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| - After finding a boarding house with a room to rent and this for a cheap price, University student, Walter Gilman, jumps to occasion and go visit the manager. As he knocks on the door of the manager, a door behind him opens and he is looked at by another inhabitant, Masurewicz. But before he can greet him, the manager opens his door and give a not-so-welcome welcome. The managers escorts then to the room while explaining the ground rules to Walter. The manager doesn't hide his distaste for students or any of the current renters but despite the managers harshness. Walter does rent the room. The first night in the boarding house, he is disturbed by a man preaching loudly while hitting something hard. William doesn't think much of it, and goes back to sleep. The next day, he starts on his thesis and discovers an anomaly in his room. There is something wrong with the corner of his room. When he investigates the corner, he hears laughter. His investigation is quickly disturbed by the screams of a woman. When he jumps to her help, he discovers that she is under attack by a rat. He manages to kick the animal away but when he goes complaining about it to the manager, he only meets apathy. And once again, he is looked at by Masurewicz, before the manager scares him away. When it becomes clear to the manager that Walterwon't leave without a solution, he gives him a hammer before throwing the door in his face. Masurewicz opens his door again and asks him about the rat. As he asked if the rat had a human face, William answered negatively before cover the hole of the rat. The woman introduces herself as Frances "Frankie" Elwood and her baby as Danny and after some small talk, Walter returns to his room. Later that evening, he falls asleep while reading a book, and unbeknownst to him a portal opens from the strange corner. A rat appears and crawls on his chest. Before calling his name. The rat has a human face and tells him that "she" is coming for him. Walter wakes up screaming, discovering the rat was just a nightmare, until he sees a rat crawling away, back in its hole. When he investigates the hole, he is visited by Frankie, as a reaction to his screaming. Explaining to her that nothing is wrong, she invites him for tea. During the conversation, he explains what he tries to prove with his thesis about string theory, she reveals that she will be leaving the boarding house the next day. Her financial situation is just too dire. William proposes to lend her some money and with some persuastion, she accepts his offer. The rest of the night, he investigates the corner. During the investigation, he is disturbed by the preaching man, who happened to be Masurewicz, who castigates himself. He asks him again about the rat, and despite Walterclaims that it was just a dream, Masurewicz shared which experiences he had in the room, William is now renting. The rat serves a witch, a claim that leads to much disbelief. The next day, he is asked to babysit Danny, as Frankie goes for job interview. He continues his research as the boy sleeps in his crib, but he has problems keeping his eyes open. As he sleeps, the portal opens again and this time, it is the witch herself who has come. The sight of the witch is enough to make Danny cry, before she wakes up Danny. Having taken the form of a naked Frankie, the witch seduces him before carving a pentagram in his back and return to her regular form. Walter wakes up from the nightmare, in his own room. At first, he believes that he was just sleepwalking but the blood, he feels when touching his back, he realizes there is more to this than just a dream. When he inspects his back, he discovers the scars. He goes to sleep again, hoping this will be the last of it but the constant screeching of rats, keeps him awake and when he investigates, he is once again attacked by the witch. She brings him to a room and forces him to write in a book, with his own blood. He wakes up in a library, with an ancient book before him that explains to him the nature and plans of the witch. He is disturbed however by the librarian who is shocked to find him in the restricted area and even more so, when she sees that the book he was reading, is the Necronomicon. In panic, he flees from the library. From what learned from the Necronomicon, he tries to warn Frankie but she refuses to listen to him and believes he is insane, locking him out. Determined to prove his theories, he continues his investigations and is visited by Masurewicz. Knowing that Masurewicz knows the truth, he explains what he has discovered. Masurewicz tells him to stop his foolish attempts to defeat the witch and flee instead before revealing what the witch can make people do. Despite these warnings, Walter takes drastic actions, leading the manager to stop him. The manager flees however when Walter threatens him with the hammer. Walter crawls through the hole he made in the wall, only to discover the sketetal remains of previous victims. Led by voices, he is drawn to an altar, where he sees Danny and meets the witch again. At the Altar, the witch is going to force him to sacrifice Danny. He does however resist her and tries to stab the witch instead. He is able to blind the witch, and while she fights back, manage to kill the witch. He flees with the child and falls asleep again. He is awakened however by the crying of Danny, who is attacked by the rat. As Frankie, the manager and two cops bust through the door, they find Walter crying, with the bloodied corpse of Danny on his lap. For the murder of Danny, he ends up in an asylum as nobody believes his story. Diagnosed a paranoid schizofrenic, he is omitted for life. The investigating detective is disappointed by this verdict but more terrible news comes their way. A colleague of the detective reveals that they found the skeletal remains of babies, the age of the remains varying from 30 to 300 years old. They also discover DNA of unknown origin. Walter however stays in the asylum, only to find himself visited by the rat again, who buried a hole in his side, killing the young man, while at the same time, Masurewicz commits suicide.
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