My Haunted House (2013–…): Season 3, Episode 5 - Under the Porch & Bruises - full transcript
[typing clacks]
[electricity buzzing]
[screams]
(Frank voice-over)
Things were hard
when Kayla's mom
first started to unravel.
[screech]
(Frank)
Kayla?
(Claire voice-over)
There was obviously
something going on
that I couldn't explain.
[screams]
(Claire voice-over)
The blood, the scratches,
I knew I had to
do something.
Kayla!
(Frank voice-over)
He killed families
in their sleep...
[gasps]
like our very own
Son of Sam.
(woman)
You're not welcome here.
I want you to leave.
(Claire voice-over)
I've never felt
so out of control
in my entire life.
[panting]
The last thing I wanted was
to be in there alone.
[faint whispers]
[birds chirping]
[exhales]
Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.
Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.
Kitty?
[ominous music]
(Kayla voice-over)
When I was 12,
my parents got divorced,
and my dad and I relocated
to Virginia for his job.
I was just starting
junior high.
It was hard, leaving
my friends and my school.
But my dad said
it was for the best,
and that my mom couldn't
take care of me anymore.
(boy)
Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.
Here, kitty.
You okay with
pizza for dinner?
Kayla?
Was that you?
Was what me?
Pizza's fine, again.
All right, well, we eat
in...15 minutes.
(Frank voice-over)
Things were hard
when Kayla's mom
first started to unravel.
Father of the year.
By the end,
it was so bad
that our lives actually
improved after she left.
[birds chirping]
[dreary music]
(Frank voice-over)
The biggest problem was
Kayla spent too much time
reading about mental illness.
Poor kid was worried that
what happened to her mother
would happen to her.
(boy)
Here, kitty.
Hello?
[rock music playing faintly]
♪ ♪
Kayla, come on in.
Is someone in here?
[tense music]
♪ ♪
Hey, Kayla,
time to come in.
[gasps]
Kayla?
[Kayla screams]
Kayla?
Kayla?
She saw a couple of dead animals
under the porch,
and I thought she was making it
a bigger deal
than it actually was.
Cats do that, you know?
They find somewhere dark
and quiet to die,
and probably the same
with squirrels.
It's not a graveyard, okay?
I promise.
So go under there
and look.
[scoffs]
I'm not gonna go poking around
under the house,
and neither will you.
Got it?
Do I need to put a lock
on the door?
All right.
Pizza's gonna be cold by now.
That's okay.
Come on.
[footsteps]
Come on,
we're gonna be late.
(boy)
Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.
(Kayla voice-over)
It sounded like the voice
was inside our house.
[cat meowing]
[creaking]
[screech]
What?
Who grabbed me?
Kayla, quit playing around.
We got to go.
Did you hear that?
A boy?
Don't look at me
like that.
I'm not like mom.
(Kayla voice-over)
I just dropped it.
I guess I was afraid
to sound crazy
and end up locked away
like my mother.
[typing]
(Frank voice-over)
After our divorce was finalized,
Kayla's mom was admitted
to a psychiatric hospital
near the town
where we lived.
It wasn't voluntary.
I wanted to get Kayla away
from all that and start fresh,
so when the opportunity
for relocating
to my hometown in Virginia
came along, I jumped at it.
[dog barking]
[dark music]
♪ ♪
- Ha!
- [screams]
- Okay, your turn.
- Okay.
One, two, three,
four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine...
(Frank voice-over)
Kayla hadn't made a ton
of friends at her new school,
but she and Alicia seemed like
they were becoming really close.
16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22...
(Frank voice-over)
Alicia was a little strange
at times,
but she was a good kid.
[suspenseful music]
[sighs]
[dark music]
♪ ♪
[creaking]
(Kayla voice-over)
Alicia was into scary movies
and kind of had
a dark imagination.
I thought that was
really cool,
but my dad always found it
a little weird.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
Aah!
You shouldn't have come
under here.
Kayla, what?
We're gonna get in trouble.
My dad--
♪ ♪
Cool.
(Frank)
Kayla, time to come in.
We got to go.
He'll be real mad
if he finds us in here.
Why do you think
he was under the porch?
[knocking]
Alicia, your mom's
waiting outside.
Did you finish all your homework
for tomorrow?
Yeah.
