- 2 days ago
Three terrifying tales. A group of boys finds more than just an abandoned cabin. A war survivor realizes their haunted past is now following them. And a grandmother confesses the unthinkable truth about the man she once married.
These aren’t just horror stories—they’re memories. And some memories… don’t stay buried.
These aren’t just horror stories—they’re memories. And some memories… don’t stay buried.
Category
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CreativityTranscript
00:00You think you escaped it, until it shows up in the mirror, in your dreams, in your children's drawings.
00:10We begin with the illusion of safety, junk food, best friends, no school tomorrow.
00:16But in the woods behind a luxury home, four boys find a rotting cabin and a nightmare carved in blood.
00:24One door separated them from death, and one scream changed their lives forever.
00:33It was supposed to be one of those nights we'd talk about for years.
00:37No school the next day, junk food, gaming, and the kind of crude humor only a group of 11-year-old boys could find funny.
00:48John's house wasn't just big, it was legendary.
00:51Three stories, an in-home arcade, a massive basement with a screen the size of a movie theater, and a forest in the backyard that felt like it belonged in a different state.
01:04I got there around five.
01:08David, Tucker, and I brought our sleeping bags and controllers, while John had snacks piled high in his kitchen, as if he were preparing for the apocalypse.
01:19Eventually, we wandered outside to this wooden fort John had built in the trees.
01:26It was just before sunset, and the sky was that burnt orange color that makes everything look haunted, even when it isn't.
01:38We were up in the fort messing around when Tucker went dead silent.
01:41He whispered, did you hear that?
01:46I listened.
01:48There it was, a faint crunch of leaves, one step, then another.
01:53Too slow to be a deer, too heavy for a raccoon.
01:57I glanced at John and David.
01:59They looked confused until they heard it too.
02:02John didn't hesitate.
02:04He pulled out his phone and called his dad, who was inside the house.
02:09Ten minutes later, his dad showed up with a flashlight and led us back, checking the woods the whole way.
02:17We didn't see anyone.
02:19No animal.
02:20No person.
02:21Just that sound still echoing in my head.
02:26Back in the basement, we started playing Fortnite and tried to forget it.
02:30Then John mentioned something that shifted the entire night.
02:36You guys know there's a cabin out there, right?
02:40Some older kid told me it's sketchy as hell.
02:44We were eleven.
02:46The word sketchy might as well have been a dare.
02:50And like the idiots we were, we grabbed flashlights, threw on hoodies, and headed into the woods.
02:56The deeper we went, the quieter everything got.
03:02The forest just swallowed sound.
03:04It took about ten minutes before we saw it.
03:07The cabin.
03:09It wasn't big, but it looked...
03:12Wrong.
03:13The boards were blackened, the roof sagged in places, and something reeked.
03:19It smelled like death, thick and sour.
03:22The kind of smell that sticks in your throat.
03:25One window was shattered, so we naturally climbed through it.
03:30We split up inside.
03:33Tucker and I took the left hallway, while John and David took the right one.
03:38The place felt stale, like it had been sealed up for years.
03:43The walls were stained, the furniture overturned or broken.
03:47We found a small room with a broken dresser and a bed frame with no mattress.
03:54An attic door was built into the ceiling above us, the kind that pulls down with a string.
04:01I remember Tucker staring at it for a long time, as if it were watching him back.
04:06I was about to tell him we should leave when the air shifted.
04:11I don't know how else to explain it.
04:14The temperature dropped.
04:16Like, instantly.
04:18The kind of cold that creeps through your clothes and into your bones.
04:23My flashlight flickered for a second.
04:26And in that flicker,
04:28I thought I saw something behind the door.
04:31But when I swung the light back,
04:34nothing was there.
04:36And then John screamed.
04:39Not like a prank scream.
04:41A real one.
04:43The kind that makes your blood freeze before your brain catches up.
04:48We bolted toward it.
