In the bathroom of an apartment in New York City, a woman is removing a mirror from the wall. She is convinced that behind the mirror, there lies a grim secret. Samantha Hartsoe is not afraid. She is determined to know exactly what is lurking behind it.
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She is psyching herself up to climb through the wall behind the mirror and into the unknown. Her roommate is there with her, providing moral support. He, however, has taken the wise decision not to join her, after all, there could be anything lurking behind it.
Sharing The Journey
This millennial New Yorker decided to share her adventure with an audience of millions on Tik Tok. They joined her as she ventured through this intimidating-looking hole to discover what secrets lay inside. She had come across this hole when seeking an explanation for the cold draft that was coming through the bathroom.
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When she took the decision to remove the mirror on a March 2021 morning, she soon discovered that there was no paint or plaster behind it. Instead, there was a big square-shaped hole. When she finally plucked up the courage to take a look inside, she was horrified by what lay before her.
A Mysterious Draft
As previously mentioned, Hartsoe captured her experience on video. She put a series of short films on TikTok, which soon went viral. The story begins with Hartsoe noticing this draft which is blowing the hairs on her head.
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There was no reason why the bathroom should be chilly, so she decided to do some investigating. What was going on? She spoke to New York magazine’s Curbed section about the events in March 2021: “It was weird, because I don’t have a vent that I know of in there that blows cold air.”
Finding The Culprit
Hartsoe inspected the bathroom from top to bottom to find the source of this cold air. The intrepid explorer found the culprit: it seemed to be coming from the direction of a mirror that hung above the sink. She said: “I realised that it’s not connected to the wall, which seems a little strange. Sometimes mirrors are only, like, hanging… but the cold air was a little suspect.”
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Initially, it seemed as though Hartsoe had stumbled over a hole that might perhaps have once housed some kind of bathroom cabinet, but there was no back to it. As she poked her head through, she came across an eerie sight.
Home To An Evil Spirit?
The first thing she was reminded of when looking through the hole, was the movie Candyman. In the film, if you call out the eponymous name several times when looking into a mirror, a boogeyman will appear. This New Yorker wondered whether she had found the doorway to the lair of an evil spirit.
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Initially, it was too dark to be able to see anything clearly through the hole, but it could be a secret room. Perhaps it was used to spy on people using the bathroom through. That’s a scary thought! Had Hartsoe been showering with company this whole time?
‘Curosity Killed The Cat’
This young woman was not going to wait around. Speaking to TV station NBC New York, she said: “Curiosity killed the cat; curiosity is going to kill me.” It sounds as if Hartsoe might have been tempting fate, but she continued: “I can’t not know what’s on the other side of my bathroom.”
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Let’s take a step back from the hole for a moment. Was there anything strange about this particular apartment? It didn’t seem at all out of the ordinary. It was a standard three-bed place, which Hartsoe rented with a couple of friends. It’s situated on Roosevelt Island – a sliver of land that lies in the East River, between Manhattan and Queens.
Roosevelt Island
It’s a very homey neighbourhood where everyone really makes an effort to get to know each other. For NYC, this is very rare. It’s an up-and-coming spot – boosted by a fresh site for Cornell Tech, and lots of new buildings. Towers keep cropping up all over the island, and Amazon’s new HQ won’t be too far away.
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Roosevelt Island is part of the borough of Manhattan, though it has its own corporation to run the amenities. Chief among those facilities is the waste system, which collects refuse using tubes that run underground. According to the website Brick Underground, the only facility like it is in Disneyland.
Taking The Plunge
The island hasn’t actually always been home to friendly residents. Once upon a time, it housed hospitals – including one specifically for smallpox patients – and a prison. It was also home to the New York City Lunatic Asylum.
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Back to the story: Hartsoe was ready to begin her mission and climb through the hole. Hartsoe’s roommate actually needed more convincing than she did. He begged her to reconsider, since he thought that this might be a dangerous journey.
Well Equipped
Samantha wasn’t going to let anything stop her. She was a courageous individual and once she set her mind to something, she had to get it done. She assembled the appropriate equipment, fashioning a DIY head-torch, as you can see in the picture, and an industrial mask. She also wore gloves and took a hammer with her. While she was brave, you can never be too careful, so she took a weapon with her!
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Her roommate, John, can be heard saying: “mean it when you swing it”, with reference to the hammer. He was obviously convinced that she was going to need it. There is a disclaimer before the video, which states that entering dark spaces “could result in serious injury.” She flung herself through the hole, hearing the echoes of John’s words as she went: “if you smell something dying…”
Stuck
As Samantha lands, feet first in the hole, she has the realisation that she is going to be stuck on this side of the hole. It is unlikely that she will be able to climb back up, since she has dropped down quite some distance. She later recalled to Curbed that at that moment she had thought to herself: “I have to find my way out of here.”
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At this point, she had come far enough that she didn’t feel that she could go back. She was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. She explained to Curbed: “I have to go back through that hole, which is pretty much impossible, or I have to find the exit of this place, which means I have to – at this point – explore it all.” There seemed to be a lot to see.
