Latest / Crime and Horror / Abandoned dorm is a portal to another universe Campfire Stories with MrBallen
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Campfire. Tonight I have two very
- 0:04Speaker 1: weird and equally creepy stories to share that in many
- 0:10Speaker 1: ways are perfect for this setting. Stories to be told
- 0:14Speaker 1: by a campfire. But before we get into tonight's stories,
- 0:18Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious
- 0:20Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right campfire,
- 0:23Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload two, three,
- 0:26Speaker 1: even four times every week. So if that's of interest
- 0:29Speaker 1: to you, please invite the like button to go camping
- 0:31Speaker 1: with you. But don't tell them that you've secretly lined
- 0:34Speaker 1: the inside of their sleeping bag with itching powder. Also,
- 0:37Speaker 1: please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications
- 0:41Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay,
- 0:44Speaker 1: let's get into tonight's stories. On the morning of April 25th, 2013,
- 1:06Speaker 1: a 17-year-old high school senior named Henry was standing in
- 1:09Speaker 1: the courtyard of this old abandoned dorm building that was
- 1:12Speaker 1: on his school's campus in Tianjin, which is a major
- 1:15Speaker 1: city in northeastern China. Now, Henry, at this time, was
- 1:19Speaker 1: actually supposed to be with the rest of the students
- 1:21Speaker 1: in his gym class right now, playing badminton on the
- 1:24Speaker 1: school's outdoor courts, but the courts were all full. So
- 1:28Speaker 1: Henry and one of his friends, whose name was Wen...
- 1:31Speaker 1: had decided to start their own game in this courtyard instead,
- 1:35Speaker 1: even though they were not technically supposed to be over
- 1:37Speaker 1: here at all. And so Henry, he hit the badminton
- 1:40Speaker 1: shuttlecock towards Wynn, and they were bouncing it back and forth,
- 1:44Speaker 1: when suddenly Henry heard somebody calling his name. And so Henry,
- 1:47Speaker 1: you know, he turned to see who was calling to him,
- 1:50Speaker 1: and he saw two other boys who were heading towards
- 1:52Speaker 1: their courtyard, and they too were holding badminton rackets. And Henry,
- 1:56Speaker 1: as soon as he saw who these two were, he
- 1:58Speaker 1: broke into a big smile, because he One of them
- 2:01Speaker 1: was one of his other classmates, whose name was Lee,
- 2:03Speaker 1: who he was friends with. But the other was his
- 2:06Speaker 1: childhood best friend, Pan Bowen. Henry and Pan had been
- 2:10Speaker 1: very close ever since elementary school, and now they're high
- 2:13Speaker 1: school seniors. And they had a ton in common. They
- 2:17Speaker 1: were both tall and thin. They wore glasses. They were
- 2:21Speaker 1: both kind of quiet and nerdy. And they both loved
- 2:24Speaker 1: video games. But Henry and Pan, of late, had not
- 2:28Speaker 1: had a chance to spend much time together. because they
- 2:30Speaker 1: were both very busy studying for something called the Gaokao,
- 2:34Speaker 1: which is China's national college entrance exam. This test is
- 2:37Speaker 1: sort of like the SAT in America, except realistically it's
- 2:42Speaker 1: way more high stakes, because it's literally the only thing
- 2:46Speaker 1: that some colleges in China take into account for admissions.
- 2:50Speaker 1: And so if Henry and Pan wanted to get into
- 2:53Speaker 1: good colleges, they needed to ace this test. So they
- 2:56Speaker 1: had both spent the last several months basically studying upwards
- 3:00Speaker 1: of 14 hours every single day. And as a result,
- 3:04Speaker 1: they didn't see their friends much, including each other. And
- 3:07Speaker 1: so this was a nice break from that. And so Henry,
- 3:10Speaker 1: he's so jazzed up, you know, he sees his buddies
- 3:13Speaker 1: coming over here. And so he calls out to Pan
- 3:15Speaker 1: as he's getting closer and he goes, hey, and he
- 3:18Speaker 1: hits the badminton shuttlecock towards Pan. And Pan, he's ready.
- 3:22Speaker 1: He's got his racket and he hit it back. But
- 3:25Speaker 1: it sort of veered off to the side and it
- 3:27Speaker 1: bounced along the ground in front of one of the
- 3:29Speaker 1: dorm buildings. And then, before anybody could stop it, the
- 3:33Speaker 1: shuttlecock fell into an open window that led into this
- 3:38Speaker 1: abandoned dorm building's basement. A minute later, Henry, Pan, Lee,
- 3:42Speaker 1: and Wen all gathered around this basement window. And this basement,
- 3:47Speaker 1: it was just for ventilation, so it was only a
- 3:49Speaker 1: couple of inches tall. And when Henry knelt down and
- 3:52Speaker 1: tried to peek inside to see where the shuttlecock had gone,
- 3:55Speaker 1: all he could see inside was darkness. And so he
- 3:59Speaker 1: turned back to the group and said they'd just have
- 4:02Speaker 1: to go back to the gym and get a new shuttlecock.
- 4:05Speaker 1: But Pan said he didn't want to do that. They
- 4:08Speaker 1: weren't technically supposed to be playing over here at all,
- 4:11Speaker 1: and so if they admitted that they had lost the shuttlecock,
- 4:14Speaker 1: You know, it's entirely possible that one thing might lead
- 4:17Speaker 1: to another and they might discover, you know, where the
- 4:20Speaker 1: lost shuttlecock was. It was in this off-limits area. And
- 4:23Speaker 1: so Pan's like, I don't want to get in trouble.
