Open House

[00:00:00] Welcome to Scary Story Podcast.

[00:00:03] Desperate times call for desperate measures, they say.

[00:00:07] But how far would you go to make ends meet?

[00:00:11] My name is Edwin, and here's a scary story.

[00:00:20] I know a lot of this might be true for many of us nowadays, but what happened to me when

[00:00:25] I first moved here was sort of a similar scenario.

[00:00:28] Things had gotten expensive.

[00:00:30] I think only two of my friends actually had stable jobs.

[00:00:33] Even they were worried that they would lose them at any moment.

[00:00:36] I used to work in sales, like a calling center, but more on the customer service side of things,

[00:00:42] and had even moved up in the ranks to become shift leader at the company.

[00:00:46] But that job was long lost after everything went down.

[00:00:50] Suddenly people weren't signing up for additional cable services anymore.

[00:00:53] It was my friend Miriam who first told me about it.

[00:00:57] She had been making some money by working at one of the rich neighborhoods in the

[00:01:00] area, along with her husband who both did yard work, pool maintenance and cleaning services.

[00:01:06] My husband at the time was worried for me, thinking it was risky to go by myself into

[00:01:10] houses of people with strange habits.

[00:01:14] Rich people are into weird things he would say.

[00:01:17] At the time we still used calling cards, and the way we would keep in touch was

[00:01:20] to check in during lunchtime through public telephones and by borrowing phones from

[00:01:24] wherever we were.

[00:01:26] I had just learned how to drive, and my license was still stuck on the piece of paper that

[00:01:30] was mailed to me.

[00:01:32] The car we shared was in and out of the shop all the time but we had gotten a good streak

[00:01:36] of luck and nothing had gone wrong in a while.

[00:01:39] I remember avoiding thinking about it to hopefully keep it that way.

[00:01:44] It was a good idea though.

[00:01:45] I could make flyers, post them up by their schools and parks and maybe get some

[00:01:49] customers that way.

[00:01:50] Soon, I would have no other option but to try it out.

[00:01:55] My husband came home from work one day, upset over something that had happened at

[00:01:58] work.

[00:02:00] He initially said that he had been asked to take a couple of weeks off while the

[00:02:03] company got itself together.

[00:02:04] But we both knew that it was over and then he would have to find a new place

[00:02:08] to work.

[00:02:11] When I think about it now, I see just how bad the situation had gotten.

[00:02:15] We were counting the number of things in the refrigerator, shopping with only

[00:02:19] coupons and with the 99 cent stores in order to get what we needed.

[00:02:24] Your family would never be able to start this way.

[00:02:26] We needed to make something work already.

[00:02:30] That same night I wrote out my information on pieces of notebook paper

[00:02:33] with a sharpie and walked toward the houses by the nice neighborhoods.

[00:02:38] I felt odd taping it to the perfectly clean light posts but I had no other choice.

[00:02:44] I kept walking and for another hour I went through most of the area posting

[00:02:47] my flyers until I ran out.

[00:02:51] I went home making sure that the volume of the phone was up and that I'd be able

[00:02:54] to hear it in case anyone called.

[00:02:57] But at least for that night, nobody did.

[00:03:02] Maybe I could sell things.

[00:03:03] A food license wasn't too expensive.

[00:03:06] Sandwiches, breakfast burritos or fruit bowls.

[00:03:11] For several days my husband would go out early in the morning to ask for work

[00:03:15] and I would start walking around their houses in the neighborhood

[00:03:18] to ask if they wanted cleaning services.

[00:03:21] Some were clearly not interested and others just didn't answer.

[00:03:26] I told my husband about going slightly higher up the hills to leave some flyers.

[00:03:31] He wasn't too happy about that but knew that we both needed to sacrifice something.

[00:03:36] Otherwise a landlord would kick us out.

[00:03:39] We had already fallen behind the month before.

[00:03:42] The area was very nice as expected.

[00:03:46] There were hardly any people walking around a very beautiful park.

