The Dream House

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

[00:00:03] How do we know that our dreams are only dreams?

[00:00:07] And if they're more than that, how do we keep them only in our minds?

[00:00:12] My name is Edwin.

[00:00:14] And here's a scary story.

[00:00:19] I was surprised at how easily the door opened after being sealed for so long.

[00:00:24] But it was just how I had imagined it happening.

[00:00:27] Although time had taken its toll on it and you could tell.

[00:00:32] The old wooden staircase right in the middle, dirt stuck in between the crevices and spider webs.

[00:00:37] Completely empty by now, catching only dust.

[00:00:41] No signs of life yet.

[00:00:45] I had walked by it many times before as a kid running past it to catch the ice cream truck that sped by way too fast.

[00:00:53] And then as a teenager looking for a place to stop and think for a bit after school.

[00:00:58] Sometimes I needed that.

[00:01:00] And then I needed it again after some time, having recently dropped out of college.

[00:01:05] The thought of being at the front steps of an enormous house in the middle of a dying neighborhood offered some perspective.

[00:01:13] I could sit there and think.

[00:01:16] This house had seen families come and go.

[00:01:19] Cars changing in models and colors, fashion trends, the fires in 87 and the closing of Western High School just one block away.

[00:01:28] This house was stuck in a town I wanted to get away from and was now forced to live in again.

[00:01:35] The house never had a choice.

[00:01:37] Despite all those decades of watching us silently empty, few people had ever seen it from the inside.

[00:01:44] One of the inspectors hired by the family who owned the property had been in there once.

[00:01:49] The family changed their mind and decided to keep it.

[00:01:52] The inspector left the door open that day and I stepped into the front yard to take a peek inside, along with my two best friends.

[00:01:59] They were unimpressed.

[00:02:01] But to me, it seemed like the perfect spot to disappear for a bit.

[00:02:05] And all I ever wanted to do was to go back.

[00:02:09] It took a bit for me to get the courage to walk up to the front door and opened it.

[00:02:13] So, of course, I picked the quietest time to do so when no one was around.

[00:02:18] At 230 in the morning when I had just gotten off my shift at the warehouse.

[00:02:26] Thankfully, the moon was out, shining bright on the dried up gardens that surrounded it.

[00:02:31] The large windows let the blue light shine on the inside, too.

[00:02:35] There were no locks, not even the front gate used them, but it was kept closed.

[00:02:40] Even as a teen, I needed to unlatch the gate to get up to the front steps.

[00:02:46] The floors were strong, made out of wood, just how you imagine a place to be in the movies.

[00:02:51] A large ceiling lamp, not quite a chandelier, but close enough.

[00:02:56] A large dining room before you got to the kitchen on the right and to the left was a large living room area with a single person couch by the fireplace.

[00:03:05] It was the only piece of furniture in the whole house, and I was glad it was so.

[00:03:11] It was places like those that I looked for.

[00:03:13] There was always something to think about.

[00:03:15] The busy mind, my friends used to say.

[00:03:18] I used to have thoughts about what we were doing here and why and what was the point of everything.

[00:03:23] What we got to choose and what was just how it was supposed to be.

[00:03:28] Relax, they would say to me.

[00:03:30] Thinking, sorting things out was as close as I would get to relaxing, and it happened in places like those and only in my dreams.

[00:03:40] But right now there was a chance to experience this now after many years.

[00:03:45] I walked up to the first steps of that staircase and looked up.

[00:03:49] It turned to the right in a strange angle, leading straight to the landing on the second floor.

[00:03:54] I could clearly see the next steps in the staircase, the solid handrails not moving a fraction of a centimeter as my grip tightened around it after every step.

[00:04:05] The staircase itself had been used, not sure when, since all of my life I had seen the house completely empty.

[00:04:12] The squeak seemed to fade the higher you would go, as if those who had entered had given up on the climb to the second floor, with only a few making it all the way to the top.

[00:04:25] I stopped halfway up myself, only turning around to admire the large windows on the side of the house, the moonlight coming from the left wall windows beaming right at that couch.

[00:04:37] Perhaps a bit too poetic, I know, but the place really did seem magnificent to me.

[00:04:43] Even the smell, something I can still remember, was pleasant, like a flower shop, but dark and cold.

