Sinister Secret
She wiggled the mirror until she was able to remove it from her bathroom wall. What she saw next blew her mind...
She was certain some darkness was hidden behind the mirror, and she was determined to find out its secrets. Her roommate was too fearful to follow her. She saw something and shot her a warning. What did she see?
Cost Of Living
Apartments in New York City aren't cheap, so 26-year-old Samantha Hartsoe shares an apartment with her two friends to save on some money.
But she had no idea that her flat was about to provide her with a whole new set of problems. What hid behind her bathroom wall was terrifyingly chilling.
Where Did That Come From?
Samantha frequently used social media, and she had a particular fondness for TikTok. She videotaped herself trying to find the source of a strange draft blowing through her flat and published her disturbing narrative in four sections on the site.
Samantha's story began, like any good horror story, with a hike in the woods.
Something Is Not Right
Samantha's hiking trip was nothing to write home about, but once she arrived home she knew something was off.
A strong wind was blowing from all directions. The wind was so strong, that it lifted Samantha's work papers from the counter in her kitchen. Very strange for her apartment. She wanted to go to the bathroom to clean herself up after her sweaty hike, but it was freezing in there!
How Strange?
“That’s weird,” Samantha whispered confused. “I don’t have a vent that blows cold air.” Samantha was starting to feel strange and decided to record the events for TikTok.
In Samantha's video, one can see her hair moving as if she was outside on a windy day. This video was very creepy, but the following update made TikTok users hysterical.
Freezing Draft
The video starts off with a frightened Samantha standing in front of her bathroom. Confusion is spread all over her face as she cannot figure out why it was so cold in her bathroom. In an attempt to pinpoint the source of the breeze, she started running her hands over the skirting board in her bathroom.
She feels the door and notices a draft coming from the jamb. Success she thought! But... how is this possible?
Where Is It?
Samantha searches high and low but she cannot locate the source. After a few more minutes of inspecting her bathroom, Samantha notices something odd. The air becomes cooler as she approaches the bathroom sink.
She puts her cold hands on the side of the mirror and immediately freezes. The realization hits her like a ton of bricks. The source of this icy draft is behind the bathroom mirror.
Getting To The Bottom Of It
In Samantha's second video it shows her reporting to her roommates that she's found something strange. They all gather in her bathroom to further investigate the situation. Samantha shares that the mirror is not stuck to the wall, so it would be easy to remove it from the wall.
What sends shivers down everyone's spines, though, is what's beyond the mirror.
Crack In The Wall
Samantha was stunned to see that the bathroom mirror was not backed by plaster when she removed it. Instead, there was a pitch-black hole in the wall. Samantha's heart dropped as she cautiously gazed inside the scary room.
The frigid wind coming up from within whipped her hair around. Samantha couldn't help but think of the horror film Candyman.
Scary Movie
Samantha and her TikTok followers made connections between what Samantha discovered behind her mirror and the scary horror film Candyman, which comes as no surprise.
When Candyman's name is said three times in a mirror, a monster appears. Did Samantha just discover the entrance to a monster's lair?
A Secret Room?
At first, it was too dark to see anything through the mysterious hole. Samantha thought that it could be a secret room… or a hidey-hole of some kind.
Could someone be spying on her through the hole while she showered? Samantha didn’t want to even think about that. What if it was something even worse?
Curiosity
Samantha had to find out what the hole was and where it led to. “Curiosity killed the cat; curiosity is going to kill me,” she said in an interview later, after her TikTok video went viral.
“I cannot know what’s on the other side of my bathroom.” Samantha mustered enough courage to step inside. But, first things first.
Getting Ready
She covered her face with a facemask and fashioned a headlamp from a flashlight and a headband. Then, she got a hammer… just in case. And while Samantha was being incredibly brave, she didn’t want to go into a Candyman-like hole without a weapon in her hand.
“Mean it when you swing it,” her roommate advised as she disappeared into the darkness.
Trapped
Samantha drops down the hole and onto the floor but immediately realizes that she won’t be able to climb back up.
“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,” she explained later. And there was a lot to see.
No Going Back
“What if there’s someone in there right now?” her roommate shouted, “haven’t you seen Parasite?” But it was too late for Samantha to go back now. Samantha’s followers were on the edge of their seats. But she only posted the next installment of her video series the following Thursday.
In the final video, Samantha films what she finds - illuminating parts of the eerie space with her headlight. “There’s a room back here!” She yells.
Exploring
In the TikTok video series that’s racked up more than eight million views, we can see her cautiously exploring the secret room further. “It’s freezing in here,” she whispers.
With only the beam from the flashlight to guide her way, she spots something else in the surprisingly large space. It’s a sign of life. She grips the hammer tighter.
Signs Of Life
“There’s trash bags and stuff,” Samantha says. Illuminated by the beam of light, we can see a toilet. A water bottle sits on a windoewsill and a few bags of trash lie scattered on the ground.
She walks around some more and is floored that there is more than one room. The secret compartment was actually hiding another apartment as big as her own.
An Entire Apartment
The two-floor apartment looked like it was unfinished. The toilet lying in the middle of the floor is disconnected and it’s pitch dark.
Stunned, Samantha turned her thoughts to how she was going to get out. She couldn’t climb out the way she came - her only hope was that the secret apartment had a front door.
Getting Out
Samantha let out a sigh of relief when her hand closed on a doorknob and it turned. Thankfully, the creepy apartment was unlocked. After making her way back to her own apartment, she ensured her frightened viewers that she’d “made it out alive.”
But, of course, she had a lot of questions. Why was there an unfinished apartment right next to hers? And more importantly, why did she have access to it from behind her bathroom mirror?
Famous
Samantha ended her video series with a shot of herself placing the bathroom mirror back on the wall. "My landlord is getting a really fun phone call tomorrow," she said.
The terrifying videos earned Samantha 757,000 followers on TikTok - she had become a viral sensation overnight. She was invited to appear on the Ellen DeGeneres show, where she filled her fans in on some more details on a videocall.
More Details
Samantha explained to Ellen DeGeneres that her sudden fame had turned her life upside down. She had never expected the videos to go as viral as they did.
Speaking about what prompted her to bravely climb into a scary hole in the wall, she said: "My roommates had zero interest in going in."
Two Types Of People
"I feel like there are two types of people," Samantha went on.
"Like, my roommates and most of my followers who probably live really happy, really healthy long lives and do not go in holes. And then there's me and there's people that do. There's no way. I can't live in my apartment and not know what's on the other side of my bathroom."
Proud Mom
Samantha told Ellen that her family is thrilled about her TikTok fame - especially her mother.
She explained that she works full-time for a non-profit that helps get food, housing, and education to children in need, yet “this is what my mom is proud of me for." Ellen and the audience erupted in laughter - everyone loved her sardonic sense of humor.
Gifts
Ellen DeGeneres rewarded Samantha’s trouble with gifts. She presented her with a brand new bathroom vanity from her own Ed by Ellen decor collection.
Then, she jokingly asked her producer to check behind the mirror to make sure it was safe. There was a surprise check for $10,000 stuck to the wall!
Still There
Speaking about exploring the creepy apartment, Samantha said: “My roommates definitely thought I was going to be dead,” she said. “Every corner I would walk normal and then be like [moving her head] to check.”
Samantha also revealed that she hadn’t yet contacted her landlord about the secret apartment, however, she intended to cement the mirror down to the wall.