My fiance, (Jess) and I (Laura) have been looking for a place to call home since the start of 2021. We live on the outskirts of Germany, not too far away from the Netherlands.

We eventually did find something at the beginning of this year, 2023. It was an average 3-room apartment on the 3rd floor, with a balcony, one bathroom, and one kitchen. The apartment was located in a fairly small resident house with 3 apartments on each floor, 3 floors, totaling up to 9 apartments.

We began moving in 3 weeks ago, and during that time, no neighbors showed their faces or offered help, which was fine, but we did hope to at least meet one or two of them during the transition.

We began sorting through our stuff last week, arranging our things the way we want them to be.

One important point I forgot to mention is- since our apartment is on the top floor, it's a roof apartment, meaning most of our outside walls are tilted.

We discovered a crawl space in one of the guest rooms, it wasn't really hidden. It was inside one of the tilted walls, and it was just a small space, not big enough to crawl around in, much less walk around in, but big enough to put a couple of things away that are not needed. You can think of it as an attic.

"Hey Jess, come look at this!" I called out to her after having discovered the space.

"What is it?" Jess came in carrying a curious expression on her face.

I pointed to the dark crawl space. "I'll grab a flashlight." She said.

"Oh don't be old fashioned," I told her, and pulled out my phone, turning on the flash.

I pointed the light into the crawl space, it still had some stuff inside, old paint buckets, and a couple of boxes. I also noticed something big and black in the far corner. It looked like a computer.

"Let me look," Jess said, sounding impatient. I moved out of the way and handed her my phone, she gave me a grin and poked her head in.

"Is that a computer?" She asked after a moment.

"Yeah, I think so," I answered.

(For those curious, I attached a picture of the old computer and a picture of the crawlspace here.)

We played rock paper scissors to decide who would go crawl inside the crawlspace to retrieve a couple of boxes and the computer. I won, and Jess grumpily crawled in.

"There's so much dust!" She said between coughs. I was just glad it wasn't me in there. She finally got back with the computer in tow, it was on wheels, so it helped not needing to carry it out.

She went back in and returned with one of the boxes next, and soon after the last one.

"It's just clothes in here," I said, somewhat disappointed, after looking through the first box.

"Same here." Jess responded. "But they look kind of weird.."

"Weird how?" I asked her. Mine didn't look weird, not that I could tell anyway.

"Come look." I walked over to where jess was sitting on the ground. The box contained old clothes as Jess said, the clothes themselves looked normal, they were old jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, etc. What was weird were the stains. There were blotches of red all around them, it looked like someone had taken a bucket of red paint and just dropped it into the box.

"Is that blood?" I asked Jess.

"I don't know, are yours like that too?"

"No, my box has no such stains." I glanced over at the computer.

"Do you think it works?" Jess was looking at it too now.

"Only one way to find out."

We first had to figure out what kind of cables we needed in order to turn it on, which didn't happen until the next day when my best friend Paul came over. He's working as an IT specialist, so this was kind of his thing. We didn't want to break it, in case it was still working, but we also didn't want to spend any money on any hardware that we may need without knowing that the computer worked first.

"Ooh this thing's old and dusty," Paul said after only taking a look.

"I'd guess it's 2008, maybe 2009?" He was talking to himself while inspecting it. He did something because the next thing I know, something popped and he opened up the computer, taking a peek inside.

"Don't break it," Jess warned.

Paul laughed in response. "Are you the expert or am I?"

They both never actually saw eye to eye, but they tried because they both loved me.

"Definitely not older than 2008." Paul began talking to himself again.

"But it looks like it should work, want to try turning it on?" He turned to me awaiting an answer, I nodded.

"Alright I'll go grab some stuff I need to turn it on, and we can see what we find." I could tell he was excited. I was too, mostly just curious about what we'd find inside. The naive part of me hoped there'd be bitcoin on there. Not that I know how bitcoin even look, I just know bitcoin is worth a lot. And I've heard stories of people finding bitcoin on old computers.

Paul returned with a monitor, a mouse and a keyboard, and a couple of other cables in hand. We plugged in the power source and turned on the computer after plugging in the rest. It buzzed for a moment and then the screen lit up.

"It works!" We all released the breaths we were holding.

It took a while to power up, but once it did the desktop came to life, and boy was it full. There were icons of apps, folders, documents, and things I didn't even recognize.

After clicking a couple of times Paul said, "This thing's full of stuff, both the disks are full."

