The Basement

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Edge of the Forgotten is a horror podcast series. It may contain material not suitable for all audiences. Please see the episode description for content warnings and additional details.

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Thank you for watching. I hope you enjoyed this video.

Thank you for now for his inspector to finish and give him the results. It's not like Lance to take more time than he estimated. But he is thorough. And that's important. Justin thinks he's probably found some detail worth chasing down, and it doesn't take much for flaws in old buildings like this to turn into nightmares. Either way. He doesn't mind. This delay allows him to catch up on the building's paperwork and history. And as someone who specializes in abandoned commercial real estate, these are aspects of his job that he quite enjoys. The Terry Building was an old one. Built in the early 1900s in the warehouse district of St. Joseph, along South 4th Street. As a building, it thrived through the middle of the century. But as the years wore on and the cityscape shifted, use of the building dried up by the 70s. Reimagined in the 90s as an apartment complex, the building rebounded for 15 years before shuttering once more. It has been abandoned ever since.

Most of the paperwork is standard fare. Titles and permits dating back over 100 years, city registries and so on. In the stack are some news articles he pulled from throughout the years. One of which led to police records and some less than ideal history. Near the end of its run as an apartment complex, a young woman tenant went missing with her roommate pointing the finger at the live-in custodial manager, a Mr. Wendell Burkholder. Within a week, he too would go missing, and both cases went cold. There is a statement in the stack from a Mr. Kinsella, the building manager from this time, who attested to Wendell being a little weird, but otherwise a fine and harmless employee, and how there was not much more than a small rodent problem at the Terry Building. Nonetheless, the building was abandoned within two years, as tenants grew uneasy living in a 100-year-old building known for unsolved disappearances and a worsening rat problem.

Justin did find one other tidbit that he had printed out and stuck into his stack, a nine-year-old Reddit post from an Urban Exploration subreddit, talking about giant rats with strange tails lurking in the basement. The photo evidence contained in the post were some of the worst photos he had seen. But rats and mold in a building such as this, it's not a question of whether they're there, but rather how many and how hidden are they? And of course, how much will it cost to remedy the problem? Another half hour passes and Justin is feeling restless. He's read everything he needs to and he's not good with boredom. There are too many things to do to just be sitting around. He tries calling Lance, but the call immediately goes to voicemail, as if he's in a place without any reception. Grabbing a few items from his glove box just in case, flashlights, masks, shoe coverings, he locks up the vehicle and heads to the building. The front entrance to the Terry Building had been updated during the apartment complex remodel, adding nice brass lettering spelling out the name. Now tarnished, but something easy enough to address. The lockbox securing the doors has been opened already, and the front door is unlocked. Signs that Lance is still hard at work somewhere in the depths of the old place. Before he enters, he slips blue shoe covers over his feet, partially out of habit, but mostly to protect his shoes, as there's rarely a floor worth caring about in forgotten old buildings such as this. The foyer is about what you'd expect, roomy enough with two elevators and a door nearby labeled stairs, and a battered multi-unit mailbox mounted on the wall with several compartments hanging open. Another door at the far wall sits slightly ajar. The light fixtures above are dark and don't react as Justin flips the only light switch in the room. The elevator buttons don't light up when pressed either. None of this is a surprise, of course. Dust covers the hardwood floor inside, and the remains of a potted plant lie in a pile of dirt and terracotta between the two elevator doors. Of course, there are also rat droppings. Not a ton, but clearly visible. It's not hard to follow Lance's path. There are recent footprints going to and from the stairway door, and only a single path to the open door. Justin follows this route. On the other side of the door is a long hallway with doors to various rooms on either side. A couple of vending machines have been dumped on their side half way down the hall, and a large opening near the end hints at a freight elevator. At the far end of the hallway, windows let in a bit of daylight from the back alley behind the building. Most are covered with old newspaper that has yellowed over time. Half of the window panes are broken.