Lighthouse Horror Podcast - I Got a Job as a House Sitter. They Left Me a Strange LIST OF RULES | Scary Stories

Episode Date: January 6, 2024

The list was very strange...       Story from Kerestina  Make sure to check out more of their work at u/Kerestina  Original Post: Things to Remember : r/Odd_directions  Original YouTube link: I Got a Job as a House Sitter. They Left Me a Strange LIST OF RULES.           For more stories like this one, check out my YouTube channel: Lighthouse Horror | YouTube  Patreon: Lighthouse Horror | Patreon Merch: lighthousehorror.com  Music: Lucas King - YouTube Myuu - YouTube  Incompetech Darren Curtis Music - YouTube  Thank you for listening to this scary story! If you enjoyed this new creepypasta story, please check out some of my other horror stories. We'll be uploading new episodes every week, featuring ghost stories, haunted encounters, mysteries, true stories, creepypasta, and anything supernatural and paranormal. Don't miss out on the thrill and suspense that await you in each episode!

My name is Mark, and I've just had one of the most horrible house-sitting experiences possible. Except for cases where the house sitter ends up dead, but it was honestly pretty close. I don't know how it is in other places, but in my little country town, we have a weirdo or odd ball everybody knows about. With us, it's Ms. Cronest. Miss Cronest is a middle-aged woman who, at a glance, looks pretty normal. If you were to just run into her in town, you wouldn't think there was anything odd about her. But as soon as you spend more than five minutes with her, you notice that she has some unusual behaviors. Like snapping her fingers whenever she wants somebody to be quiet, always standing uncomfortably close to whoever she's talking to, and so on.

One of her weird quirks is to poke and reprimand the rose bushes as if they were people. And that's not even mentioning how she always talks about the other residents in her house, even though she lives alone. I was pretty sure she was delusional or had some other mental illness that just made her hallucinate. However, after staying in her home now, I can say with absolute certainty that that is not the case. So why did I take the job as her house sitter? Well, simple I needed the money. So, I wanted to avoid going to the yearly family gatherings.

Meeting family is nice, but I can't stand Aunt Susie's complaints about her neighbor's yard and being compared to my perfect cousin Dylan who got accepted to Harvard. So when I heard Miss Cronez was leaving town for three and a half weeks and was looking for a house sitter, I jumped at the chance. When I first arrived at Miss Cronez's house, I was surprised at how large it was. Sure, I'd seen it before while driving by, but this was my first close look at it. It was this two-story tall house painted red, though the paint was flaking, revealing black wood underneath. Ms. Kronest met me at the door. Apparently she was running light.

I think she had a plane she needed to get to, so she didn't have time to give me a tour of the house. Instead, she shoved a piece of paper into my hand and rushed off. She almost forgot to give me the house key before disson. I entered the house and looked at the paper she'd given me. It was a list of rules I needed to follow. There were rules for each room, which made it easy to read. However, these rules made me almost regret taking on the job. Some of the rules were normal or stuff you could expect, like the rules for Ms. Kronas' bedroom

were, Don't enter my bedroom. Leave the door closed and forget about it. Pretend the room isn't there. Now, it's completely understandable that she doesn't want me in her bedroom. Even though I'm house sitting, I'm not going to invade her privacy. But then there were some other rules that, how do I say, they made me concerned. For starters, several other names were mentioned, particularly one named Stubby.

Was that her pet? She hadn't mentioned having one. Just to let you know how bizarre this list really was, I'll read it to you. Rules. Please follow these rules for both your and everyone else's benefit. My bedroom. Don't enter my bedroom. Let the door be closed and forget about it.

Pretend the room isn't there. Guest room. Do not leave the room between midnight and 1 a.m. Not even if you hear noises coming from the rest of the room. of the house. Do not leave. That's their playtime. There's extra bedding in the closet. If a voice is heard from outside the room wanting to get in, tell it that you already have room service. Let Leo the stuffed lion stay in the bed. He's afraid of the dark. Bathroom. The cleaning products are below the sink. Make sure there's nobody in the toilet or the bathtub.

before using them. Do not sing while showering. Jane will get jealous. Kitchen. Never leave any leftover food out. Put it in the fridge or freezer right away. Yes, even if it hasn't cooled yet. When setting the table, always make sure to set it for one extra person. And after a finished meal, clean the whole table. There's some lettuce in the fridge that's about to go bad, Please eat it or throw it away. Whenever Lucas gets clingy, use the spray bottle. And don't fix the clock. Living room.

