When the smell crept down his throat and burnt his nostrils. He was beginning to think that setting a fire might be the only solution.
But whatever had to be done, it had to be done quickly — before someone got hurt. Every fiber of his being prayed that no authorities would arrive.
His Dream House
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While everyone he knew wanted the 3-bedroom luxury condo in a gated community, Tom Markems wanted something very different. He had always been drawn to a quieter life in the country.
So naturally, when he saw that a cozy cottage in Ohio was listed for an absolute bargain, he just couldn’t resist. But there was something about the house that he couldn’t quite wrap his head around…
Going For A Steal
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The log cabin was situated on a vast 30-acre plot, and it was complete with an apple orchard and independent water source.
It would take some work, but Tony could turn the cabin into a self-sustaining woodland paradise. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that it all seemed a bit too good to be true. Why was it so cheap?
Just The Beginning
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After doing a little diging, Tony discovered that the previous owner of the house had lost his wife recently and that he wanted to get rid of the property as quickly as possible so that he could move to Florida and retire.
But Tony wasn’t about to leave it at that. The first thing he had to do was check that the old building was structurally sound. There was also a strange access point in the middle of the kitchen floor. But that was just the beginning of what Tony found.
Sealed Up Tight
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For some strange reason, the trapdoor in the kitchen was nailed shut with dozens of thick nails. And, even stranger, it was glued shut with some kind of industrial-strength adhesive.
Tony called a repairman to come and take a look, and even he was dumbfounded. After a lot of cursing and heaving, they finally broke it open. Then they were hit with the smell.
A Terrible Stench
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The smell coming from inside the door was enough to make them jump back and gag. Whatever it was, it was enough to make Tony want to empty his guts on the floor.
What could possibly be down there that smelled so foul? It smelled as if… No. It couldn’t be. Tony couldn’t help but think about the old owner’s recently departed wife.
Down Below
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Tony and the repairman gingerly poked their heads and flashlights into the hole in the floor. Suddenly, Tony heard a loud gasp.
Tony’s repairman gripped him by the collar and shoved him back. The man’s face had gone white as he yelled “Stay out of there!” Tony peered in, holding his breath as two legs appeared.
Unwelcome Guests
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Six more crawled out. Spiders. But they weren’t just any spiders — they were venomous funnel-weavers. They were teeming out of an enormous nest just below the hole.
Tony knew that they were capable of a nasty bite that can damage human flesh, so he and the repairman began to stomp on whatever tried to escape and slammed the trapdoor shut. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning of their nightmare.
The Next Obstacle
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Even after they disposed of the nest, and it was finally “safe” to look in further, there was still the problem of the vile stench that still seeped out.
They carefully took each rung of the crumbling, rusted ladder to the hidden room under the cottage. There, in the corner was the answer. And it was oozing.
Nightmare Ooze
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Long ruddy tendrils grew along a cement enclosure – like a cistern or rock bathtub.
Inside was slick and gleaming with a suspicious rainbow sheen across the goopy mixture. It took everything for Tony not to be sick. It was disgusting. Then, he saw something poking out of the nightmare mixture. It was a bone.
A Sigh Of Relief
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The repairman sighed. “Stupid raccoons,” he grumbled. For Tony, however, he was finally able to relax.
It might have been the worst stench that had ever infiltrated his nose, but at least he didn’t have to call the cops. But what was the hidden room for? It was unlike anything he had ever seen before.
Fireplace?
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As the icky clean-up commenced, the two men traded theories. Maybe it was an old-fashioned storage room?
Perhaps a bunker or space for cleaning hunting game? What made it even weirder was a small hole in the wall filled with ash and decaying wood. But there was no chimney or place for the smoke to escape. Then, they discovered something even weirder.
In The Attic
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Back up in the house, the handyman happened to notice that the house had a gigantic A-frame that was higher on one side of the roof, but the low-ceilinged rooms inside didn’t account for all that extra space.
