The man in the laundry room

Nightfall Crypt

She grew up believing a terrifying older man lived in her house. He locked her in rooms, tormented her brother, and seemed like part of the family—until her mother claimed he never existed. Decades later, the chilling truth about their home’s former owner surfaced... and nothing has felt safe since.

Transcript

00:00Don't remember a time when the older man wasn't in our house.

00:04He wasn't a family member, but he might as well have been.

00:08I was born into that space.

00:11Creaking floorboards, cigarette-stained ceilings, and this constant, slow presence that drifted

00:17through the walls like the scent of mothballs and mold.

00:21He lived in the downstairs bedroom, just past the narrow kitchen, and beneath the rest of

00:26us like a root gone rotten beneath a tree.

00:30He was so thin he looked hollowed out, like an overused scarecrow with joints that cracked

00:35every time he moved.

00:37He wore brown slacks, stained in odd patches, and these big square glasses from the seventies

00:43that made his eyes look bug-like and blank.

00:47My earliest memory is him standing at the bottom of the stairs, glaring at me like I'd done

00:52something wrong just for existing.

00:55His presence was unsettling, his gaze piercing, and his silence deafening.

01:01When I asked my parents about him, when I asked why he was so mean, they just brushed it off.

01:08What old man?

01:09What old man?

01:10My mom would say, as if I were asking about a ghost on the television.

01:15My dad never answered at all.

01:17Every room in that house had a lock.

01:20On the outside of the door.

01:23Even the closets.

01:25Especially the closets.

01:26I thought all houses were like that.

01:30I thought everyone grew up getting locked in for being too loud, crying too much, or simply

01:36being in the wrong place when the older man was pacing the hall.

01:40The locks were not just physical barriers, but also symbols of the isolation and fear that

01:46permeated our home.

01:49He'd lock me in the bathroom sometimes, or the downstairs coat closet where it smelled

01:54like vinegar and wet wool.

01:56Once he pushed me into the tiny pantry and turned the key.

02:01The shelves were so close I couldn't sit down without knocking over cans, and I had to pee

02:06so badly I cried until I passed out.

02:10But the worst was the laundry room.

02:13My dad had added it on when I was little, converting part of the garage and building it out himself.

02:20It had no windows, just a heavy wooden door, and a single bulb that I couldn't reach.

02:26I was five when the older man shoved me in there and turned the lock.

02:30He didn't speak.

02:32He never did.

02:34But I felt the way he stood there on the other side.

02:37Waiting.

02:39Listening.

02:41It was pitch black, and the air was thick with the smell of detergent, metal, and something

02:47sourer, like rotting cloth.

02:51I screamed until I went hoarse, until my tiny fists hurt from pounding on the door.

02:57Then I sat in the dark and cried until I started to see shapes moving in the corners.

03:04I remember hearing breathing that didn't match my own.

03:08When my mom finally found me, hours later, I was curled in a ball between the dryer and

03:13the wall, whispering to myself.

03:16She shook me, terrified.

03:18Who locked you in here?

03:21She asked.

03:23I said, the old man.

03:27Why do you let him live here?

03:30Her face changed.

03:31Not angry.

03:32Not confused.

03:34Just blank.

03:37What old man?

03:39She asked.

03:40I didn't speak much after that.

03:43Years passed.

03:45I learned how to avoid him.

03:47I learned not to go near the hallway after dark.

03:50Not to leave my bedroom door open.

03:52And never to say his name.

03:54Not that he had one.

03:56To me, he was always just, the man.

04:00My little brother came along when I was seven, and he saw him too.

04:05He used to say that the man would stand in his doorway at night and watch, sometimes twisting

04:10the doorknob slowly, as if he were deciding whether to come in.

04:14His presence was always accompanied by a chilling silence.

04:18A silence that spoke volumes of the fear he instilled in us.

04:23One night, when my brother was about four years old, he wet the bed.

04:29I was old enough to babysit by then.

04:32I took him to the bathroom, helped him change his clothes, and put the sheets in the laundry.

04:38He was still sobbing.

04:41He told me not to move.

04:43My brother whispered.

04:45He said if I moved, he'd lock me in.

04:49We didn't tell our parents.

04:51We didn't tell anyone.

04:53Because we'd both learned no one else saw him.

04:57We were alone in our fear.

04:58Isolated from the rest of the world by the man who haunted our home.

05:04Then something changed.

05:06My dad got sick.

05:07Lung cancer.

05:09He wasted away in the upstairs bedroom for months.

05:12And during that time, the older man vanished.

05:15We didn't see him.

05:17We didn't hear him.

05:19The locks gathered dust.

05:21It was as if he had never existed, or as if he was waiting for something, biding his time

05:27until he could return.

05:29After my dad died, my mom couldn't afford to keep the house.

05:34We moved out when I was fifteen.

05:36The loss of my father was a heavy burden.

05:39And the thought of leaving the only home I had known was equally daunting.

05:44I remember standing in the empty laundry room before we left.

05:48The door was open.

05:49The light was on.

05:52But it still felt dark.

05:54The walls still felt too close.

05:57And I could swear I heard something shift behind the dryer.

06:00I asked her again that day.

06:03Just one more time.

06:06Who put locks on all the doors, Mom?

06:09She didn't answer.

06:10But she didn't look surprised.

06:13I didn't learn the truth until I was twenty-nine.

06:17I was talking with an old neighbor at a garage sale.

06:20She was a sweet woman who used to bake us cookies when we were kids.

06:24When I mentioned the address of the house, her eyes widened in surprise.

06:31She leaned in close, as if she was about to share a secret that would change everything.

06:36Oh, she said.

06:40That place?

06:42You know someone died there, right?

06:44Before your family moved in?

06:47My stomach dropped.

06:49Who?

06:50I asked.

06:52She leaned in close, like she was sharing a secret.

06:55A man.

06:57Lived alone down in the basement bedroom.

06:59Died in his sleep, or so they said.

07:02But he was… troubled.

07:04The police had files on him.

07:06They found things in his closet.

07:09Said he was into bad stuff.

07:11Real bad.

07:14Like what?

07:15I whispered.

07:17Her voice dropped lower.

07:20Children.

07:22I left without buying anything.

07:25I drove to the nearest rest stop and sat in my car until the sun set.

07:29I remember looking in the rearview mirror and seeing the backseat empty and still feeling

07:34like I wasn't alone.

07:36That night, I dreamed of the laundry room.

07:40Except I was older in the dream.

07:42I was back in that darkness, the smell of rot thick in my nose.

07:47The door slammed shut behind me, and I turned to scream.

07:51But there was no sound.

07:52Just him.

07:54Standing there, glasses catching the faint light.

07:59His mouth slowly opened like he was finally going to speak.

08:03And when I woke up, I had wet the bed for the first time since I was a child.

08:09I didn't go back to sleep.

08:12Instead, I sat on the edge of my bed, watching the doorway, waiting for a shadow that never

08:17came.

08:18But the feeling, like my lungs were full of ice water, never left.

08:25A week later, I went back to the old neighborhood.

08:28The house had new siding and a fresh paint job, but its bones remained the same.

08:34I parked across the street and just stared, heart racing, throat dry.

08:41That's when I noticed the basement window.

08:44The glass was smeared from the inside, as if someone had been touching it.

08:49Watching.

08:51Now years later, I have a daughter of my own.

08:55We live far away.

08:57A new house, new locks.

09:01I don't keep anything on the outside.

09:05But sometimes, when the lights are off and I pass the laundry room, I feel it again.

09:12That cold.

09:13That smell.

09:16That stare.

09:17And I check the doorknob, to make sure it still turns from the inside.

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