I went into an abandoned house in rural Minnesota. one of us never recovered.

I wasn't going to post this but here we are.

Okay so. There's a town in northern Minnesota called Lucerne. Population under 300, nothing ever happens there, totally unremarkable little place. Then in summer 2018, four college students went missing nearby and it made local news. Police said the last GPS ping before their phones went dark was near an abandoned house on the edge of town. A house that had been empty since 1979.

I heard about this in winter 2021. I was studying abroad in the US and my roommate Lisa had grown up close to that area. The deeper into the night it got, the more she'd bring it up, always kind of laughing it off like it was a bit.

"okay so that house. when I was like 10 there were actually people living there. then one day nobody came out anymore. even the dog just... stopped barking. just gone."

and then.

"the last person anyone saw going in was this housewife in 1985. she was my mom's friend. said she was gonna go borrow some sugar in the afternoon and never came back."

We laughed it off. But I could NOT stop thinking about it.

Winter break rolls around and I decide, half joking, that we should just. go see it. I rented an old SUV, grabbed Lisa and two other friends, and we drove out there. Lisa did NOT want to go the whole ride but we eventually talked her into it.

It's blizzard conditions when we finally find the place on the outskirts of Lucerne. Two-story farmhouse sitting alone on a hill. Roof caved in on one side, most windows smashed, and there's this old iron padlock on the front door.

Except the padlock was open.

"...someone was here recently. like recently recently."

I pushed the door anyway. It creaked and the dark just swallowed us whole. Phone flashlights only. The living room was thick with dust, furniture still in place like everyone just got up and left mid-Tuesday. And on the dining table. three old plates. Set out like someone was about to eat.

"this doesn't make sense, this place has been empty for forty years"

Lisa's voice was shaking when she said that.

And then we heard it. From upstairs. THUD.

We all froze. Could be wind. except then it went thud... thud... thud... slow and even, getting closer to the stairs.

"okay we're leaving. joke's over. we're leaving RIGHT NOW."

Too late.

One of our friends just dropped. Right there on the floor. Eyes rolled back, whole body seizing up like a full panic attack or worse. Lisa SCREAMED. I grabbed them and we ran. Two minutes to the SUV but it felt like twenty.

That night our friend lost consciousness and got taken to the hospital. All tests came back normal. But they haven't really spoken since. Still recovering.

The video footage from our phones. we all filmed in there. When we played it back, the audio is there, you can hear everything, but the screen is just black. completely black. Like something was blocking the signal.

A week later Lisa texted me.

"the house is gone. like the whole building. it's just an empty lot now. and nobody in town will talk about it. they act like it was never there."

I tried to look it up after that. Barely anything online. Even the 2018 disappearances only show up in a couple of local news links and half of those are dead now. I keep trying to find something, anything, and there's just. nothing.

Sometimes I still hear those footsteps on the stairs.

And one of the four of us who went in that day still isn't okay.