Original subtitles

[typing clacks]

[electricity buzzing]

[screams]

(Frank voice-over) Things were hard when Kayla's mom

first started to unravel.

[screech]

(Frank) Kayla?

(Claire voice-over) There was obviously something going on

that I couldn't explain.

[screams]

(Claire voice-over) The blood, the scratches,

I knew I had to do something.

Kayla!

(Frank voice-over) He killed families in their sleep...

[gasps]

like our very own Son of Sam.

(woman) You're not welcome here. I want you to leave.

(Claire voice-over) I've never felt so out of control

in my entire life.

[panting]

The last thing I wanted was to be in there alone.

[faint whispers]

[birds chirping]

[exhales]

Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.

Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.

Kitty?

[ominous music]

(Kayla voice-over) When I was 12, my parents got divorced,

and my dad and I relocated to Virginia for his job.

I was just starting junior high.

It was hard, leaving my friends and my school.

But my dad said it was for the best,

and that my mom couldn't take care of me anymore.

(boy) Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.

Here, kitty.

You okay with pizza for dinner?

Kayla?

Was that you?

Was what me?

Pizza's fine, again.

All right, well, we eat in...15 minutes.

(Frank voice-over) Things were hard when Kayla's mom

first started to unravel.

Father of the year.

By the end, it was so bad

that our lives actually improved after she left.

[birds chirping]

[dreary music]

(Frank voice-over) The biggest problem was Kayla spent too much time

reading about mental illness.

Poor kid was worried that what happened to her mother

would happen to her.

(boy) Here, kitty.

Hello?

[rock music playing faintly]

♪ ♪

Kayla, come on in.

Is someone in here?

[tense music]

♪ ♪

Hey, Kayla, time to come in.

[gasps]

Kayla?

[Kayla screams]

Kayla?

Kayla?

She saw a couple of dead animals under the porch,

and I thought she was making it a bigger deal

than it actually was.

Cats do that, you know?

They find somewhere dark and quiet to die,

and probably the same with squirrels.

It's not a graveyard, okay? I promise.

So go under there and look.

[scoffs] I'm not gonna go poking around

under the house, and neither will you.

Got it?

Do I need to put a lock on the door?

All right. Pizza's gonna be cold by now.

That's okay.

Come on.

[footsteps]

Come on, we're gonna be late.

(boy) Here, kitty-kitty-kitty.

(Kayla voice-over) It sounded like the voice was inside our house.

[cat meowing]

[creaking]

[screech]

What?

Who grabbed me?

Kayla, quit playing around. We got to go.

Did you hear that?

A boy?

Don't look at me like that.

I'm not like mom.

(Kayla voice-over) I just dropped it.

I guess I was afraid to sound crazy

and end up locked away like my mother.

[typing]

(Frank voice-over) After our divorce was finalized,

Kayla's mom was admitted to a psychiatric hospital

near the town where we lived.

It wasn't voluntary.

I wanted to get Kayla away from all that and start fresh,

so when the opportunity for relocating

to my hometown in Virginia came along, I jumped at it.

[dog barking]

[dark music]

♪ ♪

- Ha! - [screams]

- Okay, your turn. - Okay.

One, two, three, four, five,

six, seven, eight, nine...

(Frank voice-over) Kayla hadn't made a ton of friends at her new school,

but she and Alicia seemed like they were becoming really close.

16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22...

(Frank voice-over) Alicia was a little strange at times,

but she was a good kid.

[suspenseful music]

[sighs]

[dark music]

♪ ♪

[creaking]

(Kayla voice-over) Alicia was into scary movies

and kind of had a dark imagination.

I thought that was really cool,

but my dad always found it a little weird.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

Aah!

You shouldn't have come under here.

Kayla, what?

We're gonna get in trouble. My dad--

♪ ♪

Cool.

(Frank) Kayla, time to come in.

We got to go. He'll be real mad

if he finds us in here.

Why do you think he was under the porch?

[knocking]

Alicia, your mom's waiting outside.

Did you finish all your homework for tomorrow?

Yeah.

[electricity buzzing]

[sighs]

Huh. It's not storming out.

What is that?

