S04 Episode 14: Negative Space

Laughing as one after the other, they bolted gleefully out of the car. Caroline then got out and greeted the owner warmly before introducing him to her husband, Roger. Ah, so this is the one we have to press, is it? Well, let's get to it, said Kenyon. The Grand Farmhouse, one of the original Providence plantations, had been built in the seventeen thirties, with nine rooms, a barn, and over two hundred acres of land, including a creek running through it.

It was some advance on the Peron's current home in the suburbs of Cumberland, Rhode Island. The family had been happy there until a series of troubling events had left the thirty one year old Caroline concerned for her children's welfare. Not long before, the family returned from a short break to find their house had been ransacked and one of their cats brutally killed. Though it was never proven, there was good reason to believe the twelve year old son

of a next door neighbor had been responsible. When a few months later, a driver suffering from a heart attack totalled his truck on the Emily's lawn, Caroline couldn't shake the distinct feeling that someone was trying to tell them something, though she knew in truth there was virtually no chance they could ever afford this place. From the moment she had first seen it, having decided to view it on a whim a few weeks previously, she hadn't been able

to forget about it. For thirty five year old Roger, there'd been no question of whether they could buy it, But happy to indulge his wife's fantasy, he agreed to at least take a look at it for himself. Now finally standing before it, he took a moment to admire the garden, the way the tall pines and maple trees shrouded the house and the expansive lawn stretching out in front of it, running all the way down to the creek. He had to give his wife one thing at least,

he thought it certainly was impressive. By the end of the day, after viewing the inside of the house and imagining their lives spent together there inside its four walls, the kids were in no doubt about what they wanted, and even Roger had come round the idea. Looking back on it many years later, you could say it felt that day to the family as if the very house itself had called them. There you're listening to unexplained, and

I'm Richard mc lean smith. It would take some serious scrimping on the family's part, but encouraged by mister Kenyon, who agreed to hold out for them, Slowly but surely, they found the money. Finally, in mid December nineteen seventy, Caroline and Roger closed on the house. Shortly after the new year, the family of seven made the two hour drive west to Harrisville, accompanied by a removals truck, to

take possession of the farm. It was a little colder arriving that January morning compared to the last time they had visited. A recent storm had carpeted the ground with snow, whilst all around many of the trees had been reduced to sparse, skeletal branches. The main house itself, however, was as grand as it had ever been. Mister Kenyon was waiting for them again when they pulled up to it,

glad to have caught the family before he left. Having greeted them, Kenyon nodded toward Roger and suggested the two of them take a quick walk. Sensing he wanted to talk to Roger alone. Caroline told the girls to run ahead and pick their rooms as she set about unloading the truck. Roger sensed a little hesitancy in Kenyon as

they headed out into the snow. In the end, the conversation was brief, little more than a quick offering of luck for the future, telling Roger again how glad he was that it was his family that got the house. Then the man went quiet for a moment and looked back toward it. There's just one thing, he said, for the sake of your family, you must leave the lights on at night, And with that Kenyon wished him luck again,

then headed off toward his car. The first six weeks were a steep learning curve, getting used to being so far out in the country, but also learning just how hard it can be to keep such a large building warm. Things had not been made easier by the severe snowstorm that had blown in shortly after they arrived, nor that, for some unknown reason, all the fireplaces had been carefully

blocked up. It was especially taxing for Carolyn, since, with Roger spending most of the week away for work, it had fallen mostly on her to get the family settled in before long. However, with the young girls reveling in their new bedrooms and endless garden, the families soon began to make the house their home, as the oldest, twelve year old Andrea, had been granted a room of her own, with the other four ten year old Nancy, nine year old Christine, seven year old Cynthia, and five year old

April sharing two bedrooms between them. Carolyn had been amazed at how quickly they adjusted to their new surroundings, grateful for the ease in which she had been able to enroll them in the local school, as she watched them playing about the house on weekends, laughing as they sledged down the front lawn and fantasizing about the animals they might bring to live with. It was clear they'd made the right decision, but all that was about to change.

During the week, with four of the girls at school, April and Caroline were often the only people in the house, so when Caroline was chopping vegetables one afternoon, it was natural to assume the noise of something moving around upstairs

was just her five year old daughter. Smiling at the thought of her daughter playing with her toys, Caroline had just heard another loud creak from the floorboards above when she turned in shock to see April standing in the kitchen doorway that very same moment, Mummy, she said, are you okay? Caroline looked at her daughter in disbelief, then back at the spot above her where those creaks had

come from. Stay close to me, o kay. April was confused, but did as her mother asked, staying right behind her as she headed upstairs and proceeded to check inside every room to make sure there wasn't an intruder in the house. Finding no one there, Caroline laughed to herself at how silly she was being. What is it, asked April, don't worry, said her mother. I'm just hearing things. That's okay, I hear things all the time, said April casually. Caroline looked

at her daughter for a moment. What kind of things, she asked, Nothing, really, just people walking about. Later that afternoon, in the parlor, as April slept beside her on the sofa, Caroline certain she felt a sudden chill in the room, followed by the sensation of something moving past her. When she took a sip of her coffee a second later, she was surprised to find it completely cold. When Roger returned from a work trip that evening, he found Caroline

