerves it felt like they were taunting me I wanted to know who had been behind me that whole time so I started walking in the direction of the beam they never stopped shining their laser at me even as I began closing in all I could
see were their hands the rest of their body was standing behind a tree just then I heard a bunch of gunshots sound off behind me making me jump I froze impossible I must have won corbo must have been the final kill but then who in the world killed me I kept staring at the thin beam of light that was still pointing at me and then the person holding the laser gun stepped out from behind the tree it was a stranger even worse there were two of them standing side by side just then I heard a
crunch from behind me I Whi my head around to see a man in a ski mask holding a trash bag in one hand and a knife in the other he noticed me staring at him and started sprinting toward me I ran ditching my gear and screaming at the top of my lungs I could hear all three of them chasing me yelling things that I didn't even think were English I zipped past the trees and ran as fast as I could through the snow praying to God I didn't trip they were gaining on me I didn't
want to turn around but I knew they were right on my heels finally I could see the lights of the house in the distance I kept screaming and running feeling my legs starting to give out I was so close to the clearing and that's when I saw Lucian sprinting toward me hunting rifle in hand he aimed above my head and fired three shots into the air I heard whoever was behind me trip before running back into the woods I collapsed at lucian's feet desperate for air I literally passed out from exhaustion right there in the
snow the next morning was rough my aunt explained that she had tripped at one point during the game and later realized she had dropped her laser gun which explained how the guys in the woods had one corbo had tagged six of my relatives before I found him which is why he was so upset when I got him it turned out that he was in fact the last kill Lucian and my dad had run out into the woods with their guns but couldn't find a thing they tried following the footprints but there were so many branching
paths and dead ends they eventually gave up that whole day was a blur the adults contacted the owners of the house and we also reported everything to the police the next morning I woke up to yelling coming from downstairs Lucian was losing it yelling toward the woods at the top of his lungs I ran down to find a single snowman facing the house in its hand was the laser gun my aunt had dropped Lucian fired a few rounds into the snowman's head before shouting some more threats and storming inside it's only been about a week
but I'll send an update if I hear anything when I was in college I couldn't afford the extravagant spring break vacations to Mexico that all the Greek life people went on because of this I spent my first three spring breaks on campus with which I actually didn't mind too much by the time spring break rolled around my senior year though I realized that it was basically my last chance to get the spring break experience I'd been missing out on Mexico was still out of the question since I'd still be paying everything myself eventually my girlfriend
Ally found a decently priced Airbnb that sounded pretty appealing we figured we could turn it into a couple's getaway of sorts so we invited her best friend liia and her boyfriend Calvin we were all super excited since we had never been on a vacation together before the place we had picked wasn't your typical spring break Airbnb though it was nestled in a really secluded woodsy area in Lake County California there was a hot tub an exposed fireplace an antique style record player and some CS for stargazing outside it was honestly perfect the place was about
2 and 1/2 hours away so we'd get a nice and relaxing drive on the way unfortunately Kelvin drove a really cramped Mini Cooper meaning the girls had to squeeze into the back seat he was honestly pretty insecure about his car and would get annoyed when one of us would make a comment about it which was a pretty funny detail as terrible as that car was it was a drop top which was really nice we pulled in around 8:00 p.m. after it was already fully dark out I can't even lie the place looked a little scary
late at night with all the lights off when I say it was in the woods I mean it the trees blocked the view of all but one of the neighboring houses the first night was really chill we hung by the fireplace with a bottle of wine and played some board games we wanted to go on the hot tub but Calvin was complaining so we didn't he was honestly being pretty pouty for some reason but we all just assumed there was something on his mind the next night was better we convinced Calvin to join us in
the hot tub for some drinking games the hot tub was connected to the back of the house but inside its own little room the walls of which were just screens we were playing never have I ever with some music blasting having a lot of fun we were all more than a little buzzed at that point and just then though a flash of bright light lit up the spa room if it had been raining we would have assumed it was lightning that's how bright it was I quickly turned the music off the four of us stared
at each other nervous to say anything I quietly got out of the hot tub and made my way from the spa room to the back deck I looked out into the woods but it was too dark to see anything out of nowhere I started hearing a clicking sound coming from the woods a few seconds later I heard another one from a different direction and then a whistling sound started up the sounds kept coming clicking and whistling from too many directions to keep track of I yelled for Calvin and the girls to run inside and I
followed them into the house the four of us huddled in the living room not sure of what to do I thought maybe it was a dumb prank or someone messing with us which is why we didn't call the police right away a few minutes later though someone started banging on the front door the girls were hysterical so I told Calvin to call the police while I grabbed the biggest knife in the kitchen ready to protect everyone should have come to that I yelled in a deep voice that I had a gun which was obviously just
a bluff the banging stopped Calvin said the police were on the way but out there in the middle of nowhere they could have been miles from us we waited in silence for a few minutes it was the tensest moment of my life just when we thought the nightmare was over one of the living room windows shattered someone had thrown a massive Rock through it the girl screamed and I told everyone to run upstairs and locked the door I stayed downstairs bracing myself for a fight by some miracle no one came charging through the window eventually
I ran over to inspect the window and noticed there was a piece of paper taped to the rock that had been thrown scribbled in Black Ink were the words go away you shouldn't be here the police arrived shortly after and did a thorough search of the property they of course found nothing we weren't sticking around to wait for them though we were packed up and out of there that night the Airbnb host ended up giving us a refund although they refused to talk about the situation my girlfriend thinks there's something the owner wasn't telling us
maybe she's right I guess that could explain why the place was so cheap either way I don't think I'll be taking any vacations or using Airbnb anytime soon [Music]