[00:03:50] I parked the car and grabbed a roll of tape and then started walking

[00:03:54] toward the area where the benches were.

[00:03:56] When I spotted a short woman holding a bunch of balloons,

[00:04:00] it looked like she was struggling, dragging a large wooden sign across the street.

[00:04:04] Her high heels clacking against the perfectly dark asphalt.

[00:04:09] She looked at me, smiled and shouted,

[00:04:12] someone has to have the money for a house right?

[00:04:14] Letting out a sudden nervous laugh hoping that I would get the joke.

[00:04:18] Everyone needed help.

[00:04:21] I walked over to her offering to help with the sign.

[00:04:23] It was for an open house just down the street.

[00:04:27] Or someone just needs the money, I replied,

[00:04:30] without realizing how snarky I sounded, saying it out loud.

[00:04:34] She started laughing loudly right there in the middle of the street,

[00:04:37] nearly dropping her side of the sign while I helped with the other.

[00:04:41] We made it across the street and she opened up the sign.

[00:04:44] The balloons had been saved all along,

[00:04:46] tied securely to the hinge of the stand her sign was on.

[00:04:51] There's our glance over at my flyers whispering,

[00:04:54] cleaning services and her eyes lit up.

[00:04:58] You clean houses?

[00:05:00] Can you deep clean also?

[00:05:02] We can rent machines if you don't have them, she asked in a rush.

[00:05:06] I think she could tell that I was new at this.

[00:05:09] Yes, I cleaned.

[00:05:11] What do I do?

[00:05:13] My voice was following her quick pacing.

[00:05:16] She told me about the house she was doing the open house for,

[00:05:19] that the owners were confident they were going to be able to find

[00:05:22] a buyer in one day.

[00:05:24] And they were very serious in saying so,

[00:05:27] and that they needed to sell as soon as possible

[00:05:29] due to them needing the money for another place out of state.

[00:05:34] The open house is tomorrow and they need someone

[00:05:36] cleaning in there tonight.

[00:05:38] They had found two people but they both left

[00:05:40] and the other person they hired never showed up.

[00:05:43] I think the guys creeped them out.

[00:05:46] Oh, here was the thing again.

[00:05:48] My husband always talked about rich people

[00:05:50] and their strange habits.

[00:05:52] What had they done in there?

[00:05:53] That was my first question.

[00:05:56] The woman was about to keep explaining but I cut her off.

[00:05:58] Yes, I'll do it, I interrupted.

[00:06:02] We got to talking a bit before walking over to her car.

[00:06:05] I told her about the things that I had

[00:06:07] and she gave me a list of what I needed.

[00:06:10] Saying that we could go rent everything now

[00:06:12] at a nearby hardware store and bring it back to my car.

[00:06:15] Basically a high powered vacuum,

[00:06:17] floor cleaner and stain removers.

[00:06:19] I'd never used a floor cleaning machine but I agreed.

[00:06:23] This woman had come out of nowhere.

[00:06:25] Andrea was her name and just as I was thinking it

[00:06:28] she turned over to me and said,

[00:06:30] geez am I glad I ran into you here?

[00:06:33] I was about to do the cleaning myself.

[00:06:35] I mean they're the ones paying.

[00:06:38] They say how much they're paying?

[00:06:40] $1,500 and they're paying for the equipment,

[00:06:43] gas and disposal.

[00:06:44] You just have to load up the trash and take it to them.

[00:06:48] Honestly I couldn't believe it.

[00:06:50] That was almost twice the money I needed for two months.

[00:06:53] Things were different of course, much cheaper

[00:06:56] but still there's a lot of money back then.

[00:06:59] They need their trash?

[00:07:01] I asked.

[00:07:02] Andrea told me that the owners

[00:07:04] hadn't gotten the chance to go through everything yet.

[00:07:07] That their trash disposal services were cut off already

[00:07:10] so they wanted to sort everything out on their own.