- 4:25Speaker 1: I think we should just go in there and get
- 4:27Speaker 1: this thing. And then before anybody could stop him, Pan
- 4:30Speaker 1: got up and he walked right over to the front
- 4:33Speaker 1: entrance of this abandoned dorm building and he reached for
- 4:36Speaker 1: the door handle. And like right as he's doing this,
- 4:39Speaker 1: Henry got up and he was about to call out like, dude,
- 4:43Speaker 1: we cannot go in there. Like this is going to
- 4:45Speaker 1: get us in more trouble than anybody finding out about
- 4:47Speaker 1: a lost shuttlecock. Like don't go in there. But Henry
- 4:50Speaker 1: watches Pan. He turned the handle on this door and
- 4:54Speaker 1: clearly it was unlocked. And so Pan, he opened the door,
- 4:58Speaker 1: pushed it open and stepped inside. A minute later. Henry
- 5:02Speaker 1: as well had made his way over, and he was
- 5:04Speaker 1: now standing inside the entryway of this abandoned dorm building
- 5:08Speaker 1: next to Pan and then also Lee. The fourth friend, Wen,
- 5:12Speaker 1: had decided that this was not for them. They would
- 5:15Speaker 1: stay outside and stand guard in case any teachers showed up.
- 5:19Speaker 1: But realistically, they just did not want to go in there. However,
- 5:22Speaker 1: despite the fact that these other three now had, you know,
- 5:25Speaker 1: an official lookout outside to keep them out of trouble,
- 5:28Speaker 1: so to speak, Henry, just in being inside of this building,
- 5:32Speaker 1: he couldn't help but feel really freaked out. The air
- 5:36Speaker 1: inside of this building reeked of mildew and it was
- 5:39Speaker 1: so cold that literally Henry's like shivering. Now, the front
- 5:43Speaker 1: entryway where they were standing was relatively well lit because
- 5:46Speaker 1: there were a couple of open windows that let in
- 5:48Speaker 1: a bunch of light. But beyond the entryway, basically the
- 5:52Speaker 1: hallways that went in different directions, you know, Henry's looking
- 5:55Speaker 1: down each of them and they were totally dark. because
- 5:58Speaker 1: there were no windows, at least no open windows, and
- 6:00Speaker 1: things were blocked by old furniture and things that had
- 6:03Speaker 1: sort of cluttered up against the side of the walls.
- 6:06Speaker 1: And so it's really dark and ominous. And so Henry,
- 6:09Speaker 1: he's standing in the entryway wondering, like, how do we
- 6:12Speaker 1: even begin to find the way down to the basement? Like,
- 6:16Speaker 1: I don't want to go down these hallways. But as
- 6:18Speaker 1: he's standing there, suddenly Henry, he realizes Pan has wandered
- 6:23Speaker 1: off already. He's gone down the right hallway. He can't
- 6:26Speaker 1: see him anymore. He sort of vanished into the darkness,
- 6:28Speaker 1: but he can hear him. And so Henry and Lee,
- 6:30Speaker 1: they're watching. And then they hear this metallic sort of
- 6:34Speaker 1: scraping sound. And it's the sound of Pan opening up
- 6:38Speaker 1: a door that led off that hallway. He had gone
- 6:40Speaker 1: down the hallway and found a door. He was opening
- 6:42Speaker 1: it up. And he calls out to Henry and to
- 6:45Speaker 1: Lee and says, hey, I think I found the door
- 6:48Speaker 1: that leads down to the basement. And so Henry and Lee,
- 6:51Speaker 1: it's sort of like, well, you know, Pan's leading the
- 6:54Speaker 1: charge here and we're already in here. Like, let's just
- 6:56Speaker 1: go get this thing. And so even though they were hesitant,
- 7:00Speaker 1: they walked down this dark hallway until they eventually saw,
- 7:04Speaker 1: they saw Pan and he was standing with the door open.
- 7:06Speaker 1: And Henry, he peered into this, the stairwell that did
- 7:09Speaker 1: lead down to the basement. And it was very dark.
- 7:12Speaker 1: The only light that made it into the stairwell was
- 7:15Speaker 1: from up in this hallway area, which wasn't that light
- 7:18Speaker 1: to begin with. But with the limited light that was
- 7:20Speaker 1: going down there, all Henry could see was just clutter
- 7:25Speaker 1: on these stairs. Like they were practically completely obstructed. There
- 7:28Speaker 1: was furniture, there were desks and chairs that looked like
- 7:30Speaker 1: they'd almost been dumped into the stairwell. And so navigating
- 7:34Speaker 1: these stairs would have been hard even with the lights on.
- 7:37Speaker 1: And so at this point, Henry, he just had this
- 7:39Speaker 1: sudden overwhelming feeling that they really ought to just leave. Like,
- 7:44Speaker 1: this didn't feel right. This felt dangerous. It felt just
- 7:47Speaker 1: sort of reckless. And he actually said out loud, like, hey,
- 7:51Speaker 1: let's just forget about the shuttlecock. Like, who cares? If
- 7:54Speaker 1: we get in trouble, we get in trouble. But this
- 7:56Speaker 1: is not worth it. Let's just go out with Wynn.
- 7:59Speaker 1: Let's go back. Let's just forget about this. But Pan
- 8:02Speaker 1: is like, nah, like, we're already in here. Let's just
- 8:05Speaker 1: go down and get it. Like, it's not a big deal.
- 8:08Speaker 1: You know, Pan was like, it's my fault it's in here.
