Latest / Luke's English Podcast / A Night By the Campfire _1_ The Curse of Floor 80

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A Night By the Campfire _1_ The Curse of Floor 80 · Luke's English Podcast

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Speaker 1: us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Welcome, take a
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Speaker 1: seat tonight. I have a story to share with you,
3:01
Speaker 1: A tale of debts, demons, and death. This is the
3:07
Speaker 1: Curse of Floor eighty from author Elliott Price. You're listening
3:14
Speaker 1: to a night by the campfire. I climb skyscrapers. I'm
3:34
Speaker 1: a window washer. I do office buildings, high rises, places
3:38
Speaker 1: like that, and I've seen things through those windows you
3:41
Speaker 1: wouldn't believe. Nudity, fistfights, drug use, you name it. It's
3:47
Speaker 1: all part of the job. I've learned. When you catch
3:50
Speaker 1: someone who thinks no one's watching, that's when you see
3:54
Speaker 1: them for who they really are. Still having said that,
3:58
Speaker 1: nothing trumps what I I saw yesterday. Nothing. This is
4:04
Speaker 1: what happened. Me and a trainee were seventy stories high
4:13
Speaker 1: washing the windows of this little girl's bedroom. This was
4:16
Speaker 1: a luxury high rise, a very high dollar inside. I
4:21
Speaker 1: couldn't help but notice this man hugging his daughter. She
4:25
Speaker 1: might have been five or six. Neither of them saw us.
4:29
Speaker 1: Once he let her go, he put up a hand
4:32
Speaker 1: like he was telling her not to follow. He turned,
4:36
Speaker 1: walked out the door and shut it behind him. There
4:40
Speaker 1: was an adjacent window. Inside was the man's living room,
4:44
Speaker 1: with the kitchen behind it. The man walked across the
4:48
Speaker 1: living room and over to a bookshelf. He gripped it
4:51
Speaker 1: and walked backwards with it until it blocked the girl's
4:55
Speaker 1: door in her room. The girl eyed the door, holding
5:01
Speaker 1: her teddy Bear by the arm. She'd heard all that
5:04
Speaker 1: noise and she was clearly confused. So were we. The
5:12
Speaker 1: man marched back into his living room and jabbed a
5:14
Speaker 1: finger into an empty corner. He hissed at it like
5:19
Speaker 1: he was really giving someone a piece of his mind,
5:23
Speaker 1: but nobody was there. Then went into the kitchen, snatched
5:29
Speaker 1: a barstool from the counter, brought it back to the
5:33
Speaker 1: living room, and placed it underneath a ceiling fan. Come on,
5:38
Speaker 1: what's with this guy? He went back into the kitchen,
5:43
Speaker 1: and this time digging through a drawer. He pulled out
5:47
Speaker 1: a piece of paper and a brand new teddy Bear
5:50
Speaker 1: with a tag clipped on its ear. He dropped the
5:55
Speaker 1: paper on the counter, He glanced over at his daughter's bedroom,
5:59
Speaker 1: kissed the tag eddy bear, set it on top of
6:02
Speaker 1: the paper. He reached back into that same drawer, deeper
6:07
Speaker 1: this time, and when his hand came out. It held
6:10
Speaker 1: onto a long rope with a loop tied on each end.
6:15
Speaker 1: He walked into the living room nice and slow, dragging
6:20
Speaker 1: himself along like he didn't want to go through with
6:23
Speaker 1: the whatever he was doing. In the bedroom, the girl
6:28
Speaker 1: pushed the door. It smacked against the bookshelf. She pushed harder,
6:33
Speaker 1: and once it smacked again, she realized she was trapped.
6:37
Speaker 1: She slapped on the door screamed, screamed so loudly we
6:42
Speaker 1: heard her through an inch of glass. The man balanced
6:48
Speaker 1: himself on the stool. When he heard the girl, his
6:52
Speaker 1: face tightened like his heart was being squeezed by the
6:55
Speaker 1: sound of her voice. He glared back into that same
6:59
Speaker 1: corner and shouted something I couldn't make out. Then he
7:03
Speaker 1: fastened the rope tight around the ceiling fan. He fastened
7:07
Speaker 1: the other end around his neck. At My trainee, who
7:10
Speaker 1: I just call kid, was yelling, pounding on the glass,
7:14
Speaker 1: shaking our basket around. I gripped onto the railing. Our
7:19
Speaker 1: basket was no bigger than an elevator. It hung by
7:22
Speaker 1: two point suspension connecting to a crane on the top
7:25
Speaker 1: of the building. We dangled over an eight hundred foot drop.