Thinking that there must be some sort of storage space up there, he inspected the ceiling until he discovered a trap door. With a light pull on a small metal ring, an old ladder tumbled out — raining pink insulation and dust everywhere. And when he and Tony tooka peek inside, they couldn’t fathom what they were seeing.
A House Inside A House
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About halfway down the attic, sitting weirdly amid the fiberglass insulation, was a wall with a door. But what was even more bizarre was that there was a roof as well, but it was completely enclosed by the attic.
Tony’s heart could take no more. What other strangeness would they find inside his home?
The Strangest Thing He’d Ever Seen
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There was no working electricity up in the attic, so Tony had to rely solely on his flashlight once more. With the smell of decades’ worth of dust in their nostrils, they carefully stepped onto the floor.
The hairs on Tony’s neck began to rise and the heat and dense darkness hung over him like a cloak. What he’d found was straight out of a horror movie.
Questions
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Why hadn’t the previous owner told him about any of this? And who lived here? They took one shaky step after the other to find out. Another thought niggled Tony in the back of his mind: Who still lived here?
Kicking the door open gently with his foot, he was greeted with a sight in the beam of his flashlight that he’ll never forget.
A Decaying Apartment
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Peeling wallpaper in outdated hues of pea green and pastel pink sloughed eerily off the walls — as if the apartment in the attic was shedding its skin.
Smells of mold, dust, and rat’s nests wafted up from the floor with every step they took. They pulled their t-shirts up over their faces. They had to be careful not to inhale fragments of insulation, let alone what dangerous mold spores were lurking there.
Three Rooms
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Tony and the handyman gathered that there were three rooms in the strange, self-contained apartment. No furniture remained except for an old cabinet.
Other evidence that these rooms were living quarters were sparsely scattered throughout — an old hat and a tire, abandoned and forgotten, left to rot for who knows how long. There was also a bathroom…
The Bathroom
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There was a bathroom that housed a toilet and sink. It appeared to be plumbed into the main water and sewerage lines of the main house.
But why was there a creepy house inside his house? With more questions than answers, Tony decided to turn to Reddit once more. But some of the answers did little to put him at ease about what he’d found.
A Sinister Purpose?
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Reddit users who saw the photos were understandably creeped out. “House For Sale. Reduced price due to big nope in the attic,” one quipped.
“I didn’t want to be the first to say this,” another user wrote, “but it reminds me of the terrifying stories of where people keep family members locked up.” Another observant user had a theory.
Building Around The Shell
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“How does something like this happen? I looked through all his pictures and it looks like the floor is covered in insulation…” he wrote, “So does that mean all of the insulation you see is actually just his ceiling with the insulation sitting on top? Did OP crawl around on rafters to walk around up there?”
“It does look like they added a roof and an addition. Almost like they built an entire shell, (roof and walls) around the original house and decided to just keep going and make it bigger.” But Tony needed more definitive answers.
No Clue
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Tony even went as far as to ask the previous owner about the cellar and the attic. But all he said was “they’ve always been there.”
The strange rooms were beyond frustrating. But he was hopeful someone on the internet could enlighten him. The answers flooded in, but they ended up being more entertaining than useful.
Repurpose
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The subspace underneath the house was officially deemed the “hell room” and Tony promised to keep everyone updated with his plans to convert it into something useful.
A cold-storage room for winter vegetables seemed like the winner. But there was one thing he needed to do first before a single potato went down there.
Get It Clean
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Aside from bathing the entire space in spider-killing spray, he stocked up on bleach and other cleaning materials.
If food was going to go down there, he had to get out the sticky layer of rotting roots and years of watery rust first. But what about the matter of the entire house inside the attic?
Making It Livable
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Aside from the obvious creep factor, a few Reddit users suggested that Tony convert the space into something livable – his own personal “speakeasy.”
“It would be fun to fix up. I’d have to see if the walls are moldy and I’m sure all the plumbing and wiring need to be redone,” Tony wrote on Reddit.