04:50And before we even reached them,
04:52John and David
04:53were already sprinting toward the window,
04:57their faces pale.
04:58We didn't ask questions.
05:01We just followed.
05:03Back at the house,
05:04it took John a full ten minutes to speak.
05:08There was a guy in there,
05:10he said,
05:11barely above a whisper.
05:13He was tall,
05:14skinny.
05:15Like real skinny.
05:17Just standing there.
05:18Then he lunged at us.
05:20My stomach dropped.
05:22Then he added,
05:24there was someone else lying on the floor in that room.
05:27I think they were dead.
05:29There was blood.
05:31A lot of it.
05:33None of us knew what to say.
05:36Tucker looked like he might puke.
05:38David wanted to call the cops.
05:41I couldn't stop thinking about the room we were in.
05:44The attic above us.
05:45And the smell.
05:47Something in that place had been rotting.
05:49John's dad was pissed,
05:52naturally.
05:53But when he heard what John said,
05:56his face changed.
05:58He didn't yell.
05:59He just went quiet and called the police.
06:03They arrived quickly.
06:05Ten state troopers,
06:06dogs,
06:07and flashlights.
06:09We watched from John's upstairs window
06:11as they surrounded the cabin
06:13and went in.
06:15Twenty minutes later,
06:17one of them threw up in the bushes.
06:20When they came back out,
06:22they weren't the same.
06:24One officer went to the house
06:25to talk to John's dad.
06:27And I only heard part of it.
06:29There was a man inside.
06:32Mid-forties,
06:34just like John said.
06:35Covered in blood.
06:37Alive,
06:38but barely responsive.
06:40Near him was a corpse.
06:42Someone who'd been dead for days.
06:45They found a foot-long knife.
06:47And then,
06:49they found the closet.
06:51In the very room
06:52Tucker and I had been exploring,
06:54just feet from us.
06:56They found three more bodies.
06:58All stabbed.
07:00All decomposing.
07:02We were that close.
07:05Tucker cried when he heard.
07:07I didn't sleep for a week.
07:10I kept thinking about that attic door
07:12and what might have been up there
07:14just out of reach.
07:16None of us talked much after that night.
07:19I don't think we ever hung out
07:21all four of us again.
07:23We never learned who the victims were,
07:25just that they weren't from around here.
07:29But every time I walk past a forest now
07:33and hear leaves crunch underfoot,
07:36I still freeze.
07:39Because sometimes the monster isn't in your head.
07:43Sometimes it's just one door away.
07:45But some screams are never heard.
07:51Buried under the thunder of bombs,
07:53the silence after destruction
07:55can be even louder.
07:57And for one family,
07:59escaping the flames was only the beginning.
08:02Because something else
08:03walked out with them.
08:07We weren't supposed to be in that house.
08:10It didn't belong to us.
08:12And none of us felt comfortable in it.
08:16The wallpaper peeled like old skin.
08:19The windows were cloudy
08:21and crooked in their frames.
08:23You could still smell the family
08:25who had lived there.
08:26Stew spices and cigarette ash.
08:29And something faintly floral
08:30that clung to the curtains.
08:32Long after they'd fled
08:34or died or disappeared.
08:36But we didn't care.
08:37It had walls, a roof
08:40and a door that closed.
08:42That was enough.
08:44It was my sister, Rana,
08:46her three kids
08:47and my younger brother, Imad.
08:50He could barely walk even before the war.
08:53But he never complained.
08:55We were the only ones left of our family.
08:58We had three days of silence.
09:01Then came the shelling.
09:03The sound is always worse than you expect.
09:06Like the sky is being ripped open.
09:10The first one hit two streets over.
09:13A long, thunderous rumble
09:15followed by shattering glass.
09:17I grabbed the kids
09:19and pushed them down.
09:21Just as the second one hit.
09:23This one was closer.
09:25The floor shook so hard
09:26I thought it was caving in.