Water the plants every other day. When watering the plants, do not touch them directly with your hands, they don't like it. Don't move the plants to another room. If the plants somehow are in another room, move them to the living room without touching the plants. Do not fall asleep in the living room, or any room with plants in it. Studio. Please, you can look at the paintings, but do not touch them. There are pens and paints you can use if you feel like it, but don't touch the oil paints

in the cabinet. They're expensive. No mirrors in the room. If she is looking over your shoulder, just smile and nod to whatever person. praise or criticism she may give. Do not look at her. Stubbies room. Do not remove anything from this room. Yes, I know it's a mess in there with items from all over the house, but don't touch anything. This does not include plants. If a plant is found in there, remove it. It's not stubby's doing. If something is missing, do not look for it in there. Let the door to the door to the

the room always be open. If the door is closed, then open it. General, if you see Stubby, do not chase. They will think it's a game, and it'll never end. The garbage truck comes by every Tuesday. Be sure to take out the trash. Okay, sure. So there is some information there you'd expect to see on a list for house-sitting, like the time for the garbage truck or how often the plants needed watering. But why wasn't I allowed to sleep in a room with plants? And why would they move? The thing with putting food away, I can understand. It's summer with high humidity, so things do go bad quickly. But why everything else? And what's the deal with all those names? At the time, I assumed the list was either a result of her hallucinations or a joke. Either way, I didn't

take it too seriously. I decided to explore the house. As I mentioned before, it was pretty large, two floors connected by a swirling staircase with eight rooms in total. On the first floor, there was a kitchen, living room, studio, and a bathroom that also contained a washing machine. On the upper floor, there were two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a storage room. The storage room was full of all kinds of items from old newspapers, dirty plates, car wheels, broken furniture, and a chandelier that was stashed away in a corner. It wasn't hard to guess that this was the room that belonged to this stubby character. The overall mess in this room was overwhelming, and I resisted my urge to close the door and just get it out of sight. One of the rules was to keep

the door open, though, and while I found it completely illogical, I would, wasn't going to just ignore the list I was given. After all, Ms. Cronest was the one who paid me, so I should at least try to follow her rules. The rest of the house was thankfully clean. The living room was spacious with large glass windows that covered almost an entire wall. Along the glass wall were these big potted plants. There were eight of them in total, and all of them were the same kind of tall, large leafed plants without flowers. Beside the plants in the room was a purple sofa that was made for three, and in front of it was this older, bulky TV. There was also a bookcase full of books and photos of a look to be family. I picked up one of the books. It was called

Beautiful Sites of the World and contained photos of different landscapes. The book next to it was about child psychology. The kitchen was spacious with a table and two chairs in the corner. Next to the sink was a spray bottle. According to the list, the spray should be used whenever someone called Lucas got too clinging. Whatever the hell that meant. I checked the content of the spray bottle. It was lemon juice. I left it on the counter. I'd heard people talk about Ms. Kronest being an artist, and after I saw her studio, I understood what they meant. It was full of her paintings. There were both large and small canvases on the walls and stacked onto shelves.

In a corner was a cabinet with various paints, and there I found another note from Ms. Croneast. It was on top of a box with brushes and tubes of paint. The note was short, and it only said, you can use these if you want. Now, normally I would jump at the idea of trying to paint an actual canvas, you know, but the room just made me uncomfortable. I couldn't quite figure out why, but I think it was because of Miss Cronez paintings. They were really good and depicted different settings, but there was this one figure that appeared in all of them.

It was a small grotesque creature similar to a dog, with turquoise scales instead of fur, its snout was split vertically, and its lower lips hung loose, revealing a row of jagged teeth. The eyes were big and yellow, with horizontal pupils like a frog or a goat. And finally, what disturbed me the most about this drawn creature was that instead of pause, it had human hands. This repulsive thing was present in every one of the paintings. Most of the time, it was the focus of the painting. But sometimes it was in the background, peeking out from a hiding spot.

In all the artwork, it was looking right at me. It made me feel like I was being watched. And that was enough for me. me. I left the room and I closed the door, fully prepared to keep out of the studio for the rest of my stay. There was nothing of note about the bathroom. It was clean and it looked nice. And Ms. Cronest room was locked. And lastly, the guest room, or my room, was what you might expect. Wasn't too small or too big. There was a desk and an empty closet for me to put my things away. The bed, it was a bit short for my liking, but I'd make do.