7:31
Speaker 1: With all that banging around. The man snapped his head up,
7:33
Speaker 1: wide eyed. Come on, man, the kid was yelling, he'll
7:38
Speaker 1: do it. The man shook his head. He scooted forward,
7:43
Speaker 1: nudging his toes off the edge of the stool one
7:46
Speaker 1: inch at a time. If I didn't do something, he'd
7:50
Speaker 1: kill himself. I had to get his attention back. I
7:53
Speaker 1: grabbed my squeegee, flipped it on its metal handle, and
7:56
Speaker 1: hammered the glass. A loud crack jolted his eyes back up.
8:00
Speaker 1: Skyscraper glass is too thick to shatter, but at least
8:05
Speaker 1: I had him back. I pointed to his daughter's bedroom,
8:08
Speaker 1: and without making a sound, I mouthed the words what
8:11
Speaker 1: about her? The man froze. He glanced toward the bedroom,
8:19
Speaker 1: pressed his lips together, then looked back at me with
8:22
Speaker 1: tears in his eyes. For a second, I thought he
8:25
Speaker 1: felt ashamed, But then he looked at the empty corner
8:29
Speaker 1: again and shouted that he was sorry. My blood ran cold.
8:36
Speaker 1: Frank kid whispered, are you seeing this? I saw. The
8:42
Speaker 1: man had reached his breaking point. Whatever he was seeing
8:46
Speaker 1: had him convinced. He faced forward, shut his eyes. The
8:50
Speaker 1: legs of the stool wobbled. He was fighting against his reflexes,
8:54
Speaker 1: trying to force his legs to kick over the stool,
8:57
Speaker 1: one small step from snapping his neck, but then he
9:04
Speaker 1: stepped back. He reached up, lifted the rope from his neck,
9:10
Speaker 1: and stepped down. The girl screamed again for her father.
9:17
Speaker 1: He slouched onto the stool and leaned on his elbows.
9:21
Speaker 1: He studied his hands, which were visibly shaking, and then
9:26
Speaker 1: he sank his face into them. Get us back up,
9:30
Speaker 1: I told the kid, I'm calling the cops. While the
9:34
Speaker 1: kid controlled the basket, I dialed nine one one, three
9:37
Speaker 1: quarters of the way up. Right when the operator connected,
9:41
Speaker 1: the kid stopped the basket. We swayed from the impact
9:46
Speaker 1: and slapped a window. I stared at the kid. Now
9:51
Speaker 1: went on with your kid, I said, come on, there's
9:55
Speaker 1: a little girl stuck in there with a lunatic. Get moving.
10:00
Speaker 1: A rush of wind blew by and whistled on the
10:02
Speaker 1: side of the building. The basket rocked and swayed. The
10:06
Speaker 1: kid was looking down over the edge. Slowly, he raised
10:10
Speaker 1: his eyes to meet mine, blinked a few times, and
10:13
Speaker 1: then shook his head, giving off a little smile.
10:17
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Frank.
10:20
Speaker 1: He resumed the lift. The curse of floor eighty will
10:34
Speaker 1: return in a moment. At the top, the cops were
10:51
Speaker 1: already waiting for us. I gave an approximate location of
10:55
Speaker 1: the apartment, and a group of them raced inside. A
10:59
Speaker 1: younger cop stayed behind and asked for my statement. I
11:03
Speaker 1: blocked the wind with my hand, lit a cigarette, and
11:08
Speaker 1: told him everything, the rope, the girl, all of it.
11:15
Speaker 1: The cop asked the kid, did.
11:17
Speaker 2: You witness the same sequence of events? Sir, not exactly.
11:22
Speaker 1: The kid said, huh, what possibly could I have left out?
11:29
Speaker 1: I saw it all in my head like a picture.
11:32
Speaker 1: The cop flipped his notepad to the next page.