09:29Dust sprayed from the ceiling.
09:31Screams outside.
09:32Then inside.
09:33Then silence.
09:33For a second.
09:36A complete, unnatural silence.
09:39No birds.
09:40No bombs.
09:41No voices.
09:42Just the ringing in my ears.
09:45Then I saw the heat
09:46ripple through the room
09:48like a wave of fire.
09:50It passed beside me.
09:52Not on me.
09:53But close enough
09:54that my shirt stuck to my back.
09:57Soaked in sweat.
09:58And that's when I saw Rana's kids.
10:02Huddled by the overturned couch.
10:05Faces pale.
10:06Lips trembling.
10:08I don't remember deciding.
10:10I just moved.
10:12I carried them one by one
10:14through the back hallway.
10:17Smoke filled the rooms like breath
10:18from something too large to see.
10:20I kept my face low,
10:23eyes burning.
10:24I kicked a door open,
10:26saw light,
10:27and stumbled out.
10:29Imad was already outside somehow.
10:32Bleeding from the legs,
10:34standing like a statue,
10:35holding Rana upright.
10:38I don't know when she was hit.
10:40Maybe inside.
10:41Maybe when we ran,
10:43her arm was limp,
10:44but her eyes locked on mine
10:47like they were keeping me
10:48from falling apart.
10:50We made it.
10:51Alive.
10:53Shaking.
10:54Burned.
10:55Scraped up with glass and shrapnel.
10:58But alive.
10:59And then,
11:01the dream started.
11:03The first night in the shelter,
11:05I couldn't sleep.
11:06Every time I closed my eyes,
11:08I saw the hallway again.
11:11But in reverse,
11:12as if I was walking back into the smoke,
11:15not away from it.
11:16The walls were longer.
11:18Stretching endlessly.
11:20And there was something behind me.
11:22I couldn't hear it.
11:24I couldn't see it.
11:26But I knew it was there.
11:28Watching.
11:31After the third night,
11:32I stopped talking about it.
11:34Everyone else was dealing with their nightmares.
11:38Rana barely spoke.
11:40Her youngest, Amal,
11:41started chewing her nails
11:42until they bled.
11:44The baby screamed at shadows.
11:47An Imad.
11:48He smiled too much.
11:50As if he were pretending
11:52none of it had happened.
11:54That scared me the most.
11:56Then I started hearing it
11:58while awake.
12:00It began like static.
12:02A faint buzzing.
12:03Like the silence after a bomb.
12:05That ringing that never leaves.
12:07But this was different.
12:09It grew louder in certain rooms.
12:11It moved.
12:13Once,
12:14in the middle of the night,
12:15I followed it.
12:17I left the cot
12:18and crossed the shelter hall.
12:20And when I opened the door
12:22to the bathroom,
12:23the lights flickered.
12:26There was nothing there.
12:28Except that the mirror was fogged over.
12:31And when I wiped it clean,
12:33I saw behind me a figure.
12:36Too tall.
12:37Head tilted.
12:38Arms wrong.
12:39But when I turned,
12:42the room was empty.
12:44I didn't tell anyone.
12:46We moved shelters again
12:48after two weeks.
12:49Then again.
12:50Then again.
12:51It didn't matter.
12:53Wherever we went,
12:54I saw it.
12:55Not directly.
12:57Never full on.
12:58Just in corners.
12:59In puddles.
13:00Reflections.
13:02Once,
13:03looking out into the darkness
13:04through a bus window.
13:06I saw it walking behind us.
13:09Not toward us.
13:11Just
13:11behind.
13:13I kept telling myself
13:15it was trauma.
13:17The brain does weird things
13:18when it's broken.
13:19But that didn't explain
13:21the drawings.
13:23Amal had started sketching
13:25on scraps of cardboard
13:26and newspaper.
13:28Always the same shape.
13:30A man without a face
13:31standing in smoke.
