"Box Fort"

**"Box Fort"** is the sixth tale in the twenty-fourth episode of the third season of The Nosleep Podcast. In it, a group of sisters think something is living in their box fort. Written by Julie Taylor, it has a runtime of 28:50 and was performed by Rebecca Peason. It is the 331st tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

Muse notices that the store she works at throws away many cardboard boxes every day. Remembering the forts she used to make out of them as a child, she decides to take some home and begin building one on the second floor of her family's home. Her sisters, Casey and Taylor, help her string boxes together with duct tape to make a labyrinth of tunnels that cover most of the hallway and bedrooms.

When the girls' parents leave for a week to attend a wedding, they decide to expand the fort into their bedroom and closet. They hang murals inside and put blankets over the whole fort so it's dark constantly.

A few days of fun pass before strange occurrences begin. Muse sometimes hears someone crawling through the fort even though her sisters are downstairs. Casey and Taylor grow uncomfortable staring at the gaping, dark entrances to the fort in the doorways of their rooms and cover them with blankets.

One day, Muse and Casey are downstairs baking cookies when Taylor comes down, angry at Casey. She claims she heard her calling to her from inside the fort, asking her to crawl in. Muse knows this is impossible because Casey was downstairs with her the entire time, but comes up with a plausible explanation to satisfy her sisters. Over the next few nights, the girls hear something crawling through the fort even though all of them are in bed. They blame some of the disturbance on the family dog, Juliet, but Muse checks the entire fort anyway, only to find nothing.

Casey's cell phone disappears from her nightstand while she sleeps one night. Though the sisters look all the next day, they are unable to find it. The next night, Casey's ringtone is heard coming from inside the fort. Muse finds it at the entrance inside their parent's closet, even though they already checked there. When Casey answers, she can't hear anything but their own voices, distorted and echoey.

Juliet goes missing the next day. They can hear her barking faintly from somewhere in the house, but are unable to locate her anywhere, even inside the fort. The sisters put up signs and are worried. That night, Muse attempts to fall asleep when she sees the blanket covering the entrance to the fort in her room rustle, followed by a slender finger tracing a line downwards.

Muse grabs her knife and heads inside the fort to see a dark shape disappearing around a corner ahead. She follows it into the space where her parent's closet should be. After crawling forward for what seems like ten minutes, she realizes that her placement is impossible. By the amount of time she's been traveling she should be somewhere in the backyard, two stories off the ground. The thing ahead of her continues crawling. Terrified, she uses the knife to slash the boxes open, finding herself inside the closet. She begins dismantling the fort with the help of Casey and Taylor, who were woken by the commotion.

Muse burns all of the boxes the next morning except the final one in the closet, as she still hears Juliet's distant barks. Hours later, the dog exits the box. Muse destroys the box.

The next day, the parents return. As she's returning some of her laundry, the mother asks who owns the Halloween costume hanging in her closet, with "white eyes and long arms". Muse goes to check, but finds the closet empty save for a slightly swinging hanger and an open window.