[electricity buzzing]
[sighs]
Huh.
It's not storming out.
What is that?
I found it outside.
[electricity buzzing]
[dark music]
I-I'm gonna make sure I saved
the file I was working on.
Be right back.
(Kayla voice-over)
I know I didn't bring
that doll to the table.
[electricity buzzing]
Or at least I didn't remember
bringing it.
I should have thrown
that doll away that night,
but for some reason,
I didn't.
[electricity buzzing]
[ominous music]
What?
What?
[faint whispers]
It's not a graveyard, okay?
I promise.
So go under there
and look.
[scoffs]
I'm not gonna go poking around
under the house,
and neither will you.
Got it?
It's not storming out.
What is that?
I found it outside.
[electricity buzzing]
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
What?
What?
(Frank voice-over)
I looked up for just a second,
and the document I was
working on had been deleted,
replaced with the word "guilty"
for hundreds of pages.
It made no sense.
[crickets chirping]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[electrical sparking]
♪ ♪
[cat scrching]
[cat screeching]
[dark music]
♪ ♪
[eerie screech]
[creaking]
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
Oh, my...
(Frank voice-over)
I thought my daughter
had been exaggerating,
but she was right.
It was an animal graveyard.
With bones all arranged
in these weird patterns.
(Alicia)
Then wre'd it go?
[birds chirping]
I don't know.
He crawled
out of your toy box?
[footsteps approaching]
23-39-23.
Thanks.
Alicia thought that putting
a lock on my toy chest
might help me sleep
better at night.
Who do you think
killed the animals?
I don't know.
I've been watching you
go back and forth.
What was under there?
Just, uh, lots of trash.
Fire hazard, you know?
Hey, you been getting any surges
in your electric?
No.
Shoot.
I was hoping it was the grid
instead of the house.
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
[typing clacks]
[sighs]
[electric sparking]
Aah!
[faint whispers]
Aah!
Aah!
Aah!
[faint whispers]
[faint whispers]
[electricity sparking]
What?
[creaking]
[exhales]
[ominous music]
Oh, my...
[typing clacks]
[sighs]
[electric sparking]
Aah!
Aah!
Aah!
[panting]
[grunts]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[beeps]
Huh.
[beeps]
[typing clacks]
[beeps]
[beeps]
[panting]
(Frank voice-over)
I remembered hearing about
the cul-de-sac killer as a kid.
He was like our very own
Son of Sam or Night Stalker.
He broke into houses
in our neighborhood,
killed families
in their sleep,
but he'd been caught
over 20 years before,
and he'd already
been executed.
Kayla?
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
Kayla!
Did--did you open it?
What?
(Kayla voice-over)
I finally told my dad
about the doll that night,
and he ended up telling me
that he found the animal bones
under the porch...
[clatter]
and threw them away.
Hey, what are you doing?
(Frank voice-over)
Our neighbor was looking through
that bag of animal bones.
We never found him.
Boo Boo, he was always
an indoor-outdoor,
but he never strayed far.
That boy would
ride his bicycle
over here to visit
his grandparents,
and I caught him more than once
trying to catch Boo Boo.
I never even knew his name
until years later,
after all those nights
of no sleep and locked doors
and...
when he became famous.
Eric Mandle,
his grandparents lived
in your house, Frank.
When he was little, he used to
come over here to visit,
and I know he wasn't
just visiting.
(neighbor)
That little son of a bitch
killed my cat.
[typing]
(Frank voice-over)
Eric Mandle.
That was the cul-de-sac killer's
name,
and I'd seen him
in my house.
[typing clacks]
Huh.
I couldn't deny it anymore.
Everything I'd been seeing,
it was him.
[sighs]
(Frank voice-over)
Maybe it was because
I messed with the animal bones,
or Kayla had taken that doll
into the house.
It was like somehow
we had stirred things up.
[sighs]
[wood creaking]
[match lighting]
(Kayla voice-over)
After my dad burned the doll,
I didn't hear
the boy's voice again.
No more weird noises
or power surges,
and I stopped worrying
about turning out like my mom.
My dad didn't tell me the truth
about Eric Mandle
until years later.
But I know now
that he's the reason
why I was seeing those things.
I wasn't going crazy,
and I never was.
[thunder peals]
Review the Roberts file,
pull it up on screen...