oddly despondent. After tucking the children into bed, the couple retired to the parlor as a heavy storm batted the house from outside. Sensing Roger's growing frustration with her, Caroline finally plucked up the courage to say what was on her mind, telling him that something didn't feel quite right in the house. As she went on to detail a number of peculiar events from the last few days, Roger

sat in stunned silence. Surely she couldn't think the house was genuinely haunted, he thought, trying his best to comfort Caroline, Roger suggested that perhaps it was nothing more than the effects of being in such an old and large building. Caroline nodded in agreement, hoping he was right. But there

was one other story that she hadn't told him. It happened a few weeks after moving in, when Caroline had gone out to inspect the barn, Finding it emptied of all mister Kenyon's things, it had seemed a much more expansive and eerie place than she'd remembered. Just as she was about to head back to the house, she heard a rustling above her head, which was followed by the appearance of an old scythe flying down from out of

the rafters. Ducking away at the last minute, the blade struck her on the shoulder before clattering to the ground. Looking at her jacket in utter disbelief, she found it had been partially sliced open by bray. The cold snap had passed and the snow and ice was finally beginning to recede. However, for Caroline, the incessant cold was beginning to wear her down. One bright morning that month, mister Kenyon returned to check in on the family as he

and Caroline caught up over coffee. Caroline steered the conversation toward the issue of the fireplaces, wondering whether it would be okay to unblock some of them to help warm up the house. Mister Kenyon paused for a moment, seeming unsure about what to say exactly, before quickly changing the subject, going on to tell a story about two unfortunate men

from the early eighteen hundreds. The men had set out from nearby Webster, a town located fifteen miles away, hoping to walk to Harrisville, when a violent blizzard had whipped up unexpectedly around them. Realizing they were in trouble, the men were said to have sought shelter underneath a blacksmith's shop that had once stood on the grounds of the Peron's house. They had both frozen to death that night.

It wouldn't be until long after mister Kenyon had passed away himself that Caroline considered the fact that perhaps, in some way he hadn't changed the subject at all. One morning, soon after Kenyon's visit, Caroline took a crow bar to the paneling over the fireplace in the parlor and wrenched it free. From the wall. As she pulled, a sudden gust of wind was unleased from beyond, as if something vast had just exhaled from the depths of its lungs.

Moments later, she was stood in front of a crumbling but beautiful ornate fireplace. Finding the chimney stuffed with bricks, plaster, and newspaper, Caroline and April sent the best part of the afternoon clearing it out until finally they had a working fire. Later that day, with the rest of the children having returned from school, Caroline was taking a shower when the doorbell rang. It was their neighbor, Missus Pettigrew, with a freshly baked cake, to welcome the family into

their new home. After inviting her in, oldest daughter Andrea, headed upstairs to let her mum know that Missus Pettigrew was waiting for her. When she opened the bathroom door, Caroline let out a scream as a coat hanger appeared to leap unaided from the wall and hit her in the head. When the rest of the girls arrived to check everything was okay, Caroline insisted that all was well and ushered them back downstairs. Later, having thanked Missus pettigrew

for the cake. Caroline was just seeing her at the door when the neighbor mentioned something a little peculiar. It was strange, she said, to see so few lights on in the house when she drove up to it. Earlier, back when mister Kenyon owned it, she would often see the whole place lit up at night, even from the distance of the main road. Not knowing quite what to make of that, Caroline thanked her neighbor again for the cake and quietly closed the door behind her. Are you

always taking care of your family? Do you often take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make time for you. You deserve it. Tele a doc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best, to feeling like yourself again. With tele adoc, you can speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments are available seven days a week from seven am

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Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. Returning from another work trip a few weeks later, Roger was overjoyed by the sight of the old fireplace that Carolyn had worked hard to recover, so much so that he took the following week off to help her restore it. It was on the last day, as they were just applying the final touches, that they

heard a clicking sound behind them. Turning around, they both watched with confusion as the door for the pantry, which lay just off the parlor, swung open on its own accord. Assuming it to be little more than a change in the air pressure, Roger moved toward the door, only to be struck by the stench of something rotting coming from behind it. Finding nothing untoward, however, he quietly pushed the

door back and lashed it shut. Over the next few days, Caroline delighted in finally having a working fire, keeping it lit most of the day. Oddly, however, the pantry door continued to open up on its own volition. Roger became so irritated he eventually wasted it shut with a dressing table and tied the latch with twine. When he came down the following morning, however, the door was open again. The dresser had somehow been moved back an inch, while the twine was nothing but a pile of ripped shreds

on the floor. The odious smell had also returned. Determined to find the cause of it, Roger emptied out the entire pantry, but found nothing to account for it. Though Roger decided not to tell Carolin about it, she too had noticed the unusual way in which the pantry door refused to stay shut, and the cellar door too, which took to opening whenever she was alone in the parlor. One night, having just got to sleep, Carolin was awoken in the dark by the sound of a match being struck.