13:33Sometimes she drew
13:35herself holding my hand
13:36and behind us,
13:39in pencil darker
13:40than the rest,
13:41stood the same thing.
13:43One night,
13:45I asked her
13:46why she kept drawing it.
13:48She looked up and said,
13:50because he followed us out.
13:52I felt cold in my stomach,
13:55like I'd swallowed ice water.
13:57What do you mean?
13:59I asked.
14:00He lived in the house,
14:01she whispered.
14:03But he was trapped.
14:05When the walls broke,
14:06he came out with us.
14:08That night I checked her
14:10for a fever.
14:11She had none.
14:13We tried to throw
14:14the drawings away.
14:15They came back.
14:17Not literally.
14:18Not floating in the air
14:19or anything.
14:20But she drew new ones.
14:23Almost identical.
14:24Even after we took away
14:26the pencils.
14:27Imad began muttering
14:28in his sleep.
14:29One night,
14:31I heard him repeating
14:32something over and over.
14:34It wasn't ours.
14:36We took what wasn't ours.
14:38It wasn't ours.
14:39We brought it with us.
14:41Over and over.
14:43I shook him awake.
14:45He looked at me blankly.
14:47Didn't remember a thing.
14:49And Rana.
14:51Rana started locking
14:53the door at night.
14:54Not the front door.
14:55The bedroom door.
14:57From the inside.
14:59Even though we were safe.
15:01Or as safe as one could be.
15:03I asked her why.
15:04And she said.
15:05There's something in the hallway.
15:08I hear it pacing.
15:10When I pressed further.
15:12She broke down in tears.
15:14We all tried not to sleep.
15:17Until one night.
15:19The smoke came back.
15:21It was during a power outage.
15:23We lit candles.
15:25The kids were asleep.
15:28Rana had finally passed out beside them.
15:31I was on watch.
15:32Staring out the window.
15:34And then I smelled it.
15:36Not candle smoke.
15:38But the thick, choking kind.
15:41The kind that coats your lungs
15:43and clings to your clothes.
15:44I turned.
15:47A shape moved slowly through the hallway.
15:50Its head too low.
15:52As if it were crouching.
15:54I froze.
15:56I couldn't even call for Imad.
15:59I stepped into the hallway.
16:01The air was thick.
16:03The walls were rippling like heat waves.
16:05I blinked.
16:07My skin felt prickly.
16:09And then I saw it.
16:11Standing where the front door used to be
16:13in that first house.
16:15Except this wasn't that house.
16:18This was the new shelter.
16:20And somehow,
16:21it brought the door with it.
16:24The figure didn't move.
16:26Just stared.
16:27If it had eyes.
16:29And raised a hand.
16:31There were too many fingers.
16:33The smoke poured from its open palm
16:35like a second breath.
16:36I ran to the kids' room.
16:40I slammed the door shut.
16:42I held it shut until morning.
16:45When I opened the door again,
16:47the hallway was clear.
16:49But every photo in the room
16:51had turned black and not burnt.
16:54Just.
16:56Blank.
16:57We left the next day.
17:00But it came with us again.
17:02Sometimes,
17:03I hear it late at night.
17:06Coughing.
17:07Not like a person.
17:09More like something
17:09learning how to imitate one.
17:12And sometimes,
17:13I wake up to find soot
17:15under my fingernails.
17:16Or see tiny handprints
17:18on the window glass,
17:20even when no one's touched it.
17:23I don't know what it is.
17:25Perhaps a memory so vivid,
17:27it became a reality.
17:29Maybe the house was cursed.
17:31Possibly,
17:32we were just the ones
17:33who stayed too long,
17:35breathed too much of that air,
17:37and it made a home in us.
17:39All I know is this.
17:41We got out alive,
17:44but not alone.
17:45And I'm starting to think
17:47it didn't follow us.
17:49We followed it.
17:50Not everything that follows you
17:54is smoke and shadow.
