Down the Stairs/Home Forever | Campfire Stories with MrBallen

**MrBallen** (0:00)
Welcome back to The Campfire. Tonight, I have two very weird and equally creepy stories to share that in many ways are perfect for this setting, stories to be told by a campfire.
But before we get into tonight's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark & Mysterious, delivered in story format, then you've come to the right campfire, because that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So if that's of interest to you, please invite the like button to go camping with you, but don't tell them that you've secretly lined the inside of their sleeping bag with itching powder.
Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into tonight's stories.
On the morning of April 25th, 2013, a 17-year-old high school senior named Henry was standing in the courtyard of this old abandoned dorm building that was on his school's campus in Tianjin, which is a major city in northeastern China. Now, Henry at this time was actually supposed to be with the rest of the students in his gym class right now playing badminton on the school's outdoor courts, but the courts were all full. So Henry and one of his friends, whose name was Wen, had decided to start their own game in this courtyard instead, even though they were not technically supposed to be over here at all. And so Henry, he hit the badminton shuttlecock towards Wen, and they were bouncing it back and forth when suddenly Henry heard somebody calling his name. And so Henry, you know, he turned to see who was calling to him, and he saw two other boys who were heading towards their courtyard, and they too were holding badminton racquets. And Henry, as soon as he saw who these two were, he broke into a big smile because one of them was one of his other classmates whose name was Lee, who he was friends with, but the other was his childhood best friend, Pan Bowen. Henry and Pan had been very close ever since elementary school, and now they're high school seniors, and they had a ton in common. They were both tall and thin, they wore glasses, they were both kind of quiet and nerdy, and they both loved video games. But Henry and Pan of late had not had a chance to spend much time together because they were both very busy studying for something called the Gaokao, which is China's national college entrance exam. This test is sort of like the SAT in America, except realistically, it's way more high stakes because it's literally the only thing that some colleges in China take into account for admissions. And so if Henry and Pan wanted to get into good colleges, they needed to ace this test. So they had both spent the last several months basically studying upwards of 14 hours every single day.
And as a result, they didn't see their friends much, including each other. And so this was a nice break from that. And so Henry, he's so jazzed up, you know, he sees his buddies coming over here. And so he calls out to Pan as he's getting closer and he goes, hey, and he hits the badminton shuttlecock towards Pan. And Pan, he's ready, he's got his racket and he hit it back, but it sort of veered off to the side and it bounced along the ground in front of one of the dorm buildings. And then before anybody could stop it, the shuttlecock fell into an open window that led into this abandoned dorm building's basement. A minute later, Henry, Pan, Lee, and Wen all gathered around this basement window.
And this basement, it was just for ventilation, so it was only a couple of inches tall. And when Henry knelt down and tried to peek inside to see where the shuttlecock had gone, all he could see inside was darkness. And so he turned back to the group and said they'd just have to go back to the room and get a new shuttlecock. But Pan said he didn't want to do that. They weren't technically supposed to be playing over here at all, and so if they admitted that they had lost the shuttlecock, you know, it's entirely possible that one thing might lead to another and they might discover, you know, where the lost shuttlecock was. It was in this off-limits area. And so Pan's like, I don't want to get in trouble. I think we should just go in there and get this thing. And then before anybody could stop him, Pan got up and he walked right over to the front entrance of this abandoned dorm building and he reached for the door handle. And like right as he's doing this, Henry got up and he was about to call out, like dude, we cannot go in there. Like this is going to get us in more trouble than anybody finding out about a lost shuttlecock. Like don't go in there. But Henry watched as Pan, he turned the handle on this door and clearly it was unlocked. And so Pan, he opened the door, pushed it open and stepped inside.