[00:04:52] I walked up a little bit more, just four more steps to reach the top, when I thought I heard something.

[00:05:00] A sound so faint I would have missed it had it matched the timing on my steps against the floorboard.

[00:05:07] I froze mid-step, and I remember smiling at the thought that the house might still be alive, despite it looking dead from the outside.

[00:05:16] Then I realized I was there by myself, in a large five or six bedroom home,

[00:05:22] in a piece of property so large that I had to wonder if the neighbors would be able to hear me scream if I needed to.

[00:05:29] I set those thoughts aside and kept climbing.

[00:05:33] The place was even more beautiful from the top.

[00:05:36] The guardrails to stop you from falling to the bare floorboards were visible,

[00:05:42] with a very specific area free of dust with the markings you leave behind when you take the dust with you on your hands,

[00:05:49] the kind of markings you leave when you frequent a certain spot.

[00:05:53] Someone had been there, and I got scared and booked it downstairs and out the door, not looking back for a single second.

[00:06:04] But in my dreams about the house, it was a different story.

[00:06:08] I had them frequently after my visit.

[00:06:12] I walked to the hallway, the darkest part of the house on that second floor.

[00:06:16] Only a single window was at the end of it.

[00:06:19] It was like a mission.

[00:06:21] I needed to walk to the end and begin from there.

[00:06:23] I looked behind me.

[00:06:25] Something had moved again.

[00:06:27] If I waited just a few more seconds at that very moment, I would have given up and ran down the stairs.

[00:06:33] But I don't know what would get into me,

[00:06:35] that I would simply look at the window and follow along with the sound of my shoes against the floor,

[00:06:40] completely ignoring the wide open doors next to me.

[00:06:43] I would get a chance to walk back and peek inside, just not then.

[00:06:48] I needed to see what was beyond the hallway.

[00:06:50] Besides, what if I saw something I didn't want to see just yet?

[00:06:54] I passed the first door on my left.

[00:06:57] It must have been a bathroom.

[00:06:59] I kept walking with the feeling that the walls were closing in on me,

[00:07:03] although when I think back on it, it all made sense.

[00:07:06] A feeling of being watched is sometimes very similar.

[00:07:10] A certain lack of privacy that you feel.

[00:07:13] The place about to squeeze you in.

[00:07:15] Something you can't control.

[00:07:16] I walked, passing by a door on the right.

[00:07:19] Someone breathing.

[00:07:21] Sleeping, I thought.

[00:07:23] I just kept walking.

[00:07:25] Then I heard whispers.

[00:07:28] I was walking so fast at this point, everything became a blur as I rushed by five more doors,

[00:07:35] finally ending at a smaller one at the end.

[00:07:37] This one was shut, and right next to the window.

[00:07:41] It had no doorknob, but instead, it had a door.

[00:07:44] It had no doorknob, but instead, a handle to pull it open.

[00:07:48] I simply grabbed onto it, and it opened almost by itself.

[00:07:56] In my dreams, I would look back down the hallway and freeze as I saw a figure standing at the end of it.

[00:08:01] I don't know what would get into me right then,

[00:08:04] but I managed to push myself in deeper into the house as I went into the dark room.

[00:08:08] It had no windows, no more doors.

[00:08:11] But two steps in, I felt a step in front of me.

[00:08:14] There were no handrails, just a wall to guide me up to a small beam of blue light at the top.

[00:08:20] Another window.

[00:08:24] I would step one, two, three steps up, and it became clear.

[00:08:30] There was another floor.

[00:08:32] I would keep climbing until I saw boxes, then two chairs and a mattress by one of the windows.

[00:08:39] The space was much smaller up there.

[00:08:41] The ceiling was closing into the walls on opposite sides.

[00:08:45] I knew right then that I was in the attic.

[00:08:48] My heart was still pounding when I thought of the reason why I was up there,

[00:08:53] and how I would have to go back after who or what I had just seen.

[00:08:57] Despite my fascination with the house, I was still coherent.

[00:09:01] I could think.

[00:09:03] Part of me knew it was unsafe, knew that perhaps it wouldn't kill me,

[00:09:07] but being up there alone was something I was only able to do on a whim,

[00:09:11] not something I could repeat or plan out.

