Picture the scene: you’re home alone, when you decide to do something to pass the time and cure your boredom.
That ‘something’ involves making a TikTok video, of course, because that's what everyone appears to do these days.
The only problem is, once you upload the video to the platform all of your followers immediately start pointing out one creepy detail that you hadn’t previously noticed; something, or someone, was lurking in the background of the video.
Check out the video below:
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That’s exactly what happened to 22-year-old TikTok user Reu, known as @reubix_cube on the app, who said he was left feeling ‘stomach sick’ when he uploaded the ‘spooky’ video alongside the caption: ‘lmao i’m home alone so i learned a tiktok dance. lov u doja but what has my life come to?’
In the clip, he can be seen dancing along to Doja Cat’s 'Say So', but it wasn’t his dance moves that caught the attention of his followers. Instead, at around the four second mark, they noticed a shadowy figure lurking in the background on his stairs.
As the Canadian TikToker shifts position and starts swinging his arms around, the figure appears to pop its head around the corner, albeit only for a second.
His followers noticed right away, with one person commenting: "The AMOUNT OF ANXIETY I have from his video. That’s someone literally poking their head TO LOOK AT YOU."
Another asked: "DID Y’ALL SEE THAT?? IN THE BACKGROUND???" While one more wrote: "It’s 3am I did not need this right now." Another said: ‘When I tell you my heart DROPPED."
Others were more wary though, suggesting Reu had planned the whole thing just to go viral – particularly because his body seemed to move in a way to draw attention to the figure and the fact he mentioned he was home alone in the video’s caption.
One person wrote: "The fact he said he’s home alone kinda makes me feel it’s staged tho," while another said: "Look man I MIGHT OF [sic] believed you if you didn’t specifically say you were home alone."
Reu later posted a number of videos updating his followers on the situation, initially thanking them all for their concern and saying: "I’m kinda stomach sick right now and I was in and out of sleep all last night." I mean, can you really blame him? I would have thrown the whole house away at that point.
The TikTok star later told UNILAD that while he was initially worried that the figure ‘could have been a person’, he soon ruled that out because he and his family ‘checked the entire house.'
"There’s really nowhere for anyone to hide," he said in a follow-up interview.
The then-22-year-old did say he ‘isn’t worried’ about the prospect of something supernatural living in his house, adding: "The idea of this being something supernatural doesn’t scare me as I’ve had many experiences with the paranormal while living here (which is my whole life)."
He continued, adding: "Nothing has presented itself as harmful or malicious, so I’m not worried about it."
Reu also responded to claims he made the whole thing up for attention, telling UNILAD: "If I were to manufacture a video just to go viral, I would have perfected the dance or at least made myself look a bit more presentable."
Words by Lucy Connolly
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The UNILAD Team