The Window in Maplewood
The Window in Maplewood
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I moved into an old Victorian house in Maplewood about three weeks ago. It’s nothing fancy, but the rent was cheap, and I needed a quiet place to finish writing my thesis. I figured the place had charm—wood floors, creaky stairs, high ceilings—stuff that looks great in photos but feels oddly isolating when you’re alone at night. Last night is when things started getting weird. There’s a window in the dining room that faces the backyard. Typical neighborhood, nothing spectacular. Except, the window has this weird double layer of glass—like two panes, but the space between them looks fogged up or something. I thought maybe it was for insulation. Anyway, I was sitting at the dining table working, and I noticed something odd in the window. At first, I thought it was my reflection, but the image didn’t match my movements. It was more like a shadowed figure standing just beyond the glass—too close to the window pane, but with no reflection of the outside yard behind it. I blinked, looked away, then looked back—nothing. Just the usual backyard. I chalked it up to eye strain. I’ve been staring at my laptop screen until 3 AM every night. But then I noticed the figure again—only this time it wasn’t shadowed. It looked… clearer. Like a translucent person wearing old-fashioned clothes. The kind of outfit you’d see in early 1900s photos. I swear the figure moved its head slightly, like it was watching me. I grabbed my phone and started recording the window, hoping to catch whatever this was. The video came out glitchy—like the window pane was distorting light in a weird way. Sometimes, the figure appeared in the frame, sometimes it didn’t. But the audio was worse: a faint whispering, almost like a dozen voices overlapping, but muffled. When I zoomed in on the video afterward, the frame rate dropped and the image pixelated in the window area. Then, for a half-second, I swear I saw a face—a pale man’s face with hollow eyes staring directly at the camera before it disappeared into static. I posted the video on a local Maplewood subreddit just to see if anyone recognized the figure or the house from old photos. No replies yet. Today, I tried something stupid—which I regret. I tapped the window glass softly, thinking maybe the figure would respond. Instead, the glass rattled violently, and I heard what sounded like scratching from inside the double-pane space. I looked closer and noticed something terrifying: the fog between the two panes is not condensation. It’s more like a thin layer of dust… and beneath that layer, faint handprints pressed against the *inside* of the window. Like someone trapped in the space between the two panes, desperately clawing to get out. I tried to wipe the fog with a cloth, but my hand passed through it, and the fog shifted, almost like a gas. The handprints vanished, replaced by smears that looked like fingerprints and long scratches. I don’t know what is trapped there—or if it’s even “there” in a physical sense. I’m starting to feel watched all the time. At night, I hear soft breathing behind the window, even when all doors are locked and no one is outside. I plan to take the window apart tomorrow morning, but I’m terrified there might be *nothing* behind the panes at all. Here’s the latest recording, unedited, timestamped 4/13/24 10:42 PM: [REDACTED LINK - corrupted video; frame stutters and strange audio] If anyone knows anything about old Victorian windows or weird architectural quirks that trap ghosts or—whatever this is—please let me know. EDIT: Just tried to re-watch the recording. The video now has a new glitch I didn’t see before—a sort of static ripple that slowly forms a word spelled out by the fog on the glass. It says “HELP” in what looks like distorted handwriting. I’m posting a screenshot. [IMAGE: foggy window pane with the word “HELP” faintly visible] I don’t know if it’s a message or my mind playing tricks. I’m too scared to sleep tonight. UPDATE 4/14/24 2:15 AM: I removed the window pane, and there’s *nothing* behind it. No gap, no trapped space, no dust inside the glass layers—just a solid window. But the fog and the handprints were definitely real before. And now the window is *cold*. Ice cold, even though all other surfaces in the house are normal temperature. What’s worse—I just got a text on my phone. From an unknown number. It just says: “Thank you for letting me out.” I’m shutting my laptop now. I’ll update if anything else happens… but I’m not sure I want to know. —A. [END OF POST]
Story Analysis
Themes
supernatural entrapmenthaunted architectureisolation and paranoia
Mood Analysis
tension90%
horror85%
mystery95%
philosophical40%
Key Elements
double-layered Victorian window with fog and handprintstranslucent ghostly figure in period clothingglitchy video recordings with distorted audio and hidden messagesimpossible physical phenomena (hand passing through fog, no actual gap behind panes)final chilling text message implying entity release
Tags
ghost storyhaunted houseparanormal technologypsychological horrorfound footage
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