(Claire voice-over)
I'd been living
in my new house--
first house, actually--
for about two months.
Prep the witness...
It needed a lot of work,
way more than I had time
to deal with.
I closed escrow on my house
the same day I was handed
the biggest case of my career.
Prep the Johnson file...
(Claire voice-over)
I'd been working nonstop,
night and day, since moving in,
so I was beyond exhausted.
[chatter on TV]
[thunder pealing]
I had no time to unpack...
[chatter on TV]
[thunder peals]
[electricity buzzes]
Let alone deal with
an old house.
[thunder pealing]
[glass breaking]
I could have sworn
I moved that mug
from the counter
to the end table.
But it was shattered
all the way across the room,
like it just
slipped off the counter.
I was so tired,
I figured
I hadn't moved it
in the first place.
[lightning strikes]
[faint whispers]
[knocking at the door]
- [gasps]
[clatter]
[lightning strikes]
Who would be at my door
that late at night?
Can I help you?
Hi, I'm Lena.
This is Jack.
We live next door.
You, uh...you moved in
a while back.
We were thinking maybe it's time
to take the "sold" sign down
and mow your lawn?
Okay.
Maybe I'll take it down
tomorrow.
I'm sure you're very busy
with work.
(Claire voice-over)
The whole thing
was really strange.
I thought
maybe they were
from the neighborhood block
association or something.
But if they knew
I had been in the house
for a couple of months,
why were they now
stopping by at 11:00 p.m.
in the middle
of a lightning storm?
Okay.
Thanks.
See ya.
[thunder peals]
[lightning strikes]
- [gasps]
(Claire voice-over)
It was only for an instant,
but I swear I saw an old man
standing right in front of me
outside my kitchen window.
Okay, time for bed.
(Claire voice-over)
I convinced myself
that the creepy exchange
with my neighbors
must've freaked me out,
and I just needed
a good night's sleep.
I knew the endless cycle
of caffeine and sleeping pills
wasn't healthy.
But this case was
a big chance for me
to make a name for myself
at the firm.
I wasn't about to blow it.
[thunder peals]
[metal scraping]
[thunder peals]
[metal scraping]
[alarm beeping]
[alarm silences]
(Claire voice-over)
It was just a nightmare,
a really vivid,
horrible nightmare
about that same man I thought
I saw outside my kitchen window.
The next few nights...
[sighs]
(Claire voice-over)
I stayed at work really late.
It sort of became
my routine.
I would take a sleeping pill
in the car
before walking
into the house
and basically pass out as soon
as my head hit the pillow.
But one Friday night,
the partners at my firm saw
how exhausted I was.
They said my work was suffering
and forced me to leave at 7:00.
They insisted I go home
and relax for a night.
[metal scraping]
(Claire voice-over)
It was that same sound
I heard a few nights before,
like old, creaky wheels,
but this time I knew
I wasn't dreaming.
- [gasps]
[glass breaking]
Aah!
[faint whispers]
[faint whispers]
We were thinking
maybe it's time
to take the "sold" sign down
and mow your lawn?
Okay.
Thanks.
[sighs]
[metal scraping]
- [gasps]
[glass breaking]
Aah!
[panting]
[whimpering]
[screams]
[pants]
You okay?
[panting]
How about some tea?
Come on back in the house
with us.
(Claire voice-over)
As weird as Lena and Jack
had first seemed,
what I experienced in my house
that night was even weirder.
The last thing I wanted was
to be in there alone.
(Claire voice-over)
I've never felt
so out of control
in my entire life.
Here I was a grown woman,
an attorney,
spending the night
at a stranger's house
because I was working so hard,
I was starting to hallucinate.
(Lena)
You up?
Yes. Thanks for letting me
stay here last night.
You're welcome.
Come join us
for breakfast.
Thanks, but I should
really get going.
Sure,
right after breakfast.
(Lena)
We're big breakfast people.
I'm so embarrassed.
Oh, shh.
I just can't keep up
this schedule.
I started seeing things.
Claire, we obviously don't
know each other very well,
but take the weekend off,
move in, unpack,
start turning your new house
into a home.
Yeah, that place could use
some happy memories.
I met the previous owners.
She was pregnant.
She said they needed more space.
They seemed really happy.
Oh, they were.
What Jack is
referring to
is the couple who
lived there before.
