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Nightfall Crypt
  • 7/4/2025
Four friends, walking home in a quiet Australian town, stumble across an unsettling sound in the trees. It's a laughter, but not a joyful one. It sounds like a little girl—until one of them sees something white, a figure, hiding behind a tree. What begins as a harmless curiosity quickly transforms into a chilling fear, creeping up on them like a shadow. The figure returns, but only to the naked eye. Cameras fail. Logic falters. And one by one, they realize they may not have been the first to see it.
Transcript
00:00The air along the golf course was eerily silent, devoid of the usual rustle of parrots or the hum of insects that typically filled the dusk.
00:10The stillness was thick and expectant, the air heavy with the smell of damp earth and the distant sound of a lone cricket.
00:19As I walked, the gravel underfoot seemed to echo unnaturally, each step feeling wrong, like the sound wasn't echoing correctly, or maybe wasn't echoing at all.
00:34Then the bush rustled again, this time closer and heavier.
00:39I spun to my right, and there it was, the white figure, half concealed behind a thick eucalyptus.
00:47Its surface had no texture, like paper soaked in milk.
00:51No face, no limbs, just the hint of shoulders and a head.
00:56My knees buckled at the sight.
00:59It hadn't moved, but it felt like it had noticed me.
01:03Behind me, Matt was shouting again, telling me to hurry up.
01:09I could barely hear him.
01:11My ears were roaring with static.
01:14Not a sound in the world except the crunch of something else's footstep.
01:18Opposite mine.
01:20Matching me.
01:22Like it knew how I moved, I turned and ran so fast my chest felt like it would burst.
01:28I didn't even realize I was crying until I tripped and skidded onto the path.
01:34They thought I was messing with them until they saw the look on my face.
01:37And then, when we saw it again, they couldn't deny it.
01:43We must have stood there ten minutes, watching the tree line.
01:47It didn't move, but we could feel it as a pressure behind our eyes.
01:51The longer we looked, the more distorted everything seemed.
01:57The trees swayed wrong.
01:59The horizon, curved like a fish-eye lens, was warping the whole world.
02:05Then the laughter started again.
02:07Not a bird.
02:08Not distant.
02:09Close.
02:10Right at the edge of the course.
02:12It came in short bursts like hiccups.
02:15Happy.
02:16Hungry.
02:17Matt raised his phone again.
02:20Still nothing.
02:22It was as if the figure had been digitally erased.
02:25But then.
02:26Movement.
02:28It stepped from behind the tree.
02:30We didn't breathe.
02:32None of us moved.
02:34The figure was tall and slender, its arms too long, dragging at its sides.
02:39There were no joints.
02:41Just angles.
02:41It's sickly white, almost translucent skin, seemed to glow in the moonlight.
02:48And then it tilted its head.
02:50We were frozen in terror.
02:53Our hearts pounding in our chests, unable to comprehend what we were witnessing.
02:58And then it tilted its head.
03:01Not just turned.
03:02Tilted.
03:03Like it was studying us.
03:05Judging.
03:06My body screamed to run.
03:08But I couldn't.
03:09The sound of leaves crunching as it stepped closer was the only thing I could register.
03:15One step.
03:16Another.
03:17Still silent otherwise.
03:20Even the wind stopped.
03:22Tom screamed first.
03:23He bolted back down the path.
03:26Matt grabbed my wrist.
03:28We ran.
03:29But the thing didn't chase us.
03:31It just stood.
03:32Slowly raising one arm as if pointing.
03:35We didn't stop until we reached Will's back gate.
03:39We climbed over it without looking back.
03:42Inside, we locked every door and every window.
03:47Sat in his room.
03:48Light off.
03:49Curtains shut.
03:51I could still feel its eyes.
03:53Or whatever it used in place of eyes.
03:56Later that night, I woke up to the sound of tapping.
03:59Not loud.
04:00Not loud.
04:01Just rhythmic.
04:02Like fingernails on glass.
04:05I didn't tell the others.
04:06I just lay still, staring at Will's ceiling.
04:09And waited for morning.
04:11In the days after, we swore not to talk about it.
04:15But now, over a year later, I still hear the laughter sometimes.
04:20Worse.
04:22Last week, I saw something at the edge of my backyard.
04:26Just standing.
04:27Watching.
04:28My phone didn't capture anything.
04:31The memory of that encounter still haunts me.
04:34A constant reminder of the unknown horrors that lurk in the shadows.
04:38I find myself constantly looking over my shoulder, jumping at every sound.
04:45And feeling a chill down my spine at every shadow.
04:49But I know what I saw.
04:52And it reminds me too.
04:54That night, sleep eluded us.
04:57Every time I closed my eyes, the image of that figure, white and faceless, standing at
05:03the edge of the trees would haunt me.
05:06My mind raced with questions.
05:08Was it following us?
05:10Watching us from some hidden place?
05:13When I finally returned home the next morning, I found myself checking every corner of my
05:18backyard.
05:20The windows.
05:21The mirrors.
