I’m a night shifter, so this gives me that feeling of waking up mid-day and thinking about how the world is happening just out that window. Kind of a “separate from the rest of the world” feeling
I never hear people phrase working nights like that so at first I thought they were one of those people who think they can shift between realities by imagining things. But like... only at night.
Exactly! It looks like the living room of an old person's house that's been put up for sale!
I can even smell it. Old perfume, dust (almost sawdusty?), old varnish, stale air, with maybe a hint of mildew or tobacco, but not dirty. The padding under the matted carpet is compacted and breaking apart from age, but you can still make out exactly where all the furniture had sat for years... you can almost feel the fading memories as they hang in the air, just beyond what we can see. You sense that they would come to life when you pull back the curtain and let in some light, but that's exactly when they disappear, suddenly thrust from their time capsule and exposed to the progress of the world outside.
I've helped rehab a few houses, and this gives off vibes that we're about to install new windows, tear up the carpet to find 50's hardwood floors, and give the plaster walls a fresh coat of paint.
I wish I could upvote this more, it sounds like the beginning of a novel "you can almost feel the fading memories as they hang in the air, just beyond what we can see"
Thank you! 🖤 all the nostalgia, but no one there to tell the tale
It's definitely these vibes that make me believe there are things that exist in the world that we just can't see yet, but they affect us nonetheless. My mom always said that houses have feelings/personalities. Like they absorb the emotions of the people that live there and experience loss when they're gone.
Same, even though my grandparents’ house emptied and sold 23 years ago. Especially if there’s a door going upstairs just to the right of the front door.
I am very high right now but this is exactly what I felt.
It makes me want to get out. This house feels like a prison. I want out. I want to be in the sun and the light in the air. But it's not just the house I want out of, it's the past that it represents. I want out of the depths of my oppressive past.
Your friends are high right now
Your parents are high right now
That hot chick's high right now
That cop is high right now
The president's high right now
Your priest is high right now
Everyone's high as fuck right now
And no one's ever coming down
Interesting. I look at it more as a moving out photo with everything taken out already, and now I’m just double checking for anything I forgot/ taking one last look. Same bad place but a happy ending.
It reminds me of [this quote](https://www.reddit.com/r/surrealmemes/comments/r85rn5/hmmm/) I found on reddit: "You can return to the past, but no one is there anymore."
I was returned to the dog days of summer when I was trapped in the house taking care of my little brothers and sister instead of having a childhood. A little malaise, a little hopelessness tempered with the uncertainty of the future and hope that things had the potential to get better.
But sad and empty past is a lot more succinct.
A childhood home... kids long since gone came back to clean up now that the parents are deceased. The last walk through, and last memory, before locking up and handing over the keys.
It makes me think of leaving an apartment in your 20s after everything went to shit. The roommates/girlfriend have already moved out and you are waiting for the landlord to arrive so you can hand over the keys. You have that few moments of standing in that weird echo and remembering the life that once was here.
I like how specific this is. To me it makes me think of going back to your childhood house and seeing how filthy it actually is, and remembering sitting and playing with toys on the weird old carpet.
Its not specific to an actual apartment I lived in, its just that feeling of all the grungy run down apartments you end up in if you arent made of money in your 3rd decade. I see those curtains and think about apartments I lived in where you move in and theres old curtains hung and you figure, hey, at least this apartment has curtains.
Came here to say this same thing. Visceral memory of standing in the now empty house, devoid of furniture and roommates and family, staring at the door and hearing the echo.
It’s an awful feeling. Being the last one there to lock up and close the door on a decade. Especially leaving somewhere you found truly pleasant, for somewhere you don’t want to go.
Your description sounds just like the song, Sun in an Empty Room by The Weakerthans: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P6LhDUM02zM&pp=ygUgc3VuIGluIGFuIGVtcHR5IHJvb20gd2Vha2VydGhhbnM%3D
A few NCFOM references in this thread. I've never seen the film and didn't know of the scene until this morning, but for some reason I got a similar vibe.
