Part 1:
I sighed in relief that I wasn’t lost, when I finally laid eyes on the house that was rated as the best inspiration for horror scriptwriters. That’s all the reviews said!
The house itself looked ok. It looked clean from the outside, at least, but I wasn’t there to appreciate it, I was there to work. My AirBnB rental was a small treehouse on the shores of Lake Lanier on a small piece of land full of darkened leaves and tree roots coming out of the ground. There was a thin path that led all the way to the stairs, which went up around the tree and into the balcony.
For about one minute, I admired the final hours of sun streaming into the trees foliage. Then I speed walked up the stairs, desperate to get inside, take a shower and get ready for the first night.
As described on the ad, at the top of the stairs, to the right side of the entrance door, there was a small lockbox. I sprang to action, happy to see that everything was as expected, and checked the print screen on my phone with the passcode for the box. I pressed the four numbers, and the little box popped open promptly, revealing the tiny compartment. Inside, there was a door key and, unexpectedly, a small piece of paper.
Curiosity took over, as I checked the paper before taking out the key. It was folded in four, and inside there was a phone number that didn’t coincide with the one on the ad. I chuckled at the laziness. This was probably the phone number for a caretaker.
If the house wasn’t so beautiful on the inside, I think I would have already been on the phone, making a complaint about the unannounced phone number. Instead, the house was just as the pictures showed, if not quieter and cosier, so I kept my negative remarks to myself for now.
Inside, there was a nice open plan kitchen with a small sitting area. Next to the kitchen, there was a door leading to the bedroom and the only bathroom was inside it.
I dragged the small table in the sitting area to one of the free living room corners adjacent to the massive window looking out to the dock, carried the suitcase to the bedroom and emptied it onto the bed. Then, I threw the piece of paper onto the nightstand and took my clothes off. I took a quick shower and decided to step outside to walk around and take in the air of the area. Hopefully it would spark my creative side and allow me to finish the script.
When I walked down the last step and looked up, there was a woman walking down the pathway to the treehouse, looking at the floor and around the area almost as if searching for something.
Can I help you? - I shouted, annoyed that I had only arrived and someone was already invading my rented space. She was wearing vintage clothes, which I thought was a completely finished style, and seemed startled as she looked up at me, and then smiled timidly.
Can I help you? - I shouted even louder, seeing her shake again.
She was either ignoring me, or getting closer to talk to me, but I had no time for social interaction right now.
Hi - she said, shrugging timidly. She had a flowery dress on with dirty boots and a cloth on her head with horn rimmed tortoiseshell sunglasses hanging from her neck.
I have the cabin for the weekend - I said, not knowing what else to do or say. - Is there something I can help you with? I’m really busy and you can’t be here!
All I wanted was for her to leave so I could focus without her stupidity.
Oh, gosh. I didn’t know - she excused herself. - I always come around here at the end of the day just to see. My house is over there - she pointed through me.
I turned around to look at where she was pointing and there was one of the small bays on the other side of the lake’s margins with dense woods behind.
Even so, I rented this place for the weekend! You can’t be here - I didn’t know what else to say, because when I turned around she had walked even closer and was now making her way around me and moving towards the shore.
Do you mind? - she asked, looking towards the lake - Do you mind if I stay for a bit? It won’t be long - she said before I answered.
I had no time for this!
You have to leave! - I blurted out, giving up on my small stroll for inspiration. - If you stay any longer, I’ll call the owner and get him to come remove you!
I jogged back up the stairs, shaking my head “no” and locking the door behind me to stop her having any strange ideas.
The sunset was just as good from inside. I saw the sky slowly turn orange from the big living room glass wall. Outside, by the shore, the lady was still roaming around, crouching here and there to look closer at the floor. Then, for whatever reason, the crazy woman decided to step into the lake and submerge her feet completely before she started doing the same thing, roaming around, crouching here and there INSIDE the water.
I shook my head in disapproval and turned my back to the view and the woman. I tried to give the owner a call, but he didn’t pick up.
I picked up my laptop and sat at the corner of the sofa, the fridge’s humming in the background edging me on.
The sun went down, I turned the lights on, hoping the orange cosy light would light up the spark inside my brain, but nothing seemed to work that night. I pondered going outside again, but all I could see out of the glass wall was darkness and a little bit of the shoreline, illuminated by the light coming from my living room. The lady was now gone, probably back to her house. The next day I would have to give the owner a call to make sure this wasn’t supposed to happen and to complain about security on the cabin premises.