I found it outside.

[electricity buzzing]

[dark music]

I-I'm gonna make sure I saved the file I was working on.

Be right back.

(Kayla voice-over) I know I didn't bring that doll to the table.

[electricity buzzing]

Or at least I didn't remember bringing it.

I should have thrown that doll away that night,

but for some reason, I didn't.

[electricity buzzing]

[ominous music]

What?

What?

It's not a graveyard, okay? I promise.

So go under there and look.

[scoffs] I'm not gonna go poking around

under the house, and neither will you.

Got it?

It's not storming out.

What is that?

I found it outside.

[electricity buzzing]

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

What?

What?

(Frank voice-over) I looked up for just a second,

and the document I was working on had been deleted,

replaced with the word "guilty" for hundreds of pages.

It made no sense.

[crickets chirping]

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

[electrical sparking]

♪ ♪

[cat screeching]

[cat screeching]

[dark music]

♪ ♪

[eerie screech]

[creaking]

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

Oh, my...

(Frank voice-over) I thought my daughter had been exaggerating,

but she was right. It was an animal graveyard.

With bones all arranged in these weird patterns.

(Alicia) Then where'd it go?

[birds chirping]

I don't know.

He crawled out of your toy box?

[footsteps approaching]

23-39-23.

Thanks.

Alicia thought that putting a lock on my toy chest

might help me sleep better at night.

Who do you think killed the animals?

I don't know.

I've been watching you go back and forth.

What was under there?

Just, uh, lots of trash.

Fire hazard, you know?

Hey, you been getting any surges in your electric?

No.

Shoot.

I was hoping it was the grid instead of the house.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

[typing clacks]

[sighs]

[electric sparking]

Aah!

Aah! Aah!

[electricity sparking]

What?

[creaking]

[exhales]

[ominous music]

Oh, my...

[typing clacks]

[sighs]

[electric sparking]

Aah!

Aah! Aah!

[panting]

[grunts]

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

[beeps]

Huh.

[beeps]

[typing clacks]

[beeps]

[beeps]

[panting]

(Frank voice-over) I remembered hearing about the cul-de-sac killer as a kid.

He was like our very own Son of Sam or Night Stalker.

He broke into houses in our neighborhood,

killed families in their sleep,

but he'd been caught over 20 years before,

and he'd already been executed.

Kayla?

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

Kayla!

Did--did you open it?

What?

(Kayla voice-over) I finally told my dad

about the doll that night, and he ended up telling me

that he found the animal bones under the porch...

[clatter]

and threw them away.

Hey, what are you doing?

(Frank voice-over) Our neighbor was looking through that bag of animal bones.

We never found him.

Boo Boo, he was always an indoor-outdoor,

but he never strayed far.

That boy would ride his bicycle

over here to visit his grandparents,

and I caught him more than once trying to catch Boo Boo.

I never even knew his name until years later,

after all those nights of no sleep and locked doors

and... when he became famous.

Eric Mandle,

his grandparents lived in your house, Frank.

When he was little, he used to come over here to visit,

and I know he wasn't just visiting.

(neighbor) That little son of a bitch killed my cat.

[typing]

(Frank voice-over) Eric Mandle.

That was the cul-de-sac killer's name,

and I'd seen him in my house.

[typing clacks]

Huh.

I couldn't deny it anymore.

Everything I'd been seeing,

it was him.

[sighs]

(Frank voice-over) Maybe it was because I messed with the animal bones,

or Kayla had taken that doll into the house.

It was like somehow we had stirred things up.

[sighs]

[wood creaking]

[match lighting]

(Kayla voice-over) After my dad burned the doll,

I didn't hear the boy's voice again.

No more weird noises or power surges,

and I stopped worrying about turning out like my mom.

My dad didn't tell me the truth about Eric Mandle

until years later.

But I know now that he's the reason

why I was seeing those things.

I wasn't going crazy, and I never was.

[thunder peals]

Review the Roberts file, pull it up on screen...

(Claire voice-over) I'd been living in my new house--

first house, actually-- for about two months.

Prep the witness...

It needed a lot of work,

way more than I had time to deal with.