17:56Some evils are flesh and bone,
17:59passed down,
18:00inherited like a name or a scar.
18:03And sometimes,
18:05they wear the face
18:06of someone you once loved.
18:10I always believed my grandmother,
18:13even when no one else
18:15in the family did.
18:16In 1956,
18:19she was 28 years old,
18:21living on a worn-out farmstead
18:23in northern Alabama.
18:25My mother wasn't born yet,
18:27but my aunt was just two,
18:30still sleeping in a crib.
18:32My grandfather was an older man,
18:34already in his 40s at the time.
18:37A man with cold fists
18:39and colder eyes.
18:41They were brown,
18:42so dark they looked black.
18:44And when he got angry,
18:47those eyes would swell with hate
18:48like something had slipped out
18:50from underneath his skin.
18:52He drank every night,
18:54wasted his pay at the bar,
18:56and sometimes brought back
18:58the smell of cheap perfume
18:59and lipstick stains
19:01on his undershirt.
19:03He'd yell about dinner being cold,
19:05or her spending too much time
19:07rocking the baby.
19:08Then he'd take it out on her,
19:12his belt,
19:13his fists,
19:15his mouth.
19:16And still,
19:18she stayed.
19:20She used to tell me,
19:22I could live with a drunk.
19:25I could even live with a bastard.
19:27But I couldn't live with something
19:29I didn't understand.
19:32That something
19:33was his hunting trips.
19:35Once a month,
19:37always on a Friday,
19:39just before midnight,
19:41he'd leave the house
19:41in his thick wool coat,
19:43boots laced to his knees,
19:45and disappear into the woods.
19:47No game.
19:48No meat.
19:50Just hours later,
19:52at dawn,
19:53he'd come back
19:54with a calmness
19:54that felt
19:55alien.
19:57He'd hold her hand.
19:58He'd kiss my aunt's forehead.
20:01He'd sit on the porch
20:02and hum old love songs.
20:03It never lasted
20:05past Monday,
20:06but for those two days,
20:08he was the man
20:08she'd married,
20:10not the beast
20:10she feared.
20:12But two months
20:13before my mother
20:14was born,
20:15he changed.
20:16He came home one night,
20:18stinking of gin.
20:20And when she told him
20:21she was leaving him,
20:23with the full support
20:24of her family,
20:26he pulled out
20:27a revolver
20:27and fired.
20:29The bullet
20:29missed her
20:30by inches,
20:32chipping the post
20:32she leaned against.
20:34He didn't say a word.
20:36He just stood there,
20:38shaking,
20:39before running out
20:39the door.
20:41Two days later,
20:43they found rat poison
20:44in the well,
20:45enough to kill them all,
20:47including his daughter.
20:49He had poisoned
20:50the water they drank,
20:52the same water
20:52she boiled
20:53for her baby's milk.
20:55He disappeared
20:56for nearly a week.
20:57Then,
20:59that Friday night,
21:01he came bursting
21:01through the bedroom door
21:03like the house
21:04was on fire.
21:05She was half asleep,
21:08belly round
21:09with my mother.
21:11She thought
21:11he'd come
21:12to finish the job,
21:13but he looked terrified.
21:17It's almost time,
21:18he mumbled,
21:19fumbling for his gear.
21:21Time for what?
21:23she asked,
21:24holding the baby close.
21:25He didn't answer,
21:28just threw on his coat
21:29and boots
21:30and ran out the door.
21:33He forgot one thing,
21:35the double-barrel shotgun
21:36that always went with him.
21:39She laughed,
21:41in disbelief
21:41more than anything.
21:43This monster
21:44had tried to kill her twice,
21:47and now he was running
21:48into the woods
21:49empty-handed,
21:50like some scared child.
21:52She locked
21:54every door
21:55except the front,
21:56sat in her rocking chair
21:58with the shotgun
21:59across her lap,
22:01and watched
22:01the moon rise.