11:36
Speaker 3: All right, would you like to add There was also
11:40
Speaker 3: a woman, he said. She might have been in her
11:43
Speaker 3: seventies or eighties. While he tried to hang himself, she
11:47
Speaker 3: stood in the corner smiling.
11:50
Speaker 1: What the hell's the matter with you? I asked. The
11:54
Speaker 1: apartment had two people, the man and his daughter.
11:57
Speaker 2: You know that I'm only telling you what I saw.
12:01
Speaker 1: The cop studied us, his eyes snapping between me and
12:04
Speaker 1: the kid. Obviously one of us was lying. When he
12:08
Speaker 1: opened his mouth to speak, someone spoke on his walkie
12:10
Speaker 1: talkie instead. The string of police codes, then a demand
12:15
Speaker 1: for an immediate response, the cop hesitated he didn't want
12:20
Speaker 1: to go. Buddy pocketed his pen and pad and said,
12:24
Speaker 1: will be in Dutch. The door slam shut, bouncing a
12:30
Speaker 1: metallic clang off nearby buildings. Then we were alone again.
12:37
Speaker 2: Well, the kid said, there's no sense in waiting around.
12:42
Speaker 2: Ready to get back to it.
12:44
Speaker 1: He pointed at the basket sitting on the edge of
12:46
Speaker 1: the rooftop. He was too casual, like he didn't just
12:50
Speaker 1: witness a near suicide and lie his ass off to
12:53
Speaker 1: a cop. I think you should go home, kid.
12:57
Speaker 2: But we're not finished. Why would I do that?
13:00
Speaker 1: I dropped my cigarette on the ground and smushed it
13:03
Speaker 1: out because you're not well. Go on, I'll finish up.
13:09
Speaker 2: This is my job too, Frank.
13:11
Speaker 1: Don't worry. You can log your hours. I won't tell
13:15
Speaker 1: no one.
13:16
Speaker 3: Now, Frank, he said, if I left early my first week,
13:21
Speaker 3: how would that make me look?
13:22
Speaker 1: I don't care how you look. I don't like you,
13:25
Speaker 1: I don't trust you, and I'm not getting back in
13:28
Speaker 1: that basket with you.
13:30
Speaker 3: Well, do you plan on cleaning any more windows today?
13:33
Speaker 3: If so, I'm afraid you'll have to.
13:35
Speaker 1: I got in the kid's face. You want me to
13:38
Speaker 1: tell Howard, how you just tinkered with the truth. If not,
13:41
Speaker 1: turn around and walk out that door.
13:44
Speaker 2: Sure, go ahead, Actually here, I can.
13:47
Speaker 1: Call him up for you. The kid dug into his pocket.
13:51
Speaker 1: He pulled out his phone and started scrolling.
13:54
Speaker 3: Because you see the problem, right, Howard can't fire me
13:57
Speaker 3: for something he wasn't here to see.
14:00
Speaker 1: He flipped his phone around. It was a picture of
14:03
Speaker 1: me nipping a flask on my lunch break. My stomach dropped.
14:09
Speaker 2: This is what you call concrete evidence.
14:12
Speaker 1: Then he flipped to Howard's contact and hovered his thumb
14:15
Speaker 1: over the call button.
14:16
Speaker 2: Do you want me to call? Say the word Frank
14:19
Speaker 2: and I'll call.
14:21
Speaker 1: I could have hit him right there. Go just go
14:28
Speaker 1: get in the basket.
14:30
Speaker 2: Whoa, whoa, whoa, the kid said, hold your horses.
14:35
Speaker 1: He slipped his phone back in his pocket and strolled
14:37
Speaker 1: over to the ac unit where his backpack was leaning.
14:41
Speaker 1: He dug around, and his body blocked whatever he was doing,
14:43
Speaker 1: so I couldn't see what he was grabbing. I came
14:47
Speaker 1: up behind him, but the kid must have heard me.
14:49
Speaker 1: He stood up real fast. He was holding a sandwich
14:54
Speaker 1: like this was a good time for a lunch break,
14:57
Speaker 1: Like he wasn't doing anything wrong. Something sparked in me.