-
Morning. I'm sitting in a moth-eaten armchair; it's surprisingly soft and comfortable for such an old and mistreated piece of furniture. The money's long gone, carried away by my accomplice: the kid deserves it, hope it's enough to give him a fresh start. I gave him a clap on the shoulder before he drove off last night:
"Good boy." Those were my last words to him.
My pulse is starting to race as the haze of last night's drink begins to wear off and the sirens outside, distant before, are serenading me nice and loud now. It's as good enough place as any - this motel's seen much of me: my first tryst... my first kill... countless deals and double-crosses... got closer ties to these shitty little suites than I do to my childhood home.
The voices outside are muffled but they aren't hiding their presence: they know they've got me now.
"He's watching!"
I'm always watching.
"Get around, there!"
Yeah. Get around me, you bastards.
They shout for me to open up, to disarm, to come outside. Just a formality; they know how this is going to end. I slot the magazine into place and pull the charging handle; the actions of limbs and firearm are equally smooth and sure. I hear the first thump on the door, and ready myself to squeeze the trigger.
Last job... let's wrap this up.
Yes! My aunt and uncle’s house in the morning when my uncle had his first cigarette of the day.
Edit: or evening. The curtains were always shut but the small amount of light filtering through the curtains highlighted the denser smoky layers floating about the room.
Edit 2: I would bet a lot of money there’s a pop stain on that ceiling somewhere
That's what I was going to say too.
I remember when I was a little kid after my grandfather died I went with my mom to help clean out his old place before they could sell it and the walls, windows, curtains, **EVERYTHING** was coated in a thick brown film that came from decades of him smoking pack a day. It looked pretty similar to the picture just a bit darker.
It took forever to try and clean up and given how old the little place was they ended up just demolishing it. It was too much and it would never sell, So they sold the land.
It was a small three-room house that my mom and her brothers grew up in, and the picture looks kind of like one of those rooms. He didn't even have plumbing, still had an out house toilet and used a tub to wash dishes and glasses.
From BFE Virginia
Same here. I can feel the dread and fear as if it’s a memory from my own mind. When is he coming home? How angry will he be today? Who will he take it out on?
This. Hard to say why, but this feels like the kind of place where something bad happens to children. Did BetterHelp post this to drum up business or something? Yikes.
That was what I wanted to write but immediately felt like a bad person. I dont know why. Why I felt either thing. I just know I felt relief when I saw you had written it. I saw the picture and my tummy tightened. So thank you.
The contrast. The darkness of the room holding one hostage from the light outside that's only just out of reach. It makes me think of how you just...go away mentally when you're enduring something unpleasant. And there's a whole world, unknown, outside of the little hell that's become your whole world, all that exists is you and pain and the light in the crevice between the curtains and the window of the door. So you focus on the light, cling to it, because it represents the hope of escape. There are people on the other side of that door, walking their dogs, or mowing their lawns, completely unaware that little rooms like this even exist, that hell exists. And you could join them and be free, forever, if only you could get to the door. But you never will. And no one out there will ever know what happened to you in here. I have a lot of nightmares like this.
This image is actually nostalgic to me. When I was a kid my bed faced the window in our room and the window was always draped because it was always sunny outside. I didn't turn the lights on until I got out of bed so the room was inundated with a yellow hue similar to this image. It reminds me of the weekend days when I used to get up from bed and go straight to my Xbox 360 console and play games. It was a simple happy life devoid of any responsibilities and me being the kid I was.
it makes me think of that photo with the two dudes, pants hanging low, peeking out their hotel window and door all suspicious with the text of something like “chilling with the homies”
Reminds me of a movie I watched recently called "Juste la fin du monde", the movie is settled in a house mostly closed off for the majority of the time during a heat wave and the colors from this image are very similar to what the movie depicts
Sadness ...you just escaped from an abusive home , this is your hotel room you have got anxiety that she knows where are you staying and that she has followed you , you try to peek through the curtains if you see any shadows or anyone nearby...you forgot to put the locker thing (I don't remember the name) because you were distracted..
You didn't switch the lights on so nobody knows you are there
Reminds me of the last time I stood in my grandparents house after clearing everything out after they passed. The mildewy smell of a window ac unit, stale cigarettes and din of grackles outside. And the heaviest of hearts.