Before I could argue about
having to get back to work...
They moved onto the block long
before anybody who's here now,
probably 30 years ago.
(Claire voice-over)
Lena started showing me pictures
of the couple Jack mentioned.
Okay, so here's Margaret.
She got sick right when our son
finished high school.
Cancer.
She was such a sweet woman.
Even when she was so weak
she would scoot around
in that little wheelchair
and wave out the window
at the kids walking by.
And her husband was always
right behind her, William,
and he would hold this...
bag, whatever that thing was
behind him.
- A saline drip.
- Saline, right.
(Jack)
The wheels squeaked like crazy.
(Lena)
She stayed at home
as long as she could,
but then when the pain
just got so bad,
William took her
to hospice care,
and that's where she died.
What about him?
He, uh...
hanged himself
a couple of months later.
[dark music]
Decided that he didn't want
to live without her.
Oh, here he is.
(Lena)
This was at one of our
summer block parties.
(Claire voice-over)
I was embarrassed,
but I told Lena
about the things
I was seeing and hearing
in my house.
She didn't think
I was crazy.
She thought my house was
being haunted by William.
[door closing]
Law school forces you to always
think about things logically,
so I never believed
in ghosts.
But there was obviously
something going on
that I couldn't explain.
If there was even a chance
it could be true,
I knew I had to do
something...
William?
(Claire voice-over)
To get him to move on...
You're not welcome here.
(Claire voice-over)
And leave me alone.
You hear that?
I want you to leave.
[faint whispers]
[faint whispers]
Aah!
William, you're not
welcome here.
You hear that?
I want you to leave.
(Claire voice-over)
The next couple nights
were pretty quiet.
No nightmares,
no squeaky wheels, no William.
It sounds crazy that
I stuck it out for that long,
but I thought
maybe what I said worked.
Maybe he left my house.
[thunder rolling]
(Claire voice-over)
I had a lot of work
to catch up on,
but I could barely
keep my eyes open that night.
[thunder peals]
(Claire voice-over)
As soon as my head
hit the pillow,
I forgot about everything
that had happened,
and my brain finally
just shut off.
[electricity buzzes]
[gasps]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[whimpers]
[metal scraping]
Aah!
[panicked breathing]
(Claire voice-over)
I slept in my car that night.
I was too embarrassed to go
back to Jack and Lena's again.
Oh.
Oh.
I had been attacked twice
before that night,
but each time,
the blood, the scratches,
they went away,
making me think I'd imagined it,
but this time,
there was evidence.
Pulse is elevated,
so is your blood pressure.
You're not sleeping?
What's going on, Claire?
I-I've been seeing things
for about a week now.
I think there's something wrong
with my head.
I'm wondering if you
should do an MRI.
Okay.
First, I think we should
run a blood test.
(Claire voice-over)
I got a call from Dr. Lawrence
asking me to come back
to his office.
He wouldn't give me any details
over the phone,
so I knew
something was wrong.
But nothing could have prepared
me for what he had to say.
I recommend that we start
treatment as soon as you can
get your affairs in order
at the office.
The oncologists recommend
that we start
two cycles of chemotherapy
six weeks apart.
[voice growing faint]
Two cycles of chemotherapy
six weeks apart--
six weeks apart.
(Claire voice-over)
Leukemia.
He told me I had Leukemia
but that I was lucky.
We'd caught it early,
so early there were no symptoms
to indicate I was sick at all
except for those bruises.
The good news,
I'm confident you can
beat this, Claire.
(Claire voice-over)
The crazy thing was,
the bruises went away
right after he took my blood,
like the only reason
they were there
was to tell me something.
[indistinct chatter]
(Claire voice-over)
I came really close
to selling my house,
but once I started the chemo,
I never saw William again,
and that made me think.
Maybe this whole time,
he wasn't trying to scare me.
Maybe he was trying
to save me
because he wasn't able
to save his wife.
Oh, I brought something
for you.
Oh, what did you bring?
Just a little something
for you.
- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- What is that?
You know, we just thought
it should be in your house.
Oh, wow.
- Right?
- Yeah.
[Claire chuckles]
- This is William and Margaret.
- That's William, okay.
(Claire voice-over)
Actually, there is no maybe.