Unable to move or make a sound, Caroline had watched with horror as sparks and flames began to rise high into the air above her dresser, crackling with menace shooting up in her bed. Seconds later, Caroline rushed to switch on the light, staring in disbelief at the untouched dresser. It was only then that she realized it had been nothing but a dream. Unable to ignore the signs any longer,

Caroline had had enough. Samuel oliveson, the Peron's lawyer, had barely arrived at his desk when Caroline's call came in first thing that morning. Having not felt able to speak to Roger about it since he would never believe her, Caroline was soon pouring it all out to Sam, detailing everything from the near miss with the scythe the strange incident with the coat hanger, and about all the cold spots and doors opening and closed us on their own past.

Caring how she might sound, it was with some surprise when Sam replied simply that it sounded as though her house was haunted. As it turned out, Sam also believed his own house to be haunted, and he promised to do whatever he could to help. When Roger returned from work the next day, Caroline had no choice but to tell him she had instructed Sam to see if there was a way to back out of the house. Purchase.

Roger was understandably taken aback, but Caroline insisted, not caring if he believed her or not, that something bad was happening in their home. What's more, their neighbor knew it too, said Caroline, going on to explain the peculiar thing that missus Pettigrew had said about the way mister Kenyon used to keep all the lights on. Roger's eyes widened. What

is it, asked Caroline. It was just as mister Kenyon had said to him, Roger explained, shortly before they moved in, that they should keep the lights on for the family's sake. Then Roger thought back to the incident with the pantry door, the unusual smells and cold spots he'd noticed. Despite all his better judgment, he realized then that Caroline might not be completely mistaken. Perhaps the house was haunted after all.

A few nights later, Roger and Caroline returned home after a rare night out together, and, after first checking on the children, made their way to bed. A few hours later. The couple were fast asleep. At some point, Caroline awoke in the dark with the sense that some one was walking through the bedroom, assuming it to be one of her daughters. Caroline, half awake, asked if they were okay, but strangely got no reply. It was then that she realized it wasn't a child standing in the middle of

the room, but the figure of a woman. Just like before, Caroline found herself suddenly paralyzed, unable to move or scream for help. As the figure moved closer and closer to the bed, Despite being unable to look directly at it, Caroline had the distinct impression that its clothes were old fashioned and fastened at the waist with a large belt. Having no feet, it seemed to float over the ground.

Its face was completely featureless, But what was most terrifying for Caroline was the odd position of the head, bent sideways at a ninety degree angle, as if it had once been badly broken. As it continued getting closer and closer, Caroline was sure she could smell something akin to rotting flesh. When suddenly it was gone, snapping out from whatever had had her in its grip, Caroline tore downstairs to the parlor,

not even taking the time to wake her husband. Hurriedly lighting a fire, she grabbed a notebook and quickly made a record of exactly what she'd seen, even including a sketch of the apparent figure she had encountered, more convinced than ever that she was right to contact Sam. Caroline sat in the kitchen the next day, running everything over in her mind. With any luck, they could be gone before her children had any sense of what had been going on. Having to keep it all from them had,

no doubt, only added to her stress. Just then, Andrea appeared, catching Caroline by surprise. She was holding her mother's notebook. Caroline snatched it from her, but knew immediately it was too late. Mom asked her daughter, is our house haunted? Caroline drew a sharp breath, taking a moment to decide how best to answer, But before she could, Andrea continued,

because this woman you describe, I've seen her too. It was only then that Andrea proceeded to tell her everything about what had apparently been going on since the very first day they had moved in. It had started slowly, with a few strange sightings the tall figure that Nancy and Cynthia had seen standing in the shadows. Each would see him out of the corner of their eye, looking up just in time to catch him receding back into the dark before disappearing altogether. They had even given him

a name, calling him Mannie. Not long after they'd moved in, the girls began playing a game in which they pretended to be at school, with Andrea as the teacher, using her small chalkboard to give the lessons. By then, the girls had grown unsettled by the peculiar things that they'd been experiencing, so would only go to the toilet together. Each time they would go, in the middle of the game, they would return to find the writing on the board

had been mysteriously smudged out. Soon the girls were noticing toys going missing or just being moved about when they weren't looking. It wasn't long after that that their beds had started shaking in the middle of the night, followed by the moving about of shadows in their room and

the hearing of disembodied voices whispering in the dark. Nancy had also heard footsteps moving about at night and stopping at her door, whilst Cynthia was convinced that something seemed to kiss them good night shortly before they went to bed. Most of them claimed to have seen a ghostly child moving about whenever the twilight hour was upon them, and all of them had seen the terrifying figure with the

bent neck. These encounters would prove to be only the beginning of what some members of the Prone family claimed to be an extensive haunting of their newly purchased home that continued for many years. As some listeners may be aware, the porn story would later form the basis for The Conjuring, the two thirteen film directed by James One. We will explore this and other elements of the story in next

week's Unexplained Extra. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to help support us, you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com, Forward slash support. All donations, no matter how large or small, are massively appreciating. All elements of Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas

regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com, or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward slash Unexplained. Now, it's time to take care of yourself, to make time for you. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling

your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app, or visit teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast Today to get started. That's t e l a d oc dot com slash Unexplained podcast