15:03
Speaker 1: I palmed that sandwich, wound back, and pitched it off
15:06
Speaker 1: the edge of the skyscraper. It turned into a little
15:09
Speaker 1: white speck against the clear blue sky. Then I looked
15:14
Speaker 1: at the kid, dead in the eye, waiting for him
15:17
Speaker 1: to try something. See what happened. The kid's gaze followed
15:23
Speaker 1: it down hundreds of feet.
15:26
Speaker 2: He whistled, Boy, it sure is a long way down,
15:31
Speaker 2: isn't it. Frank?
15:33
Speaker 1: He brushed past me, opened the gate of the basket,
15:36
Speaker 1: and stepped inside. I followed, ready for this day to
15:40
Speaker 1: be over. Window washers wear vests with a ring on
15:47
Speaker 1: the back. A harness hooks into that ring and attaches
15:50
Speaker 1: to the roof. God forbids something should happen to the basket.
15:54
Speaker 1: It's the last line of defense. While I hooked in,
16:00
Speaker 1: the kid just stood there. What I said, need me
16:05
Speaker 1: to hold your hand?
16:07
Speaker 2: The kid laughed.
16:08
Speaker 1: He grabbed his harness and took a sweet time hooking in.
16:12
Speaker 1: Then he glanced at the control panel.
16:15
Speaker 2: Do you want me to take us back down?
16:18
Speaker 1: You're good right where you are?
16:20
Speaker 2: All right? Then, Frank, down we go.
16:24
Speaker 1: I powered on the crane and lifted us several feet
16:27
Speaker 1: above the roof. Then I eased the control stick forward,
16:31
Speaker 1: nudging the basket off the edge, putting hundreds of feet
16:35
Speaker 1: of open air beneath us. The wind picked up again,
16:39
Speaker 1: rocking the basket back and forth. The kid stuck his
16:43
Speaker 1: hands inside his pockets. We descended in total silence, listening
16:49
Speaker 1: to the cables. Grown rush hour traffic raced below. The
16:55
Speaker 1: sun low in the sky, splashed bright orange across the windows.
17:00
Speaker 1: When we reached the apartment, I glanced inside. It was empty.
17:05
Speaker 1: No father, no little girl. But the chair still sat
17:10
Speaker 1: under the fan and the rope still hung above it.
17:17
Speaker 1: I couldn't take it no more. I needed answers. All right,
17:21
Speaker 1: you gotta tell me why did you make that stuff up?
17:25
Speaker 3: I didn't make anything up, but there is something I
17:29
Speaker 3: left out.
17:30
Speaker 1: He slipped a pair of box cutters from his pocket.
17:33
Speaker 1: He squeezed the button and the blade flicked out. All right, kid,
17:37
Speaker 1: just take it easy, he grinned, flashing me a set
17:41
Speaker 1: of crooked teeth.
17:43
Speaker 3: You see her, now, don't you see who?
17:47
Speaker 2: Look inside?
17:49
Speaker 1: I did not want to take my eyes off those
17:51
Speaker 1: box cutters, so I only took a quick peek. What
17:55
Speaker 1: it's an empty apartment. The kid shook his head.
18:00
Speaker 2: That is incredible.
18:02
Speaker 3: She's staring right at you, right on the other side
18:05
Speaker 3: of the window.
18:07
Speaker 2: You don't hear her screaming.
18:09
Speaker 1: I placed my hand on the controls. Look, I think
18:12
Speaker 1: we should head back up. We're not going back, he said.
18:17
Speaker 1: The blade glinted in the sunlight. Listen to me. I
18:22
Speaker 1: am not a threat to you. Let's just talk about
18:25
Speaker 1: whatever this is.
18:27
Speaker 3: Sure, Frank, we'll talk, but first there's something I need
18:31
Speaker 3: to ask you.
18:32
Speaker 1: Ask anything.
18:35
Speaker 2: Would you reach up behind you and unhook your harness?
18:39
Speaker 1: The kid had lost his mind. His eyes had this
18:43
Speaker 1: stone cold look. He was dead serious. That's a safety violation,
18:50
Speaker 1: I said.
18:51
Speaker 3: I know I've fit attention during training, but this is
18:55
Speaker 3: a debt that we both.
18:55
Speaker 2: Have to pay.
18:57
Speaker 1: My God, the kid wanted both of us to jump.