And then there was this stuffed toy lion next to my pillow. This was Leo that was mentioned on the list. It said I should let him stay in the bed. And since he was only about the size of my hand, I let him be. I couldn't remember the last time I'd slept with a stuffed animal, but, you know, what harm could it be? And with my tour of the house done, I began to settle in. I put away my bags and started to boot up my laptop. And that's when I realized the list had one fatal flaw. No internet password? Since I was sure I couldn't survive without internet for three weeks, I called Miss Cronest. It rang nine times before she answered. When she picked up, she sounded confused as to why I was calling so soon. But after I explained, she apologized,

and was more than happy to tell me the password. She said the password was knock on wood, hide and stab, which was one of the more creative passwords I've heard. Now, sure. Maybe I should have been concerned at that hide-and-stab part, but at the time I just felt sad for her. Miss Crownest was nice and friendly when he spoke to her,

and she was clearly a talented artist. But from her list to her, paintings, to even her password, it seemed like her life was controlled by these hallucinations. However, my pity for her was short-lived as I got access to internet and was soon distracted by funny videos from my friend. Nothing happened the first two weeks. I ate and I slept and I played around on the internet. Seemed like the easiest money I would ever make. However, those two weeks were only the calm before the storm. It was during the third week when I heard a knock on the wall. It happened right after I'd gone to bed. At first I thought I'd imagined it. I tried

to fall asleep. And then I heard it again. Knuckles against wood. I sat up confused as to who would be knocking on doors after midnight. The floor was cold, disposed, the summer heat, and I hesitated before putting down my feet, and then I walked up to the guest room door. It was closed. I'd always preferred to keep doors closed, and that might have saved my life, because as I was about to open the door, I got this gut feeling that something was just off. I listened to the knocking again, and noticed it didn't come from the front door of the house, but rather the room next to me. I had no idea how someone had entered the house, and even less of an idea why they would knock on the walls. You know, maybe I'm a coward,

but as soon as I realized the knocking came from inside the house, I got back in bed. I pulled the blanket over my head and I lay there with the stuffed lion. I hid like a child until the sounds stopped, and I refused to get up until the sun was shining through the windows. With the sunlight brightening up every part of the house, my bravery returned. I put on my clothes, grabbed a knife from the kitchen to arm myself, and began searching every room for an intruder. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. At one point, I thought I heard someone giggle, but as soon as I stopped to listen, the sound disappeared. And the last room I searched was the studio.

All the paintings and their unnerving pictures were as I remembered them. I put down the knife on one of the shelves, and I let out a sigh. No sign of an intruder. Knowing that I just overreacted to what was probably just the sound of an old house creaking, I felt a bit embarrassed but also relieved. There was no danger. And then I went to pick up the knife, and it was gone. I looked under the shelf, but it wasn't there either.

There was no trace of it. The knife had just disappeared. I started to question if I'd even had a knife with me, or had I misplaced it. Either way, I didn't want to be in that room anymore. I left and I closed the door behind me. I even put a chair in front of it as a poor attempt at a barricade. And then with that out of the way, I continued my day. I ate, I cleaned what needed to be cleaned, and I watered the plants.

As I was finishing watering the last plant, I yawned since the knocking and kept me up all night. I was starting to feel real sleepy. I sat down on the sofa. I knew Ms. Kronis didn't want me to sleep in the same room as the plants, but you know what? I was tired. I didn't want to go up the staircase to bed. All I needed was a little rest, a short nap, you know. What could be the harm? My sleep was disturbed by something touching my foot. I hadn't slept long enough to start dreaming, but I was still disoriented. I rubbed my eyes and I tried to figure out why I'd woken up when pain shot through my body.

Something was squeezing my right foot. I turned to look at it and I froze. It was a plant. One of the potted plants by the window, somehow it had moved, pot and all from the window to the sofa, and one of its large leaves had wrapped itself around my foot. I let out a yelp as it squeezed tighter and tighter. It was like a rope digging into my skin, cutting off blood circulation.

I kicked at the plant with my other foot. It didn't have much of an effect. The other leaves moved grasping at me. I couldn't let it catch my other foot, too, So I grabbed the sofa's pillows as a shield. With the pillows firmly in my hands, I pushed at the plant. Without making direct contact with the green terror, I managed to topple it over.

It fell to the floor and thank God it released my foot. There were markings left on my skin from where the leaf had been. Before the plant could recover and attack me again, I fled. Or I tried to. I stood up prepared to run out of the living room, but I tripped over my injured foot, making me stumble and fall. I crashed down next to the plant. Thankfully, its moves were very slow, and I rolled out of its reach.