I closed escrow on my house

the same day I was handed the biggest case of my career.

Prep the Johnson file...

(Claire voice-over) I'd been working nonstop, night and day, since moving in,

so I was beyond exhausted.

[chatter on TV]

[thunder pealing]

I had no time to unpack...

[chatter on TV]

[thunder peals]

[electricity buzzes]

Let alone deal with an old house.

[thunder pealing]

[glass breaking]

I could have sworn I moved that mug

from the counter to the end table.

But it was shattered all the way across the room,

like it just slipped off the counter.

I was so tired, I figured

I hadn't moved it in the first place.

[lightning strikes]

Review the Roberts file,

follow up on screening a possible witness...

[thunder pealing]

[chatter on TV]

[electricity buzzes]

[glass shatters]

[lightning strikes]

[suspenseful music]

[knocking at the door] - [gasps]

[clatter] [lightning strikes]

Who would be at my door that late at night?

Can I help you?

Hi, I'm Lena.

This is Jack.

We live next door.

You, uh...you moved in a while back.

We were thinking maybe it's time to take the "sold" sign down

and mow your lawn?

Okay.

Maybe I'll take it down tomorrow.

I'm sure you're very busy with work.

(Claire voice-over) The whole thing was really strange.

I thought maybe they were

from the neighborhood block association or something.

But if they knew I had been in the house

for a couple of months,

why were they now stopping by at 11:00 p.m.

in the middle of a lightning storm?

Okay.

Thanks.

See ya.

[thunder peals]

[lightning strikes] - [gasps]

(Claire voice-over) It was only for an instant,

but I swear I saw an old man standing right in front of me

outside my kitchen window.

Okay, time for bed.

(Claire voice-over) I convinced myself that the creepy exchange

with my neighbors must've freaked me out,

and I just needed a good night's sleep.

I knew the endless cycle of caffeine and sleeping pills

wasn't healthy.

But this case was a big chance for me

to make a name for myself at the firm.

I wasn't about to blow it.

[thunder peals]

[metal scraping]

[thunder peals]

[metal scraping]

[alarm beeping]

[alarm silences]

(Claire voice-over) It was just a nightmare,

a really vivid, horrible nightmare

about that same man I thought I saw outside my kitchen window.

The next few nights...

[sighs]

(Claire voice-over) I stayed at work really late.

It sort of became my routine.

I would take a sleeping pill in the car

before walking into the house

and basically pass out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

But one Friday night,

the partners at my firm saw how exhausted I was.

They said my work was suffering and forced me to leave at 7:00.

They insisted I go home and relax for a night.

[metal scraping]

(Claire voice-over) It was that same sound I heard a few nights before,

like old, creaky wheels,

but this time I knew I wasn't dreaming.

- [gasps] [glass breaking]

Aah!

[lightning strikes]

[knocking]

[lightning strikes]

We were thinking maybe it's time

to take the "sold" sign down

and mow your lawn?

Okay.

Thanks.

[sighs]

[metal scraping]

- [gasps] [glass breaking]

Aah!

[panting]

[whimpering]

[screams] [pants]

You okay?

[panting]

How about some tea?

Come on back in the house with us.

(Claire voice-over) As weird as Lena and Jack had first seemed,

what I experienced in my house that night was even weirder.

The last thing I wanted was to be in there alone.

(Claire voice-over) I've never felt so out of control

in my entire life.

Here I was a grown woman, an attorney,

spending the night at a stranger's house

because I was working so hard, I was starting to hallucinate.

(Lena) You up?

Yes. Thanks for letting me stay here last night.

You're welcome.

Come join us for breakfast.

Thanks, but I should really get going.

Sure, right after breakfast.

(Lena) We're big breakfast people.

I'm so embarrassed.

Oh, shh.

I just can't keep up this schedule.

I started seeing things.

Claire, we obviously don't know each other very well,

but take the weekend off, move in, unpack,

start turning your new house into a home.

Yeah, that place could use some happy memories.

I met the previous owners.

She was pregnant. She said they needed more space.

They seemed really happy.

Oh, they were.

What Jack is referring to

is the couple who lived there before.

Before I could argue about having to get back to work...