[00:07:13] But the instructions were clear.

[00:07:15] Put everything in the trash bags when I was done,

[00:07:18] leave them by a place off of Travenita Street

[00:07:20] and go home.

[00:07:21] She said that some of the work had already been done

[00:07:24] and that all I would have to do was load up everything

[00:07:27] and the money would be in the mailbox.

[00:07:30] And so we got to the hardware store.

[00:07:32] A pay phone was by the entrance

[00:07:33] so I told Andrea I had to make a call

[00:07:35] and that I would find her inside.

[00:07:38] But she insisted on waiting for me outside

[00:07:40] and I made it quick.

[00:07:41] I called my husband who was at home already,

[00:07:43] 4 p.m. by this point.

[00:07:45] And I told him that I had found a one-off job

[00:07:48] and that it would take me a while.

[00:07:49] That I would call him back with the address.

[00:07:53] The machine was small, although heavy.

[00:07:55] The vacuum cleaner was just a regular one

[00:07:58] the one with the red bucket

[00:07:59] that would be used for wet surfaces and stuff.

[00:08:01] We got some cleaning chemicals, brushes and gloves

[00:08:04] and hopped back in her car.

[00:08:07] I'd never met anyone like Andrea,

[00:08:09] so organized and chaotic at the same time.

[00:08:13] Her car had a trash can, smelled like lemon

[00:08:15] and it was perfectly shiny from the outside.

[00:08:18] But her key chain had a thousand keys

[00:08:21] and she would drive without one of her shoes.

[00:08:24] Retouching her makeup every time we ended up

[00:08:26] at a stop light in a rush.

[00:08:28] There were two or three KitKat rappers

[00:08:30] on the cup holders.

[00:08:32] Now, she said, their house has four rooms in a basement.

[00:08:36] They really need to get everything ready tonight.

[00:08:39] All the furniture stays, just make sure it's clean.

[00:08:42] We have four potential buyers showing up early tomorrow.

[00:08:45] I'm counting on you, she said.

[00:08:47] Hopeful that everything would work out.

[00:08:50] I didn't think it would be such a difficult thing.

[00:08:53] I had already gotten as much information

[00:08:54] as possible about the place.

[00:08:57] I was following her car with mine.

[00:08:59] I'll load it up around the neighborhood

[00:09:01] toward the house when I saw it.

[00:09:04] It looked brand new, a large front yard,

[00:09:07] plants everywhere.

[00:09:10] But there was something strange about it.

[00:09:12] When Andrea left and my car was the only one

[00:09:14] on the property, I felt trapped.

[00:09:19] She had left me with her business card

[00:09:21] saying that their phone line was still active

[00:09:23] in case I needed to get in touch

[00:09:25] but that I would be fine.

[00:09:27] The large walls around the property

[00:09:29] seemed to be closing in on me.

[00:09:31] It felt hard to leave.

[00:09:34] I meant that literally,

[00:09:35] although I knew that I couldn't leave now.

[00:09:39] The sun was about to set just as I entered the front door.

[00:09:44] I thought I would be alone.

[00:09:52] Part two of Open House continues right after this.

[00:09:56] Stay with me.

[00:10:02] I stepped into the living room.

[00:10:04] The furniture there had already been set up.

[00:10:07] I had been placed there by Andrea

[00:10:08] to make it look nice for the Open House visitors.

[00:10:12] The instructions were to clean up the master bedroom,

[00:10:14] the basement, bathrooms and kitchen.

[00:10:18] I started right away

[00:10:19] and I didn't wanna be there past midnight.

[00:10:21] The kitchen looked simple enough,

[00:10:23] bright white walls and nothing on it

[00:10:25] but a large black trash bag by the refrigerator.

[00:10:29] I didn't know what I was supposed to clean.

[00:10:31] The counters were shiny

[00:10:32] and the refrigerator had Diet Coke

[00:10:34] and water bottles on the top shelf

[00:10:36] or instance juice at the bottom.

