This happened back in March of 2003. I'd been living in this house for about eight months, it's an older place, built in the 1950s, nothing fancy. Ranch style, full basement. I bought it cheap because the previous owner had passed away and the family wanted it gone quick. That's how it was. The basement was unfinished. Concrete floor, exposed joists, that kind of thing. I'd been down there maybe a dozen times since moving in. Mostly just to check the water heater or throw some boxes in storage. It was damp, smelled like old concrete, and I didn't spend any more time down there than I had to. But that March, I started hearing sounds. Late at night, around 2 or 3 in the morning. Not loud sounds, more like someone moving around down there. Footsteps, maybe. Or something being dragged across the floor. I'd go down with a flashlight, check around, find nothing. This went on for about a week.
One night, this was March 18th, I remember because it was my sister's birthday and I'd called her earlier that day, I heard it again. That dragging sound. But this time there was something else. A humming. Low frequency, like electrical transformers make, but steadier. More deliberate. I went downstairs. It was cold down there, colder than usual. I could see my breath. The humming was coming from the back corner, behind the old furnace. I hadn't been back there in months. No reason to. But I walked over, and that's when I saw it. There was light coming through the wall. Not from a crack or a hole. The light was part of the wall itself. It looked like someone had cut a doorway into the concrete, except instead of another room, there was just this rippling, shimmering surface. Like looking at the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day, that kind of wavering light.
I stood there for I don't know how long. The humming got louder as I got closer. My ears were ringing with it. And I could feel heat coming off this thing, which didn't make sense because the basement was freezing. But the air right in front of this light-wall was warm. Almost hot. I reached out and touched it. I don't know why. Curiosity, I guess. Stupidity, probably. The surface felt like water but it wasn't wet. My hand went through it. Just straight through, up to my wrist, and on the other side I felt carpeting. Carpeting in my concrete basement. So I stepped through. The whole thing. I came out in a basement that looked exactly like mine. Same dimensions, same layout. But it was finished. Carpeted floor, drywall on the walls, drop ceiling with fluorescent lights. Everything was clean, organized. There were shelves with books and boxes, all labeled. A workbench with tools hung on a pegboard. It looked like someone actually used this space.
[ Story continues in the full game... ]