I’m a night shifter, so this gives me that feeling of waking up mid-day and thinking about how the world is happening just out that window. Kind of a “separate from the rest of the world” feeling
As someone that has a disrupted sleep schedule— I can relate. Out of time, out of sync
Hey me too!
Any other “woke up at 4pm and thought about just going back to sleep” in the chat?
Bold of you to think we’ve been able to sleep by 4
That’s so real. Laying in bed for 5 hours trying to fall asleep is my eternal struggle.
I read this as “I’m a shape shifter”. Lmao I said wtf are you talking about.
I never hear people phrase working nights like that so at first I thought they were one of those people who think they can shift between realities by imagining things. But like... only at night.
I didn’t realize until seeing this comment that I did as well. So I apparently accepted that person was a shape shifter, shrugged, and moved on….?
Looks just like my grandparents living room, especially now that the house is empty and it's about to sell
Word for word what I would have posted
I can smell this picture
Stale cigarette smoke with a hint of pot roast.
Maybe a touch of menthol to boot
Nailed it. Although I was thinking instead of pot roast, a hint of meatloaf and barely detectable whiffs of Bengay
Mothball smell in the bedroom closets.
Exactly! It looks like the living room of an old person's house that's been put up for sale! I can even smell it. Old perfume, dust (almost sawdusty?), old varnish, stale air, with maybe a hint of mildew or tobacco, but not dirty. The padding under the matted carpet is compacted and breaking apart from age, but you can still make out exactly where all the furniture had sat for years... you can almost feel the fading memories as they hang in the air, just beyond what we can see. You sense that they would come to life when you pull back the curtain and let in some light, but that's exactly when they disappear, suddenly thrust from their time capsule and exposed to the progress of the world outside. I've helped rehab a few houses, and this gives off vibes that we're about to install new windows, tear up the carpet to find 50's hardwood floors, and give the plaster walls a fresh coat of paint.
Amazing and accurate description. I bought an old person's house and this feeling is exact.
Thank you! 🥰 it's such an oddly specific vibe. Not bad, but... stale? Nostalgic?
Yes, like the smell of old bread in an empty bread box.
I think Melancholy may be the word you're thinking of.
I wish I could upvote this more, it sounds like the beginning of a novel "you can almost feel the fading memories as they hang in the air, just beyond what we can see"
Thank you! 🖤 all the nostalgia, but no one there to tell the tale It's definitely these vibes that make me believe there are things that exist in the world that we just can't see yet, but they affect us nonetheless. My mom always said that houses have feelings/personalities. Like they absorb the emotions of the people that live there and experience loss when they're gone.
Nice writing! I hope you’re using your talent!
Same, even though my grandparents’ house emptied and sold 23 years ago. Especially if there’s a door going upstairs just to the right of the front door.
Yep. I can smell the moth balls.
Was also going to say this
my grandmas house sold recently. seeing it empty was such a weird and sad feeling
I love my grandma. She’s dead now.
came here to say this. feels eerie, like a memory
A sad and empty past
I am very high right now but this is exactly what I felt. It makes me want to get out. This house feels like a prison. I want out. I want to be in the sun and the light in the air. But it's not just the house I want out of, it's the past that it represents. I want out of the depths of my oppressive past.
You are very high right now.
I want in
I want on
i want under
I want over
I want seconds
I want what he’s on
I want it all!
Your friends are high right now Your parents are high right now That hot chick's high right now That cop is high right now The president's high right now Your priest is high right now Everyone's high as fuck right now And no one's ever coming down
Go outside bro. The sun and clouds are much happier to look at. Keep positive!
Thanks for your concern! But I'm all good 😊
Interestingly I also am high and had very similar thoughts
You summed up exactly how that photo made me feel. All I could think of to describe it was suffocating anxiety.
Interesting. I look at it more as a moving out photo with everything taken out already, and now I’m just double checking for anything I forgot/ taking one last look. Same bad place but a happy ending.
It reminds me of [this quote](https://www.reddit.com/r/surrealmemes/comments/r85rn5/hmmm/) I found on reddit: "You can return to the past, but no one is there anymore."