[00:09:14] But then I heard the footsteps.

[00:09:18] They were coming up to the attic.

[00:09:20] No matter how much I think about it, I can't change it.

[00:09:26] But I know what I should have done in these dreams.

[00:09:29] I need to look for something to protect myself with, or run to a window and scream.

[00:09:34] But instead, I would just wait.

[00:09:36] The footsteps would get closer and closer, and so would I.

[00:09:39] The footsteps would get closer and closer, and soon,

[00:09:42] I would see the shape coming up the staircase.

[00:09:45] A man walking up to me,

[00:09:48] stopping as soon as the top part of his body became visible.

[00:09:52] And I would be frozen in place.

[00:09:57] I used to wake up at this point, every single time.

[00:10:00] This man walking up the stairs, standing there, looking at me.

[00:10:05] I can go as far as to say that I would see his chest puff up as he got ready to speak.

[00:10:09] And that's where the dream would end.

[00:10:12] Part 2 of The Dream House is coming up right after this.

[00:10:21] Stay with me.

[00:10:27] For years, I kept dreaming of this house I used to walk by when I was a kid.

[00:10:31] And whenever I would bring it up to anyone if the conversation got into talking about dreams,

[00:10:36] they would say that yes, it was weird.

[00:10:39] But to not make it such a big deal,

[00:10:41] I kept thinking that the dream had to mean something.

[00:10:44] That this man that climbed up to the attic was trying to tell me something.

[00:10:49] Or that the house had a secret that I needed to find out.

[00:10:53] It was tough not to think about it so much.

[00:10:56] This whole thing had been going on for years,

[00:10:59] and the dreams came almost consistently, once per week.

[00:11:03] Then, just out of curiosity, in a late night internet search,

[00:11:07] this was much later, by this time I had already gotten married and had a kid,

[00:11:10] I stumbled upon a video that talked about dream journals and logs.

[00:11:15] The video was trying to sell a template to keep track of your dreams,

[00:11:19] accompanied by some app.

[00:11:21] But I figured I could just do it myself, so I grabbed one of my notebooks and got to work.

[00:11:26] The task was easy.

[00:11:28] All I needed to do was to write down, scribble, or voice record as fast as I could

[00:11:33] what my dream was as soon as I would wake up.

[00:11:36] No detail spared, unless I forgot it of course.

[00:11:40] That was fine, but it would be something that I would have to improve on

[00:11:44] as I started to jot down my ideas much faster.

[00:11:47] Speed was the name of the game here.

[00:11:52] Every three to five dreams I was to read through them,

[00:11:55] expand on them if I had any recollection about the dreams themselves,

[00:11:58] and then write down any connections.

[00:12:01] It was intense,

[00:12:03] and soon I happened to find a forum online where people talked about their dream worlds,

[00:12:08] the places they would visit in their dreams.

[00:12:10] For some, they were common places, or entire cities, schools, places where they worked.

[00:12:17] For others, like one of the users that I ended up talking to the most,

[00:12:21] it was about an RV, a very specific place, where she used to live along with her mom.

[00:12:27] Others would dream of places they had never visited, or could not possibly exist in real life.

[00:12:34] But anyway, I wrote down everything,

[00:12:36] the very same reason why I can go into so much detail about my dreams now

[00:12:40] is because of the journal entries I completed back then.

[00:12:44] It would be the same house.

[00:12:47] I would go in, it would be unlocked,

[00:12:50] and then I would walk around the place, climb up the stairs, and then down the hallway.

[00:12:55] I would work my way up to the attic, and then I could see someone coming up there.

[00:12:59] Every single time I would freeze,

[00:13:01] and no matter how hard I tried to pay attention to the man who would climb up the stairs,

[00:13:06] I would still end up waking up right before he started to speak.

[00:13:11] It got to the point where I would wake up tired and still try to write down the exact same dream,

[00:13:17] sometimes attempting to draw out the layout of the house,

[00:13:20] the silhouette of the man, or even just how the dark hallway appeared in my dream.

[00:13:26] One time, while talking with my wife about the house,

[00:13:29] one time, while talking with my wife about this dream,

[00:13:32] she knew and understood very well by this point.