He was trying to save me,
and if it weren't for William,
I know I wouldn't be
sitting here
telling this story today.
[electricity buzzing]
[screams]
(Frank voice-over)
Things were hard
when Kayla's mom
first started to unravel.
[screech]
(Frank)
Kayla?
(Claire voice-over)
There was obviously
something going on
that I couldn't explain.
[screams]
(Claire voice-over)
The blood, the scratches,
I knew I had to
do something.
Kayla!
(Frank voice-over)
He killed families
in their sleep...
[gasps]
like our very own
Son of Sam.
(woman)
You're not welcome here.
I want you to leave.
(Claire voice-over)
I've never felt
so out of control
in my entire life.
[panting]
The last thing I wanted was
to be in there alone.
[faint whispers]
[birds chirping]
[exhales]
Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.
Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.
Kitty?
[ominous music]
(Kayla voice-over)
When I was 12,
my parents got divorced,
and my dad and I relocated
to Virginia for his job.
I was just starting
junior high.
It was hard, leaving
my friends and my school.
But my dad said
it was for the best,
and that my mom couldn't
take care of me anymore.
(boy)
Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.
Here, kitty.
You okay with
pizza for dinner?
Kayla?
Was that you?
Was what me?
Pizza's fine, again.
All right, well, we eat
in...15 minutes.
(Frank voice-over)
Things were hard
when Kayla's mom
first started to unravel.
Father of the year.
By the end,
it was so bad
that our lives actually
improved after she left.
[birds chirping]
[dreary music]
(Frank voice-over)
The biggest problem was
Kayla spent too much time
reading about mental illness.
Poor kid was worried that
what happened to her mother
would happen to her.
(boy)
Here, kitty.
Hello?
[rock music playing faintly]
♪ ♪
Kayla, come on in.
Is someone in here?
[tense music]
♪ ♪
Hey, Kayla,
time to come in.
[gasps]
Kayla?
[Kayla screams]
Kayla?
Kayla?
She saw a couple of dead animals
under the porch,
and I thought she was making it
a bigger deal
than it actually was.
Cats do that, you know?
They find somewhere dark
and quiet to die,
and probably the same
with squirrels.
It's not a graveyard, okay?
I promise.
So go under there
and look.
[scoffs]
I'm not gonna go poking around
under the house,
and neither will you.
Got it?
Do I need to put a lock
on the door?
All right.
Pizza's gonna be cold by now.
That's okay.
Come on.
[footsteps]
Come on,
we're gonna be late.
(boy)
Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.
(Kayla voice-over)
It sounded like the voice
was inside our house.
[cat meowing]
[creaking]
[screech]
What?
Who grabbed me?
Kayla, quit playing around.
We got to go.
Did you hear that?
A boy?
Don't look at me
like that.
I'm not like mom.
(Kayla voice-over)
I just dropped it.
I guess I was afraid
to sound crazy
and end up locked away
like my mother.
[typing]
(Frank voice-over)
After our divorce was finalized,
Kayla's mom was admitted
to a psychiatric hospital
near the town
where we lived.
It wasn't voluntary.
I wanted to get Kayla away
from all that and start fresh,
so when the opportunity
for relocating
to my hometown in Virginia
came along, I jumped at it.
[dog barking]
[dark music]
♪ ♪
- Ha!
- [screams]
- Okay, your turn.
- Okay.
One, two, three,
four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine...
(Frank voice-over)
Kayla hadn't made a ton
of friends at her new school,
but she and Alicia seemed like
they were becoming really close.
16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22...
(Frank voice-over)
Alicia was a little strange
at times,
but she was a good kid.
[suspenseful music]
[sighs]
[dark music]
♪ ♪
[creaking]
(Kayla voice-over)
Alicia was into scary movies
and kind of had
a dark imagination.
I thought that was
really cool,
but my dad always found it
a little weird.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
Aah!
You shouldn't have come
under here.
Kayla, what?
We're gonna get in trouble.
My dad--
♪ ♪
Cool.
(Frank)
Kayla, time to come in.
We got to go.
He'll be real mad
if he finds us in here.
Why do you think
he was under the porch?
[knocking]
Alicia, your mom's
waiting outside.
Did you finish all your homework
for tomorrow?
Yeah.
[electricity buzzing]
[sighs]
Huh.
It's not storming out.
What is that?
