My old classmate went to an abandoned lakehouse. He found something he shouldn't have.

Have you ever suddenly felt lightheaded while out on a walk? It's not a totally unusual experience. It often gets chalked up to low blood pressure or age. I know I didn't think much of it at first. Just one of those things that happens when you get older, I thought. It started a few years ago, around the same time I spent more time walking outside. It was a strange sensation. A little uncomfortable, for sure. One moment you're doing fine, just going about your business, the next you feel like you're about to topple over. It was a little annoying, but not something I worried about initially.

That was one thing. What was really bothersome was the sleep walking. It started happening every so often at first. I'd find myself standing in the kitchen, unsure of how I got there. One morning I woke up lying next to my front door, but had no memory of leaving my bed. I looked up causes of sleepwalking, but nothing really conclusive came up. Just stress and the usual stuff. I figured whatever it was would pass eventually.

Things only really started to concern me when I collapsed when passing underneath a willow tree one bright summer's day. I had been walking for about 40 minutes, enjoying the peace and quiet of my local forest when I was suddenly brought to my knees at under the old, twisted log. I felt like I was going to faint, but I didn't fully lose consciousness. As I sat there with hands and knees at the ground it felt like my very soul was being pulled out of the back of my head. By this point, the episodes of lightheadedness and now nausea while outside had become frequent enough to where it started to concern me and seriously impact my usual outdoor hobbies, so I knew something was up.

I quickly made an appointment with my doctor after that. He checked my heart and lungs, did a blood test, looked at a broad set of levels. The usual stuff, and with a shrug told me he didn't know either. Vitamins and minerals were fine. Liver was fine. Thyroid was fine. Could be some blood pressure thing, I had thought, but that turned out to be normal, too. Even the brain scan they made after the the initial incident turned up unremarkable. There really was no reason I should be having these problems, yet there I was.

I was on my way home from the doctor when I saw Mike Henderson down the street. The moment his face entered my field of vision my heart jumped, and I quickly crossed to the other side, trying not to make eye contact. Mike's not a bad guy or anything, just a bit obnoxious. Well, he clearly didn't get the hint and crossed the street too, waving at me enthusiastically. Great.

"Oh, hi Mike..." I said, acting as if I hadn't been paying attention and trying to mask my mild disappointment at the sight of him.

"Yooo Liza, long time no talk. How's the dog?"

"Uh, still dead." I said, matter of fact.

"Oh, right. Yeah. Condolences. Hey, so me and the guys are going to throw a pizza party and play some Yu-Gi-Oh at the old lakehouse. Wanna come?"

The lakehouse was a vacation home belonging to an elderly resident of our town. I didn't know her, personally, but apparently she had dementia and has been stuck in a nursing home for the past 12 years. The family can't sell the house, because she still owns it but is in no state of mind to sell. So they've just been biding their time until her death, all the while the house sits empty.

Now as much as I like exploring abandoned buildings, I wanted to stay far away from that lakehouse. I couldn't explain why I hated the place. It's just, when you look at it you get this feeling, you know? That you're not meant to be there. It's not necessarily that it feels inhabited by something, just... off. Also, Yu-Gi-Oh? I thought we had stopped playing that game when we were 13.

Well, I told Mike I wasn't interested in that creepy place, to which he shrugged and turned around. I can't say I was surprised about the whole thing. I figured he mostly wanted me there because I was friends with his weed guy and could get him a discount, not because he really cared about how I had been doing the past year.

After I returned home, my mind came back to the issue of my health issues. I didn't much feel like going to a different doctor, and with little other ideas left, I decided to ask the internet for help. I tried Reddit, some group chats, even Yahoo answers and honestly didn't get much by way of helpful advice. A lot people suggested the same medical conditions I had already been tested for. Some people promoted wacky supplements and fad diets. A few people told me it must be psychosomatic or something, which was as good as saying I was making it up. I got very familiar with hearing that last one.

I had started to lose hope on curing these symptoms when I had a chance encounter on an old school forum dedicated to health issues. I always liked those things. I posted my question and was about to turn over for the night but got interrupted by a DM from a user called Staircase283.