They moved onto the block long before anybody who's here now,

probably 30 years ago.

(Claire voice-over) Lena started showing me pictures of the couple Jack mentioned.

Okay, so here's Margaret.

She got sick right when our son finished high school.

Cancer.

She was such a sweet woman.

Even when she was so weak

she would scoot around in that little wheelchair

and wave out the window at the kids walking by.

And her husband was always right behind her, William,

and he would hold this...

bag, whatever that thing was behind him.

- A saline drip. - Saline, right.

(Jack) The wheels squeaked like crazy.

(Lena) She stayed at home as long as she could,

but then when the pain just got so bad,

William took her to hospice care,

and that's where she died.

What about him?

He, uh...

hanged himself a couple of months later.

[dark music]

Decided that he didn't want to live without her.

Oh, here he is.

(Lena) This was at one of our summer block parties.

(Claire voice-over) I was embarrassed,

but I told Lena about the things

I was seeing and hearing in my house.

She didn't think I was crazy.

She thought my house was being haunted by William.

[door closing]

Law school forces you to always think about things logically,

so I never believed in ghosts.

But there was obviously something going on

that I couldn't explain.

If there was even a chance it could be true,

I knew I had to do something...

William?

(Claire voice-over) To get him to move on...

You're not welcome here.

(Claire voice-over) And leave me alone.

You hear that?

I want you to leave.

[metal scraping]

[metal scraping]

- [gasps] [glass breaking]

Aah!

[door closing]

William, you're not welcome here.

You hear that?

I want you to leave.

(Claire voice-over) The next couple nights were pretty quiet.

No nightmares, no squeaky wheels, no William.

It sounds crazy that I stuck it out for that long,

but I thought maybe what I said worked.

Maybe he left my house.

[thunder rolling]

(Claire voice-over) I had a lot of work to catch up on,

but I could barely keep my eyes open that night.

[thunder peals]

(Claire voice-over) As soon as my head hit the pillow,

I forgot about everything that had happened,

and my brain finally just shut off.

[electricity buzzes]

[gasps]

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

[whimpers]

[metal scraping]

Aah!

[panicked breathing]

(Claire voice-over) I slept in my car that night.

I was too embarrassed to go back to Jack and Lena's again.

Oh. Oh.

I had been attacked twice before that night,

but each time, the blood, the scratches,

they went away, making me think I'd imagined it,

but this time, there was evidence.

Pulse is elevated, so is your blood pressure.

You're not sleeping?

What's going on, Claire?

I-I've been seeing things for about a week now.

I think there's something wrong with my head.

I'm wondering if you should do an MRI.

Okay.

First, I think we should run a blood test.

(Claire voice-over) I got a call from Dr. Lawrence

asking me to come back to his office.

He wouldn't give me any details over the phone,

so I knew something was wrong.

But nothing could have prepared me for what he had to say.

I recommend that we start treatment as soon as you can

get your affairs in order at the office.

The oncologists recommend that we start

two cycles of chemotherapy six weeks apart.

[voice growing faint] Two cycles of chemotherapy

six weeks apart-- six weeks apart.

(Claire voice-over) Leukemia.

He told me I had Leukemia but that I was lucky.

We'd caught it early, so early there were no symptoms

to indicate I was sick at all except for those bruises.

The good news,

I'm confident you can beat this, Claire.

(Claire voice-over) The crazy thing was,

the bruises went away right after he took my blood,

like the only reason they were there

was to tell me something.

[indistinct chatter]

(Claire voice-over) I came really close to selling my house,

but once I started the chemo, I never saw William again,

and that made me think.

Maybe this whole time, he wasn't trying to scare me.

Maybe he was trying to save me

because he wasn't able to save his wife.

Oh, I brought something for you.

Oh, what did you bring?

Just a little something for you.

- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. - What is that?

You know, we just thought it should be in your house.

Oh, wow.

- Right? - Yeah.

[Claire chuckles]

- This is William and Margaret. - That's William, okay.

(Claire voice-over) Actually, there is no maybe.

He was trying to save me,

and if it weren't for William,

I know I wouldn't be sitting here

telling this story today.