I found it outside.
[electricity buzzing]
[dark music]
I-I'm gonna make sure I saved
the file I was working on.
Be right back.
(Kayla voice-over)
I know I didn't bring
that doll to the table.
[electricity buzzing]
Or at least I didn't remember
bringing it.
I should have thrown
that doll away that night,
but for some reason,
I didn't.
[electricity buzzing]
[ominous music]
What?
What?
[faint whispers]
It's not a graveyard, okay?
I promise.
So go under there
and look.
[scoffs]
I'm not gonna go poking around
under the house,
and neither will you.
Got it?
It's not storming out.
What is that?
I found it outside.
[electricity buzzing]
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
What?
What?
(Frank voice-over)
I looked up for just a second,
and the document I was
working on had been deleted,
replaced with the word "guilty"
for hundreds of pages.
It made no sense.
[crickets chirping]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[electrical sparking]
♪ ♪
[cat scrching]
[cat screeching]
[dark music]
♪ ♪
[eerie screech]
[creaking]
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
Oh, my...
(Frank voice-over)
I thought my daughter
had been exaggerating,
but she was right.
It was an animal graveyard.
With bones all arranged
in these weird patterns.
(Alicia)
Then wre'd it go?
[birds chirping]
I don't know.
He crawled
out of your toy box?
[footsteps approaching]
23-39-23.
Thanks.
Alicia thought that putting
a lock on my toy chest
might help me sleep
better at night.
Who do you think
killed the animals?
I don't know.
I've been watching you
go back and forth.
What was under there?
Just, uh, lots of trash.
Fire hazard, you know?
Hey, you been getting any surges
in your electric?
No.
Shoot.
I was hoping it was the grid
instead of the house.
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
[typing clacks]
[sighs]
[electric sparking]
Aah!
[faint whispers]
Aah!
Aah!
Aah!
[faint whispers]
[faint whispers]
[electricity sparking]
What?
[creaking]
[exhales]
[ominous music]
Oh, my...
[typing clacks]
[sighs]
[electric sparking]
Aah!
Aah!
Aah!
[panting]
[grunts]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[beeps]
Huh.
[beeps]
[typing clacks]
[beeps]
[beeps]
[panting]
(Frank voice-over)
I remembered hearing about
the cul-de-sac killer as a kid.
He was like our very own
Son of Sam or Night Stalker.
He broke into houses
in our neighborhood,
killed families
in their sleep,
but he'd been caught
over 20 years before,
and he'd already
been executed.
Kayla?
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
Kayla!
Did--did you open it?
What?
(Kayla voice-over)
I finally told my dad
about the doll that night,
and he ended up telling me
that he found the animal bones
under the porch...
[clatter]
and threw them away.
Hey, what are you doing?
(Frank voice-over)
Our neighbor was looking through
that bag of animal bones.
We never found him.
Boo Boo, he was always
an indoor-outdoor,
but he never strayed far.
That boy would
ride his bicycle
over here to visit
his grandparents,
and I caught him more than once
trying to catch Boo Boo.
I never even knew his name
until years later,
after all those nights
of no sleep and locked doors
and...
when he became famous.
Eric Mandle,
his grandparents lived
in your house, Frank.
When he was little, he used to
come over here to visit,
and I know he wasn't
just visiting.
(neighbor)
That little son of a bitch
killed my cat.
[typing]
(Frank voice-over)
Eric Mandle.
That was the cul-de-sac killer's
name,
and I'd seen him
in my house.
[typing clacks]
Huh.
I couldn't deny it anymore.
Everything I'd been seeing,
it was him.
[sighs]
(Frank voice-over)
Maybe it was because
I messed with the animal bones,
or Kayla had taken that doll
into the house.
It was like somehow
we had stirred things up.
[sighs]
[wood creaking]
[match lighting]
(Kayla voice-over)
After my dad burned the doll,
I didn't hear
the boy's voice again.
No more weird noises
or power surges,
and I stopped worrying
about turning out like my mom.
My dad didn't tell me the truth
about Eric Mandle
until years later.
But I know now
that he's the reason
why I was seeing those things.
I wasn't going crazy,
and I never was.
[thunder peals]
Review the Roberts file,
pull it up on screen...
(Claire voice-over)
I'd been living
in my new house--
first house, actually--
for about two months.