I poured a glass of wine, included in the 2000$ I was paying for the three days, and sat down cross legged in the middle of the living room with The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix to try to switch my brain in gear for horror.
When I was close to finishing my glass of wine, suddenly, a loud bang came from the entrance door that made it shake from top to bottom. I jumped up, almost throwing my glass of wine into the air, and stood there completely still in the middle of the living room. I was frozen with terror and indecision for a while. I didn’t say anything and only managed to move when nothing else happened and I finally managed to convince myself it must have been a bear or something.
I put my glass down on the kitchen counter, grabbed the biggest knife I saw in the drawer and tip-toed my way to the bedroom, closing the door slowly behind me to avoid any noise. I would pretend like the living room light was on because someone forgot to turn it off, but no one was home. No movement in the house for a bear to chase!
When everything stayed completely still, I picked up my phone and checked what time it was. 2:20 AM. Usually this would have been my most productive time, but I decided to finish up for the night, because my heart wasn’t agreeing with this.
My best friend suggested this house, so already in bed, with all the lights turned off, I texted him to check if he was awake and available for any emergencies. Needless to say, he wasn’t.
I spent all the time until I fell asleep, completely paranoid. The bedroom wall that was facing the lake was exactly the same as the living room: just a massive glass panel. It would otherwise be beautiful, but Instead of beauty all my brain let me see was doom. Paranoia took over, and I felt so uncomfortable that I didn’t know if I should turn towards the glass wall or the door to keep an eye out. Eventually, I just fell asleep, annoyed and exhausted.
My phone lit up the bedroom. It was a few hours later and I had woken up. I assumed because morning was coming or because of how paranoid I was.
The phone was showing 4AM, so it couldn’t be because it was morning. I clicked my phone’s screen off and stopped everything, including my breathing, to try to pay attention to whatever my senses were catching onto.
The first thing my system found strange was the lack of nature sounds outside - there wasn’t a peep from any nocturnal animal or insect. The second thing was a very light scratching sound coming from somewhere under the house. It was so quiet, that half of my perception of it was coming through the slight vibration it was creating on the house. It was almost like I could feel the sound and knew something was off.
I clutched my phone to my chest and stayed very still while I tried to figure out what this could be. Maybe the bear I thought was around, scratching the tree the house was supported on? Maybe some raccoon? Some other animal with claws that was wandering around at night?
Even though these were all plausible, my heart wasn’t letting me off that easily. I could feel it pumping with panic, warning me that something was very, very off.
In a spark of intelligence, my brain remembered there was a massive knife on my nightstand, so I reached out blindly from under my covers and felt around for it. When I found it, I felt something else next to it. I pulled both under the covers with me and looked and what the hell I had also caught.
My eyes went wide. It was the piece of paper I found inside the lockbox with the key.
I fumbled with my phone desperately, dropping it onto my chest twice before I could finally grab a hold of it. I checked my texts to see if my best friend had replied. The message was marked as seen, but no reply.
Fuck him.
I struggled to see the phone number on the paper, and then punched it into the phone, ready to explain frantically what was going on. On the other end of the line, a loud beep came on that made me jump and cover the speaker in a panic. Then I heard one single ring, and a voice on the other side.
As the scratches seemed to get more intense, I whispered hello into the microphone. Then desperation arose. There was no one on the other end, only a recording in a female voice that was already 5 seconds in when I realised it. From the start, and as the scratches below seemed to start coming up the house’s tree trunk, this was the recording:
“Hello, and welcome to Lake Lanier’s Tree House. We hope you have the expected experience.
While the house is perfect for inspiration, it may become dangerous if you don’t follow the 13 proposed rules. These do not guarantee success or complete safety, but they will keep you as safe as possible.
Please follow all the rules as described.
Lake Lainer’s Tree House does not guarantee your safety and is not held liable for your eventual demise.
If you do not agree with these rules, please leave the key inside the lockbox as found and leave the premises prior to your first night. Failure to do so will result in automatic acceptance of these rules and Lake Lanier’s Tree House’s terms and conditions.
This phone number will no longer be available for contact.
Have a great stay!”
The scratching was becoming more and more intense, but the rule said to stay under the covers, I thought. This had to be a joke. Half of these rules made no sense at all, and how was I supposed to remember them all in detail?