22:04At twelve-thirty
22:05a.m.
22:06she heard it,
22:08a howl,
22:09far off,
22:10like dogs fighting.
22:13At twelve-forty-five a.m.
22:15another,
22:16closer,
22:17stronger.
22:18The baby stirred,
22:20Oh, Lord,
22:22I hope it's not
22:23wild dogs
22:24messing with the chickens,
22:25she whispered,
22:27rocking the crib gently.
22:29Then came twelve-fifty-five a.m.
22:33This time,
22:34the howl
22:35wasn't distant.
22:36It rattled the windows.
22:38It vibrated her bones.
22:41She shot up
22:42and pressed her hand
22:43to her belly.
22:45Outside,
22:45something slammed
22:46against the kitchen door.
22:49Then a growl
22:49so deep
22:50it made her teeth buzz.
22:52She didn't hesitate.
22:55She picked up
22:56the shotgun,
22:57kissed her toddler's head,
22:59whispered
23:00to her unborn child,
23:02and stepped
23:02into the hallway.
23:04The thing inside
23:05was tearing apart
23:06the kitchen,
23:08plate-shattering,
23:09wood-splintering,
23:10claws scraping
23:11across the floor.
23:12It growled again,
23:13low and throaty,
23:16something primal.
23:18She edged
23:19toward the door,
23:20slowly,
23:22carefully.
23:24When she reached it,
23:26she slipped the barrel
23:27through the crack first,
23:28then leaned in,
23:30just enough to see.
23:32And there it was,
23:34seven feet tall,
23:36hunched over the sugar jar
23:37it had knocked
23:38to the floor.
23:40Thick red fur,
23:41long arms,
23:42clawed feet,
23:43it wasn't fully wolf,
23:45but not entirely
23:46human either.
23:48Its snout twitched
23:49as it licked the floor,
23:51and then it froze.
23:52It turned its head.
23:55She saw its eyes.
23:57She would never
23:58forget the eyes.
24:00They were brown,
24:01so dark
24:02they looked black,
24:04full of hatred,
24:06full of recognition.
24:07Her finger
24:09tightened on the trigger,
24:11but she didn't shoot.
24:13Not out of fear,
24:15but shock.
24:17In a blur,
24:18the beast burst
24:19out of the back door
24:20faster than anything
24:21she'd ever seen.
24:24By the time she got outside,
24:26it was gone.
24:28She locked the house
24:29and sat in the rocking chair,
24:32waiting for daylight
24:33with the shotgun in her arms.
24:35He came home at sunrise.
24:38His clothes were torn.
24:41His boots are missing.
24:43His face was scratched
24:44like he'd crawled
24:45through thorns.
24:47He didn't say a word.
24:49Just walked to the crib,
24:52kissed his daughter's head,
24:53then kissed his hand
24:55and placed it on her belly.
24:58Then he turned and left.
24:59No one saw him again.
25:03The story in town
25:04was that he ran off
25:06with another woman,
25:07left his family in shame.
25:10My grandmother remarried,
25:12had eleven more children,
25:14and lived a hard
25:15but steady life.
25:17She never told that story
25:19until I was old enough
25:20to understand,
25:22not even to my mother
25:23or aunt.
25:25But she told me
25:26just once,
25:28and I believe her
25:30because sometimes
25:32I dream of that howl
25:33and when I wake up,
25:36my bones still vibrate.
25:41Three stories,
25:43three survivors.
25:45Each escaped death
25:46but was not untouched.
25:49Was it trauma,
25:51possession,
25:53a curse
25:53or is there something
25:55else out there,
25:56something that feeds
25:57on fear and memory,
25:59something that only
26:00needs you
26:01to open the door?
26:03What if the door
26:04was never closed
26:05because they didn't
26:07bring it with them?
26:08They brought themselves
26:10to it
26:10or did they?
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0:53
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