Prep the witness...
It needed a lot of work,
way more than I had time
to deal with.
I closed escrow on my house
the same day I was handed
the biggest case of my career.
Prep the Johnson file...
(Claire voice-over)
I'd been working nonstop,
night and day, since moving in,
so I was beyond exhausted.
[chatter on TV]
[thunder pealing]
I had no time to unpack...
[chatter on TV]
[thunder peals]
[electricity buzzes]
Let alone deal with
an old house.
[thunder pealing]
[glass breaking]
I could have sworn
I moved that mug
from the counter
to the end table.
But it was shattered
all the way across the room,
like it just
slipped off the counter.
I was so tired,
I figured
I hadn't moved it
in the first place.
[lightning strikes]
[faint whispers]
[knocking at the door]
- [gasps]
[clatter]
[lightning strikes]
Who would be at my door
that late at night?
Can I help you?
Hi, I'm Lena.
This is Jack.
We live next door.
You, uh...you moved in
a while back.
We were thinking maybe it's time
to take the "sold" sign down
and mow your lawn?
Okay.
Maybe I'll take it down
tomorrow.
I'm sure you're very busy
with work.
(Claire voice-over)
The whole thing
was really strange.
I thought
maybe they were
from the neighborhood block
association or something.
But if they knew
I had been in the house
for a couple of months,
why were they now
stopping by at 11:00 p.m.
in the middle
of a lightning storm?
Okay.
Thanks.
See ya.
[thunder peals]
[lightning strikes]
- [gasps]
(Claire voice-over)
It was only for an instant,
but I swear I saw an old man
standing right in front of me
outside my kitchen window.
Okay, time for bed.
(Claire voice-over)
I convinced myself
that the creepy exchange
with my neighbors
must've freaked me out,
and I just needed
a good night's sleep.
I knew the endless cycle
of caffeine and sleeping pills
wasn't healthy.
But this case was
a big chance for me
to make a name for myself
at the firm.
I wasn't about to blow it.
[thunder peals]
[metal scraping]
[thunder peals]
[metal scraping]
[alarm beeping]
[alarm silences]
(Claire voice-over)
It was just a nightmare,
a really vivid,
horrible nightmare
about that same man I thought
I saw outside my kitchen window.
The next few nights...
[sighs]
(Claire voice-over)
I stayed at work really late.
It sort of became
my routine.
I would take a sleeping pill
in the car
before walking
into the house
and basically pass out as soon
as my head hit the pillow.
But one Friday night,
the partners at my firm saw
how exhausted I was.
They said my work was suffering
and forced me to leave at 7:00.
They insisted I go home
and relax for a night.
[metal scraping]
(Claire voice-over)
It was that same sound
I heard a few nights before,
like old, creaky wheels,
but this time I knew
I wasn't dreaming.
- [gasps]
[glass breaking]
Aah!
[faint whispers]
[faint whispers]
We were thinking
maybe it's time
to take the "sold" sign down
and mow your lawn?
Okay.
Thanks.
[sighs]
[metal scraping]
- [gasps]
[glass breaking]
Aah!
[panting]
[whimpering]
[screams]
[pants]
You okay?
[panting]
How about some tea?
Come on back in the house
with us.
(Claire voice-over)
As weird as Lena and Jack
had first seemed,
what I experienced in my house
that night was even weirder.
The last thing I wanted was
to be in there alone.
(Claire voice-over)
I've never felt
so out of control
in my entire life.
Here I was a grown woman,
an attorney,
spending the night
at a stranger's house
because I was working so hard,
I was starting to hallucinate.
(Lena)
You up?
Yes. Thanks for letting me
stay here last night.
You're welcome.
Come join us
for breakfast.
Thanks, but I should
really get going.
Sure,
right after breakfast.
(Lena)
We're big breakfast people.
I'm so embarrassed.
Oh, shh.
I just can't keep up
this schedule.
I started seeing things.
Claire, we obviously don't
know each other very well,
but take the weekend off,
move in, unpack,
start turning your new house
into a home.
Yeah, that place could use
some happy memories.
I met the previous owners.
She was pregnant.
She said they needed more space.
They seemed really happy.
Oh, they were.
What Jack is
referring to
is the couple who
lived there before.
Before I could argue about
having to get back to work...
