This woman was surprised to discover her father left her a house in her inheritance. The house in question was the family’s forgotten home and had been abandoned for many years. She visited the house and turned pale when she found someone inside, but that would just be one of the first surprises.
Becca didn’t get much time to deal with her father’s sudden death. She had been his only family left, so she was the one tasked with organizing the funeral and handling all other arrangements. When that was finally over, she received an invite from the notary for the will reading, and she got the surprise of a lifetime: her father had left her a house.
Becca left the notary’s office with mixed feelings. The unexpected inheritance made her confused but also very curious. What would the house look like? Dusk was already falling when Becca arrived at the address. She was surprised to find a huge driveway with a garden leading up to the house, but as the giant house came into view, her body tensed up. There was a light on inside.
Becca stared at it in confusion. What was going on? The more Becca looked at it, the more confusing the situation became. The house was abandoned long ago, and Becca could see it was boarded up. Without thinking, she moved to the door and pulled it open. The door opened with a creak, and Becca stepped inside just in time to see someone exit through the back door. It was just a split second, so Becca could only see a vague outline of a lanky person. But the fact that she saw someone leave her house caused her to turn pale from shock.
The silence had returned as Becca was now alone in the house. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down. “Well, let’s see what this house is about,” Becca said as she started to look around. The house had been abandoned long ago. Becca could still see the beauty of what it once was, and she fell in love with the place. It needed a lot of work, but Becca knew it was worth it and decided to renovate.
Sometimes when she was renovating or just walking around, Becca could swear she heard whispers or a muffled voice. The first time, she shrugged it off, but it kept happening. Eventually, her mind returned to the first time she entered this home and saw a homeless person. Was that person still around?
One night, Becca was rudely awakened by a loud scraping sound. Her body was tensed up from fright, and she stayed awake for the remainder of the night. That moment was the last straw for Becca, and she decided to hang up some cameras to see what was happening in this house. The more she checked the camera feed and saw nothing, the easier it became to ignore the sounds. This was why it took so long to realize that the sounds had suddenly stopped.
When she started renovating the remaining chambers, the rooms had very different and strange proportions compared to others in the house. But that wasn’t the weirdest thing—there was a door hidden behind a closet. The strange proportions of the rooms and the hidden door confused Becca but also made her very curious. She grabbed the schematics of the house and, when she took a closer look, noticed these chambers weren’t supposed to be like this and that the door wasn’t originally there either. So she gathered her courage and pulled the door open, both curious and anxious to see what was behind it.
Eventually, the door opened with a creak. Becca froze as she realized the door sounded exactly like the sound she woke up from. The only light source was a window on the other side, but she didn’t know there was a window there. Becca moved the vegetation aside, and more light entered the room. Now she could finally see what it was about in search of some answers. The moment she turned around, her eyes widened in disbelief.
There was a big closet and multiple couches, but her eyes darted around the room at the things lying on top of the couches and the floor. There were sleeping bags and leftover food and packaging. Becca felt a shiver go down her spine as she looked at everything in the room, and her thoughts returned to the first moment she set foot inside this house. Had that person really never gone? The worrying thoughts ran through Becca’s head, and all of a sudden, all the sounds she had heard since moving in started to make sense. It wasn’t mice or voices inside her own head. There had been someone in her house all along.
Becca’s heart pounded in her chest, and she suddenly felt very hot. She had to get out of this room as fast as possible, close it off, and get someone to help her immediately. But as Becca hurriedly made her way to the door, she accidentally bumped into the closet. Then she heard something that caused her to back off immediately. Becca stared at the closet, but it remained inanimate. There was no sound to be heard or movement to be seen. Becca held her breath as she took out her phone and entered the alarm number. Then she took a breath and shouted, “Show yourself, or I will call the police!”
Her words echoed through the room, but when they faded away, a silence followed. Becca didn’t want to wait long and put her words into action. She pressed the call button on her phone and put her phone on speaker so the person in the closet could hear the operator answer.
“What’s the emergency?” the operator’s voice sounded out of the phone. Becca opened her mouth to answer, but the closet door sprung open right then, and a figure emerged from inside. Becca’s heart skipped a beat due to the sudden movement, and she stared at the person with a surprised expression.
“Please hang up,” the girl that just exited the closet begged. She folded her hands in front of her face and looked very anxious. Becca could only stare at the 20ish-year-old girl. This was the last thing she had expected, but things got even more confusing.
“We don’t want any trouble,” the girl said. Before Becca could fully process what the girl had said, four more kids, all around the same age as the girl, appeared from the closet. Becca stared at the five kids with astonishment. They looked very anxious and didn’t look very well-kept. Becca felt very confused and had a slight concern. What was going on? It all happened quickly, and Becca was still on the phone with the operator.
“Hello? Tell me what’s going on,” the operator said. But Becca looked at the group before her and knew what to do. She decided to listen to the girl’s plea and hung up the phone. She wanted to hear them out.
“What’s going on? Who are you? What are you doing here?” she demanded in a strict tone. The girl who appeared first stepped forward and thanked Becca for hanging up and immediately continued with an apology.
“My name is Christine, and we’re very sorry,” the girl said. Becca gestured for her to continue. Christine then went on to explain that every one of them had been in the foster system but had never been adopted. After turning 18, they were forced out and had been on their own ever since. Becca realized these kids had nothing wrong in mind and just wanted shelter. Christine repeated that they were sorry every other sentence.
“We didn’t want to harass you or scare you. We’re sorry, but since you live here, our life is much better,” she said. Becca frowned when she heard that. “What do you mean?”
“There was heat and easy access to food, but we didn’t take much from you,” Christine quickly added after Becca frowned again. The girl carefully walked toward the window and said they would leave through there to get food from outside. Slowly, everything dawned on Becca as she realized these kids made all the shuffling and talking noises.
“We’re very sorry,” the kids said together. Becca looked at the bunch. They looked nervous and shameful and seemed to really mean the apology. Their story was unbelievable, and Becca felt incredibly bad for them. The more she looked at them, the more she wanted to help, and she knew just the thing. The house was way too big for her, and she didn’t have a plan for the remaining rooms that needed renovating. She offered them a deal: if they helped renovate, they could stay in her house until they got their lives back on track. Before they knew it, they had grown into a tight family.
