It started with a faint, sour smell drifting through Tom Fisher’s hallway — “like a whisper.” The 42-year-old suburban homeowner thought it was nothing more than spoiled food or a kitchen spill. He cleaned everything and went to bed certain he’d fixed it.

By morning, the smell returned.

At first, it came and went, too mild to trace. But soon it “deepened — sharp and foul, like rotting meat tinged with mildew.” Tom searched everywhere — fridge, garbage, crawl space — and found nothing. Neighbors guessed mold or a dead animal. Even an exterminator, after finding no pests, admitted the odor “reminded him of decomposing flesh.”

Each night, the stench grew stronger, filling every room and clinging to Tom’s clothes. He slept with the windows open despite the cold, but “the odor persisted — thicker now, unmistakable, carrying something almost human in its decay.”

Finally, he traced it to a vent near the baseboard. When he pried it open, “a wave of foul air hit him like a physical blow.” Inside, among decayed insulation, something dark moved.

Tom froze as realization struck — this wasn’t an animal or plumbing problem. Something had been there for a long time. And “the smell wasn’t the worst part anymore.”