Creeps, true stories from Reddit (Second book)

This is not a suicide note!

Three months ago, I learned of my Uncle's passing. We weren't particularly close but he left me one of his houses in the will. I was touched but just wanted to sell it off. I am a fairly new father of twin girls and didn't need another thing to manage right now.

To speed up the process, I decided to travel across the country to live in the house until a sale was assured. My job just requires a laptop and phone so I was approved to work remotely for the time being. Unfortunately, my wife had to stay at her job so I had to come alone.

At first, I treated it as a mini-vacation. I had hoped it would only last a week but the process was more involved than I thought. I had a realtor taking care of most things but, after a month, I'm still here.

I noticed things going wrong right away. Stuff was never where I last placed it. I'd see shadows out of the corner of my eye. I've lose track of time constantly.

I thought it was caused by stress. Loneliness. Except for the few times the Realtor came by with prospective buyers, the house was the quietest place I had ever been in.

Before I completely lost my mind, the neighbor came by with a dog. She was an elderly woman who explained that she had been dog-sitting while my Uncle was in the hospital. Now that I was here, she thought I should take Buster, the golden retriever.

I thought the neighbor might have been "forgetful" because she seemed to think my Uncle had just passed last week. Either way, I fell in love with Buster and his presence was exactly what I needed. I even thought it would be a tremendous present to bring home to my girls. I just hoped my wife would feel the same way.

However, even the dog could tell something was wrong with the house. Buster accepted his new living arrangements pretty quickly but would never willingly go upstairs. This was alright with me at the time. I thought it would make it easier to keep track of him.

Then, Buster disappeared.

Literally, one second he was standing right behind me as I was opening the treat jar to give him a snack. My eyes left him for just a moment to put the jar back and then he was gone.

I ran through the whole house calling his name. The kitchen was connected to the living room and on the other end of that was the master bedroom and study. The other end of the kitchen led to a dining room which was connected to the entrance hall that also led into the living room and stairs to the second floor.

After walking upstairs, you had a choice of right or left along a balcony that overlooked the living room on one side and entrance on the other. Going left led immediately to a guest room and game room.

Going right led to two more guest rooms and a bathroom at the end of the hall. I looked in every room and had to accept that somehow the dog made it outside, even though there was no doggy door and every door and window had been closed and locked.

So I searched the surrounding neighborhood for another hour before giving up. I was thinking about making flyers when I opened the front door and heard Buster scrambling towards me from the kitchen.

I was ecstatic of course but I just couldn't wrap my head around how I could have missed him. I let Buster sleep in the bed with me that night. In hindsight, it was a huge mistake but it made me feel better at the time.

Things picked up at work though and I soon forgot about all the strangeness surrounding this house. Clients called me constantly but we were getting a lot done and I landed multiple large contracts in a row. I was working around the clock but I knew I'd be due a promotion once I returned to the home office.