In the media
Please Enjoy This Harrowing Tale Of A Boy And His Air Vents
In these trying times, the world can be a scary place, but at least there's the safety of home, right? A sanctuary against the harshness of society and the terrifying ordeal of interacting in cold, unforgiving reality. Unless you're being watched in your sleep. Then it's not so nice.
Such goes the tale of Twitter user @grady_hendrix, who rocked the site with a harrowing tale from his childhood. According to Mr. Hendrix (if that is his real name), in 1981, when he was but nine years old he used to sneak downstairs to grab late night snacks. Thus begins his tale:
Everyone’s telling scary stories for Halloween so I’ll talk about something that happened to me when I was a kid because hey, trauma never gets old.#ScaryStories
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
When I turned 9 I realized I could sneak downstairs after everyone was asleep and eat anything I wanted in the fridge. No one ever noticed!
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
I could make a peanut butter, Cheez Whiz, & mayo sandwich, eat leftover pizza, scrape off the icing from birthday cakes – as long as I was careful I could do anything!
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
Creeping down was the hardest part. I had to navigate the pitch dark house all the way downstairs in total darkness like a tiny ninja.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
One night in May, '81 we ordered from Fish & Shrimp House. I waited until everyone was asleep & crept downstairs to eat the leftover sweet n’sour pork.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
It took forever. I finally stepped into the totally dark den & let down my guard. All of a sudden I heard a fork click on the counter. I froze. The microwave clock light showed the outline of a man sitting at our kitchen counter.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
He couldn’t see me, but I saw him: a skinny guy, eating our leftovers, and drinking our milk from the carton.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
I can’t explain how terrifying it is for someone to BE IN YOUR HOUSE. I slooooowly backed away, crept upstairs, and woke up my mom & dad.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
They made way too much noise & took way too long & by the time they got downstairs the kitchen was empty.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
Everyone said I read too many horror comics so they blew off what I said. But no way was I pouring milk on my cereal.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
I started tracking the position of everything in the kitchen. One day the paper napkin holder was on the wrong side of the counter. Another day a mug was in the sink that was NOT there the night before.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
My bedroom door didn’t lock so I kept a steak knife under my pillow. I must’ve stabbed myself in the hand 1000 times checking to make sure it was there.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
Then in August, I was in my room reading when I looked up. There’s an A/C vent over my bed. Behind the vent a pair of eyes were watching me.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
I freaked & raised hell until my parents searched our attic and the crawl space under our house. Nothing. I wasn’t very popular for a few weeks.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
The last week of August our house started to smell. One night, rice fell out of the vent over my bed. Maggots. The A/C people said something had probably crawled into our vents & died.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
Turns out what had crawled into our vents & died was the guy. We lived in an old house with lots of space between the walls & big ducts. He’d been living in them since May. At least.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
He’d put a foam pad beside my bedroom vent so he’d be comfortable while he watched me. The police said he’d made lots of “drawings” but when I asked they pretended they hadn’t said anything.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
No one ever identified him. He was buried as a John Doe. To this day I can’t look inside the vents in houses.
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
But sometimes when I'm at someone’s house I’ll smell a little BO coming from their central air conditioning, and I’ll wonder who’s living back there in their ducts. Who's living in the dark?
— Grady Hendrix (@grady_hendrix) October 30, 2019
The story was a hit on Twitter, as people shared the tale while commenting on how they will never buy a home or check their air vents ever again. Some, however, doubted the truth of the story, which is fair, considering it is not the first time a story of a vagrant in air vents has rocked the internet. In 2009, Joe Cummings rocked the internet after posting video of a woman in his apartment sneaking out of the air vents to eat food out of his fridge. In 2012, a woman in South Carolina reported her ex boyfriend had snuck into her home through the air vents and watched her while she slept.
Whether or not the story is true, the construction of Hendrix's story could make a horror writer jealous: it's told from the perspective of a child; the parents don't believe him; he sees eyes peering out the vent; there are an unspecified number of "drawings." Stephen King, eat your heart out.
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