[00:10:38] Still, I went back to the car

[00:10:40] to get the remaining cleaning supplies

[00:10:41] and came back with my bucket and mop.

[00:10:45] Everything was wiped clean.

[00:10:47] The floor was drying up

[00:10:48] and I worked my way up toward the master bedroom

[00:10:51] with the vacuum, the spray bottles and the broom.

[00:10:55] Again, the room was clean.

[00:10:58] I started to worry a little bit then.

[00:11:01] What if they realized

[00:11:02] that someone else had already done the job

[00:11:04] and refused to pay me?

[00:11:06] I walked into the bathroom.

[00:11:09] It was clean, not a single hair on the sink.

[00:11:12] The mirror was streak free

[00:11:14] and bright against the white lights

[00:11:16] coming in through the main room.

[00:11:19] It took out the cover and bed sheets to redo the bed.

[00:11:23] Clean, fresh blankets,

[00:11:26] still smelling like laundry detergent,

[00:11:28] bright white tightly wrapped around

[00:11:30] the mattress of the bed.

[00:11:32] Evacuumed anyway.

[00:11:34] Some people can tell if a place was cleaned

[00:11:36] by the streaks left behind by the vacuum.

[00:11:39] With that, I turned off the lights to the bedroom

[00:11:41] and was walking down the hallway.

[00:11:44] When I heard something move from downstairs,

[00:11:48] I stood there frozen.

[00:11:50] This had been a trap.

[00:11:52] I thought of all the shows on television

[00:11:54] about tragic stories that all started just like this.

[00:11:58] I couldn't move.

[00:12:00] And for two solid minutes,

[00:12:02] I stood there nearly holding my breath the whole time

[00:12:05] as I waited to hear something else.

[00:12:08] Nothing happened.

[00:12:11] It must have all been in my mind.

[00:12:14] And so I walked downstairs, looked at the bathrooms,

[00:12:17] sparkling clean.

[00:12:20] I don't know what it is

[00:12:21] and I still have it many years later.

[00:12:23] That sense telling me that something's not right

[00:12:26] when everything appears to be.

[00:12:29] I stepped back toward the living room

[00:12:31] and looked at the place.

[00:12:32] No dust, no smells, no movement.

[00:12:37] I looked at the piece of paper Andrea had given me.

[00:12:39] The basement was the only thing left to clean.

[00:12:43] At the time, I felt relief knowing that I would step in there

[00:12:45] and see that nothing was left to do.

[00:12:48] That I would just have to kill time somehow.

[00:12:50] Just grab that trash bag from the kitchen and leave.

[00:12:54] If I called my husband now, he would worry.

[00:12:57] Make a big deal out of this

[00:12:58] and we would be back at square one.

[00:13:01] That's when I heard another sound.

[00:13:04] This time it was coming from the basement.

[00:13:08] It was dark out now.

[00:13:09] The lights from the hallway were off.

[00:13:11] A place that was so long that the end of it simply vanished.

[00:13:16] The door was somewhere along the way

[00:13:18] and I needed to get there

[00:13:19] to at least check for what I needed to get done in there.

[00:13:23] I talked to myself a little bit, pumping myself up

[00:13:26] to walk there, open the door and look at everything.

[00:13:30] I took a deep breath and walked over quickly,

[00:13:32] opened up the door, looked on the light and stepped down.

[00:13:36] Boxes, broken bottles and a dark stain on the floor

[00:13:40] and on the east wall.

[00:13:42] A long trash bag was at the base of the stairs,

[00:13:44] blocking the entrance.

[00:13:47] I stepped back up to grab everything

[00:13:49] and just get ready to go to work.

[00:13:52] It was tough but I did it.

[00:13:55] The stains were gone, the floor was mopped,

[00:13:57] the chairs and counters wiped clean

[00:13:59] and all the trash was collected

[00:14:01] in a separate trash bag by the east wall.

[00:14:04] It wasn't too bright in there

[00:14:05] but I could tell that the place was clean.