- 8:10Speaker 1: I feel responsible. I just want to go down and
- 8:12Speaker 1: get it and not get us in trouble. And then again, without,
- 8:16Speaker 1: you know, getting a chance to try to stop his friend,
- 8:18Speaker 1: Pan just started walking down the stairs or really climbing
- 8:22Speaker 1: on the furniture and chairs, making his way down. And
- 8:25Speaker 1: so Henry, he turns to Lee, who's still right next
- 8:27Speaker 1: to him, you know, trying to get some support here. Like,
- 8:30Speaker 1: come on, we got to stop this guy. But Lee's like, man,
- 8:34Speaker 1: we're already here. And so Lee starts making his way
- 8:38Speaker 1: across the furniture and the stuff, making his way down
- 8:40Speaker 1: the stairs. And so Henry's like, All right, I guess
- 8:44Speaker 1: I'm going too. So we kind of propped the door
- 8:47Speaker 1: open to make sure as much light would come in
- 8:49Speaker 1: as he could get. And then he began the descent
- 8:52Speaker 1: as well. Now, at first, for Henry, the climb down
- 8:57Speaker 1: these stairs was okay. Like, he was able to navigate
- 9:01Speaker 1: the furniture and he was very careful. And the light
- 9:04Speaker 1: that he was getting from, you know, the first floor
- 9:06Speaker 1: was pretty good. But the stairwell, as it went down,
- 9:09Speaker 1: it eventually turned 90 degrees. And the second half of
- 9:13Speaker 1: the stairs that actually led down into the basement went
- 9:17Speaker 1: sort of down in the opposite direction. And as soon
- 9:20Speaker 1: as Pan and Lee, who were ahead of Henry, as
- 9:22Speaker 1: soon as they made that turn, Henry, like he watched
- 9:26Speaker 1: as they sort of vanished into darkness as they were
- 9:28Speaker 1: in that section of the stairs. And so he knew,
- 9:31Speaker 1: Henry did, that once he made that turn, it was
- 9:33Speaker 1: going to be just totally dark. And he was you know,
- 9:36Speaker 1: kind of nervous, but now he's committed. He's all the
- 9:39Speaker 1: way in here. And so Pan and Lee, they're moving
- 9:42Speaker 1: on down that last leg of the stairs. They're in
- 9:44Speaker 1: total darkness. Henry can't see him. He makes that turn
- 9:46Speaker 1: on the stairs. And as he's making the turn into
- 9:49Speaker 1: that last leg, the very dark leg, he can hear
- 9:52Speaker 1: Pan and Lee. They're clearly still navigating this this last
- 9:57Speaker 1: segment of the stairs but he can't see him at
- 9:59Speaker 1: all he kind of calls out to them to hey
- 10:01Speaker 1: like slow down like let me catch up but they're
- 10:03Speaker 1: just they're they're moving along you know they're calling back
- 10:05Speaker 1: to him letting him know like come on dude like
- 10:07Speaker 1: hurry up but they're moving along and so henry's like
- 10:10Speaker 1: man i gotta go faster and he makes the turn
- 10:12Speaker 1: and he starts making his way down that last leg
- 10:14Speaker 1: but like once he was on that leg it was
- 10:17Speaker 1: like pitch black and he was truly just operating by touch,
- 10:21Speaker 1: and all he can hear is the sound of Pan
- 10:23Speaker 1: and Lee somewhere ahead of him as he descends into
- 10:27Speaker 1: this void. I mean, it was terrifying. But just a
- 10:29Speaker 1: moment later, as Henry is still navigating this dark section,
- 10:33Speaker 1: he hears Pan and Lee call back to him. They're
- 10:36Speaker 1: not that far away, but again, he can't see him.
- 10:38Speaker 1: They call back to him like, hey, we reached the bottom.
- 10:41Speaker 1: We're on the landing, and now we know where we
- 10:44Speaker 1: have to go. And so they're clearly waiting for Henry,
- 10:47Speaker 1: and Henry's like, okay, good. He manages to climb over
- 10:50Speaker 1: the last big couple pieces of furniture and tables and
- 10:53Speaker 1: stuff that are blocking his way, and he gets to
- 10:55Speaker 1: the bottom. And when he does, immediately he too sees
- 10:59Speaker 1: what they're talking about. Because once he reached the bottom,
- 11:02Speaker 1: and effectively was in the basement now, he's at the
- 11:05Speaker 1: very bottom of the stairs, there was this long hallway,
- 11:08Speaker 1: and at the very end of the hallway, there was
- 11:11Speaker 1: one source of light. There was a a door that
- 11:14Speaker 1: was slightly open, and there was obviously light shining in
- 11:18Speaker 1: the room beyond the door. So the open door led
- 11:21Speaker 1: to a room that had light. And considering clearly there
- 11:24Speaker 1: are no lights on, like electrical lights on inside of
- 11:27Speaker 1: this building, that light had to be from sunlight, which
- 11:31Speaker 1: suggests that's got to be the room where that window
- 11:34Speaker 1: was that led outside where the shuttlecock went into the
- 11:36Speaker 1: basement in the first place. And so all they got
- 11:39Speaker 1: to do is go down this hallway, go to that door,
- 11:41Speaker 1: open it up, go inside, get the shuttlecock, and get
- 11:44Speaker 1: out of there and be done with this place. And
- 11:47Speaker 1: so Henry, he felt around and grabbed Pan and he
- 11:50Speaker 1: grabbed Lee. He locked arms with them because it's like
- 11:53Speaker 1: so dark, it's almost intuitive that we need to walk
- 11:56Speaker 1: locking arms here so we don't get separated. And then
- 11:59Speaker 1: they started slowly walking down the hallway towards the door. However,
- 12:04Speaker 1: after only walking down the hallway a few steps... Henry
- 12:07Speaker 1: felt Pan stop and unlink his arms and turn around. And,
- 12:12Speaker 1: you know, Henry and Lee, they can't see what Pan
- 12:15Speaker 1: is doing. And so they're like, hey, what are you doing?
- 12:17Speaker 1: And Pan's like, I can't find my keys. I lost
- 12:20Speaker 1: my keys. I think I must have dropped them on
- 12:23Speaker 1: the climb down here, like back on the stairs. And
- 12:26Speaker 1: then Pan just began shuffling back towards the stairs. And
- 12:30Speaker 1: Henry and Lee, they can hear the sound now of
- 12:33Speaker 1: Pan moving. climbing on the furniture, like looking for his
- 12:36Speaker 1: keys in the total darkness. Like, how is he going
- 12:38Speaker 1: to find his keys here? And they're like, hey, like,
- 12:40Speaker 1: come on, like we can find these later. But Pan's like, no,
- 12:44Speaker 1: I have to find these keys. I won't be able
- 12:45Speaker 1: to get home later unless I have these keys. I
- 12:47Speaker 1: got to look. And so Henry and Lee, they're like,
- 12:50Speaker 1: oh my gosh, we don't want to be down here.