I opened my messages and read his text box that just said "You should stop going there".

Confused, I responded: "Going where? Do I know you?".

"When you feel sick, it's a sign you need to turn around and go home." I laughed a little upon reading that. Not that I didn't appreciate the concern, but it was such mundane advice.

I typed back "Well, uh, probably yeah. I dunno I don't like turning around in the middle of a walk lol", trying to inject some friendliness into this strange conversation.

"Do not go stray beyond the light of God"

"The hell?", I whispered. Was this guy trolling me?

I asked "What happens if I do?"

"You know you shouldn't, Liza."

My neck hairs stood up when I read that. How did he know my name? My username was anonymous, in fact I had just created this account for this purpose. "I'm going to do it anyway lol" I wrote, trying to settle my own unease at the situation. I got no response. He hadn't gone offline, I could tell, but any further attempts at getting a reply failed. I closed my laptop and sighed. I didn't know what the guy was on about, but it gave me a weird feeling. I don't know how to describe it other than that the world outside my room no longer existed, yet the inside of it didn't feel like home. I get that feeling sometimes when I'm creeped out at night.

I realized something then, I had never actually associated my symptoms with a particular place. I thought they were just something that happened randomly as I walked. The next day, I decided to run a little experiment. Instead of walking the usual route I decided to take my bike instead. That was the first part. Believe it or not, as soon as I cycled past the underpass, the symptoms showed up, same as when I was on foot. They got a little worse as I passed a field of mugwort that always made me sneeze from the pollen. "Allergies?" I wondered.

I stopped just before the willow tree that had made me collapse, and from there walked back. As soon as I started to walk the opposite way, I began to feel better. My lightheadedness faded and I gained some vigor back. This confirmed it wasn't just walking or being upright specifically that was doing it.

That night I mulled all of it over. If it were some kind of air polution or allergic reaction or something, then turning around wouldn't actually help. It'd be localized to a specific place. If it was a mugwort allergy, well, I'd still be feeling the symptoms on the way back. Who was Staircase283 anyway? That last question really kept me up. No matter how much I tried to sleep, I couldn't shake off this feeling that he knew me somehow. Had I met him in real life before? The more I thought about it the more uneasy I got.

I opened my laptop and Googled his name. I got a Reddit user page. No profile picture, only one post. It was in a called r/x102_37. I tried to click on it, but every time I did it just said "ACCESS DENIED" in all caps. I had used Reddit on and off for a little while by this point, but I had never seen that error message before. I decided to send him another message on Reddit this time asking him who he was, but again got no reply. The next morning, still having gotten no response from Staircase283, so I decided to ask around on various forums if anyone knew who he was.

"Hey this guy called Staircase283 messaged me on the Healthme forums with some weird personal details. Does anyone know him/her?" By this point in my search I had gotten quite busy with my studies and hadn't had much time for this whole affair, but a few weeks later when I checked my post again, I got a lead. Someone claimed to have been friends with Staircase. He said the two of them met via a game called Warframe and had hung out for several years before he changed.

Apparently, he had started posting pictures of the moon a lot, giving weird cryptic messages about "the faultlines being wrong" or something like that and frequently became irritable and started shouting about people gangstalking him before hanging up on calls. He would often apologize the next day, but would never explain what he was talking about when pressed for details. It wasn't clear what would set him off when he got like this. His friend just assumed he was going mad.

Then other times, he'd be so distant as if nothing interested him. One time he had been invited to play a game like old times and only responded with "It's cold when you get this deep". Finally on April 27th of 2019, he disappeared completely. Nobody had heard from him since. I checked his Reddit profile again. His only post was dated 2019. My brow furrowed.

I sent a message saying I thought he might be the same person who messaged me to this forum poster. "Do you know anything else about them?" The forum poster took a while to respond, and was only able to give me a name. "Lucasz Shevyek or Szewcyk or something like that". Unfortunately they didn't remember how to spell it.

