The sound was back again. the scratching, the teeth chittering. I knew something was there, but I couldn't find it. I was going to be driven mad.

It all started when I moved into the condo behind my uncle's house. he let me stay there for cheap, and it seemed like a better idea than paying rent on a big house I barely used. I moved my things in and stayed for a month or so to make sure this was what I wanted. Everything had been normal up until then so I had no reason to doubt if I should or shouldn't stay. That's when I made the mistake of buying the condo from my uncle.

I knew something was wrong on that first night after I bought the condo. Weird little things would happen that would leave me questioning my sanity. Little things like lost keys, or a missing remote wouldn't have been noticeable for me since I'm really bad about losing things all the time. Maybe it knew that? Maybe that's why things happened the way they did.

Anyways, that first night something happened. Something that makes my skin crawl just thinking about. I know how it's going to sound. really and truly, I do. But I know what i saw. I know those walls moved. They wiggled and warped and then I heard the sound. A sound similar to nails on a chalkboard. A screeching, so horrible I had to walk out of the condo. I could hear it outside too now, still screeching. Then the sound a dogs nails make while running on a wood floor. those clicks and taps of the nails hitting the floor repeatedly. I could hear the sounds of something snapping their jaws open and closed, something that was hungry and needed to feed.

I tried to tell my uncle, but he wouldn't listen, kept saying I was going crazy.

I'm not crazy.

The sounds would carry on all night, only stopping in the morning. That's when it slept, I assume. I didn't have the money to get my old house back, so I decided the only logical plan, was to find what was living in the walls. I started tearing down the walls, ripping insulation out, everything down to the bare structure had been removed.

I thought I could finally sleep peacefully for a night, but as soon as I laid down the screeching started again. I don't know how I made it through the night but first thing in the morning I told my uncle that there was still something wrong and I couldn't find it in the walls. He looked at me like I needed to be sent to a looney bin or something.

I'm not crazy

I'm not crazy

I'm not crazy

My uncle walked inside the condo for the first time since selling it to me. His face was white as a ghost.

"What did you do??" My uncle asked as he gazed around. There was no furniture, no door, and all the walls except the outside perimeter walls had been removed. leaving just one open empty wall-less room.

I need them out of the walls. I need them out. I need them gone

Still, he didn't believe me.

That's when I came up with my plan. I bought the supplies and got to work. By the next morning, i had fully enclosed myself inside the walls. Trying to sneak up on whatever was back there. I had no way of knowing how much time had passed, but nothing had moved inside the walls other than me. I pulled my lever to let me out of the wall. It snapped, broke off, leaving me trapped inside the walls.

I started screaming and pounding on the walls to get out. Finally, someone came inside, I could hear them. I could hear them ripping the walls off and trying to get to me. Only it wasn't me they were coming for. It was that horrid screeching and nail sounds that had driven me into the walls to begin with.

It all made sense then, there were countless souls trapped inside these walls. Lost souls that can't decide between life and death get trapped here. And only those who struggle with the question of life and death can hear those screams and pleads for help.

Guess I made my choice...