- 12:52Speaker 1: And they're like, look, let's just go down. We'll get
- 12:55Speaker 1: the shuttlecock. We'll come right back. And I'm sure by
- 12:57Speaker 1: the time we're back, he'll still be looking for his
- 12:59Speaker 1: keys and we can help him and we'll figure it out.
- 13:02Speaker 1: And so Pan, like he's in his own world, he's
- 13:04Speaker 1: looking for his keys, and Henry and Lee, they sort
- 13:07Speaker 1: of relink their arms, and they begin speedwalking down the
- 13:11Speaker 1: hall to get this shuttlecock. However, after only a few moments,
- 13:16Speaker 1: Henry and Lee began to notice something really unsettling about
- 13:20Speaker 1: what was happening to them. Like, they're in this dark hallway,
- 13:23Speaker 1: they have this single light ahead of them that they're
- 13:26Speaker 1: walking towards, and all they want to do is get
- 13:28Speaker 1: to that door, get through there, and get where they
- 13:30Speaker 1: came here to come find. But it was like, no
- 13:32Speaker 1: matter how fast they walked, they couldn't get closer to
- 13:37Speaker 1: the light. They couldn't get to the door. And as
- 13:40Speaker 1: they both, like, simultaneously, but without saying anything, are experiencing this,
- 13:45Speaker 1: they began speeding up to the point where they were
- 13:47Speaker 1: practically running down the hall, but it didn't matter. It's
- 13:50Speaker 1: like they could not get to this door. And eventually
- 13:54Speaker 1: the two came to a stop, and Henry, in a
- 13:57Speaker 1: very fearful voice, he says to Lee in the darkness,
- 14:01Speaker 1: they can't see each other, he's like, hey, does it
- 14:03Speaker 1: feel like we're not getting closer to the door? And Lee,
- 14:06Speaker 1: in an equally frightened voice, is like, yeah, we're not,
- 14:10Speaker 1: but I don't know what's going on. And so Henry,
- 14:13Speaker 1: for whatever reason, he turned around to just look in
- 14:16Speaker 1: the direction they had come from. And when he turned around,
- 14:21Speaker 1: It's like the only thing he could say is it
- 14:23Speaker 1: was like he was looking into the blackest blackness he
- 14:26Speaker 1: had ever seen in his life. It was like there
- 14:28Speaker 1: was a vacuum, a void in front of him where
- 14:31Speaker 1: the hallway had been. I mean, before it had been
- 14:33Speaker 1: a dark hallway where he couldn't see anything, but it
- 14:36Speaker 1: was like even in this total darkness, he was discerning
- 14:40Speaker 1: somehow something that was even darker. Like he had been
- 14:43Speaker 1: swallowed by something. And so now he's scared, you know,
- 14:48Speaker 1: He has no idea if Lee is also experiencing this
- 14:51Speaker 1: weird phenomenon of feeling like he was in this void.
- 14:53Speaker 1: But for Henry, it was like the only thing that
- 14:56Speaker 1: was anchoring him to reality was the fact that he
- 14:58Speaker 1: could feel Lee on his arm. And so Henry began
- 15:01Speaker 1: yelling out for Pan because he's, you know, in his mind,
- 15:04Speaker 1: he's looking back in the direction of the stairs, even
- 15:07Speaker 1: though he can't see them. And his friend Pan, his
- 15:09Speaker 1: best bud, is like right over there. He's calling out
- 15:12Speaker 1: to him. But not only did he not get a
- 15:14Speaker 1: response from Pan... But when Henry called out, his voice
- 15:19Speaker 1: echoed like way more than it should have. There hadn't
- 15:22Speaker 1: been an echo when they got down there. Now his
- 15:24Speaker 1: voice is echoing as if he's inside of like a
- 15:27Speaker 1: massive cave or something. And so Henry, he waited for
- 15:31Speaker 1: the echo to stop. And when it did, he expected
- 15:35Speaker 1: to maybe hear somewhere in the distance the sound of
- 15:38Speaker 1: Pan sifting through all the furniture on the stairs, still
- 15:41Speaker 1: looking for his keys. But no, it was silent. It
- 15:44Speaker 1: was like a completely eerie silence had fallen over the
- 15:48Speaker 1: space that they were inhabiting. And Henry, he felt Lee
- 15:51Speaker 1: grip onto his arm even tighter. And then Henry, he
- 15:55Speaker 1: had this thought that was so strange and so crystal clear.
- 16:01Speaker 1: It almost felt like it was coming from outside of him.
- 16:04Speaker 1: It was like a voice whispering in his mind. And
- 16:08Speaker 1: when this happened, it filled Henry with this overwhelming, almost
- 16:12Speaker 1: primal sense of fear. The voice that now was just
- 16:16Speaker 1: magically playing in Henry's head, it said, the place you
- 16:20Speaker 1: came from doesn't exist anymore. And as soon as Henry
- 16:24Speaker 1: heard that, it was like he felt goosebumps rise all
- 16:27Speaker 1: along his arms. He felt like a caged animal desperate
- 16:30Speaker 1: to escape. He was trapped down here. And the only
- 16:33Speaker 1: way out now was just to get out that door
- 16:36Speaker 1: at the end of the hall. That was the one
- 16:37Speaker 1: thing he knew he had to do, was just get
- 16:39Speaker 1: out of that door. And so Henry, you know, feeling
- 16:42Speaker 1: Lee on his arm still, he just yelled, we have
- 16:45Speaker 1: to run, run towards the door. And the two of
- 16:47Speaker 1: them turned and they just start sprinting down the hallway
- 16:50Speaker 1: as fast as they could to get to that door.
- 16:53Speaker 1: And so Henry and Lee, they're holding hands, they're sprinting
- 16:56Speaker 1: as fast as they can to get to this door.