An Entire Apartment
The Tik Tok clip shows Hartsoe climbing back through the hole, and she adds, “There’s a room back here.” While her vision wasn’t very clear, seeing as she was just using a flashlight, she could see that there was a large space ahead of her. Inside it is an unused sofa, an abandoned lavatory and some bags of rubbish.
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The further in Hartsoe got, the more she discovered. In front of her was an entire apartment – as big as her own! And all this, hidden behind a bathroom mirror! The housing unit had windows that were wide open – that explained the mystery draft. However, her next question was, was there someone living there? She found a bottle that had once contained water, which suggested that someone had been there, perhaps not so long ago.
Concerns For Her Safety
Had someone been in this mysterious place recently? When Hartsoe put this to her followers on Tik Tok, there was a divide in opinion. Some suggested that she continue looking, while others were more sceptical and warned her to be careful. After all, there could be anything lurking in that apartment. Many users were worried each time there was a gap between videos.
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Hartsoe herself shared their concern, stating on TikTok: “I was kind of expecting there to be somebody – especially with the water bottle being there. And that definitely put me on edge.” A viewer agreed with her, writing, “That’s suspicious, especially the trash bags and water.”
Abandoned
The viewers could hear John’s voice coming through the hole. He says: “What if there is someone living there right now?” He references the film Parasite. In that movie, a man hides in a secluded room and none of the family that live in the house are aware of it.
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However, the thought of this wasn’t enough to scare Samantha. She couldn’t give up now. As she looked around more thoroughly, she was able to come to the conclusion that no one could be living in it. Apart from the abandoned furniture, the apartment was completely bare and there were no further signs that anyone was or had ever been there.
A Way Out
Hartsoe told Curbed: “I’m not sure if it was being renovated or if it is empty. It’s really old, and nobody’s been in there a while. The shower-bathroom area is all piping – there’s no actual bathtub or toilet. The floor, and what I think would be the kitchen, was ripped up.”
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Fortunately for Hartsoe, she was able to find a way out. It’s clear that this wasn’t just the apartment next to her place. When she leaves, she finds herself in a corridor in another part of the apartment block. This means that she has quite a journey to get back home.
Safe
Safely back in her apartment, Hartsoe brings her Tik Tok video to a close by stating: “Made it out alive. My landlord will be getting a fun phone call tomorrow.” The intrepid explorer makes it clear that there won’t be a repeat journey. Instead, she’ll be fixing the mirror into place using cement! Better to be safe than sorry!
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In the end, everything ran smoothly and Hartsoe was safe and relatively unaffected by the experience. She expressed to Curbed: “I felt better sleeping there that night than I should have any other night.” Good for her!
Fans Worldwide
The viewers absolutely loved the videos. They went viral in no time at all, with people liking, commenting and even sharing them. At the time of writing this article, the TikToks have been liked by more than a million viewers.
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As a result, Samantha now has plenty of fans, worldwide. One of these viewers even shared some high praise for the New Yorker. She wrote about her, saying: “This is the bravest woman I’ve ever seen.” Others, of course, had less flattering things to say. You can’t please everyone, after all!
Extra Space
Some of the viewers expressed that they certainly wouldn’t want to live in a place with an abandoned apartment attached to it. Anyone could have found their way into the apartment, especially considering the windows had been left open. Some suggested that Hartsoe do something practical with that space.
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One person commented: “As a New Yorker, my first thought was, ‘Wow, extra storage space.'” Another suggested she should have kept this to herself: “Girl don’t say anything, you just got a second apartment.” Others were a lot more cautious.
Not Alone
One user suggested: “The fact that the door was unlocked and there was a very recent brand water bottle instantly makes me think of a spying situation. That’s just my anxiety talking!” Another user suggested that Hartsoe sprinkle the floor with some flour so that she could track any footprints left.
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Hartsoe isn’t the first American to discover that there was more to their home than they’d thought. Redditor, Mr. Griff, had a similar situation when he climbed up to his attic an found that there was a whole extra home up there!
An Uninvited Guest
In another instance, a group of students from Ohio State University had a horrible feeling that they were being haunted. According to The Sun newspaper, they kept noticing that cupboards had been opened, and hearing creepy noises around the house. When the group plucked up the courage to investigate, they found something unexpected behind a cupboard door…
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It was a whole room that they had never seen before. There was a bed, photographs and textbooks. It turned out that the students had a roommate that they didn’t know about! He had been squatting in their house. They quickly changed the locks and had him evicted from the house.
Strange Messages
Another creepy room awaited a couple of buyers who were looking around a house in the United States. The Sun reported that they found something that they weren’t expecting at all, in the basement. There were strange messages inscribed on the walls.
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The writings read: “No watching Isaiah through the hole” and, strangely, “No writing or drawing on the walls.” Another apparently said: “Stop watching me.” There were also several holes drilled into the stairway, which meant that whoever was residing in that room could spy on people walking up and down the stairs.