And then I noticed the other plants. They'd all gotten a lot closer to me. I didn't even bother to stand up. I crawled as fast as possible until I made it. out of the living room. And as I glanced behind me, I saw that they'd moved even closer. And, you know, that was enough. I wasn't going to stay in this house. I didn't know what was going on, but it was clearly dangerous. I didn't even get my fangs. I just rushed to the front door to escape. The door wouldn't open. I pushed, I pulled, I banged at the door.

but it wouldn't budge. It was as if something was holding it shut. I tried to kick it, but that didn't work either. And then I heard the sound of giggling echoing through the walls. I fled to the only safe place I could think of, the guest room, the room I'd been sleeping in. I ran up the stairs and I slammed the door shut behind me. On the desk next to my laptop was the list Ms. Cronez left.

His croness left me. I hadn't looked at it much during my first two weeks, but now it was a matter of life and death. As I was rereading the rules, a voice came from outside the room. It sounded like a young man, and it asked me if it could come in. My body went cold. This was mentioned on that list. The voice made another polite plea to be let inside. I licked my lips, but my mouth was dry as I followed the list's instructions.

Um, I already have room service, I said with a shaky voice. And then there was a sad grunt, and then it was gone. I waited another hour before I opened the door, and when I peeked out, the rest of the house look normal. None of the plants had made it up the stairs, thank God, and there were no monsters lurking in the corners. But I didn't feel comfortable leaving the guest room. I knew I wouldn't be able to survive another week hiding away in there. I needed food and water, and with the list firmly in hand, I sneaked down to the kitchen. There I filled water bottles and grabbed all the food I could carry. Something moved in the shadow.

under the kitchen table. I used the spray bottle with the lemon juice on the shadow, and it calmed down with a hiss. Without waiting around, I took the food and I hunkered down in the guest room. Too late, I realized I should call Miss Crow Nest and tell her to come home. But I couldn't find my phone. It wasn't in the room. My phone was my lifeline to the outside world. I had to have it. Despite being afraid to leave the room, I knew I had to find my phone. And I gathered all my courage. And I opened the door. And there on the floor, right outside the room, was the missing knife.

I picked it up. And a giggle came from the staircase. For a second, I saw the grotesque creature that it peaked. appeared in the paintings. It hid out of sight, and another fit of giggles filled the house. That was enough for me. While my phone was important, it wasn't worth dying for. I closed the door and I barricaded it with the desk. Now, in case you're wondering, I did try to escape through the window, but it was just like the front door. It wouldn't open. No matter how hard I tried, I sland I'd my fist at it, I did everything I could, but it was unbreakable.

My laptop was still with me, but as I was about to send a message, the internet cut off. I was stuck in the room. All I could do was sit and wait. The food and water I grabbed from the kitchen was only able to last a few days, even though I rationed it. However, my main problem was the knocking. There was a constant knocking on the walls, floor, and ceiling. I just sat on the bed with the little stuffed lion next to me.

I did my best to avoid looking at it. It was mentioned in the list, so I didn't trust it either, but I didn't dare move or disturb it. And I lost my sense of time. I have no idea how many days passed since I had. I barricaded myself. I began contemplating death. What would happen if I died in there in that room?

I mean, death might be better than the endless knocking. And then there was a sudden snap, the sound of fingers snapping together. It wasn't as all-consuming as the knocking, but it was a sudden snap. but it was still loud, clear, and attention-grabbing. Though what really made this finger-snapping stand out was that every other sound just stopped. Two finger snaps, and the knocking was gone. I was sure this was another trick, so I just stayed under the blanket.

And then in the quiet, I heard footsteps, Calm steps moved up the stairs. They came closer. My heart was beating heavily in my chest. I didn't want whoever it was to hear me. The steps stopped right outside the door. Then there was a light knock, followed by Ms. Crow Nest voice. I didn't answer, though.

Apparently my silence wasn't appreciated, and the door was flung open, and there stood Ms. Krohnest. I hadn't expected it to really be her. I slumped down to the floor. Ms. Krohnest looked at me with confusion, but I figured things out pretty quickly. She helped me gather up my things, and she said I could leave. The front door opened without issue. And as I was leaving, she apologized for her other residence behavior and assured me that she would send me the money. At that point, I didn't care about the pay. I was just glad to get out of that house. About a week after I left, I got a message from Ms. Crone asked, she'd found my missing phone.

According to her, someone named Stebbie. had hidden it for fun, and now she wanted to return it. And I told her to keep it. I know phones are expensive, but I did not want to have anything to do with that house again. My final message to those listening is this. Be careful when you house it, because you may come across some silly rules that turn out to be deadly serious.