I decided to take a break from my research and get something to eat from the convenience store. On the way there, I passed Mike again. This time he didn't acknowledge me at all. He was starting out into space with some crazy focus. At the same time he looked tired, like the weight of the world was weighing him down. While him not chatting me up was unusual, I chalked it up to him being high as a kite and got a sandwich, and when I left the store he was gone.

When I got home I looked up Mr. Staircase now having a lead on his real identity. It took a couple hours, but by the end of it I had discovered Lukasz Szewczyk was a Polish name and found a missing persons report from May 2019. According to the report, a man by that name had disappeared from his hometown of Wronki and was reported missing by family and never found again. I even found a Facebook post from his family asking for leads. Zero replies.

Well clearly Lukasz was still out there, because he emailed me later that day. When I opened my box it just read "are you coming?". Just like that, no subject, no further details.

I found three things about this email unsettling.First, the fact that he had somehow located my email. Now, I wasn't a privacy freak or anything, but I did try to keep the internet free of my personal info.

The second thing was that the sender address was just "staircase283". No @, no host. Just a name.

Last but not least, the contents. Where was he going? Did he run away from home, and if so, why did he want me to come wherever he was?

This whole mystery was creeping me out to the point where my sleep quality was impacted. Some nights I would wake up in a panic, while clawing at a window, but never remember what I had been dreaming about as I wiped cold sweat off my face. The nights that really bothered me were the ones when I didn't wake up in my own home at all. I often found myself out in a field, or along a forest trail. Places I visited by day, certainly, but it unnerved me that I would come out there while fully asleep.

One day, feeling tired of it all, I decided to call my sister. I knew she was on lunch break at the time.

See, my sister. She was smart, unlike me, and so had gone to study at a prestigious University in the city so we didn't talk as much. The phone rang a few times before she picked up.

"Hi, Liza! How are you?"

"Hi, Beth. Pretty good, how about you? Are they working you to the bone yet?"

"Yeah, kinda." She laughed, which made me feel a little better.

"I was working on this fluid dynamics problem for this engineering project. It's on such a tight deadline, I haven't been sleeping much."

"Oh, please try to sleep a little bit!" I whined.

"Maybe, haha. So, what's new with you?"

"Well..." I began, wondering how to word this properly. I had told her about my weird health issues already, but this Lukasz guy was a whole other story. "Have you ever been stalked by someone?"

"No, I can't say that I have." Her tone got a little more serious then. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's not like I can say I am, but some weird stuff has been happening. I messaged someone online and they found my name and email somehow?"

"Oh, gee, that sucks. Have they been saying anything weird to you?"

"Well, kinda? Not like creepy in the "send pussy pics" kinda way, but, well... Hang on let me grab his messages." I read out the three that had stood out to me as Beth listened.

"Hmm, that is a little weird, but I don't think it's that concerning yet. Look I gotta go to my next class right now, but if this guy keeps bothering you, let me know ok?"

"Yeah, I will. Thanks."

"Kay love you, bye!" she said before ending the call.

I reclined into my chair and sighed. I knew she was doing her best to support me, and frankly thinking about it now I felt a little silly about the whole thing. That's when I heard a little "tak" on my window. I sat up slightly and looked towards the window. Then I heard another. I sat up slightly. "Tak". "Tak". I opened the window to see what was going on and nearly got hit in the face with a pebble that a scrawny guy with a goatee had thrown up at me.

"What the fuck, Ethan? Are you trying to serenade me? It's not even 1pm ye- Oh shit, Cath, hi! What are you doing around this dork?"

"Catherine waved up at me meekly."

"Hey, don't badmouth me in front of Catherine!" Ethan yelled back at me. "Look, could you come down? It's serious!"

"Fine." I said, and slipped on a coat before heading out.

Ethan Walsh and I had been friends since about 6th grade. He was a bit of a socially anxious person, but he had a good sense of humor, and was always interesting to talk to about whatever wacky project of the month he was working on. Now, Catherine and I went even further back, but she had moved to the next town over some years back so I was surprised to see her. As soon as I came out I ran up to her and hugged her.