19:01
Speaker 1: Whatever delusions the man in the apartment had, the kid
19:04
Speaker 1: now had them too, And like the man, I happened
19:08
Speaker 1: to know that the kid also had a family, a
19:12
Speaker 1: wife and a little girl of his own. I dropped
19:15
Speaker 1: my voice. Answer me this. When your little girl is
19:19
Speaker 1: waiting for you at the door tonight and you don't
19:22
Speaker 1: come home, how do you think she's gonna feel?
19:26
Speaker 2: Probably about the same as your wife.
19:28
Speaker 1: He said, shifting the blade from my stomach to my neck.
19:33
Speaker 2: Last chance, Frank, how are you going to jump?
19:38
Speaker 1: I took a glance down, down seventy stories, down eight
19:43
Speaker 1: hundred feet, down to rush hour traffic. So far away
19:48
Speaker 1: it looked like a line of ants. Please, I said,
19:54
Speaker 1: don't do this. The kid exhaled, shut his eyes and
20:00
Speaker 1: reopened them. He removed the blade from my neck and
20:05
Speaker 1: pushed past me. He moved to the end of the
20:07
Speaker 1: basket and gripped a cable and started cutting. I took
20:13
Speaker 1: one step toward him, then heard a loud pop. A
20:16
Speaker 1: spray of liquid hissed from where he'd cut. I couldn't
20:20
Speaker 1: believe it. He'd severed the hydraulic line. Then I felt
20:25
Speaker 1: a bang. The basket dipped at a sharp angle. I
20:28
Speaker 1: slid down, striking against the gate and the kid. We
20:33
Speaker 1: both scrambled, fighting to plant our feet on the gate
20:36
Speaker 1: and get upright. I had a railing on my left
20:39
Speaker 1: and he had a railing on his right. We stood up,
20:43
Speaker 1: shouldered to shoulder in the narrow width of the basket,
20:46
Speaker 1: each gripping the railing on our own side. I looked
20:50
Speaker 1: over at the kid, and his eyes were already on me.
20:55
Speaker 1: Without breaking eye contact. He reached down and opened gate
21:00
Speaker 1: under our feet. You're listening to the curse of floor eighty.
21:16
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. My cable caught my weight and
21:32
Speaker 1: my feet dangled. I hugged the railing tighter. I glanced
21:36
Speaker 1: down and saw an open ocean of air. Please, I begged,
21:42
Speaker 1: just stop. The kid hooked his feet onto the railing,
21:45
Speaker 1: trying to achieve some type of stability. Then his hand
21:49
Speaker 1: left the railing, reached above me and snipped my line.
21:53
Speaker 1: The weight of my entire body dropped into the grip
21:56
Speaker 1: of my hands. Now I dangled freely with no harness.
22:00
Speaker 1: Hydraulic fluid rained down, slicking the railing. My fingers were
22:05
Speaker 1: losing a grip. I hugged the railing tighter.
22:08
Speaker 2: Come on, Frank, the kid said, let go already.
22:14
Speaker 1: I could no longer speak. I just nodded my head.
22:18
Speaker 1: I felt the kid's hand grip my shoulder, and then
22:22
Speaker 1: pushed down. I slid a couple of inches. The railing
22:26
Speaker 1: screeched under my fingers. A cool rush of wind brushed
22:31
Speaker 1: against my legs.
22:33
Speaker 3: Here's the issue, Frank. If you don't choose to fall,
22:37
Speaker 3: it's not suicide, it's murder. And she doesn't want murder,
22:43
Speaker 3: so you have to make the choice.
22:45
Speaker 1: Then I felt his blade edging into the crevice between
22:49
Speaker 1: my head and right ear.
22:51
Speaker 2: That I can make your choice real easy. Do you
22:55
Speaker 2: want that? Is that what you want? Frank?
22:58
Speaker 1: I had never been so close to death. Every muscle
23:01
Speaker 1: inside my body tightened with fear. Then, out of nowhere,
23:06
Speaker 1: my mind pitched an idea. The kid was covered in
23:10
Speaker 1: hydraulic fluid. Hydraulic fluid is flammable. There was a lighter
23:14
Speaker 1: in my pocket. If I could make him cut his
23:17
Speaker 1: own line, I could tortureim off the basket. But if
23:21
Speaker 1: he saw me going for the light, I was finished.
