The Strange Case of the Haunted Bungalow

An ex-colleague of mine once told me an eerie story that may be the creepiest one I've heard. Unfortunately, I don't know many details besides what he told me since we no longer work together. I'll recount it as best I can.

Let's call my ex-colleague Aaron. Years ago, Aaron rented a semi-detached bungalow alone for a short time. The rental situation seemed suspicious from the start. Aaron said he only paid rent in cash to various untrustworthy-looking people who came by each month to collect it. He never met his landlord in person, only having a phone number to contact him.

One thing Aaron noticed upon moving in was that the house was always freezing, regardless of the heating being on or the time of year. Strange occurrences began soon after. Aaron would constantly see movement in his peripheral vision, like someone walking past the doorway from the living room to the hallway. He'd jump up to check if someone was in the house, but never found anyone. This shadowy figure seemed to walk past in different areas frequently.

Aaron described an intense, inexplicable feeling of dread that came and went at odd times. He said it was overwhelming, and visitors noticed it too. Once, a woman refused to spend the night because the unease was so strong. The dread even drove Aaron out of the house late one night, forcing him to hastily dress outside and call a friend for a ride.

Aaron received mail for the previous tenant, a man who had mysteriously moved out without notice. When Aaron contacted his landlord, he was told they didn't know where the man had gone. It got stranger when the man's family showed up at Aaron's door asking about him - they hadn't heard from him in months.

Two disturbing events happened near the end of Aaron's stay. First, when he forgot to withdraw cash for the rent, the collector threatened "you'll end up like the last one who lived here" if Aaron didn't pay the next day. Ominous indeed.

The second occurred during a conversation with his neighbor, whose bungalow was connected to his. The neighbor knew the previous tenant as a quiet man who kept to himself. He had seen the landlord's men removing furniture after the tenant disappeared, assuming his belongings were stored in the cellar. But Aaron insisted his place had no cellar. The neighbor explained that their homes were identical floorplans, just mirrored, and he had a cellar door under his kitchen floor.

Aaron checked and found the neighbor was right - under the linoleum in his kitchen was a trap door. Considering all the eerie events, Aaron concluded the landlord may have killed the previous tenant over unpaid rent and hid his body in the cellar. He desperately wanted to open the hatch, but couldn't bring himself to do it. Aaron re-covered the door, moved the fridge back, and quickly made plans to leave, afraid of raising the landlord's suspicions. He never pursued the issue further. I just hope his chilling theory wasn't true.