They moved onto the block long
before anybody who's here now,
probably 30 years ago.
(Claire voice-over)
Lena started showing me pictures
of the couple Jack mentioned.
Okay, so here's Margaret.
She got sick right when our son
finished high school.
Cancer.
She was such a sweet woman.
Even when she was so weak
she would scoot around
in that little wheelchair
and wave out the window
at the kids walking by.
And her husband was always
right behind her, William,
and he would hold this...
bag, whatever that thing was
behind him.
- A saline drip.
- Saline, right.
(Jack)
The wheels squeaked like crazy.
(Lena)
She stayed at home
as long as she could,
but then when the pain
just got so bad,
William took her
to hospice care,
and that's where she died.
What about him?
He, uh...
hanged himself
a couple of months later.
[dark music]
Decided that he didn't want
to live without her.
Oh, here he is.
(Lena)
This was at one of our
summer block parties.
(Claire voice-over)
I was embarrassed,
but I told Lena
about the things
I was seeing and hearing
in my house.
She didn't think
I was crazy.
She thought my house was
being haunted by William.
[door closing]
Law school forces you to always
think about things logically,
so I never believed
in ghosts.
But there was obviously
something going on
that I couldn't explain.
If there was even a chance
it could be true,
I knew I had to do
something...
William?
(Claire voice-over)
To get him to move on...
You're not welcome here.
(Claire voice-over)
And leave me alone.
You hear that?
I want you to leave.
[faint whispers]
[faint whispers]
Aah!
William, you're not
welcome here.
You hear that?
I want you to leave.
(Claire voice-over)
The next couple nights
were pretty quiet.
No nightmares,
no squeaky wheels, no William.
It sounds crazy that
I stuck it out for that long,
but I thought
maybe what I said worked.
Maybe he left my house.
[thunder rolling]
(Claire voice-over)
I had a lot of work
to catch up on,
but I could barely
keep my eyes open that night.
[thunder peals]
(Claire voice-over)
As soon as my head
hit the pillow,
I forgot about everything
that had happened,
and my brain finally
just shut off.
[electricity buzzes]
[gasps]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[whimpers]
[metal scraping]
Aah!
[panicked breathing]
(Claire voice-over)
I slept in my car that night.
I was too embarrassed to go
back to Jack and Lena's again.
Oh.
Oh.
I had been attacked twice
before that night,
but each time,
the blood, the scratches,
they went away,
making me think I'd imagined it,
but this time,
there was evidence.
Pulse is elevated,
so is your blood pressure.
You're not sleeping?
What's going on, Claire?
I-I've been seeing things
for about a week now.
I think there's something wrong
with my head.
I'm wondering if you
should do an MRI.
Okay.
First, I think we should
run a blood test.
(Claire voice-over)
I got a call from Dr. Lawrence
asking me to come back
to his office.
He wouldn't give me any details
over the phone,
so I knew
something was wrong.
But nothing could have prepared
me for what he had to say.
I recommend that we start
treatment as soon as you can
get your affairs in order
at the office.
The oncologists recommend
that we start
two cycles of chemotherapy
six weeks apart.
[voice growing faint]
Two cycles of chemotherapy
six weeks apart--
six weeks apart.
(Claire voice-over)
Leukemia.
He told me I had Leukemia
but that I was lucky.
We'd caught it early,
so early there were no symptoms
to indicate I was sick at all
except for those bruises.
The good news,
I'm confident you can
beat this, Claire.
(Claire voice-over)
The crazy thing was,
the bruises went away
right after he took my blood,
like the only reason
they were there
was to tell me something.
[indistinct chatter]
(Claire voice-over)
I came really close
to selling my house,
but once I started the chemo,
I never saw William again,
and that made me think.
Maybe this whole time,
he wasn't trying to scare me.
Maybe he was trying
to save me
because he wasn't able
to save his wife.
Oh, I brought something
for you.
Oh, what did you bring?
Just a little something
for you.
- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- What is that?
You know, we just thought
it should be in your house.
Oh, wow.
- Right?
- Yeah.
[Claire chuckles]
- This is William and Margaret.
- That's William, okay.
(Claire voice-over)
Actually, there is no maybe.
He was trying to save me,
and if it weren't for William,
I know I wouldn't be
sitting here
telling this story today.