[00:14:09] But as they stood there, I heard it again.

[00:14:13] A soft grunt coming from somewhere in the basement.

[00:14:19] I tried not to pay attention to it.

[00:14:21] The house was basically on a large field in the hills.

[00:14:24] So of course there would be animals out there, right?

[00:14:27] I just wanted to get out.

[00:14:30] I grabbed my things and walked everything upstairs

[00:14:33] in three trips, grabbing two of the boxes,

[00:14:35] stuffing them into the trash bags

[00:14:37] along with the paper towels and shards of glass

[00:14:39] mixed with dust gathered on the dustpan.

[00:14:42] I just hopped over the trash bag

[00:14:44] at the base of the stairs the first few times.

[00:14:47] I put everything by the front door

[00:14:48] and then rushed back down the hallway.

[00:14:51] I grabbed the black trash bag long

[00:14:54] like a rolled up rug and tugged on it.

[00:14:58] But it moved.

[00:15:00] I could feel it squirm.

[00:15:01] The whole thing.

[00:15:02] I screamed and ran upstairs pacing around the hallway

[00:15:05] before deciding to call Andrea

[00:15:07] from the phone in the living room.

[00:15:09] Hello, she answered.

[00:15:11] Hi Andrea, it's me from the cleaning service.

[00:15:14] Oh great, you're done?

[00:15:16] She asked.

[00:15:17] Pretty much yeah, I'm just taking out the trash

[00:15:20] and great, that's what they wanted.

[00:15:22] Just take it out and we're good to go.

[00:15:24] She was in a rush again.

[00:15:27] I think there's something and she hung up.

[00:15:32] I needed to get the bag out,

[00:15:33] get my money and forget about the place.

[00:15:35] And so I ran to the basement and tugged at the bag

[00:15:38] with all my strength and made it up three steps.

[00:15:41] I could feel it squirming like a giant snake.

[00:15:44] My arms were weak by this point

[00:15:46] but I grabbed the bag again and pulled.

[00:15:49] I didn't need to lift it up anymore.

[00:15:50] I could just drag it up the stairs.

[00:15:53] Four, five, six more steps and I was almost at the top.

[00:15:57] With sweat rolling down my forehead now

[00:15:59] I managed to get it past the door frame.

[00:16:02] I looked down at the basement,

[00:16:03] everything cleared out by this point.

[00:16:06] Then it turned off the light.

[00:16:09] I brought everything through the front porch

[00:16:11] and after shutting everything off

[00:16:13] by the kitchen light as requested,

[00:16:15] I shut the door and stood there in that dark deck.

[00:16:20] My car was as close as possible to that front door

[00:16:23] so I started loading everything up

[00:16:25] and soon the trunk of that station wagon was packed.

[00:16:29] And all that was left was that strange dark bag.

[00:16:33] I pulled it down the steps and threw it on the back seat,

[00:16:35] stopping to take a breath

[00:16:36] and look at the directions Andrea had written for me

[00:16:39] about the place where to drop off the trash.

[00:16:42] Highway 17 exit 12, right on Trevenita Street,

[00:16:46] fourth house with the trash container on the side.

[00:16:51] I looked at the rear-view mirror,

[00:16:52] the things in the back of the car

[00:16:54] completely blocking the headlights

[00:16:55] from the few cars that were out on the road that night.

[00:16:59] And that's when I heard it,

[00:17:01] a grunt clearly coming from the back seat.

[00:17:06] My eyes widened as I tried to figure out

[00:17:08] what I was seeing in the black bag.

[00:17:10] It appeared to be moving, but I couldn't tell.

[00:17:15] The sounds were becoming louder

[00:17:16] and I was becoming even more nervous.

[00:17:19] My hands shaking against the steering wheel.

[00:17:22] I moved to the right lane

[00:17:23] and put my blinkers on for an exit at a gas station

[00:17:26] and I rushed out.