"But it works, so that's awesome." He added.

Jess and I both observed as Paul worked, clicking here and there, doing something.

"I can get this cleaned up for you and fully functional in a couple of days." He finally said, still not looking away from the screen.

Jess nodded.

"How about you let us see what's on it first, and then you can come to pick it up next week?" I asked. I was being nosy. Jess gave me one of her disapproving looks.

Paul looked straight at me and smiled. "Sure can do, just don't break anything while you're at it." Jess shook her head.

Paul left shortly after and we were left alone. My fingers were itching to pick up the mouse and keyboard and get to work, and so I did.

I looked through what could be found on the desktop first. There were a couple of resumes, old documents, employment files, resignation files, etc. I had the numbers and emails and names of these people right at my disposal.

Next, I took note of the various apps, trying to see if there was anything related to bitcoin, but had no such luck.

After clicking through a couple of things I stumbled upon a folder titled "Images." I clicked on it and began skimming through them. I didn't know who exactly these people were, but they looked normal. They looked like a normal family.

My attention suddenly turned to the crawlspace as I heard a shuffling sound coming from in there. The door to it was still closed. I slowly walked over, placing my ear on the door, trying to listen in. I couldn't hear anything. As soon as I began walking away I heard a shuffle again. This time I turned on the flash on my phone, opened the door, and peeked inside. I was expecting a rat or a mouse, but instead, I saw nothing. Just an empty space. I sighed a sigh of relief and closed the door, getting back to the computer.

I looked through it for another maybe 5 minutes before finally losing interest.

I got back to it the next day after work. I immediately noticed some changes, the way some stuff was shown on the desktop, was different. But I shrugged it off, maybe Jess snooped around too. There was a brand new folder on the desktop titled, "CCTV"

I opened the folder and found a bunch of video files, hundreds. They all were titled with dates. The first video was titled November 5th and the last December 23rd.

I clicked on the first video and a video player appeared on the screen. The video was 8 hours long, and it showed multiple perspectives of what seemed to be rooms in darkness. I finally realized that it was our apartment it was showing, but it looked different. It wasn't laid out the same way, the furniture was different too.

The bedrooms were being filmed too, there were two figures inside the king-sized bed in the main bedroom, and a single figure in the guest room, it looked like a children's room. The room I was in, the room that had the crawlspace.

I skipped forward a couple of minutes and watched in horror as the crawlspace door creaked open. I could see a hand reaching out into the room. Then the figure in the bed got up and rubbed their eyes. The hand inside the crawlspace retreated into the darkness. The figure in the bed, which I realized was a young boy, was frozen in place, just staring at the open crawlspace door. I skipped forward a couple more minutes. The boy finally got out of bed and slowly walked over to the crawlspace, shutting the door. He then took one of the toy boxes in his room and pushed it to block the door.

The boy then ran back to his bed and got under the covers. I continued skipping forward and got to the morning, and then the video ended.

I closed it and opened the next one, titled November 6th. This one also started at night. I watched as the mother kissed the boy goodnight and walked out of the room. The box was still in front of the crawl space. I skimmed through the video, but nothing out of the ordinary happened during this one.

I opened the next one. This one was titled "November 7th morning" It was short, 5 minutes, and it only showed the little boys' room during day time. I watched as the presumed mother walked into his room and pushed away the box of toys, which was blocking the crawlspace's entrance. She then opened it and peeked inside, retrieving some sort of object that was out of view. She closed the crawlspace door and walked out of the room, but the video kept playing.

The door slowly opened and I saw something dark and shadowy quickly moving from one side of the crawlspace to the other. Then the video ended.

I continued looking through the videos, they were much the same. At some point at the start of December, the boy stopped sleeping in his room, and instead slept in the living room, on their sofa.

A hand appeared on my shoulder and I got startled.

"Woah!" Jess said, taking a step back. "I didn't mean to scare you, I mean, you were really in there."

I just looked at her with a blank expression.

"It's late, come on, let's go to bed."

"Late? It's only 6 PM." I responded.

"It's 9 PM, Laura."

Did I really spend my entire day watching those videos? I stood up from the chair and followed Jess out of the guest room. Just as I closed the door I heard something creak open inside. I opened the door again. The crawlspace door was open.

"What the fuck?" I whispered under my breath. Jess came back over. "What is it?"

"The crawlspace door just opened on its own," I responded, still looking inside the room, looking into the darkness of the crawlspace, half expecting to see a hand or something moving.