23:25
Speaker 1: I kicked my feet up, working to plant them on
23:27
Speaker 1: the inner blip of the basket. The exertion added strain
23:30
Speaker 1: to my hands and wrists. They began to tremble. Help me,
23:36
Speaker 1: I said, I'll do it, but first help me. His
23:40
Speaker 1: hand gripped the back of my shirt and lifted my
23:43
Speaker 1: foot found the lip, giving immediate relief to my hands.
23:46
Speaker 1: But his knife slid into my ear a little deeper.
23:50
Speaker 2: Do you need a count of three?
23:52
Speaker 1: Just wait? I said, trying to catch my breath. I
23:55
Speaker 1: have a condition. What condition that we both go at
23:59
Speaker 1: the same time. Time a trickle of blood ran down
24:02
Speaker 1: my neck.
24:04
Speaker 2: Come on, Frank, don't try to trick me.
24:07
Speaker 1: No tricks, I said. If you don't come with me,
24:10
Speaker 1: I choose no. You cut all you want, but unless
24:13
Speaker 1: we both jump, I choose no. The kid went quiet.
24:19
Speaker 1: Several seconds passed, then the blade lifted from my ear.
24:25
Speaker 1: I peeked over. The kid hugged the railing, fixing to
24:28
Speaker 1: cut his own line. His eyes were still on me.
24:33
Speaker 1: I held the railing tight with my right hand, with
24:36
Speaker 1: the left one hidden behind my body. I brought it down,
24:39
Speaker 1: praying he wouldn't notice. Wait, he said, why are you
24:45
Speaker 1: looking at me like that? He snipped his line, Because kid,
24:50
Speaker 1: this face is the last one you're ever gonna see.
24:54
Speaker 1: I closed my fingers on the lighter that goes for
24:58
Speaker 1: both of us.
24:59
Speaker 3: He said, I'm going to jump onto you now, Frank,
25:02
Speaker 3: Then we're both going to fall.
25:05
Speaker 2: Are you ready for that?
25:06
Speaker 1: Uh huh. The kid turned his body fully toward me,
25:10
Speaker 1: ready to jump. Then his eyes caught my hand. I
25:14
Speaker 1: punched it under his chin and clicked the flame. His
25:17
Speaker 1: skull erupted into a burst of fire. He stuck out
25:21
Speaker 1: his hands to latch onto me, but I stuck out
25:23
Speaker 1: my leg and pumped him one of the stomach. He
25:26
Speaker 1: crumpled up and slipped off the basket, plunging into thin air.
25:33
Speaker 1: I hung there another thirty minutes before rescue came. While
25:38
Speaker 1: I waited, I must have started hallucinating, because I could
25:42
Speaker 1: have sworn I heard a woman screaming. Then the firefighters came.
25:48
Speaker 1: They cut a hole in the glass, and they pulled
25:50
Speaker 1: me in. From then on, disturbing things have been happening.
25:57
Speaker 1: While my wife drove me home, she asked for my
26:00
Speaker 1: to swerve into head on traffic. That same night, I
26:04
Speaker 1: woke up to my sixteen year old son dousing me
26:08
Speaker 1: and my wife with gasoline. Then he asked for my
26:11
Speaker 1: permission to light a match. Now I'm sitting on the
26:16
Speaker 1: edge of a skyscraper with my feet hanging off the edge.
26:22
Speaker 1: This entity is real. I know it is because it's
26:27
Speaker 1: inside the heads of my entire family. It's torturing me,
26:35
Speaker 1: tearing me down by using the people I love the most.
26:40
Speaker 1: It feeds on my pain and suffering, and it wants
26:44
Speaker 1: me to make a choice. After careful consideration, I think
26:51
Speaker 1: I've reached one. Thank you for joining us tonight. At
27:14
Speaker 1: the campfire. I'm your host, Doug Bailey, Declan Rores is
27:20
Speaker 1: our producer, and Nate Corson is our audio engineer. Tonight's
27:24
Speaker 1: story is brought to you by Elliott Price and narrated
27:27
Speaker 1: by myself, Body Crow, Declan Rores, and Samantha Morganty. Until
27:35
Speaker 1: next time, stay safe out there.