My panic was now mixed with fury, but the scratching was incessant. I messaged my best friend again and got nothing in return. Claustrophobia was starting to hit me from being covered for too long, so I tried calling the phone number again to hear the rules. This time, instead of the beep, the one ring and the recorded voice, the phone just beeped once continuously and then the call was off. I tried again, and the same thing happened.
The scratches stopped and this was the only rule I knew I remembered right. Don’t get out from under the covers until the scratches stop. I didn’t know if this was a joke, but I was too terrified to risk it until I was sure I could.
When I kicked the covers away from me and jumped up, knife in hand ready to slash, I instantly froze.
Outside of the glass wall, against the night sky light, I could see a silhouette of a woman, just standing there, not moving or saying anything, just there.
When I tried to process this, a rule broke into my thoughts. I didn’t know which, but at some point it said to turn the lights on if this happened, so I lept towards the switch and knocked it on, ran into the bathroom to turn the light on there and rushed to the living room to do the same.
My breath was stuttering by the time I came back to the bedroom, expecting to see whoever was outside and tell them to go away, but when I looked at the glass wall… nothing. Not that I could see at first, at least, but when I walked closer and got the view all the way down to the floor level, two things surprised me. The first, was that the dry dirt floor I had walked in through was completely submerged. The second was the same silhouette just standing there, impervious to the water, which seemed to be unbothered by it.
I could feel my blood freezing inside me and managed only to step away and hug myself by the bedroom’s opposite wall. I clutched my phone and the piece of paper in my hand. Tried to call 911, but no calls were going through, so I just hoped for the day.
Eventually, it came and I managed to stand back up. I called the owner’s number, my friend’s number and 911 again and nothing. It was like my phone was blocked somehow. I called my mom, some colleagues and other friends, and got the same result. A beep signalling unavailable and then off.
My anger was starting to be replaced by desperation. I didn’t know what to think or what to believe. When I looked outside, the water was back down to what it was the day before, and there was no one around.
I decided to eat something to calm down, and picked up my laptop to try to write the rules down from memory so I could go by something other than my panicked brain. It occurred to me to try to message people from there, but even though everything was working as normal and the internet was fine, any time I tried to message anyone, the message would just fail to send. Posts on some websites seem to get through but that’s it.
As I wrote some of the rules, something came to my mind. One of the rules said there was a radio under the bed to contact someone for help in case of emergency! I wrote down the rule and ran to the bedroom.
About an hour later, I had the full radio setup according to the instructions, and turned it on, my heart skipping beats like a kid jumping rope at full speed. The radio crackled for a while, but nothing came through. I tried calling out into it, but all I got back was static. I was about to give up, when I heard a woman’s voice coming from the other end.
“Hello” - it called out. The voice was sweet - it reminded me of my sisters -, which put me slightly more at ease.
“Hello!” - I called - “Hi! I need help, it seems like someone is pulling some kind of joke on me
There was some silence on the other side, and then the voice came back with a slightly bored tone.
“This is Martha, sir, how can I help?”
“I rented this cabin for three days and someone was trying to scare me last night! There’s something wrong with my phone and my laptop. I can’t contact anyone apart from you. I want to get out of the house now, how do I do that?”
There was another pause on the other end, and then Martha came back.
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible, sir. Unless this is an emergency, I’m afraid I cannot be talking to you, sir.”
I was this close to punching a hole in the wall or throwing the radio out of the window.
“This is an emergency, I can’t get out of the house and I need to go!”
“Sir, that is not an emergency.” - She said bluntly. - “Is there anything else I can help you with? Any kind of injury?”
“No, I’m not injured, but I need to get out, are you stupid!” - I replied on instinct.
There was no answer, the line going into static only. I called out a bunch of times, but nothing until I just threw the radio back and went back to my laptop.
If I was going to be stuck in there, then I needed all the rules.
It was close to nighttime, when I finished writing all of them down. To the best of my memory, they were all correct! I was ready for this night and was keeping the knife with me!
I tried the radio again, trying to contact Martha before the day could end, but got no answer. When I looked out the living room, the water was starting to come in again, but that wasn’t the only thing there. At floor level, crouching in the water and checking things around, was the woman I met the previous day. My heart was filled with hope at the sight of her.
I knocked on the window, trying to get her to look at me, but the glass was so thick that she mustn’t have heard me. I knocked harder, now punching the glass, but nothing.