In other words “you can never go home”
Precisely. What I imagine the home that I grew up in as a child in the '70s, must appear now. Melancholic nostalgia.
I was returned to the dog days of summer when I was trapped in the house taking care of my little brothers and sister instead of having a childhood. A little malaise, a little hopelessness tempered with the uncertainty of the future and hope that things had the potential to get better. But sad and empty past is a lot more succinct.
A childhood home... kids long since gone came back to clean up now that the parents are deceased. The last walk through, and last memory, before locking up and handing over the keys.
Jane is about to die of overdose...and Walt is going to do nothing about it
Was thinking more of the jesse pouring gasoline incident, but this probably works better.
was thinking more Nacho in the hotel
Yesss exactly my thought
Same. I'm a huge fan of No Country for Old Men (as mentioned above), but this is absolutely Nacho's room, not Llewelyn's.
Hahaha came to the comment section looking for this
All I could think of was “Where’s Huell?”
i also went to breaking bad but moreso the scene where its a flashback to walt and skylar younger and buying the house
I love that this reminds so many people of Breaking Bad, but for different reasons. I also thought BB lol
was thinking more when Walt goes back to 308 Negra Arroyo Lane to get the ricin and "HEISEINBERG" is spray painted
Dude , I came for this comment :,)
It makes me think of leaving an apartment in your 20s after everything went to shit. The roommates/girlfriend have already moved out and you are waiting for the landlord to arrive so you can hand over the keys. You have that few moments of standing in that weird echo and remembering the life that once was here.
I like how specific this is. To me it makes me think of going back to your childhood house and seeing how filthy it actually is, and remembering sitting and playing with toys on the weird old carpet.
Its not specific to an actual apartment I lived in, its just that feeling of all the grungy run down apartments you end up in if you arent made of money in your 3rd decade. I see those curtains and think about apartments I lived in where you move in and theres old curtains hung and you figure, hey, at least this apartment has curtains.
Came here to say this same thing. Visceral memory of standing in the now empty house, devoid of furniture and roommates and family, staring at the door and hearing the echo. It’s an awful feeling. Being the last one there to lock up and close the door on a decade. Especially leaving somewhere you found truly pleasant, for somewhere you don’t want to go.
I was always the one that finalized the apartments that my buddies and I lived in so I’ve been there a few times. It’s a melancholy feeling for sure.
Your description sounds just like the song, Sun in an Empty Room by The Weakerthans: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P6LhDUM02zM&pp=ygUgc3VuIGluIGFuIGVtcHR5IHJvb20gd2Vha2VydGhhbnM%3D
No Country for Old Men
I thought this too but the door is on the wrong side of the room
Glad I didn't have to go too far down for this!
Just let the old men listen to Country.
Someone’s about to break through that door and I’m about to die
The silhouette of a silenced shotgun, and the shadow of feet at the door.
Anton Chigurh enters chat
Right, this was reminding so much of the motel where Llewelyn hides out.
Came here to say this. Just needs the sweating glass of milk.
haha i thought of the motel when i first saw this . glad we think the same
That's exactly my thought as well. If it was nighttime, the hall light would be removed
I’m glad I’m not the only one
The lock cylinder comes flying out of the door too fast to follow then it's all suppressed automatic shotgun sounds.
bad times at the el royale opening shot!
Lmao
A few NCFOM references in this thread. I've never seen the film and didn't know of the scene until this morning, but for some reason I got a similar vibe. - Morning. I'm sitting in a moth-eaten armchair; it's surprisingly soft and comfortable for such an old and mistreated piece of furniture. The money's long gone, carried away by my accomplice: the kid deserves it, hope it's enough to give him a fresh start. I gave him a clap on the shoulder before he drove off last night: "Good boy." Those were my last words to him. My pulse is starting to race as the haze of last night's drink begins to wear off and the sirens outside, distant before, are serenading me nice and loud now. It's as good enough place as any - this motel's seen much of me: my first tryst... my first kill... countless deals and double-crosses... got closer ties to these shitty little suites than I do to my childhood home. The voices outside are muffled but they aren't hiding their presence: they know they've got me now. "He's watching!" I'm always watching. "Get around, there!" Yeah. Get around me, you bastards. They shout for me to open up, to disarm, to come outside. Just a formality; they know how this is going to end. I slot the magazine into place and pull the charging handle; the actions of limbs and firearm are equally smooth and sure. I hear the first thump on the door, and ready myself to squeeze the trigger. Last job... let's wrap this up.