Our little heart to heart was cut short after that.

"Henderson's missing." Ethan's tone startled me. I looked up at him, who in turn looked like he was going to stare a hole through my head. "Huh?" I asked, bewildered.

"He's been gone since four days ago. There's been a police report and everything. You didn't hear?"

I looked at Catherine, who looked down at her feet. I knew she had had a thing for Mike Henderson back when. Maybe she still did. I looked at Ethan, who looked at Catherine expectantly, who finally looked back up at me. The three of us exchanged awkward glances for a moment before Cath broke the silence "Let's walk." she said.

The three of us headed down the market street as she explained she had come back about a month ago now that she had dropped out of college. She said she had been approached by Mike who invited her to the pizza party at the lakehouse, which he had clearly done it with some charisma and attractiveness that was beyond my understanding, but had worked on Catherine, as she had agreed to join. She didn't even play Yu-Gi-Oh. Apparently the party had been pretty normal. She had been catching up with a few friends while having a drink in the kitchen when she had heard a knocking upstairs. It was the strangest thing, it was only when she heard that when she realized that despite having a second floor, the house had no stairs leading up there. It was like someone had torn down any access to it at some point in the past. Or had it been built like that? Why?

She heard another knock, followed by footsteps upstairs. It got very quiet in the house as now everyone was straining to listen to the noise upstairs, scared to shit of having been busted by the owners. Catherine felt very uneasy then. It was a fear she couldn't put into words. Like whatever was up there was much worse than an angry homeowner or a cop.

Henderson, wanting to be the tough guy in front of the girls, broke the silence by announcing he was going up there and headed up with a ladder and climb into one of the windows. Several party goers watched him climb in and give an enthusiastic double thumbs up out of the window before disappearing with a flashlight into the darkness within. They waited outside for what felt like ages.

When he finally came out, he was totally quiet. Catherine asked him if there was anyone up there, and he turned to her. His face was pale as a ghost, but he said there wasn't. He said there was absolutely nothing up there. Just a few empty cupboards, an old mattress and a bunch of dust. Catherine had had enough of the weirdness at that point and went home with a mutual acquaintance. She had honestly wanted to forget about the whole thing when she met Henderson just a few days ago.

They had gotten to talking about what happened and he finally shared what he had seen. The room with the mattress had been empty, but showed clear signs of someone having been there. The window was open, with a sharp nail sticking out and there was a drop of blood on the sill. He thought it must've been a squatter who got spooked by the party and fled when he noticed something. There was a closet in the corner of the room. The door was half open and he couldn't see what was inside. His heart sank on the sight. He knew what he had to do. He approached cautiously, flashlight lifted ready to bash whoever might be hiding in there on the head if they tried anything, but when he flung open the closet fully there were only a few scattered papers.

He took closer look and noticed some of them were a child's drawings. In between the drawings were a set of polaroids pictures. He checked the polaroids, they had dates written on the back, all roughly 10-14 years ago, and they were almost all pictures of children sleeping. That was bad enough, but the thing that had shook him so deeply was the realization that *he* was one of the kids in the pictures. Someone had taken a picture of him sleeping over a decade ago and it had been kept in this closet for who knows how long until he just so happened to stumble upon it. All of the kids were people we knew, mutual acquaintances, people who went to our high school. I was in there too. The final polaroid wasn't of a kid, but an old metal staircase.

I physically began to tremble when I heard that part. Catherine handed me the picture of myself. Sure enough, it was me. My bedroom as exactly was it had been 12 years ago. There was no mistaking it. I noticed the picture had been taken with a flash, and that terrified me more than anything you could imagine, for reasons I will get into later.

I decided then to tell Ethan and Cath about my encounter with Staircase283 and how much it had weirded me out. They exchanged nervous glances and told me that the picture of the staircase had been dated exactly February 2nd, 1983. My eyes went wide. It was February 6th, 2023 today.

Mike Henderson had gone missing 4 days ago.