I am writing this story to tell you about a weird event that happened last night. For this story to make sense, I have to tell you about my apartment complex. My roommate and I’s apartment complex looks sketchy on the outside, but once you actually spend time here, you realize that it’s a safe place. There are many families that live here. Imagine a square and in each side there’s three houses. In the middle is where we park. In the middle of the parking lot there is a manhole cover with only one light overhead the garbage can about 50 meters away. I’ve never paid close attention to it because well it’s just a manhole but the other night, I saw something strange.
Four nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with a burning headache. I got up and walked to the kitchen to get some ibuprofen. My roommate likes natural light, so he opens the binds up all the way and lets the light in. Naturally, I looked out the window. We live on the second floor. The window faces the parking lot and there, in the middle, I saw the manhole wide open. I looked around the parking lot to see if someone was out there, but there was nothing. My digital clock on my stove read 3:42am. There was no reason for the manhole to be opened. I was really tired so I walked back to my room to go to sleep. I didn’t think much of it because when I woke up that morning, the manhole was back on. I went through my normal day routine and didn’t think about the manhole at all. And nothing else happened. Until last night.
Last night, I woke up again with a headache. I again walked out to the kitchen to get ibuprofen but this time, the blinds were closed. When I saw the closed blinds, I remembered the previous night and looked at the clock. It was 3:55am. I was still tired and groggy, but I walked over to the blinds and opened them up. My heart dropped when I saw the manhole open. Any tiredness I had, was now gone. I looked around again. Nothing to the left but to the right, I saw a man walking by the trashcan. This man looked… strange. He hunched over with abnormally long arms, arms that almost touched the ground. His movements were unnatural and didn’t belong on this Earth. He hobbled around the trashcan and out of my sight.
My heart was racing and I quickly closed the blinds. I ran to my room and looked out my blinds. Nothing. My room was in the opposite corner of the house. I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night. I was too scared that the thing would find its way in. I finally fell asleep around 6am. That happened last night. This morning, I wanted to figure out what that was. I’ve heard of a skinwalker, but I never believed in that but after last night, I don’t know what to believe. I told my roommate about the man I saw, but he didn’t believe me and just told me it was probably a homeless person. We’re super close friends and I tend to lie just because it’s fun so he wrote it off. But I have a plan. Tonight, I’m going to wake up at 3am and try to take video of it. Hopefully I can catch it leaving the manhole. Then my roommate will have to believe me. Wish me luck guys and until then, see you all later.
I am writing this a couple days later. I still have yet to process what truly happened. I did exactly what I planned to do. I woke up at 3am, ready to figure out what this creature truly is. The blinds were already open and the moonlight was pouring into the kitchen. What I’m about to say is very important. I did not turn on the lights to the kitchen. This will be important later on, but for now, just remember this.
When I looked out the window, the manhole was still closed. I sighed a sigh of relief. I had a perfect opportunity to watch this man coming out of the manhole. I pulled my chair right by the window and set up my camera to record the manhole. Sometime passed by and I began to dose off. When I woke up, it was 3:32am. I jolted awake and looked at the manhole. It was still closed. Thank God. But just then, the cover began to come off. My heart was beating through my chest and my palms were super sweaty. A long arm reached out, pulling itself out of the sewer. Another long arm popped out and there, there was the hunched over man with its back faced towards me. Imagine a man walking around like he’s sitting on a chair. It was pale white and lit up underneath the light of the moon. I grabbed my camera to make sure that I was getting all of this on camera. When I put the camera down, the man? Thing? Was starring right at me. How did it see me? My lights were off and I was in the corner of the window. It’s eyes glowed in the darkness and sent chills down my spine. Looking at his sunken eyes was too grotesque. Suddenly, it made a run for my door at full sprint.
I jolted up and looked at my door. I had forgotten to lock it and it lead straight into the kitchen. Usually, I locked the doors straight away when I got home, but tonight, I had forgotten too. I got home late from work.
I heard the downstairs door open and did the only thing I could think of. I jumped under our table and held my breath. I hoped that out tablecloth was long enough to cover me. The front door burst open and I saw the hallway light brighten up the room. It took one step through the door. It’s feet were long and have sharp toenails. It’s legs looked human, but so pale that I could not be described as having human features. It’s breathing was heavy and it wheezed with every step it took.
It walked into the kitchen, leaving the door open. But that wasn’t the worst part. No, the worst part was the stench. It smelt as if a room full of rotting meat on a summer day was opened. I almost threw up but kept my composure. My eyes were watering and stomach churned. I held my nose shut as I could not bear to smell it any longer. The guttural breathing terrifies me even as I just think about it. Looking at it closer, I could see slim covering it’s legs. Maggots were infested in its legs, slowly eating away. I turned towards the wall. I couldn’t look any longer.
The creature stopped and turned towards me. Tears fell down my face, but just as I saw it start to kneel down, a car pulled into the parking lot lighting up the kitchen for a second. The creature drew its attention to the car and ran out of the kitchen and down the stairs. I was paralyzed and couldn’t move for a while. I knew I had to get up and shut the door but I was unable to. Eventually, I mustered up the courage to open the door. Then I looked out the window. There in the manhole, was the creature, looking up at me, slowly retreating back into its cave.
Since then, I have had a hard time coping with what exactly I had seen. I don’t leave my room when it gets dark out. I’m a college student and cannot afford to move out. I told my roommate but again, he didn’t believe me. That’s when I remembered the video. I opened my phone and looked at the video. My jaw dropped when I saw it. Nothing. There was no creature. The manhole was just open.
I just had my first meeting with a new therapist. She told me that it’d be good if I wrote down all my thoughts on what happened. But I wrote this to warn you all. I have no idea what that was that night or how my camera didn’t pick it up. My therapist thinks that I just had a nightmare, but I know what I saw. There’s a creature living in the sewers, waiting for its next victim. Be careful out there. Every city in America has a sewage system. If you ever see a man coming out of the sewers at night, run. Don’t think. Don’t look. I’ve decided that I’m going to look out the window at night one last time. I need proof.