Arriving in a new town and not knowing anybody feels great at first, but then it gets lonely.

I had arrived in a city full of rigged-tie reeds in the coast of Florida and had nowhere to stay.

I was in my early 20s at the time and I was there for an internship.

I was staying at a motel 6 next to a waffle house while I looked for a place.

And while searching Craigslist, I found a condo by the beach, very close to where I was going to be

working. I didn't know much about the place, but it looked nice in the photos and the owners

rented it out to me, Airbnb style, but before the app existed. I transferred the money via PayPal

and I got a key code so that I could access the place. I never met the owners. It was a nice,

one-bedroom condo that was recently remodeled. There were a few weird things about the place.

For example, there would be a loud tapping at almost all hours of the day coming from the bathroom.

In the bathroom there was a large box with a lock on it. I had four keys in my key chain and

tested every single one, but I could never open it. I figured it was just some owner storage area

and I should have been going through other people's stuff, so I just let it be.

But that tapping sound bothered me. It sounded like roaches or rats in there.

The tapping would stop when I got nearby, so I kind of knew that it was some type of live insect

or animal crawling under the floors that would detect when I got close. I wasn't sure if it came

from inside the box. The next door neighbor told me that the house was owned by an older couple.

Who had a daughter that suffered from drug addiction. But didn't want to tell me more.

I was surprised at the amount of details at the neighbor knew, but she refused to tell me the whole story.

I think she wanted me to keep asking, but I let it go.

Nights were weird in the place. I would have nightmares almost once a week,

and they were of vivid scenarios where I would step out into the beach,

...