“That can’t be right,” Megan whispered, her voice tight. “If the wall is where it looks like it is, this window should be almost flush. Why is there so much empty space here?” Daniel’s brow furrowed deeply. “Yeah… that’s weird. Really weird.” Now the tools in his hand made a dreadful sense.
They began measuring every inch of the corner and the wall surrounding the window. Stud by stud, mark by mark, everything appeared normal on paper. The spacing checked out perfectly. The drywall thickness was standard. Even the stud finder registered exactly where it should, with its steady, confident beep.
But something profound felt off. The wall remained unnaturally, persistently cold. The baseboards were faintly damp to the touch. And the smell—that earthy, heavy, rotten scent—pooled strongest right where their measurements insisted nothing unusual could exist. And yet… the space behind didn’t feel shallow. Not at all.
Daniel stepped back from the wall, the tape measure dangling limply in his hand. “Eight inches,” he muttered, more to himself than to her. “Every single measurement says eight inches. But this—” He pressed his palm flat against the drywall again, leaving a faint print in the dust. “This feels like a refrigerator door.”
Megan crouched near the baseboard, running her fingertips lightly along the seam where the wall met the floor. “It’s damp again,” she said, a note of quiet dread in her observation. “I dried this spot completely yesterday.” When she pulled her hand back, her fingertips glistened in the weak light as though she’d touched morning dew on a tombstone.
The smell hit strong.
The smell was stronger at that lower angle, too—earthy, stagnant, and thick, like a forest floor buried under weeks of cold rain. She stood up quickly, a slight dizziness washing over her. “Dan, something’s behind this wall. Something big. It has to be.” Daniel didn’t argue anymore. The impossible window spacing, the invasive coldness, the pulsing smell; it all aligned into a single, silent answer he didn’t want to give voice to. Instead, he wordlessly grabbed a utility knife from the open toolbox.