We Were Moving into a New Rental House When We Got a Facebook Message: 'Don't. You'll Regret It.'

When we found our dream house to rent in a nice neighborhood, we thought we'd hit the jackpot. But then strange and startling things started happening inside during storms. Not wanting to live in fear and discomfort, my wife and I devised a cunning plan.

Moving day was supposed to be exciting. My wife, Emily, and I had spent weeks packing and daydreaming about our new rental house, but before we even moved in, someone sent us a scary message warning us against staying in the new home.

The house we were renting was a charming craftsman-style home, tucked into a quiet cul-de-sac. The landlord, Adam, seemed like a nice older gentleman, and the previous tenants, a young couple named Ben and Sarah, stood to the side during the meeting.

They were friendly and gracious during the handover, and we exchanged names, last names, and numbers in the process. The couple even left us a basket of homemade muffins as a parting gift! Looking at the house, it was obvious that the previous tenants had taken good care of it because it looked almost new.

My wife and I instantly fell in love with the streaming sunlight passing through it and its stylish layout. When Emily and I arrived at our old place, we were buzzing with excitement until something strange happened.

As we continued packing the last items that evening, my phone buzzed with a Facebook notification. A stranger named "Bee Warned" had sent a friend request, accompanied by a message. Curiously, I opened it.

The message read: "Find a reason. Tell the owner you've changed your mind, but DON'T move into that house. You'll regret it soon. He didn't tell you the whole truth."

I froze, staring at the screen. The account looked new and had no profile picture or posts. Before I could reply or show Emily, the account was deleted.

"Everything okay?" Emily asked, setting down a box of books.

I hesitated, feeling quite freaked out by the message but not wanting to scare or worry my wife unnecessarily. I said, "Yeah. Just a spam message, I think."

I tried brushing it off, convincing myself that it was a weird prank. But I couldn't quite shake the warning.

When we moved into our new house, I honestly expected the worst but was surprised when everything was perfect! Adam appeared to have been upfront about everything. I felt calmer knowing there was no reason to worry and chalked the Facebook message up as someone's bad idea of a joke and nothing more.

For three weeks, life in the new house was blissful! The neighborhood was quiet, the house was cozy, and the charm of living in our dream rental dulled any lingering doubts. Then, last night, during one stormy night, everything changed just as we'd been warned.

It started with the wind. Gusts howled through the trees, rattling the windows as Emily and I turned in for the night. As I reached to switch off the bedside lamp, the light flickered, bright, dim, out, then back on in a rapid, unnatural rhythm just like in horror movies.

"Okay, that's creepy," Emily said with a nervous laugh.

"Probably just the storm," I said, laughing as well, though my voice was shaky. I switched off the lamp and climbed into bed, pulling the covers up to my chest like a kid warding off monsters, and got ready to sleep.

But the wind grew louder, and it wasn't just wind! It carried strange noises, whispers that seemed to weave through the walls and floorboards. Then came the creaking, as if someone was pacing the hallway outside our bedroom. Emily clutched my arm.

"Do you hear that?" she asked, sounding scared.

I nodded in the dark. My heart pounded. The power flickered, then cut out completely, plunging the house into darkness.

"Stay here," I whispered. I grabbed my phone for light and tiptoed toward the door. The creaks stopped as I opened it, but the hallway was empty. I peeked into the other rooms, but nothing. Still, the air felt charged, as if the house itself was holding its breath.

When I returned, Emily was sitting upright, her face pale. "This place feels…wrong."

"Let's just get some sleep," I said, though neither of us closed our eyes for the rest of the night.

Despite both of us being 35, during that moment we felt like terrified five-year-olds. Neither of us could sleep, and we just lay there frozen. Since the power had gone off, all we were left with was total silence except for the eerie sounds that continued through the night.

The next morning, I woke to a message from one of the previous tenants, Ben. The message read, "So…do you believe us now?"

