Hi everyone, my name is Jacob. The reason I came to this subreddit is simply because I had nowhere else to go, no one else…would believe me.
I’m getting off track, I live in a nice neighbourhood in France, I will not disclose the name of the city for privacy reasons.
I moved here about a year and a half ago, and honestly, life was going great. I had friendly neighbours who came to my house to introduce themselves as soon as I moved in.
There was however, one exception, my closest neighbour. He was reclusive to say the least and he never really talked to me and had a big fence surrounding his house.
We’ll call him Tom. Tom was a weird guy ever since I moved in but I honestly couldn’t complain about him. He kept to himself and went about his business, never bothered me or anyone else as far as I’m aware and was never loud.
Thats why, when one night I woke up at 3am to hear him screaming in his backyard, I thought he was in trouble. I went to put on my trousers but the screaming suddenly cut out, and I don’t mean stopped, it sounded like you pressed stop on a tape.
So I thought nothing of it, however I did have trouble sleeping that night because my mind was wondering what could’ve happened.
Next day, I go about my business, I wake up, have some coffee and breakfast, and I head off to work. I see Tom in his front porch, I wave to him and just like he always does, he halfheartedly waves back.
“Hmm I guess nothing is wrong afterall.” I mumbled under my breath, I was sure there was a good explanation for it.
I come home from work more exhausted than usual, I take a shower, have dinner and decide I’m going to sleep early tonight.
I woke up, once again at 3am at the dot because of my neighbours screams, once again I go to put on my trousers and the screaming stopped.
This time however, I’m going to go to his house and confront him, he was disturbing my sleep afterall.
I went to his yard and I didn’t see anything outside and all lights were off in the house, I was sure it was him screaming however so I decided to knock on his front door.
knock knock “Hey Tom, could you come out for a second please?” I said into the chilly night air… no response.
knock knock knock “Tom I’ve heard you screaming, I know you’re not asleep” I said in a tone a bit more agitated then before… once again, no answer.
It was starting to get really cold so I just decided I was going to confront him when I head off to work in the morning.
I do my morning routine and as I leave the house I’m thinking on what to say without looking like an unfriendly neighbour that gets bothered by everything.
I go to my driveway and I look over, this time he’s not on his front porch, I could however hear noises that sounded like digging in his backyard just over the fence.
I go to check it out, I was planning to confront him anyways so it wouldn’t hurt going over to his house to do so, it would give us more privacy anyways.
I head over and as I expected, he’s digging a hole in his backyard. It seemed like he was doing it for a pretty long time based on the size of the hole.
“Uhh, hey Tom, how’s it going?” I asked in a friendly tone and got back grunts as a response.
“I wanted to talk to you about last 2 nights, you’ve been waking me up at 3am screaming and its not very nice, I have to get up early for work.” I said trying to sound as friendly as possible with the irritation of being ignored building up.
Tom finally stopped digging and turned to me, that was the first time I actually got a good look at his face and he looked like he hasn’t slept in days.
“Okay.” Is the only response I got from him.
Thinking he was gonna stop doing it, I simply turned around, said goodbye and left for work.
I came home from work and for some reason my curiosity made me look in his backyard, I took a look at the spot where the hole was just this morning but it was gone, and I don’t mean covered up, it looked like it never even happened.
Weird I thought but I just headed back to my house, watched some movies and I got an idea to put up my alarm 5 minutes before 3am and see if he does it again, and if so for how long does he do it? It sounded like the screams were the same length both times I’ve heard them.
I wake up at 2:55am and I wait patiently, and without a fail, exactly at 3am my neighbour starts screaming, I time it and it lasted exactly 10 seconds.
“Was this some sort of recording?” I said to no one in particular. “It has to be, it would be very difficult if not impossible for a human being to be that precise every time.”
So I time him for 2 more nights, and surely enough, every time, it starts at 3am and ends in 10 seconds on the dot.
I was mostly confused by the sounds, I tought it had to be a recording or something so I decided to mount a video camera on my house looking down at his backyard. It was still on my property and caught parts of my yard so I wouldn’t get in trouble with the law if he decided to go to such extent.
So I mount a camera, wait untill 3am and the screaming to stop, I take out the tape to see it and I don’t see anything, it was too dark, he didn’t use any lighting.
Also something I failed to mention, every morning without fail he would dig a hole in the ground and it would be gone by the time I’m home.
“Well the only way is for me to get the night vision extension for my camera.” I thought to myself and decided I’m going to do just that tommorow on my way home from work.
I got into the store, bought the extension and headed back home, excited to see what is my neighbour actually doing and to finally figure out why is he screaming or playing a tape of himself screaming.
I got home, put on the extension and waited for the time to hit, at exactly 3am, I hear the screaming again, the same screaming I was getting used to hearing.
It lasted 10 seconds as usual but when I got my camera and played the video, I found something that would chill me to my bones.
What I saw was my neighbour going into the spot where the hole usually was, pick up the grass patch that somehow fit perfectly to cover the hole up to the naked eye and there was a wooden trapdoor under it.
Without hesitation, he opened the hatch, got in and exactly when 3am hit I could hear the screams, they were coming from inside.
The truly disturbing thing is what came out of the trapdoor, it was my neighbour but he looked even weaker, he looked half dead almost.
I had to know what was under that trapdoor and I knew he left every sunday to visit the church, so I waited untill sunday to make my move.
When the sunday came around, I waited for him to head off to the church and I slowly went to the spot which was now, still covered with the grass patch, even though it would be a normal hole at this time of the morning usually.
I lift the patch, open the hatch and… I see nothing, it’s just a normal hole, I felt silly for even trying to do it but something told be that there was more to it.
So I decided that I will open it at night, when he’s finished with his screaming and take a look for myself what’s inside of it.
Night came around and I was prepared, I waited for his screams and when they ended, I headed out for his backyard, for the hole in his backyard.
In that moment I did something I regret and will regret for the rest of my life, I opened the hatch.
What I saw in there is… not explainable. Human minds are not meant to see or experience such things, I felt lost. At that moment, I screamed, I screamed for 10 seconds, no more, no less.
What I saw in there was a void, not just darkness. I felt enveloped by it, I felt like I could see everything and nothing at the same time, I felt powerful, yet so weak. I finally understood why he looked so exhausted, the void needs a host to feed and it needs to feed to exist.
So I’m writing this story to ask someone to come help me dig a hole. 3:01am is getting closer.