[00:13:35] She asked why I hadn't just gone to visit the house already.

[00:13:39] Maybe there was something for me there.

[00:13:42] After all, the actual house was only a couple of cities over.

[00:13:47] It wasn't fear that I was feeling, not quite nervous or anxious either,

[00:13:52] but this strange sense of curiosity when I thought about visiting the house.

[00:13:56] In real life, yes, I liked the house and yes, I had thought about it a lot growing up.

[00:14:02] But sometimes dreams to me were better where they were, in my mind and nowhere else.

[00:14:08] My mistake had been writing them down, making them real.

[00:14:12] I enjoyed my time away.

[00:14:15] Getting lost in thoughts, it was like I could shut off the world and go into one I made up completely.

[00:14:21] I thought that by going into the actual house, I would get rid of that.

[00:14:25] But one Friday night, well Saturday morning technically,

[00:14:31] I found myself there, walking up to the house in the middle of the night.

[00:14:36] In a mix of deja vu and real memories,

[00:14:40] I was ready to finally figure this out as I pushed open the door to get into this house.

[00:14:46] It was unlocked after all those years.

[00:14:48] The same chair in the living room, the empty dining room to the right.

[00:14:54] I walked up the stairs following what I thought were my own footsteps in the dust from all those years ago,

[00:15:00] until I reached the second floor.

[00:15:03] I looked at the guardrails and then down the dark hallway,

[00:15:07] the same one I had dreamed about for years.

[00:15:10] I didn't want to give much thought to what I was about to do

[00:15:13] and instead chose to walk down the hallway all the way to the window.

[00:15:17] My heart started pounding once I saw the small door without the doorknob.

[00:15:22] Right at the end, this thing had only been there in my dreams up until that point.

[00:15:28] I held my breath as I turned back toward the start of the hallway

[00:15:34] but felt a sense of relief when I saw no one there.

[00:15:38] The doors along the hallway were locked shut,

[00:15:40] with the dim light of the moon shining into them,

[00:15:45] offering tiny streaks of bluish-white light against the bare wooden floors.

[00:15:50] Six stripes in total.

[00:15:52] Still I wasn't going to risk it as I started rushing back toward the staircase,

[00:15:57] passing by every door without looking,

[00:16:01] wondering if any of the answers I wanted were in there.

[00:16:05] When I got to the top of the stairs and made my way down,

[00:16:09] I saw a small window with a small window frame.

[00:16:13] I ran down, rushing toward the front door before stopping to take one last look at that couch,

[00:16:19] the one for a single person in the living room.

[00:16:23] The place that was supposed to be mine for me to think,

[00:16:27] I let my mind wander and that's when I heard the footsteps.

[00:16:35] I wasn't going to be in there for one more second

[00:16:38] and instead rushed past the door and shut it behind me.

[00:16:41] I ran to the car, locked it, and waited for the figure or anything

[00:16:44] to show up through the windows on the side of the house.

[00:16:48] For the two hours I was there, my eyes fixed on it,

[00:16:51] the same house I had seen for many years in my dreams.

[00:16:55] There was no movement.

[00:17:00] Till this day I still have those dreams of the attic,

[00:17:03] the figure walking up the steps.

[00:17:07] But I kept the questions in my mind,

[00:17:10] the answers of which still roam in the house.

[00:17:13] And maybe one day,

[00:17:14] when I want the dreams gone,

[00:17:17] I'll visit again.

[00:17:20] Scary Story Podcast is written and produced by me, Edwin Covarrubias.

[00:17:38] To listen without ads, try out Scary Plus over on scaryplus.com.

[00:17:43] It's linked in the description of this episode.

[00:17:45] If you have questions about the stories, including this one,

[00:17:48] find me on TikTok and Instagram.

[00:17:50] I'm at Edwin Cove, that's E-D-W-I-N-C-O-V.

[00:17:55] But I'll also link to everything in the description of this episode.

[00:17:59] Also, if you're on YouTube, follow the show.

[00:18:02] The link is just youtube.com slash scarystorypodcast.

[00:18:06] Again, linked in the description.

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[00:18:11] Anyway, thank you very much for listening.

[00:18:14] Keep it scary, everyone.

[00:18:16] See you soon.