05:22No place felt safe anymore.
05:25Every sound made me jump.
05:27And every shadow made me shiver.
05:30The fear was consuming me.
05:32Growing with each passing moment.
05:34And the paranoia was becoming overwhelming.
05:37At school on Monday, none of us spoke about it.
05:42Tom acted like it didn't happen.
05:45But he kept tapping his pencil non-stop in math class.
05:49And every time someone laughed in the hallway, he flinched.
05:53Matt texted me during lunch.
05:56Did you hear it again?
05:57I hadn't.
05:59Not yet.
06:00But on that Friday night, as I walked home from the local footy game, I found myself passing
06:06the edge of Glenroy Forest once more.
06:08I kept my head down, headphones in, and the music was loud.
06:13But in the lull between songs, I heard it.
06:17That laughter.
06:19Just a single note this time.
06:21Like a tease.
06:22I didn't dare look.
06:24I just ran.
06:25Feeling the weight of the unknown pressing down on me and the futility of my attempts to
06:30return to normalcy.
06:31That weekend, I convinced Matt to come back to the golf course during the day.
06:38We made up an excuse about doing a photography assignment.
06:41I brought my dad's old digital camera.
06:45Nothing fancy, but solid.
06:47We walked to the exact spot, the eucalyptus tree, where I had first seen the thing.
06:53There was no white figure, no sound, no laughter, just sunlight and a gentle breeze.
07:01We stood there for nearly an hour, talking in circles.
07:05What if we imagined it?
07:08What if it was just a prank?
07:10We desperately tried to find a logical explanation for what we had experienced, but the more we
07:16talked, the more the mystery deepened.
07:19But deep down, we both knew the truth.
07:23There was no denying it.
07:25Right when we turned to leave, Matt stopped.
07:29Wait, he whispered.
07:31He pointed up, toward one of the tree branches.
07:35There, snagged in the bark, was a strip of something white, thin, fabric or paper.
07:43He climbed up a few feet and pulled it loose.
07:46It was dry, cold to the touch, and smelled faintly like sulfur.
07:50We stared at it.
07:53It didn't feel like a normal piece of cloth.
07:56It was too smooth, too clean.
07:59We decided not to keep it.
08:01He dropped it at the base of the tree.
08:04But as we turned away, something snapped behind us, like a branch breaking.
08:08We sprinted home without looking back.
08:11That night, I had a dream.
08:14I was standing alone on the path beside the woods.
08:18Everything was quiet.
08:20Too quiet.
08:21I looked left, toward the trees, and saw the figure again.
08:26Only this time, it was closer.
08:28No longer half hidden.
08:30It stood in the middle of the golf course, arms limp at its sides.
08:34I couldn't move.
08:36I couldn't breathe.
08:37It tilted its head slowly, and then opened its mouth, though there was no mouth to see.
08:43It's just a hole.
08:45Vast.
08:46Black.
08:47Endless.
08:48I woke up screaming.
08:52From that night on, I started seeing it more often.
08:55Not just near the forest.
08:57Sometimes in reflections.
08:59Store windows, puddles.
09:00Even the back of a spoon.
09:02Just for a second.
09:04Just enough to feel insane.
09:06And always just me.
09:08Matt and the others never saw it again.
09:11Once, I was walking home from tutoring when the streetlights cut out.
09:15One by one, they popped into darkness.
09:20I stood frozen as the road dimmed around me.
09:23In the final pool of light before total blackness, I saw it again.
09:29Just standing there.
09:31Waiting.
09:32I turned and ran until my chest burned, my heart rattling like it might break my ribs.
09:39I didn't stop until I was on my porch.
09:42Keys shaking in my hands.
09:44I tried to tell my mum once.
09:47She listened quietly, then asked if I'd been sleeping okay.
09:51I lied.
09:52She nodded and made me hot tea.
09:55I never brought it up again.
09:57Now, a year and a half later, I avoid that path entirely.
10:02I walk the long way home.
10:04I keep every light on.
10:06And I never, ever stop to listen to laughter.
10:09But even now, as I write this, I feel it.
10:15Watching.
10:16I saw something I shouldn't have.
10:18We all did.
10:20But I kept looking.
10:22And I think it is like that.
10:24Whatever it is, it's not done with me yet.
10:27But I can't do it.
10:28But I think it is like the last one, it's done with me yet.
10:28I have a love of me yet.
10:29But I'm not.
10:30But I'm not looking at it.
10:31But I'm not going to jump through it.
10:32Is it that too late?
10:33I am not doing it.
10:33The great time of the moment.
10:34I have a love of you.
10:35I 어� Quite.
10:35Bullshit.
10:36Does that mean for me so?
10:37I watch.
10:38That's true.
10:38Oh, yeah.
10:39Let me see.
10:39We allot.
10:40We allot get in.
10:41If I'm both so many then too.
10:41I haven't seen anything at this.
10:42This one is not good.
10:44I love to see you.
10:45I love to see.
10:46You know, how are you?