Chills ran down my spine. What were they hinting at? I immediately texted back, asking what Ben and his wife were talking about, writing, "What do you mean?"

The reply left me numb.

"Look, we didn't want to freak you out, but Sarah and I went through the same thing. Weird noises, flickering lights, drafts, and some gaps and cracks that create these creepy noises that don't make sense. It all happens when the weather's bad. We told Adam, but he didn't care and refused to attend to the issues," Ben confessed.

He continued, "When we'd finally had enough and decided to leave, Adam bribed us. He said we wouldn't have to pay for the last month's rent if we kept quiet about the issues and didn't warn any future tenants."

"Although we were disgruntled, it seemed like a good deal, so we accepted, mostly to just get out of there," the previous tenant added.

I felt my stomach drop. "Why didn't you tell us before we moved in?"

"We tried," Ben said. "That Facebook message? That was me. But clearly you didn't take it seriously and didn't listen. Anyway, we just wanted to come clean. Sorry for what you're going through. It's really a tough situation."

At that moment, everything clicked! I finally realized we'd been set up! The house wasn't just an unlucky one, it was all a trap and Adam knew exactly what he was doing! Knowing what I knew, I finally shared everything with Emily.

She was equally shocked, and together we sat down to try and figure out a way to deal with the situation. One thing was certain, Adam wasn't going to get away with this. We were determined to put an end to the torture, so that night, we came up with a plan.

Two days later, after my wife and I had followed the weather reports for a while, Adam arrived at the house for a "meeting" we had arranged. We told him we wanted to discuss some minor repairs over tea. We left the front door slightly ajar so he could walk right in, and as he stepped inside, we discreetly turned on a hidden camera in the living room.

The storm arrived right on cue. The wind roared, and the flickering lights played their eerie game. Adam's bravado wavered as the whispers started, soft at first, then louder, almost conversational. He glanced around, visibly uneasy as he wasn't as used to this as we were.

"What's that noise?" he asked out loud, but we were nowhere to be found.

He tried calling out to us, but we stayed put, hidden in one of the rooms, watching him. The house seemed to come alive. A strong gust slammed the front door shut, and a loud crash echoed from the attic. Adam's face turned ashen.

He fumbled with his phone, but there was no service during storms. Our landlord even tried prying the door open, but it was stuck. Terrified, Adam sat down on the floor, shaking, with no idea we were just a few steps away, silently watching the scene unfold.

By the time the storm reached its peak, Adam seemed on the verge of a breakdown, so Emily and I decided to end his misery. When he saw us appear, he looked at us with wide eyes and stammered, "What's going on here, where have you been?!"

"We've been dealing with this since day one," I said, ignoring his question about our whereabouts, and not holding back. "And we know you've been ignoring these problems for years."

Adam stammered, "I—I didn't think it was this bad."

"Well, now you know," Emily said firmly. "And we're not letting this slide."

To our surprise, our landlord got up and made his way to the door we'd managed to pry open after learning how to over the past weeks. We thought he might try to brush it off or avoid responsibility, but he shocked us when he said, "Tomorrow, I'll start fixing everything."

To our surprise, the next day he actually returned with a team of contractors! Over the next week, they sealed drafts, fixed wiring, and reinforced every creaky floorboard. By the end of it, the house felt like a completely different place!

When we told Ben and Sarah about what happened, they were stunned.

"We thought he'd never change," Sarah said.

"It wasn't easy," I admitted, "but we couldn't live like that or let anyone else go through it."

Now, the house is everything we hoped it would be. As I write this, the rain is pattering gently on the roof, but there's no howling wind, no flickering lights, no whispers in the walls. Just the cozy hum of a home finally at peace.

If you enjoyed that tale, the following one with a similar theme will have you thrilled! In it, the protagonist invests time and money into her landlord's garden in her rental house. But after doing all the work, her landlord kicks her out, forcing her hand.

This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided "as is," and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.