I ran around the room, threw my shoes on and rushed to the front door to get around the house. I grabbed the front door’s handle and pushed it down to open, and that’s when I felt all my blood be sucked into the depths of my body. The door didn’t open. I kept the handle down, maintaining the pressure, and nothing. It was locked.
I unlocked it, the memory of me locking it behind me out of habit and fear of this same woman rushing back into my mind. I approached my laptop slowly, afraid to read what I knew I had written down, and there it was. Never lock any doors.
I had been breaking one of the rules until now without even realising it.
My heart pumped faster, my hands started sweating and the air was trying to leave me. I wobbled back to the living room glass wall, and panic set in completely.
The light outside was practically gone, and now the lady I met the previous day was standing still, her recognisable silhouette starting to show as the person outside of my glass wall on the previous night and 3 more people surrounding her, all of them fixated on Lake Lanier’s Tree House, they faces starting to look strange as the water level rose and covered their legs like they weren’t there.
In a panic, I ran back to my list, picked up my laptop and brought it along with me, checking that all the doors were unlocked and that any other rules were being followed.
I was getting ready to get into bed and cover myself off, when I heard a light knock at the front door. I shot up, trying to pull my laptop’s lid open while looking around the room to the glass wall to make sure there was no one there.
There it was. If someone knocks - turn off lights, hide in bathroom.
My lights were already off, so I just ran into the bathroom and waited, my heart feeling like something had a grip on it and was squeezing, as I heard the front door open slowly, the wind blowing in. Slow, light footsteps came into the house. I could tell they were inside, but I couldn’t tell where they were exactly and I had no idea how to react. What if they came to the bathroom? What if they found me? There was nothing in my list for that, but was there anything in the list I heard on the phone? I couldn’t remember, and I was completely frozen in place, hugging my laptop to my chest and wishing everything away.
I think I fell asleep on the bathroom door, because when I came to, there was light coming in from under the door.
Before getting up, feeling my chest dipping back into terror, I checked my laptop and my phone. Both showed 4PM. I shot up. How could it be so late! How could it be almost back to the next night! I was sure I didn;t sleep that much, at least I felt like I had been stoned with bricks, every bit of muscle and bone in my body hurting. My ankles and knees cracked as I opened the door ajar and peaked outside.
The house was back to normal, golden sunlight cutting through the room and the living room. The only difference now is that there were green mud footprints everywhere on the floor and on the bed.
In looking around, and outside, I noticed there was a boat crossing the lake close to the opposite shore.
Happiness invaded me and the desperation came back. I ran outside, keeping in mind the one minute rule, going around the house’s balcony and leaned over the handrail to get as close as I possibly could while shouting at the two tiny men figures I could see aboard the boat. For as much as I could, I shouted, but I couldn’t get anyone’s attention.
In a rush, I ran back inside and threw the door closed behind me, stopping myself from locking it. When I turned around, my heart dropped into my stomach.
In massive letters, written in mud across the living room’s glass wall, the words “You forgot” were on display. I froze, a panic attack hitting me, dragging me into a loop of indecision so strong that I dropped to the floor crying, my eyes glued to the words on the glass that seemed to set my fate.
When I finally managed to stand back up, my face still covered in tears that kept running, I decided to try Martha again.
“Hello?” - I called out with no hope, my voice trembling.
All I got was static.
“Hello” - I repeated. - “Please, this is an emergency.”
More static, and then…
“What?”
Martha’s snarky voice came through. My heart almost dropped out through my mouth and I almost dropped the receiver.
“Hello! Martha! I need help, please!”
There was a pause.
“What’s up?”
When I finished explaining everything until then, there was only silence on the other end.
“Are you… - I hesitated. - Still there?”
“Yep” - she replied.
“What do I do?”
She activated the microphone, but only sighed at first.
“Listen, man. From what you’re telling me, you have now broken as many of the rules as anyone ever has. You started breaking the rules almost as soon as you came into the house. You even forgot to put the radio back as it was. At this point, I shouldn’t even be picking up, so all I’m going to say is…” - she paused.
“Yes? What?”
“Look for the lake’s name on your laptop and pray that you survive the night. If you do, you’ll be out tomorrow, when your booking is over. I gotta go, good luck.
Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1631u19/lake_laniers_airbnb_has_a_set_of_rules_part_2/