- 16:58Speaker 1: And this time they were able to close the distance
- 17:01Speaker 1: and get to the door. But when they burst through
- 17:04Speaker 1: the door... It was not like a room that had
- 17:08Speaker 1: been lit up by a basement ventilation window. There was
- 17:11Speaker 1: not a shuttlecock on the ground. Like, none of that
- 17:14Speaker 1: was in place. Instead, when Henry and Lee burst into
- 17:18Speaker 1: this room, all Henry could see was just sunlight. It
- 17:22Speaker 1: was so bright, it was almost disorienting. And he also
- 17:25Speaker 1: smelled fresh air, like he was outside. And then he
- 17:28Speaker 1: actually saw the sky was above him. He was outside.
- 17:32Speaker 1: And directly in front of him, was this concrete staircase.
- 17:37Speaker 1: And so Henry and Lee, they just, you know, without
- 17:39Speaker 1: saying anything, they run up these stairs because what else
- 17:42Speaker 1: can they do? And when they get to the top,
- 17:45Speaker 1: they realize they are not, you know, near the abandoned
- 17:49Speaker 1: dorm building that they went into to arrive in that basement.
- 17:53Speaker 1: They're not even on their school property anymore. Even though
- 17:56Speaker 1: they only went into a dorm building and only were
- 17:59Speaker 1: in that space this whole time, they are now on
- 18:03Speaker 1: an elementary school property that was blocks away from their
- 18:07Speaker 1: high school campus. Like it made no sense where they were.
- 18:10Speaker 1: And so Henry and Lee, they're looking at each other.
- 18:12Speaker 1: They're looking around like none of this made any sense.
- 18:16Speaker 1: Like there is no way to go from their high
- 18:19Speaker 1: school to this location here. There was no underground tunnel.
- 18:23Speaker 1: I mean, actually, there was pretty serious security around this
- 18:26Speaker 1: elementary school. There was a gate that kept people out. Like,
- 18:29Speaker 1: how did they bypass security and wind up here? I mean,
- 18:31Speaker 1: there's so many questions. It's like, what's happened? How are
- 18:34Speaker 1: we here? This makes no sense. But as weird as
- 18:38Speaker 1: this was, it actually wasn't even Henry's biggest worry at
- 18:42Speaker 1: this very moment. The thing that was terrifying Henry was
- 18:46Speaker 1: that his best friend, Pan... was not here with them.
- 18:49Speaker 1: He had to be back inside of that basement. And
- 18:53Speaker 1: so Henry's first thought was, okay, as crazy as this
- 18:56Speaker 1: is that we are here, we need to retrace our
- 18:58Speaker 1: steps and go find Pan, and then we can figure
- 19:01Speaker 1: this thing out. And so he and Lee, they ran
- 19:03Speaker 1: back down the stairs, and they tried to open the
- 19:06Speaker 1: door that had led them out here, but it was locked.
- 19:09Speaker 1: And so without any other option, Henry and Lee just
- 19:12Speaker 1: began running back in the direction of their high school.
- 19:15Speaker 1: They They jumped over the security gate that led them
- 19:19Speaker 1: onto the elementary school campus. They cleared that, and they
- 19:22Speaker 1: ran down the road, and eventually they got back to
- 19:25Speaker 1: the high school campus grounds, and they went directly to
- 19:28Speaker 1: the front door of that abandoned dorm building where they
- 19:31Speaker 1: had entered the first time. And Henry, he immediately tried
- 19:34Speaker 1: to open the door, and remember, this door had been
- 19:37Speaker 1: open not too long ago. That's how they got into
- 19:39Speaker 1: the building, but now this door was locked. Henry, at
- 19:43Speaker 1: this point, he spun around thinking, oh, when? The other
- 19:46Speaker 1: friend who had not wanted to go with them, who
- 19:49Speaker 1: had decided to stay outside, to stand guard. You know,
- 19:52Speaker 1: he's got to be out here somewhere. But Henry looked
- 19:55Speaker 1: around and Lee, he also began looking around. But Wen
- 19:59Speaker 1: wasn't out here. And there was nobody else on the
- 20:01Speaker 1: badminton courts either. Like this place is abandoned. There's no
- 20:04Speaker 1: one here. And in fact, when they looked over towards
- 20:07Speaker 1: like the main area where they should have been, had
- 20:10Speaker 1: they stayed with their gym class, they're thinking, you know,
- 20:12Speaker 1: there's no way gym class is over. We've only been
- 20:14Speaker 1: gone for like, you know, 10 minutes or something. They
- 20:17Speaker 1: looked and nobody was out there. Like it looked like
- 20:20Speaker 1: gym class had ended and the kids had gone back
- 20:22Speaker 1: inside the main school building. And so Henry and Lee,
- 20:25Speaker 1: they run over to the main building and they look
- 20:27Speaker 1: in one of the windows actually into the cafeteria and
- 20:30Speaker 1: And they see that, yes, clearly their class has gone
- 20:32Speaker 1: back inside and now they're in there and they're eating lunch.
- 20:36Speaker 1: And Henry and Lee, they immediately see their buddy Wen,
- 20:39Speaker 1: who was supposed to be standing guard. He was in
- 20:42Speaker 1: there as well and he was eating at a table
- 20:44Speaker 1: all by himself. And so Henry and Lee, they rush
- 20:47Speaker 1: inside the cafeteria. They go right over to Wen. and
- 20:50Speaker 1: they begin bombarding him with questions. Like, what happened? Did
- 20:54Speaker 1: you just like bail on us? Did Pan get caught
- 20:57Speaker 1: by one of the teachers? Like, we don't know where
- 20:58Speaker 1: he is. Did a teacher lock the door to the
- 21:01Speaker 1: abandoned building? Because it's locked now. We tried to go
- 21:04Speaker 1: in there. We don't know where Pan is. Like, hey, like,
- 21:06Speaker 1: where is Pan? Have you seen Pan? And Wen, he's
- 21:09Speaker 1: hearing all these questions, and Henry's seeing on Wen's face
- 21:13Speaker 1: that Wen is really confused by their questions. Not like
- 21:17Speaker 1: he doesn't have the answer, but it's like he doesn't
- 21:19Speaker 1: understand what they're even asking him. And for a second,
- 21:22Speaker 1: he just stared back at them when they were done
- 21:24Speaker 1: firing off all their questions. And he's just staring at them.