[00:17:27] Without shutting off the car,

[00:17:28] I stepped out to call Andrea from the pay phone by the door.

[00:17:33] Hello, she answered, are you done?

[00:17:36] She knew it was me.

[00:17:39] Andrea, there's something strange going on.

[00:17:41] Something's moving in one of the bags.

[00:17:43] I can hear something in there.

[00:17:44] Hey, she interrupted her tone changing completely.

[00:17:49] We're paying you to do something easy.

[00:17:51] It was easy, right?

[00:17:53] Yes, I answered.

[00:17:55] Listen, just drop everything off, get your money and that's it.

[00:18:00] She hung up.

[00:18:03] And so I drove for almost 15 minutes,

[00:18:05] looking behind me when I'd hear the bag move.

[00:18:09] I don't know how I managed,

[00:18:10] but finally I pulled up to the place.

[00:18:12] It was easy to find.

[00:18:14] Most houses there were empty.

[00:18:15] There were four sail signs on the front

[00:18:18] and no cars were on the street.

[00:18:21] The trash container was open.

[00:18:22] I just took out the trash bags from the trunk,

[00:18:24] dumped them in and soon

[00:18:26] all that was left was that long black bag from the back seat.

[00:18:30] I grabbed it, managed to get it to lean against the bin,

[00:18:33] lifted it and then heard a grunt that stopped

[00:18:36] when it hit the other things inside.

[00:18:39] I walked up to the porch

[00:18:40] and opened up the black mailbox on the wall

[00:18:42] by the front door and grabbed an envelope.

[00:18:46] I ran back to the car and opened it up.

[00:18:49] All $20 bills, even more than I was expecting.

[00:18:53] $1,700 in total.

[00:18:57] After dropping off the machine and vacuum,

[00:18:59] I got home exhausted

[00:19:00] and I told my husband about the house I had to clean

[00:19:03] without going into detail.

[00:19:05] And he asked if I thought I would get a call

[00:19:07] to work for them again

[00:19:08] and I told him it didn't think so.

[00:19:12] For days I paid attention to the news

[00:19:14] in case anything popped up about what I had encountered.

[00:19:18] Nothing ever did.

[00:19:20] These people knew what they were doing

[00:19:21] and even if they found out anything,

[00:19:24] investigators would end up at the wrong house.

[00:19:28] Still, I would wake up in the middle of the night

[00:19:30] hearing the grunts from the thing in the black bag.

[00:19:34] I imagined hands reaching out to grab me

[00:19:37] from the side of the bed.

[00:19:39] Now I would have vivid nightmares of that basement

[00:19:41] lit up with candles, men chanting around in a circle.

[00:19:46] Until one of them turned around to look at me

[00:19:48] writing the eye.

[00:19:51] Thankfully those nightmares eventually stopped.

[00:19:55] I received a few calls in the weeks that followed.

[00:19:58] More cleaning were normal this time around.

[00:20:02] Low pay but consistent.

[00:20:05] Until one day my husband passed me the phone

[00:20:07] for something about a job.

[00:20:10] It was Andrea.

[00:20:13] It excited she asked me

[00:20:16] up for another open house.

[00:20:27] Scary Story Podcast is written and produced by me,

[00:20:30] Edwin Covarrubias.

[00:20:31] Find us over on TikTok and Instagram at scary.fm

[00:20:36] or over on our website,

[00:20:37] scarystorypodcast.com.

[00:20:40] For ad-free episodes and to support the show,

[00:20:42] try out scaryplus.com.

[00:20:44] It's free for two weeks

[00:20:45] and let me know if you have any questions about it.

[00:20:48] You can get in touch with me via email or social media.

[00:20:51] I'll leave my details in the description of this episode.

[00:20:53] I'm at Edwin Cov, that's E-D-W-I-N-C-O-V

[00:20:58] over on Instagram.

[00:21:01] Thank you very much for listening.

[00:21:03] Keep it scary everyone.

[00:21:05] See you soon.