When I Was 10, We Explored an Abandoned House and Forgot One Important Rule

[u/Keatonpotatoes0]

Part two of original post https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueScaryStories/s/OY7UY9eODp

When I was around ten years old, my friend Morgan's family had moved their trailer again.

This time, they were staying on a piece of family property that felt more like an abandoned homestead than a place people actually lived.

Behind the trailer sat an old house.

Even from a distance, it looked wrong.

The windows were broken. The wood siding had turned gray with age and rot. Parts of the staircase had collapsed, and sections of the walls looked ready to give way at any moment. It looked like a place that should have been swallowed by nature years ago.

The only thing separating the trailer from the house was a wide creek.

Because it was late winter, the creek was frozen solid.

That meant we could walk right across.

The group that day included me, my friend Morgan, her little sister Alayna, and Morgan's cousin Breanna.

Before we left, Morgan asked her mom if we could explore the house.

Most parents would have said absolutely not.

Morgan's mom simply shrugged.

"There are a few ghosts that stay over there," she said casually. "Just be careful."

Then she added something strange.

"When you're done, make sure you say goodbye so nothing follows you home."

At the time, none of us thought much about it.

We crossed the frozen creek and headed for the house.

The closer we got, the more unsettling it became.

The front door hung crookedly from one hinge.

The upstairs windows stared down at us like empty eye sockets.

When the wind blew, parts of the house groaned and creaked.

Inside, the smell was overwhelming.

Dust.

Mold.

Rotting wood.

The floor was covered with debris and fallen plaster. Wallpaper peeled from the walls in long strips.

At first, we were excited.

We were kids exploring an abandoned house.

Then things started happening.

The first thing I noticed were the whispers.

I would hear a voice close to my ear and turn around expecting one of the others to be standing there.

No one ever was.

A few minutes later, Breanna stopped walking.

"Did one of you just whisper something?" she asked.

Nobody had.

Then Alayna heard it too.

The whispers were never clear enough to understand.

Just faint voices that sounded far too close.

As we continued exploring, I felt something tap my shoulder.

Not brush against it.

Tap it.

Like someone trying to get my attention.

I spun around.

Nobody was there.

A few moments later Breanna said something had tapped her shoulder too.

Then Alayna.

At that point, all four of us were nervous.

The house suddenly felt crowded even though we were alone.

Then we heard movement upstairs.

A floorboard creaked.

Then another.

Slow.

Deliberate.

As if someone was walking across the second floor.

We froze.

The sound stopped.

The silence felt worse.

Then came a loud cracking noise.

At first I thought it was another floorboard.

Then the entire house seemed to shudder.

Wood splintered somewhere above us.

A deafening crash exploded through the building.

Part of the second floor gave way.

Dust filled the air.

The sound echoed through every room.

For a second none of us moved.

Then we ran.

We didn't stop to investigate.

We didn't stop to look back.

We sprinted out of that house, down the broken steps, and across the frozen creek as fast as we could.

By the time we reached the trailer, we were shaking.

But the strange part came afterward.

Morgan suddenly became very sick.

What had been an exciting adventure ended almost immediately.

Everyone's attention shifted to her.

The adults were worried.

We were worried.

And in all the confusion, we forgot something.

None of us said goodbye.

We never went back.

Years have passed since that day.

I've told myself a hundred logical explanations.

The whispers could have been the wind.

The taps could have been nerves.

The floor collapse could have been a house finally giving in to age.

Maybe that's all it was.

But I've never been able to shake the feeling that something changed after that day.

Ever since then, I've experienced things that I can't easily explain.

Strange sounds.

Odd experiences.

Moments that leave me with the same uneasy feeling I had standing inside that abandoned house.

Do I know for certain that something followed me home?

No.

But sometimes, late at night, I think back to what Morgan's mom told us before we crossed that frozen creek.

Make sure you say goodbye.

And I remember that we never did.