Are you sure you want to use this for your website? Your readers will think I'm a liar or delusional or both.
They might think I'm already both of those things. Nobody seems to care. We're all welcome in Creepy Corner Town. Just tell me a story.
OK. Fine. So, how do I start this?
Just tell me a story. I'll clean it up for you.
OK. So...
...
...
I was at my M___'s outside of Austin. Oh shit, should I not use names?
I'll hide their name if you want. I'll do a handy-dandy fake name or letter of the alphabet or something OMINOUS.
I guess? Um, okay. Anyway. So yeah, at M's in the middle of nowhere which I love...but also like, SO the middle of nowhere.
Describe it.
You're really intense when you do this, you know that? You get all Creepy NPR.
You're welcome. Talk!
OK! Geez Louise! So it's all quiet and bugs and summer heat. Lots of dust, but SO beautiful. The heart of Texas. Plants that would die in other places but are like "I'M ALIVE!" here. The neighborhood is quiet and suburban-y, but at night you see the stars because there's not much around.
The clarity of solitude. You like that?
(Laughs) Sure. So M's house is old and smells old. It creaks but it's not scary. I feel so safe there. I think I still do.
So we go to bed that night, and I'm in the purple room. That one with the purple comforter and the purple picture frames.
Did M say anything about the room?
No. Have they said anything to you?
No. Not really. Just that it's the bigger room but M prefers the smaller room for their bedroom. I don't know why.
Yeah. Huh...
So whatever, I take off my face paints and I put on my face creams and I play on my phone in bed and I start to doze off. I turn off the light and start to settle in.
What does the room sound like?
Um...just the A/C whirring and some bugs? Nothing really interesting?
OK.
I feel like I was in-between sleep and awake. Like, I was still thinking my thoughts, wondering if I remembered to bring sunscreen, when I thought I heard M talking.
What did they say?
I don't know. Like when you hear people talking from another room. Like when you've gone to bed but your family is still awake. But it wasn't from the living room or M's room. It was below me.
I think we should make it clear that M's house is one floor and basically four rooms: two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen. A little quad of a house.
Yeah. There was no "below" me. Texas houses don't have basements.
But I didn't get like SCARED or anything. In my twilight state I just thought M was on the phone or talking to themselves. It didn't really dawn on me that the muffled talking sounds were coming from...I don't know...oh god...
What?
...the muffled talking sound was coming from UNDER my bed. But like...UNDER the floor. This sounds...I feel silly...
Don't. It's a good story. Go on.
OK, OK. So it came and went and I got closer to being asleep. But then I guess I realized that it was weird. I sort of moved around, lifted my head up and the voices stopped.
What did the voices sound like?
That's kind of the worst part. BOTH voices sounded like M! Like M was talking to themself but OVERLAPPING themself! Does that make sense?
No. But, go on.
So I say, "Hello? M?" and there's nothing. I get up and peek out of my bedroom door, which was closed, and the little house is dark. Nobody there. Not a sound. Just bugs and the A/C.
It's SO QUIET. So I think I'm being a scaredy cat and I go back to bed. I close my eyes and it's weird I hear little like stop and starts like someone STARTS to say something but then...they don't. And it's all below me, but I can't focus on the sound?
I'm starting to worry, so I think, "OK. I'll just fall asleep and this won't matter." So I focus on sleeping but that doesn't work!
Never does.
Yeah! But my eyes are closed and I'm all bundled up when I hear, like an exhale, "Hey."
WHAT?
Yeah. I hear, "Hey". So soft but so clear. And from the direction of under my bed. And I think, "OK, I'm really dreaming now." But I'm like, THINKING, "Hey now I'm dreaming!" so I'm not. I opened my eyes.
Again I hear – WHEN MY EYES ARE OPEN – like someone is exhaling while they talk, "Hey."
You're a liar and you're delusional. Sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm kidding!
Har har, fuck off. Anyway, now I'm scared and I'm thinking about getting up. But I'm also angry at myself for being –
– for being like me?
Well...yeah! (laughs) So I close my eyes and think about work and my next meeting and the list of the movies I need to see – just anything that'll distract me. And I hear it again, like a puff, "Hey. Hey."
Wait, twice?
Yeah! "Hey, hey". But this time IT WAS ABOVE ME.
No it wasn't.
IT WAS! I swear! Like someone had said it from upstairs, like their face pressed against the floor, muffled, "Hey, hey," – BUT THERE IS NO UPSTAIRS, LOUISE. IT'S JUST THE ROOF.
Freaking evil Summer Santa.
Yeah! So I'm like, "What do I do?" Do I stay there wide awake and scared? Or do I like, go sleep in the bathtub?
The safest place in the house.
Yeah!
And as I'm trying to convince myself that I'm just making up this whole nightmare I hear, "HEY." Just like IN the room.
Like I'm saying it right now. "Hey."
Yeah. Not loudly? But if just like if someone had walked into the room and said, "Hey!" But I was alone. Door shut. Closet open. Window secured because of the A/C.
Could it have been YOUTHS outside the house?
I mean maybe? But it the voice – ugh, I hate saying it – THE VOICE was all over and IN MY ROOM.
What did you do?
I was like, "FUCK THIS" and gathered up my blanket and went into the living room to sleep on the lumpy couch and watch TV.
And so you slept there?
Yeah, I slept fine there. But my heart was beating so, so fast for a couple hours after.
What did M say in the morning?
Ugh, not much? I mean, they were sorry that I slept on the couch but M was kind of...I don't know...
Not surprised?
I mean...yeah. Which I guess is really messed up and creepy.
So y'all never talked about it?
Kind of? Just that M doesn't "enjoy" that room and they hardly go in it when it's just them. M was actually kind of avoidant.
You think? Or are you just projecting?
I don't know, Louise! I was hearing voices in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere! It was all very eerie and now all your Creepy People are judging me.
Nah, they'll love you. So how did it all end?
It didn't really. I slept on the couch for the next two nights. I didn't feel spooked at all after that first night. But I really didn't want to sleep in the purple room again. And that's that. That's my story.
Do you think it was A GHOST?
Don't ask me that. I don't know. I hope not?
Image "Ag Society Hall_2" by oshendoschen is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0