Speaker 1: A pod Shape production.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Chills, the Spooky Story Podcast. It's
Speaker 2: hard to believe unless, of course, it happened to you.
Speaker 2: This next story is from Sophia. She sent her story
Speaker 2: in via the email at the chillsatpodshape dot com. We've
Speaker 2: had someone else read her story.
Speaker 1: This happened about five years ago, and even now I
Speaker 1: can't shake the feeling that someone's watching me every night.
Speaker 1: It was just a regular Thursday night in late November.
Speaker 1: I'd recently moved into this old apartment on the outskirts
Speaker 1: of Freemantle. It's a quirky little place with a lot
Speaker 1: of character, at least that's what I thought at the time.
Speaker 2: Fremantle is one of the oldest suburbs of Perth in
Speaker 2: Western Australia. It's home to an old jail and lots
Speaker 2: of old historic buildings that date back to the early settlers.
Speaker 2: It's coastal and it has a bit of a spooky
Speaker 2: bohear mean vibe to it. I should know. I grew
Speaker 2: up there. Let's hit back to Sophia's story.
Speaker 1: The building was pretty old, probably from the early nineteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: and had this like weird, eerie charm to it. The landlord,
Speaker 1: mister Thompson, was an older guy. He seemed nice enough,
Speaker 1: but there was something about him that just felt a
Speaker 1: bit off, like he was almost too eager to help
Speaker 1: me settle in. I didn't think much of it back then,
Speaker 1: like maybe he was just lonely or something. My apartment
Speaker 1: was on the third floor, and the only other person
Speaker 1: living on my floor was a woman named Alice. I
Speaker 1: hardly ever saw her, just a few times in the hallway.
Speaker 1: She always seemed a bit jumpy, like she was trying
Speaker 1: to avoid something or someone. One night, I was lying
Speaker 1: in bed, struggling to fall asleep. The room was pitch
Speaker 1: black and the only sound was the ticking of this
Speaker 1: old wall clock I had, And just as I was
Speaker 1: about to doze off, I heard a whisper, help me.
Speaker 1: I quickly opened my eyes and I strained to hear more,
Speaker 1: and I heard nothing. I figured it was just my
Speaker 1: mind playing tricks on me, so I tried to go
Speaker 1: back to sleep. But then I heard it again, and
Speaker 1: this time clearer, Please help me.
Speaker 2: Now. I don't know about you, but the amount of
Speaker 2: stories I've heard or scary movies I've seen when someone
Speaker 2: hears a voice saying help me. I can tell you
Speaker 2: I'm not staying around to find out who needs help.
Speaker 2: I'm out the door faster than you can say, like
Speaker 2: scary mom me uh huh. But Sophia isn't like me.
Speaker 2: She's kinder, some would say a little braver. So what
Speaker 2: does she do next?
Speaker 1: I sat up in bed. My heart was pounding. The
Speaker 1: voice was coming from the corner of the room like
Speaker 1: I reached over and switched on the bedside lamb, but
Speaker 1: the corner was empty, just shadows from my wardrobe. There
Speaker 1: was nothing there. I tried to tell myself it was
Speaker 1: just the wind, or maybe the old pipes in the building.
Speaker 1: But then I heard it again, and it was even
Speaker 1: more desperate. This time, He's coming for me, please. I
Speaker 1: jumped out of bed. I freaked out. I searched the room,
Speaker 1: but there was literally no one there. Now I was
Speaker 1: wide awake and I was completely terrified. I decided to
Speaker 1: go for a walk to clear my head. When I
Speaker 1: stepped into the hallway, I noticed Alice's door was slightly open,
Speaker 1: and I could hear her crying inside. I knocked softly
Speaker 1: on the door, Alice, are you okay? The crying stopped instantly,
Speaker 1: and after a long pause, she whispered, he's watching you too,
Speaker 1: isn't he? A chill ran down my spine. Who who's
Speaker 1: watching me? She peeped through the crack in the door,
Speaker 1: her eyes wide with fear. The man in the corner.
Speaker 1: He's been here for years. He watches us, waits for
Speaker 1: us to fall asleep, and then he takes us. I
Speaker 1: backed away, trying to stay calm. Alice, that's not funny,
Speaker 1: her eyes filled with tears. I'm not joking. He got
Speaker 1: the last ten and two. Please, you have to believe me.
Speaker 1: I literally didn't know what to say, so I just
Speaker 1: nodded and I went back to my apartment, locking the
Speaker 1: door behind me. I did not sleep at all that night.
Speaker 2: I don't think I would have slept that night either.
Speaker 2: I certainly wouldn't want to see Alice again, and I
Speaker 2: don't think I would actually ever close my eyes again,
Speaker 2: not while I was staying in that apartment.
Speaker 1: The next day, I went to see mister Thompson. I
Speaker 1: told him about the voice and what Alice said. He
Speaker 1: just smiled and said, Alice has always had an overactive imagination.
Speaker 1: Don't let it get to you. But I couldn't shake
Speaker 1: the feeling that something was seriously wrong. That night, I
Speaker 1: stayed up staring at the corner of my room. Around
Speaker 1: three am, I felt a cold breeze, even though all
Speaker 1: the windows were shut tight. And then I saw it,
Speaker 1: a shadow, darker than the rest, moving in the corner.
Speaker 1: It started to take shape, growing taller and more defined.
Speaker 1: My heart was pounding as the figure of a man
Speaker 1: emerged from the darkness. His eyes were hollow and his
Speaker 1: mouth twisted into this creepy grin. I couldn't move, I
Speaker 1: couldn't scream. He stepped closer, and this overwhelming sense of
Speaker 1: dread hit me. Just as he reached out to touch me,
Speaker 1: there was a loud banging on the door. The figure
Speaker 1: disappeared instantly. I stumbled to the door and flung it open.
Speaker 1: Alice was standing there, pale and shaking. Did you see him?
Speaker 1: Did you see him? She whispered. I nodded, too scared
Speaker 1: to talk. We have to leave, she said urgently. Now
Speaker 1: we packed our things and left. That night. I moved
Speaker 1: back in with my parents and never went back to
Speaker 1: that building. Later, I found out that the apartment had
Speaker 1: a history of tenants disappearing under weird circumstances.
Speaker 2: So we've done a little bit of investigating this point.
Speaker 2: A Google search couldn't find any details of people that
Speaker 2: went missing from an apartment in Fremantle, but Sophia didn't
Speaker 2: tell us where it was or when it happens. What
Speaker 2: we do know is that in Fremantle there are regular
Speaker 2: ghosts tours that happened throughout the Fremantle Prison, which was
Speaker 2: built in eighteen fifty and was the first landing ground
Speaker 2: for early convicts. Around that prison are old houses that
Speaker 2: used to be inhabited by people that worked in the
Speaker 2: prison or serve us the prison. Either way, Sophia's story
Speaker 2: gave us the chills.
Speaker 1: Even now, years later, I sometimes catch a glimpse of
Speaker 1: that man in the corner, just for a split second,
Speaker 1: always watching and waiting.
Speaker 2: If you've got a story that you think could give
Speaker 2: us the chills, email us at the Chills at podshape
Speaker 2: dot com. See you next time. Help me up pay
Speaker 2: un pay