- 21:27Speaker 1: And then he looks at Henry and he's like, who
- 21:32Speaker 1: is Pan? It would turn out Pan Bowen was not
- 21:36Speaker 1: just missing. Henry and Lee, after hearing this weird question
- 21:41Speaker 1: from Wen... they began speaking to literally hundreds of other
- 21:46Speaker 1: students at their school that same day. They just went
- 21:48Speaker 1: around talking to everybody, desperately trying to understand where Pan
- 21:53Speaker 1: Bowen had gone. Again, despite what Wen said about not
- 21:56Speaker 1: knowing who they're talking about, like, who's Pan? Like, forget that.
- 21:59Speaker 1: Where is Pan? But nobody they spoke to that day
- 22:04Speaker 1: knew where he was, one. But more than that, they
- 22:06Speaker 1: also did not know, much like Wen, who Pan was. Like,
- 22:10Speaker 1: they're like, who are you talking about? There is no
- 22:13Speaker 1: Pan Bowen. And so Henry and Lee, they literally don't
- 22:17Speaker 1: even know what to do. Like this is madness. And
- 22:20Speaker 1: so they got their hands on a list of the
- 22:22Speaker 1: students enrolled at their high school. And they found that
- 22:25Speaker 1: Pan's name was not listed. And then that day when
- 22:30Speaker 1: Henry went home, because what else could he do? Like
- 22:32Speaker 1: he couldn't find his friend. He has no explanation for
- 22:35Speaker 1: any of this. He goes home and he starts talking
- 22:37Speaker 1: to his parents about what happened to Pan. And like this,
- 22:40Speaker 1: none of this makes sense. And his parents are like,
- 22:43Speaker 1: who is this Pan person? Like his parents who know
- 22:46Speaker 1: Pan is his best friend. They're saying, what are you
- 22:49Speaker 1: talking about? Who's Pan? And then after that, Henry went
- 22:52Speaker 1: over to Pan's apartment where he knew he lived and
- 22:56Speaker 1: the apartment was there, but Pan wasn't. The apartment was
- 22:59Speaker 1: occupied by some different family who also didn't know who
- 23:03Speaker 1: Pan was. Henry eventually got back to his home and
- 23:06Speaker 1: he went to his computer and began looking for pictures
- 23:09Speaker 1: of of himself and Pan, just to like prove to
- 23:12Speaker 1: himself that he wasn't going crazy, that this was his
- 23:15Speaker 1: best friend we're talking about here. But when he would
- 23:18Speaker 1: open the files that he believed were pictures of him
- 23:21Speaker 1: and Pan, the files wouldn't open. They were corrupted or damaged.
- 23:25Speaker 1: And so Pan was just gone. And not just like
- 23:29Speaker 1: gone as in never left the basement of that old
- 23:31Speaker 1: dorm building. But he was gone from his apartment. He
- 23:35Speaker 1: was gone from all official documents. He was gone from
- 23:38Speaker 1: pictures of And he was gone from seemingly everybody's minds.
- 23:41Speaker 1: Like no one could recall who Pan Bowen was, except
- 23:46Speaker 1: for Henry and Lee. Henry would eventually visit a psychiatrist
- 23:50Speaker 1: because this was obviously an enormous trauma for him. And
- 23:54Speaker 1: the psychiatrist would tell him that the stress of studying
- 23:58Speaker 1: for that Gaokao exam had caused him to hallucinate a
- 24:02Speaker 1: multi-year-long friendship with a fictional person, Pan Bowen. Now, Henry
- 24:07Speaker 1: did not believe this. But everyone seemed to think that
- 24:11Speaker 1: he and Lee were basically crazy. So eventually, Henry and
- 24:15Speaker 1: Lee decided that, you know, realistically, their only choice here
- 24:18Speaker 1: is just to move on. Now, Henry didn't accept this.
- 24:22Speaker 1: I mean, he's thinking this is insane. Like, I didn't
- 24:24Speaker 1: make this up. There's another person here in Lee that
- 24:28Speaker 1: also knows Pam. Like, it's not just me. There's two
- 24:31Speaker 1: people here saying that this has happened. But, you know,
- 24:35Speaker 1: what Henry and Lee realized is that literally everybody in
- 24:38Speaker 1: their life is telling them, like, no, you're wrong. Like, basically,
- 24:41Speaker 1: you're crazy. And there was no way forward, at least
- 24:44Speaker 1: not without huge friction in their life in every way.
- 24:48Speaker 1: And so ultimately, Henry and Lee just decided to move on.
- 24:56Speaker 1: The two would go on to take their Gaokao exams.
- 24:58Speaker 1: They would get into different colleges and the two would
- 25:01Speaker 1: actually just grow apart. But eventually, Henry, he just, he
- 25:06Speaker 1: couldn't stop thinking about his friend Pan, and he would
- 25:08Speaker 1: actually write about Pan online. And what he wrote, the
- 25:12Speaker 1: story about what happened, the story that I've just shared
- 25:15Speaker 1: with you, it went extremely viral in China. Now, some
- 25:19Speaker 1: people thought the psychiatrist was right, and that Henry had
- 25:22Speaker 1: simply hallucinated the whole thing. Others thought maybe he and
- 25:26Speaker 1: Li were experiencing what's called the Mandela Effect, you know,
- 25:30Speaker 1: basically where you have this really strong memory of how
- 25:32Speaker 1: something was, But when you go back and look at it,
- 25:35Speaker 1: you realize it's completely different than how you remember it. Like,
- 25:38Speaker 1: people thought maybe that's it. Or, some people thought maybe
- 25:42Speaker 1: Henry and Lee traveled to an alternate universe. You know,
- 25:46Speaker 1: that's what was happening when they were in the basement,
- 25:48Speaker 1: that they had just gone to another universe. Or, of course,
- 25:52Speaker 1: the other theory was that Henry and Lee were simply
- 25:55Speaker 1: making this whole thing up. But we'll likely never know
- 25:58Speaker 1: for sure. Because only a few months after Henry posted
- 26:02Speaker 1: that story that went viral about Pan, he inexplicably deleted
- 26:06Speaker 1: it and deleted basically everything he had ever shared about
- 26:09Speaker 1: Pan online. And to this day, he now refuses to
- 26:13Speaker 1: acknowledge that he ever even shared that story. On the
- 26:27Speaker 1: afternoon of March 24th, 1930, a woman named Doña Esparza
- 26:32Speaker 1: hurried a customer out of her wedding dress shop in
- 26:34Speaker 1: the city of Chihuahua, Mexico. And then once that customer
- 26:38Speaker 1: was out the door, she quickly switched the shop sign
- 26:41Speaker 1: to closed and began cleaning up from the last fitting.
