The one on the stairs

Nightfall Crypt

After a terrifying sleep paralysis episode, I began seeing a figure that wasn’t supposed to exist—red eyes, a 90s haircut, and an eerie, gliding descent down stairs that aren't even there. No matter how many times I changed rooms or houses, he followed. And worse… he wasn’t alone.

Transcript

00:00The first time I saw him was the night I couldn't move.

00:04I was lying flat on my back, eyes open but limbs heavy like wet cement.

00:10The room was dark but not black.

00:12I remember that clearly.

00:15There was a dim blue glow from the hallway nightlight,

00:18and everything had that watery stillness as if the house was holding its breath.

00:24That's when I noticed him.

00:25He was standing, no hovering, in the upper right corner of my vision.

00:31Not on the floor, but part way up the wall.

00:35Like gravity didn't apply to him.

00:38He didn't crawl or float.

00:40He descended, backwards, like he was walking down a staircase that wasn't there.

00:47Slow, deliberate.

00:49Moonwalking into an invisible abyss.

00:51His eyes were red, not glowing, not bright, just wrong.

00:57Dead red.

00:58A dry, lifeless red like blood dried into old wood.

01:02His robe, or gown, or whatever it was, trailed behind him without fluttering.

01:07No movement.

01:09No sound.

01:10I couldn't scream.

01:12I couldn't even blink.

01:14All I could do was watch.

01:16And then I woke up.

01:18Fully.

01:19My body moved.

01:20I shot up in bed, gasping, drenched in sweat.

01:24My heart punching my chest like it wanted out.

01:27For a while, I convinced myself it was sleep paralysis.

01:31That was a thing.

01:33Hallucinations.

01:34Panic.

01:35Your brain waking up before your body.

01:38That's what I told myself.

01:40Until he came back.

01:42I saw him again three nights later.

01:45It's the same corner of my vision.

01:47It's the same slow descent.

01:49Except this time, I was awake.

01:54I turned my head to face him directly.

01:57And he was still there.

01:59Moving without flickering or fading.

02:02Like a trick of the eye.

02:04He didn't vanish when I blinked.

02:06It was like my brain couldn't unsee him.

02:09Like my eyes weren't in control anymore.

02:12I changed bedrooms.

02:14It didn't help.

02:16Wherever I slept, he showed up.

02:19Always in the top right corner of my vision.

02:23Always going down the invisible stairs.

02:26He was always moonwalking into some hell only he could see.

02:29And sometimes, I swear to God, I could hear the steps.

02:35Not real ones.

02:37Muffled ones.

02:38Like pressure on wood that wasn't there.

02:41Like the house remembered footsteps from another time.

02:44The man who lived here before me had died.

02:48That much, I confirmed.

02:51He bought the house from his partner.

02:54There is no warning.

02:55Nor is there any disclosure of history.

02:58He passed in the early 2000s quietly.

03:02A heart attack, supposedly.

03:04The obituary photo?

03:06Same damn haircut.

03:08I thought maybe he didn't like me in his space.

03:11So I put up a cross right above my bed.

03:14I'm not religious.

03:16But I was desperate.

03:18And for a while.

03:19It worked.

03:21A whole month went by.

03:23No sightings.

03:25No stairs.

03:26No red eyes.

03:28I could breathe again.

03:30I let my guard down.

03:32Then, around the tenth of the next month, I felt it again.

03:37That stillness.

03:39That cold breath at the base of my neck.

03:41And there he was.

03:43Gliding down.

03:45But this time, he wasn't alone.

03:48The second one was behind him.

03:50Just a little smaller.

03:52As if trailing by a few stairs.

03:55And its face.

03:56God.

03:57I still can't describe it without choking.

04:00Its teeth were too long for its mouth.

04:03Like it had to tuck them in to close its lips.

04:07The smile was wide.

04:08Crooked.

04:09Bone white and twitching.

04:11And its skin didn't fit.

04:13Sagging and pale.

04:15Like wet cloth pulled over a skull.

04:18That one didn't moonwalk.

04:20It slithered.

04:21I stopped sleeping.

04:23I tried staying up all night with the lights on.

