Open Door Policy (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

**MrBallen** (0:00)
In the fall of 2009, a very anxious college student was sitting inside of a crowded lecture hall in Southern California, listening to his professor give a talk, when suddenly the doors to the building opened up and in walked three campus police along with a man in a suit. And so everybody goes quiet, the professor as well, and these men, they walk down to the front and they whisper something to the professor, at which point the professor, who looks confused himself, he goes to the podium and he leans into the mic and he looks up at the anxious college student. And the professor just says, they want to talk to you. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark & Mysterious, delivered in story format, and you've come to the right place because that's all we do. So if that's of interest to you, please invite the follow button to come with you on a fun, long road trip. And at some point when you're out on the road, when the follow button has to use the bathroom, pull over to a rest stop and let them out. But then before they come back out again, just leave. Okay, let's get into today's story.
On the morning of Thursday, October 22, 2009, a 41-year-old man named Damon Nicholson opened the double doors to a hotel ballroom in Laguna Beach, California. Damon was an event planner at the hotel, and today he was giving a tour to a recently engaged couple who wanted to use the space for their wedding. So event planning was like the perfect job for Damon, because he loved a good party and he'd always been great with people. And in fact, by the time he'd shown this couple the ballroom and then led them out onto the veranda to show off the hotel's amazing beachfront views, they were all chatting and laughing like they were longtime friends. And the couple was now dead set on using this space. Just then, Damon felt a cell phone buzz in his pocket, so he politely excused himself, he stepped away, and when he pulled his phone out, he saw he'd gotten a text message from a college student who he had just recently begun dating. The guy's name was Allen Caulfield, and Allen was texting Damon just to make sure they were still on for their date that night. After reading this message, Damon found himself not really sure how to respond.
After all, I mean, right now, he was feeling really tired because the night before, he had been out late, having a good time, and actually the night before that as well, he'd been out late, so he's like really tired from all the partying he was doing. Laguna Beach was known for having this really big gay community, and Damon liked to date around quite a bit. He'd grown up in a much more conservative family, and his sexual orientation had always been a source of a lot of pain in his life. But here, in Laguna Beach, he felt fully accepted and free, and he was really enjoying his life. But his lifestyle could also get kind of wild sometimes with partying so hard, and he even got involved in some of these anonymous group sex parties. I mean, he really was just living it up. In fact, this week, in addition to being tired from all the partying he'd been doing, also all this staying out late and partying had gotten him behind on his work. So in seeing this text from Allen, he's thinking not only physically do I sort of feel depleted and don't really fill up for another night of that, but also like I really need to be responsible and like do my work tonight. But he really liked Allen. He didn't want to give off the impression that, you know, he wasn't interested. And so he ultimately was like, you know what, I'll go out with him. So Damon just sent a text confirming the date back to Allen. And then he put the phone back in his pocket and walked over and continued the tour.
Later that same night, around 10 p.m., Damon stood on the porch of his first floor apartment, watching Allen's car pull away from the curb. They'd spent a few fun hours together, but Damon had actually cut the night short. He had really enjoyed, you know, having his time with Allen. But even though it was late, he did need to get some work done. And so he figured that's what he would do before going to bed. So Damon watched Allen's car disappear around the corner. And he turned and went back inside of his apartment, leaving the sliding glass door open just a few inches. Then he walked over and sat down on the couch. He opened up his laptop, and it took him a minute to sort of get focused again. But once he did, he got in the zone and he sort of lost track of time. And he'd been working for a while when he heard footsteps out on the porch outside. And he looked up just as the door slid open.