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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/madwzdri on 2024-09-17 10:53:08+00:00.
Ok, so I know everybody reading this will probably think I'm some nutcase. I'm prepared for that. I just wanted to share this story in case anyone else has experienced anything similar.
It all began 2 months ago.
I had recently moved to British Columbia from Washington state for a new work opportunity. I had been interested in Canada and was still relatively close to my friends and family, so I took the role and moved to an city called Kelowna. Nature had always appealed to me and I was excited to move to a place where I could be surrounded by the beautiful scenery of the Okanagan Valley. I'm a pretty anxious guy and thought this move to a calmer, more scenic location would help me with that.
Unfortunately, what didn't help my anxiety was the difficulty in finding a place to rent. But after a few weeks, I managed to find a place with a great mountain view and a beautiful park within walking distance.
While I was correct that the scenery did improve my mood immensely, I'll admit the neighborhood creeped me out... a lot. This should have been my first sign to turn tail and get out. The neighborhood was gorgeous landscape-wise, surrounded by beautiful mountains, but still felt ominous at the same time. The residents seemed much older and, by their reactions to my moving truck, not very happy about my being there. Almost all of the houses except for mine seemed run down. Lawns were overgrown, paint was peeling. All the windows seemed to have blinds for curtains. Now and then, I would see someone peering out from their blinds, but no one ever came to greet me.
Still, it didn't get to me too much since the house I was moving to was newly renovated and the rent was much lower than others on the market. I felt like I got a deal.
I settled in, and the first 3 weeks were fine. But still, there were constant red flags.
Each night when I took out the trash, I would see some of my neighbors sitting out on the porch at 10 pm. Drinking. I didn't find this too out of the ordinary, but it always seemed like whenever I would show up, they would instantly stop talking and start looking at me. As if they were talking about me. I know that seems really self-centered, but what would you think if every time you showed up, people stopped talking and started staring? I chose to ignore it.
It first happened on the 4th week after I had moved. I had just come back from work, tired and hungry. I made some TV dinner and decided maybe it was time I got to sleep early for once. I turned off the lights and promptly went upstairs.
It wasn't more than a few hours into sleep when I heard it.
Click click click
At first, it sounded like something was knocking at the window. I wasn't fully awake, but the noise was getting louder. I thought it was coming from outside. Maybe a raccoon was jumping on the roof.
But then my heart sank as I slowly came to the realization. It was my doorknob.
Someone was trying to get in.
It almost felt like my mind was read though because as soon as I realized this, it stopped.
I was paralyzed with fear that whoever did that might come back. After a while, I mustered up the courage to rush out and turn on the lights. I yanked open the door, but obviously, no one was there. I turned on all the lights in the house and went to check the door, but it had been locked the whole time. The windows were all closed and locked as well. I felt my stomach drop. There had to have been some squatter from previous years still living in the house.
I barricaded my door and tried to go to sleep.
I woke up early the next day and started scouring the entire house. And I mean inch by inch. When I was done, I started checking the walls to see if there were any cracks or hidden entrances. None.
I was doubting myself at that point. Maybe I had dreamt it. Or maybe it was some weird version of sleep paralysis. Obviously, I wasn't fully awake at the time, and I'd had wacky dreams before. But maybe this was just one of them, or maybe the door just does that sometimes. I couldn't really come up with an explanation. I had thoroughly checked the house and found nothing. I wasn't sure what to make of it.
I tried to move on. But due to paranoia and a mix of fear, I decided to set up a lock in my room so it could be locked from the inside.
Things went back to normal, and I didn't notice anything strange for a bit. That was until I noticed that for some reason, in the morning, the door to my room would be unlocked. At first, I thought maybe I had forgotten to lock it. So the next night, I made sure to actually lock it. I woke up the next morning and, lo and behold, it was unlocked. Now I knew something was going on. No more doubts.
I decided then I would stay up and confront whoever this squatter was or at least find out what was going on with my door. I bought some energy drinks and got ready. I turned off all the lights, drank my energy drinks, and locked the doors to get ready for the long night.
Time crawled by as I kept watch, trying to pass the time, but every minute felt like a thousand. Time was moving so slowly that it felt like morning would never come.
After about 2 hours, my bladder started filling up, and I started taking more trips to the bathroom. I was worried this would scare off my potential squatter, but I had no choice.
I kept waiting and kept drinking energy drinks to stay awake, but at this point, it was 3 am and still no sign. I was starting to worry this whole thing might have been for nothing.
That was until I had to take another quick trip to the bathroom. I finished and started to head back to the room.
That was when I saw it. Just then, as I was walking in the hallway. Someone or, to be honest, I should say something was walking up the stairs. My skin instantly went cold as my heart leapt up in my throat. There was no sound. It moved without touching the stairs, but as it was turning the corner for the second flight, it saw me and stopped. That was when I realized this wasn't a squatter at all.
It was pure black, almost as if it was a shadow that came to life. It had the outline of a person, but it didn't seem very human. It was much too small. The outline of its head seemed entirely too big for its body. And the arms much too short. It had no face but I knew it was staring right at me. I could feel cold sweat dripping at this point.
Then... it started moving towards me. It was slow but its movements felt very fast. It seemed to float up the steps. I couldn't move a muscle. I couldn't breathe. My body refused to respond. At this point it was 4–6 feet ahead of me and that was when I somehow broke out of my paralysis. I quickly turned on the light in the hallway but inadvertently blinded myself for a second as my eyes took a moment to adjust. But just when I was able to see again, it was gone.
I knew I wasn't going crazy. I knew what I saw. I bolted downstairs, turned on all the lights, and started looking around the house. Then I rushed outside to see if I could find anything. Nothing. But I spotted something else. It wasn't clear at first since it was still dark, but the street lamps illuminated just enough to spot something that brought back that terrible feeling I had just felt.
I saw someone peering out from the blinds. I thought it was just one of my neighbours, but as I looked around, I spotted one, two, three, four... almost the entire neighbourhood was watching me at 4 am stumbling outside. And I knew it wasn't because of any noise because I made absolutely none while looking outside. All I did was open the door and come out. It was almost as if they had been awake too, expecting me to come outside. Why else would almost the entire neighbourhood be awake at 4 am watching me?
I walked in the middle of the street looking directly at them as they watched me but no one took a step back. They just kept watching. And the way they were looking at me wasn't just out of neighbourly curiosity. It was different. It was like they were privy to something I didn't know. Like I said, I can be somewhat prone to anxiety and paranoia, but even I could tell that there was something else going on here.
I went back inside, locked the doors, and just stayed in the living room for the remainder of the night with all the lights on until the sun came up.
The next day, I got all my belongings, put them in a suitcase, and started renting a hotel. I didn't care how many months were left on my lease or how much it would cost to break it. I just left.