Jess brushed past me and walked inside the room, and my heart dropped. I was afraid, why was I afraid? I wanted to say something, but my lips were sealed shut. She walked over to the crawlspace door and closed it.

"Problem solved." She shot me a grin, and I felt my tensed-up body relax just a little.

I had a nightmare that night. I dreamt that I was sleeping in that room, it looked just like that little boy's room. The same furniture I had seen in the videos. I dreamt that the crawlspace door opened. I felt that I was scared, really scared. And I was frozen. But eventually, I got the courage to stand up and go and close it. I walked over to the crawlspace door and peered inside. I saw two glowing blue circles inside, and then the dream ended.

I was really distracted at work the next day, my boss almost sent me home. I couldn't stop thinking about those videos. They were so bizarre, so weird. What was that thing inside the crawlspace? Was it haunted? Was it an animal?

I went straight into the guest room after I got home. The crawlspace door was closed and I sighed a sigh of relief. I turned on the computer. The desktop had been changed again. There now was a second folder, this one titled "CCTV 2"

The first video was titled "January 1st", and the last "February 7th."

There were a lot of missed dates in this folder, the next video that followed after January 1st, was January 7th, and then 10th, and then 12th.

I opened the first video. it showed the same perspective as the CCTV footage from the old videos. Except the entire apartment was empty. No furniture. The video was 23 minutes long. I watched as the front door to the apartment opened and three figures stepped in. My whole body tensed up then. I had chills crawling all over my skin. It was Jess and I and the realtor that entered. I watched as the realtor showed us around the apartment, just like the very first day we were shown around. But I don't remember seeing any camera's around. Where is this footage coming from?

While we were in the master bedroom, the guest's room crawlspace door opened. I could see two blue pixels inside the darkness, just like I had seen in my dream.

I closed the video and opened the next one, "January 7th".

It was only 3 minutes long. I watched as the realtor walked inside the apartment and went straight into the guest room. He opened the door to the crawlspace and crawled inside. He crawled out at around 2:30 minutes of the video, and ran out of the apartment, leaving the crawlspace door wide open.

The next video, "January 10th." Was our moving day, I watched as we moved into the apartment, carrying all our different appliances through the front door while something lurked inside the darkness of the crawlspace. At some point in the video, Jess and I were discussing something right in front of the guest room, and her hand was on the handle, already turning to open the door. The crawlspace door slowly closed by itself moments before Jess walked inside the room.

I turned off the video and looked around the room. Looking for any hidden cameras. I had to tell Jess about this, I had to show her.

I continued looking through the videos until I got to "January 29th." That is tomorrow.

It was short, 2 minutes. It was only showing the guest room. I saw how Jess walked inside the room and opened the crawlspace. She crawled inside and out of view. Then the crawlspace door shut closed, and the video ended. I was frozen in shock.

I closed the video and turned off the computer, walking out of the room.

"What's going on?" Jess suddenly appeared before me. When did she get back home from work? I pulled out my phone to look at the time. It was 8 PM, what the fuck? When did it get so late again? It felt like I was inside that room for maybe half an hour, not longer.

"You okay?" Jess had a worried look.

I nodded in response and walked into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water.

"I need to show you something." I finally said to Jess.

"oo you find something cool on that computer?" She said excitedly, but her expression quickly changed when mine remained grim.

"What is it?" She asked, now sounding a little worried.

I motioned for her to follow me and we went to the guest room. When I opened the door, the crawlspace was open. I took a deep breath and walked inside, immediately closing the crawlspace door.

"You're scaring me." She said from behind me.

"Just look," I said while picking up the mouse. I looked on the desktop and looked for the folders titled CCTV and CCTV 2. They were gone.

"How is that possible?" I muttered under my breath.

"What?" Jess asked.

"The folders- the videos- they're all gone." I glanced at the door to the crawlspace.

"Come on, let's go," Jess said and began walking out of the room.

"Jess, don't go into that crawlspace ever again, no matter what."

She looked at me with worried eyes but nodded in agreement, which made me relax a little.

It's almost midnight now and Jess is soundly asleep beside me. I don't know what the fuck is going on and I want to figure it out. I decided that I'm going to reach out to the old tenants tomorrow, I have their details after all. Maybe they can shed some light on this. I really hope Jess listens and doesn't go into that crawlspace. I have a really bad feeling about all this.