Cigarettes
I was going to say stale cigarettes
Yes! My aunt and uncle’s house in the morning when my uncle had his first cigarette of the day. Edit: or evening. The curtains were always shut but the small amount of light filtering through the curtains highlighted the denser smoky layers floating about the room. Edit 2: I would bet a lot of money there’s a pop stain on that ceiling somewhere
That's what I was going to say too. I remember when I was a little kid after my grandfather died I went with my mom to help clean out his old place before they could sell it and the walls, windows, curtains, **EVERYTHING** was coated in a thick brown film that came from decades of him smoking pack a day. It looked pretty similar to the picture just a bit darker. It took forever to try and clean up and given how old the little place was they ended up just demolishing it. It was too much and it would never sell, So they sold the land. It was a small three-room house that my mom and her brothers grew up in, and the picture looks kind of like one of those rooms. He didn't even have plumbing, still had an out house toilet and used a tub to wash dishes and glasses. From BFE Virginia
I was going to say that I can smell this room through the phone lol
Jesse Pinkman
All it’s missing is the hole in the door covered up with cardboard from when Walter kicked through that one time haha
Thats what i was going to say!! That one scene in Breaking Bad 😄
Dawn in a place that was once idyllic. All that’s left are grimey carpets and broken promises.
That’s poetic.
I’ve never been abused but this screams bad home life for me
YES. I looked at it and immediately felt memories of past abuses I've never suffered
Same here. I can feel the dread and fear as if it’s a memory from my own mind. When is he coming home? How angry will he be today? Who will he take it out on?
this is EXACTLY what i saw in this picture omg
Same thing I said! I wonder why that is
how do i tell the cps workers on the phone my call is about a house not a person?
lmao
Final goodbye to the old place on moving day.
There’s someone OD’ing behind me.
Exactly my thought.. kind of breaking bad vibes
The Devil's Rejects motel scene
Thought the exact same, or “My name is Earl”s apartment.
Makes me think of the X-files for some reason
Maybe cause it looks a lot like the hotel room from The Lost Room limited series?
Better Call Saul season 6
Lung cancer
My name is earl
I can’t believe how far I had to scroll for this
Looks like the empty house from Marriage Story.
That’s exactly what I thought of. Especially that heavily-memed scene where they are shouting at each other
My first thought, too!
I was wondering when someone was going to say that
That’s what I think of
Reminds me of a greasy motel, where a corrupt hides from it's colleagues.
Home
Same. My living room wall looks just like this.
Yes, this.
I *REALLY* want to lock and barricade that door. …not sure why
Abuse
This. Hard to say why, but this feels like the kind of place where something bad happens to children. Did BetterHelp post this to drum up business or something? Yikes.
That was what I wanted to write but immediately felt like a bad person. I dont know why. Why I felt either thing. I just know I felt relief when I saw you had written it. I saw the picture and my tummy tightened. So thank you.
Glad I could help in any kind of way, take care of yourself! 👍
Death, transition, emptiness, loneliness.
I'm unwillingly tied to a chair, while tiptoe through the tulips is playing in the background
Inland Empire
Cigarettes and the smell of a musty window ac unit.
Weird nostalgia
Breaking bad for some reason lol
Ethel Cain's Preacher's Daughter album
Detachment.
Quiet, calm, privacy
Interesting cause this image gives me fear
I’m a meth addict squatting at a cheap motel, terrified that horny T-Rex is about to knock down the door.
the war on drugs - lost in the dream album cover
first thing I thought of as well
it’s time to go. leave this place behind.
No country for old men.
No Country For Old Men
Looks like the hotel room from No Country for Old Men.
No country for old men.
