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Hadn't thought of this in years but it popped into my head at lunch. Totally forgot about it until today.
***
My husband, son, and I rented a home from 2012-2016.
The house was older (1920s?). The couple we rented it from had lived there for a few years until they decided to buy a larger home. Instead of selling the house, they decided to rent it out.
When we claimed rooms, our 8 yo wanted the finished attic since he thought it was the coolest (and biggest) room. This was a relief because the attic creeped me out. In the far back corner, there was a random support beam that had a wooden baby gate attached to it. When stretched, the gate sectioned off a totally pointless section that didn't seem to have a purpose. I couldn't figure out why the owners would leave it, but whatever--the wife was one of those Pintrest DIYers so I assumed she had it up there for some project. The baby gate added to the creep factor but even without it, the corner still bothered me. To make matters worse, the corner had a doggy door-sized removable plywood section that seemed to have been cut out for occasional maintenance.
Every time I would go up into my son's room, my first instinct was to look over there. I was always suspicious of that spot. Sometimes, I felt like something invisible was crouched, watching me. Other times, I felt like something ugly was hiding in the wall. It was a bad feeling. I even went over there and removed the small panel of plywood to see if something was behind it but there was only insulation. Everytime I would read my son a bedtime story, I would get a weird feeling and look up to make sure nothing was watching us read. ((FUCK, I hate thinking back on that. I really hated that attic. 😖)) I heard once that old electrical wiring can give people strange feelings. Maybe that was it?
I never said anything to my son because A.) I didn't want to make him afraid of his room B.) There was nothing there and C.) Moving his furniture back down those spiral steps was NOT something I wanted to do. So, I lived with it until actual creepy shit started happening.
A year into living there, I was laying in bed one night watching TV. I kept hearing the floor squeaking all over, like somebody was slowly walking around up there. I remember looking over at the clock and getting upset because my son knew he wasn't supposed to be up that late. So I go up to the attic, ready to tear him a new one but he's stone cold asleep. I mean snoring, all cocooned up in the covers, just dreaming away. I swear to God, the hair on my neck stood up and I was absolutely sick to my stomach. I went back downstairs and texted my husband (he works nights). He laughs it off, saying that our son was probably sleep walking. Nah, I knew better. There was no way he could have launched into the bed that fast. I know the difference between fake kid sleeping and real sleeping. The next day, I asked my son if he was up walking around. He said no. I never heard any more squeaking after that.
The final straw happened several weeks later. I was getting my son ready for school and we were chatting about a dream he had. He told me he had a dream that something was watching him sleep. When I asked for more details, he said it was watching him and was gone when he woke up. I asked him if it was standing by him and he said, "No, it was watching me from the corner by the baby gate."
I WAS DONE. I moved him into the downstairs room that day. He said he was glad because he didn't like his room anymore.
When we moved out, I asked the landlord what the deal was with the baby gate. He said he had no idea because it was there when they moved in. I asked him if he ever got a weird feeling in the attic and he said no. That's gotta be a lie because OBVIOUSLY.
I don't know why I had to think of this today. Now I'm all worked up thinking back on it.
Fuck that attic.
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