- 26:44Speaker 1: And as she did, she was merrily singing to herself
- 26:47Speaker 1: the whole time because she was now in just a
- 26:50Speaker 1: great mood. So the reason Doña Esparza was in such
- 26:54Speaker 1: a good mood is because Her daughter, Pasqualita, was coming
- 26:59Speaker 1: home after this really long trip to France that she
- 27:02Speaker 1: had been on. So she's finally coming home. Now, the
- 27:05Speaker 1: circumstances surrounding why she was coming home were maybe not
- 27:08Speaker 1: great in terms of, you know, from her daughter's perspective.
- 27:12Speaker 1: After all, this trip to France was supposed to have
- 27:15Speaker 1: been Pasqualita's honeymoon, but the wedding had been called off
- 27:19Speaker 1: at the last minute. Her daughter had still gone to France, but,
- 27:23Speaker 1: you know, she didn't get married. Now, of course, Doña
- 27:26Speaker 1: Esparza felt terrible, you know, for her daughter. The idea
- 27:29Speaker 1: that she had to endure so much pain here, I mean,
- 27:32Speaker 1: that was really bad. But selfishly, as a mom who
- 27:36Speaker 1: really loved her daughter, she couldn't help but be a
- 27:39Speaker 1: little bit excited here. Because the fact that her daughter
- 27:41Speaker 1: was not going to be getting married meant that Pascualita
- 27:44Speaker 1: would not be moving out. Which meant Pascualita could live
- 27:48Speaker 1: at home with Doña Esparza. And she loved living with
- 27:51Speaker 1: her daughter, and the idea of getting to do that
- 27:53Speaker 1: for even a little bit longer was incredible. And the
- 27:57Speaker 1: added bonus was Pascualita, in virtue of living at home
- 28:00Speaker 1: with her mom, would also be around to help out
- 28:03Speaker 1: with the family store, to work in the family's dress shop.
- 28:06Speaker 1: So for Doña Esparza, this was kind of great. And
- 28:10Speaker 1: so Doña Esparza spent a while tidying up, you know,
- 28:13Speaker 1: just in this great mood, and then eventually she heard
- 28:16Speaker 1: the knock on her front door that she was waiting for,
- 28:19Speaker 1: and she rushed over to answer it. sure enough, just
- 28:22Speaker 1: a few minutes later, Doña Esparza was ushering Pascualita back inside,
- 28:27Speaker 1: just absolutely beaming to have her daughter back home. And
- 28:30Speaker 1: then as soon as they were inside, Doña Esparza, she's
- 28:33Speaker 1: looking at her daughter and, you know, she's really happy,
- 28:35Speaker 1: but she knows her daughter has, you know, had this
- 28:37Speaker 1: horrible thing happen to her. And so she's looking at
- 28:40Speaker 1: her trying to gauge, you know, how she looks, you know,
- 28:43Speaker 1: is she really upset here? But, but no, I mean,
- 28:46Speaker 1: Pasqualita looked unbelievably refreshed. She didn't look upset at all.
- 28:51Speaker 1: I mean, she kind of looked great. Rosy cheeks, you know,
- 28:54Speaker 1: her makeup all done. I mean, she was beautiful and
- 28:56Speaker 1: in many ways didn't appear, at least outwardly, to be
- 29:00Speaker 1: totally depressed about, you know, her wedding. And so for
- 29:03Speaker 1: the rest of that day, Doña Esparza, she totally doted
- 29:07Speaker 1: on her daughter. She just completely fawned over her. You're
- 29:10Speaker 1: so great. It's so good to have you home. And
- 29:13Speaker 1: then the next day, she put her daughter to work
- 29:15Speaker 1: because after all, She needed the help. And then, really,
- 29:19Speaker 1: over the next few weeks and months, you know, the
- 29:21Speaker 1: two of them just sort of fell into a rhythm,
- 29:23Speaker 1: working every day together, and it really didn't take long
- 29:27Speaker 1: before the canceled wedding sort of became a distant memory,
- 29:31Speaker 1: at least for Doña Esparza, and, you know, as much
- 29:33Speaker 1: as she could understand about her daughter, it seemed like
- 29:35Speaker 1: that was not something she was thinking about at all.
- 29:38Speaker 1: A few years later, on Valentine's, Day, Doña Esparza was
- 29:42Speaker 1: hemming a dress when she began hearing singing coming from
- 29:45Speaker 1: somewhere outside the dress shop. And so Doña Esparza, she
- 29:49Speaker 1: goes over to the window, she looks outside, and she
- 29:52Speaker 1: sees there's a man out there. And he's standing on
- 29:54Speaker 1: the sidewalk, and he's looking at the shop, and he's
- 29:57Speaker 1: He's clearly belting out this love song, it sounded like,
- 30:00Speaker 1: and he's got this bouquet of flowers in his hand.