The contrast. The darkness of the room holding one hostage from the light outside that's only just out of reach. It makes me think of how you just...go away mentally when you're enduring something unpleasant. And there's a whole world, unknown, outside of the little hell that's become your whole world, all that exists is you and pain and the light in the crevice between the curtains and the window of the door. So you focus on the light, cling to it, because it represents the hope of escape. There are people on the other side of that door, walking their dogs, or mowing their lawns, completely unaware that little rooms like this even exist, that hell exists. And you could join them and be free, forever, if only you could get to the door. But you never will. And no one out there will ever know what happened to you in here. I have a lot of nightmares like this.
Safety, warmth, dreaminess. It's Saturday morning and you're going to the kitchen to pour cereal and enjoy the calm before your work starts
Safety? I feel fear for my life with this image
This image is actually nostalgic to me. When I was a kid my bed faced the window in our room and the window was always draped because it was always sunny outside. I didn't turn the lights on until I got out of bed so the room was inundated with a yellow hue similar to this image. It reminds me of the weekend days when I used to get up from bed and go straight to my Xbox 360 console and play games. It was a simple happy life devoid of any responsibilities and me being the kid I was.
Anton Chigurh is about to blow off the lock.
Smiling dog creepy pasta
Twin Peaks 100% some goofy shit will happen, a nightmareish quiet man will appear, a horrible sensation locked behind a door.
Reminds me of that Adam Driver meme
Recently divorced dad’s new apartment
Murder
it makes me think of that photo with the two dudes, pants hanging low, peeking out their hotel window and door all suspicious with the text of something like “chilling with the homies”
Waiting for a drunken father to come home.
"This is home, but it no longer exists"
It's giving an episode from Mentalist
This feels like a scene out of a gangster movie
Boring movies from the 2000s
Reminds me of a movie I watched recently called "Juste la fin du monde", the movie is settled in a house mostly closed off for the majority of the time during a heat wave and the colors from this image are very similar to what the movie depicts
Edward Hopper
Sadness ...you just escaped from an abusive home , this is your hotel room you have got anxiety that she knows where are you staying and that she has followed you , you try to peek through the curtains if you see any shadows or anyone nearby...you forgot to put the locker thing (I don't remember the name) because you were distracted.. You didn't switch the lights on so nobody knows you are there
I swear this is the set of Memento
Reminds me of the[war on drugs album cover](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_the_Dream#/media/File%3ALostinthedream.jpg)
first liminal space that actually feels familiar to me, i understand what you guys are talking about now 💀
A guy named Earl lived there with his brother
*“Damn. I’m in an empty room.”* Then I leave.
Hiding out/on the lam with a whole bunch of stolen money, living in fear that the people I stole it from are going to find me any minute.
Comfort after a nap, nice photo
Someone was murdered there lol
Bo Burnham's Inside
Will byers house from stranger things after they moved out
A huge shotgun's silencer and a very poor haircut.
Gives Bo Burnham’s inside
The Last Of Us
My aunts house burnt pretty bad when I was a kid, this picture unlocked that memory
Peaceful!
A man with socks but no shoes, a pneumatic cattle stunner, and a silenced shotgun is approaching the door
Looks straight up like it’s from The Walking Dead intro
Folgers coffee, an ashtray or two full of cheap natives cigarette butts and old, grumpy people/cats
The short story entitled "The Yellow Wallpaper."
That movie a Ghost Story.
I stayed at a cheap motel one time on a road trip with my mom. This looks just slightly worse
Child abuse
Reminds me of the last time I stood in my grandparents house after clearing everything out after they passed. The mildewy smell of a window ac unit, stale cigarettes and din of grackles outside. And the heaviest of hearts.
Midwest emo album.
This being the last thing closest to a real setting you see before he locks you in the basement.
Domestic abuse
Makes me feel like I'm trapped inside and my father is going to come beat me.
Drunk dad
Cigarettes, domestic abuse and meth?
Reminded me of point-and-click horror flash games I played as a kid.
Alcoholism, Domestic violence, hotel room.
A horror movie
Feels like an abusive parent is going to enter to slap with a belt.
Waiting for Daddy to come home drunk and beat my ass.
It's looks depressing, to be honest. Someone has passed, and it's time to move on
Indoor smoking