04:26Caffeine blasting through my veins.

04:29Every door opened so I could see every room.

04:33It didn't matter.

04:34They came anyway.

04:36It's not like seeing them was optional.

04:38I didn't look for them.

04:40They just appeared.

04:42My eyes would drift.

04:43And there they were.

04:45Mid descent.

04:46Frozen in a nightmare loop.

04:48I couldn't control it.

04:50One night.

04:52I taped black paper over every corner of my room.

04:56I figured if I couldn't see the top right edge.

04:59Maybe they couldn't show up.

05:01They still came.

05:03I'd see them reflected on my phone screen.

05:06In the dark glare of the turned off TV.

05:09In the microwave door.

05:11Always there.

05:12Descending in that corner.

05:14It got to the point where I was seeing them outside.

05:18Once.

05:19I was sitting in my car at a red light.

05:22I looked up at the rear view mirror.

05:24The corner of the backseat window.

05:27And there they were.

05:29Moonwalking down nothing.

05:31I nearly ran the light.

05:33But the worst part?

05:35The worst part was the closet.

05:37This wasn't the first house I'd lived in that felt...

05:41Wrong.

05:42My last place had a closet.

05:44Five feet by five feet.

05:46Nothing unusual.

05:48But when I lay in bed.

05:50If I turned away from the wall and looked toward the closet.

05:53I'd sometimes see a figure dart back into it.

05:57Quick.

05:58Like it had been caught watching.

06:00It was always low to the ground between four feet and five and a half feet.

06:05Sometimes it ducked.

06:07Sometimes it stood.

06:08But it always retreated.

06:10I kept telling myself it was shadows.

06:14Tricks of light.

06:15A car passing.

06:17But these new figures.

06:19They didn't dart away.

06:21They descended.

06:22Brazenly.

06:23Like they knew I couldn't stop them.

06:25And they weren't afraid of me.

06:28Not anymore.

06:30I started tracking the pattern.

06:33Roughly every 40 to 45 days they showed up.

06:36Usually for a single night.

06:39Sometimes two.

06:39It was like a cycle.

06:43Lunar.

06:44Number anniversary.

06:45I couldn't find a match.

06:47But it always started the same way.

06:50Just after midnight.

06:51A strange pressure in the room.

06:54A drop in temperature.

06:55Then.

06:56That dreadful itch in my eye.

06:59Like something wanted to be seen.

07:01And they were always in sync.

07:04One descending like a lost soul.

07:06The other leering from just above.

07:09Mouth twitching as if waiting its turn.

07:12I tried everything.

07:14Therapy.

07:15Cameras.

07:17A priest.

07:18Though I never told him why I wanted the blessing.

07:21I even slept with the cross in my hand.

07:23That gave me three peaceful cycles.

07:27Three.

07:28Then last week.

07:29The cross fell off the wall.

07:31It just dropped.

07:32No earthquake.

07:33No wind.

07:34No reason.

07:36And I felt the shift immediately.

07:38I woke up that night.

07:40And they were both there.

07:43Closer this time.

07:44Much closer.

07:46The first one.

07:47The red-eyed man.

07:48Was already halfway down.

07:51His eyes looked different.

07:52More.

07:55Focused.

07:56Like they'd finally found me.

07:58The second one.

08:00It was smiling.

08:02And I swear.

08:03This time I heard it whisper.

08:05Just one word.

08:07Soon.

08:07You're going to see.

08:09And it was like me.

08:09I wish I had a tattoo.

08:10And it was unlikely.

08:11I swear.

08:12I wish I was.

08:12And it was fine.

08:13I do say.

08:13This time I was like me.

08:14The first one.

08:14And I was talking.

08:15And it was like me.

08:17How dare you do this?

08:18And I swear.

08:19I had my hair.

08:20It was like me.

08:21I self- aquesta had.

08:22I can get my hair.

08:22And it was like my hair.

08:23I love you.

08:24And it was I was kind of like you.

08:24You left me.

08:25And it was like me.

08:25inned for the first one.

08:27I wasn't doing what you did.

08:27I wonder if it was something.

08:28You left me.

08:28And I want to say goodbye.

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