- 30:03Speaker 1: And from the sound of it, at least, you know,
- 30:05Speaker 1: to Doña Esparza, you know, it seemed like this might
- 30:08Speaker 1: have been a song he had written himself because the
- 30:11Speaker 1: lyrics were not very good. But it did suggest then
- 30:14Speaker 1: that he had really come here with quite a bit
- 30:16Speaker 1: of intention if he's singing a homemade love song. And
- 30:19Speaker 1: so Doña Esparza realizes that, of course, this must be
- 30:23Speaker 1: another suitor that has come by to try to win
- 30:26Speaker 1: her daughter's heart. And the reason that Doña Esparza so
- 30:30Speaker 1: quickly jumped to this specific conclusion is because men seem
- 30:34Speaker 1: to be constantly courting and trying to win the heart
- 30:38Speaker 1: of Pascualita. I mean, ever since she had come back
- 30:40Speaker 1: from France, ever since her wedding was called off, you know,
- 30:43Speaker 1: she had been working in the store and one of
- 30:46Speaker 1: her core responsibilities was actually standing in the window and
- 30:50Speaker 1: modeling the dresses. I mean, Pasqualita was incredibly beautiful, and
- 30:54Speaker 1: the dresses just looked amazing on her, and it really
- 30:57Speaker 1: drummed up quite a bit of business. Lots of people
- 30:59Speaker 1: wanted to buy the dress that Pasqualita was wearing. But
- 31:03Speaker 1: more than that, men were just drawn to her, and
- 31:06Speaker 1: they would show up, and they would sing songs to
- 31:09Speaker 1: win her affection. But over the years, it was like
- 31:13Speaker 1: no matter how many suitors tried to get Pasqualita's attention,
- 31:17Speaker 1: so far anyways, she had simply ignored them. And for
- 31:20Speaker 1: Doña Esparza... That was okay, because really, she loved having
- 31:25Speaker 1: her daughter here with her, at home, at the shop
- 31:27Speaker 1: with her. She didn't want that to change. And so really,
- 31:31Speaker 1: keep the men away. That was okay with her. And
- 31:33Speaker 1: so now, Doña Esparza, she sat at the window and
- 31:36Speaker 1: just openly stared at this man who was singing his
- 31:40Speaker 1: homemade love song, you know, through the glass to Pascualita.
- 31:44Speaker 1: And Doña Esparza, she just watched until the man eventually
- 31:48Speaker 1: just gave up and walked away. And then Doña Esparza,
- 31:51Speaker 1: she breathed a sigh of relief and went back to
- 31:54Speaker 1: her chair and just got back to work. 37 years later,
- 31:59Speaker 1: in 1967, Doña Esparza died. But Pascualita stayed at the
- 32:05Speaker 1: family dress shop, where she continued to model wedding dresses,
- 32:08Speaker 1: even though she was now much older. And in fact, today,
- 32:12Speaker 1: almost 100 years after her Her wedding was called off
- 32:17Speaker 1: and she came back from France almost a hundred years
- 32:19Speaker 1: after the fact. Pasqualita is still working in that dress shop.
- 32:25Speaker 1: And if you look at her, it's like she hasn't
- 32:28Speaker 1: aged at all. Because when Pasqualita's wedding was called off
- 32:31Speaker 1: in the winter of 1930, it was not because she
- 32:35Speaker 1: or her fiancé just didn't want to get married. It
- 32:38Speaker 1: was because Pasqualita died from getting stung by a scorpion
- 32:44Speaker 1: right before the wedding. But instead of having her daughter buried,
- 32:48Speaker 1: Doña Esparza sent Pascualita's corpse over to France to have
- 32:53Speaker 1: it embalmed. And so Pascualita's rosy cheeks were a product
- 32:57Speaker 1: of the makeup the morticians put on them during the
- 33:00Speaker 1: embalming process. And her eyes sparkled so beautifully because they
- 33:05Speaker 1: had been replaced with glass eyeballs. And so when the
- 33:09Speaker 1: now-preserved corpse came back, Doña Esparza put it in the
- 33:14Speaker 1: display window and told her customers that Pasqualita, her corpse,
- 33:19Speaker 1: was actually just a mannequin. A really realistic, beautiful mannequin.
- 33:25Speaker 1: But the reality was, nobody really believed her. I mean,
- 33:29Speaker 1: she said, this is a mannequin, but it's like, come on,
- 33:32Speaker 1: that's not a mannequin, that is a corpse. And that
- 33:35Speaker 1: is really the reason so many people showed up to
- 33:38Speaker 1: the shop in droves, to see the corpse, or just
- 33:41Speaker 1: to see what all the fuss was about. And believe
- 33:45Speaker 1: it or not, men really did show up with flowers
- 33:48Speaker 1: in hand and would sing to, you know, Pasqualita's corpse
- 33:52Speaker 1: in the window posing with a dress on, even though
- 33:55Speaker 1: obviously she could never return their love. But, you know, hey,
- 33:58Speaker 1: love just drives people to do crazy things, like singing
- 34:02Speaker 1: to a corpse. Today, Pasqualita's corpse is in the care
- 34:06Speaker 1: of Doña Esparza's descendants, who still own that dress shop,
- 34:10Speaker 1: and they still use her to model wedding dresses, and
- 34:15Speaker 1: they still deny she is anything other than a really
- 34:18Speaker 1: realistic mannequin. Although, they have refused to allow anyone to
- 34:23Speaker 1: see the mannequin undressed, or to allow any testing of
- 34:28Speaker 1: any kind. More recently though, there have been reports from
- 34:31Speaker 1: people who claim to have actually seen Pasqualeita move out
- 34:35Speaker 1: of the corner of their eye. And, it's said that
- 34:39Speaker 1: if you get too close to her, and you look
- 34:41Speaker 1: her right in the eyes, you'll meet the same fate
- 34:44Speaker 1: as Pasqualita and die. All right, thank you all so
- 34:58Speaker 1: much for joining me tonight at the campfire. And if
- 35:01Speaker 1: you enjoyed this, remember we actually have a whole playlist
- 35:05Speaker 1: of campfire episodes that are ready for you to binge
- 35:08Speaker 1: right now. If you want to do that, go ahead
- 35:09Speaker 1: and click right here and give them a watch. All right,
- 35:13Speaker 1: until next time, see ya.