Late one evening in 1840, a 30-year-old
British nobleman named Sir Robert Warboy
stood next to five of his closest
friends on the front porch of a town
home in one of the fanciest
neighborhoods in London, England. The
address of this town home was 50
Berkeley Square, and it was one of
dozens of these beautiful brick and
marble town homes that surrounded this
big garden. The whole square had been
built about a hundred years earlier, and
since then, it had become one of the
most fashionable places for the rich and
famous to call home. However, Robert and
his friends had not come here to rub
shoulders with important people.
Instead, Robert had come here to win a
bet. So, Robert actually was a nobleman.
He was like this proper guy, at least on
paper. But in reality, at least to his
friends, he had a total wild streak. He
loved taking on dares. basically anytime
anybody, you know, challenged him to do
something, he would do it. Especially if
there was money on the line. But it
wasn’t really about the money. It wasn’t
about, you know, winning money by doing
these different things. He just loved
the challenge. He loved the thrill of
taking chances. So that night on the
front porch of this town home, Robert
turned and knocked on the front door.
And then as soon as he did, he turned
back and looked at his friends and
grinned at them. And he saw some of them
looked really excited and some looked
pretty nervous. But to Robert, he was
purely happy about how things were going
so far because he knew, you know, come
tomorrow when this whole thing was done
and he had won his bet, he would have a
great story to tell. A few seconds
later, the front door of the town home
swung open and this middle-aged man
stepped outside. His name was Charles
Benson. And while Robert and Charles did
know each other, they were not close
friends. They actually only knew each
other because they both were members of
the same exclusive gentleman’s club in
London. Plus, pretty much everybody in
London had at least heard of Charles
because of all the rumors swirling
around about what went on inside of his
town home. Even though Robert had told
Charles that on this night he and his
buddies were coming to his town home for
this bet, even though he had clearly
told him, Charles still seemed very
surprised to see Robert standing there.
But Robert nonetheless was like, “Hey,
Charles, how are you? You know, I’m here
for the bet.” And Charles basically
didn’t react. He just stared at Robert
with this very concerned look on his
face and just said, “Are you sure you
really want to do this?” And Robert, who
knew what he was referencing, just kind
of looked down at the pistol on his hip
and said, “Yeah, I’m sure.” A few
minutes later, Robert and his five
friends were inside of Charles Town home
in the dining room, sitting around a
table while Charles had gone upstairs to
get something. And as they sat there,
Robert kind of looked around the room at
his friends, and he could tell they were
clearly more nervous about this than he
was. And so he tried to, you know, keep
the mood light by making some jokes and
kind of downplaying what he was about to
do. But it was like no matter what he
did, he could just tell his friends were
very uneasy about what was going to
happen here. And then a moment later,
they heard the sound of Charles coming
down the stairs. And Charles, you know,
he came in the kitchen still with a very
serious look on his face, and he walked
up to them and he reached in his pocket
and he pulled out this old iron key and
he placed it in the middle of the table.
And as soon as he did that, the room
went completely silent and everybody
just stared at this key. And then
Charles eventually broke the silence and
explained to the group that over the
last 10 years of living in this town
home, he had only used that key maybe
two or three times total. And when the
key was not in use, Charles said he
actually hid the key just to make sure
it never wound up in the wrong hands.
But now, again, with that somber look on
his face, Charles looked over at Robert
and said, “If you’re really sure about
this, the key is yours to take.” And
Robert, with no hesitation, reached out
and snatched the key, showing his
friends and showing Charles that he was
not about to get cold feet. A couple of
minutes later, all the men stood up from
the dining room table. And then Charles
led the group up the thin, narrow,
creaky staircase to the second floor.
And when they got to the second floor,
Charles led them down this narrow
hallway that came to a stop in front of
this closed door. At this point, all
seven men were kind of crowded together
right in front of this door. But it was
obvious that even though Charles lived
in this town home, he was sort of
hesitant to get even close to this door.
Like he really didn’t want to be
anywhere near it. Also, all of Robert’s
friends were sort of reacting the same
way, too. I mean, they were the ones
that actually dared Robert to do this in
the first place. But now that they were
actually here about to go through with
it, they were looking at Robert like he
was totally insane. And also, they were
kind of hoping that, you know, maybe he
would just back out and they could just
leave. But Robert did not seem remotely
like he was about to back out. He had a
very determined look on his face. And as
everybody else was kind of cowering away
from this store, Robert stepped up,
reached into his pocket, pulled out that
iron key, and put it into the lock. And
as he began to turn the lock, everybody
else took steps farther away from him.
And then he pulled open the door. And as
he did, everybody gasped and Robert even
took a step backwards. But when Robert
actually looked through the now open
doorway, he just laughed because it was
just a normal bedroom. It was filled
with all this old but very expensive
looking furniture. On one side of the
room was this big wooden dresser with a
huge round mirror above it. And then on
the opposite side of the room was this
big for poster bed. And right above this
bed, dangling down from the ceiling, was
this red ribbon. Now, Robert knew that
in a rich nobleman’s house, there were
ribbons like this one that are known as
bell pulse. A nobleman could pull on
that lever, and it was connected to a
pulley system that rang a bell down in
the servants’s quarters. And when the
servant heard that bell, they would see
what room it was coming from, and they
would go up to the room to see what the
nobleman needed. And so, after taking in
the sight of this bedroom, Robert took a
confident step into the room. And as
soon as he did, Charles reached out and
grabbed him by the wrist and said, “Hey,
Robert, this is your last chance to
change your mind. Are you sure you want
to go through with this?” And Robert
kind of looked back at his friends and
smiled and said, “I’m sure. I’ll see you
guys tomorrow morning once I’ve won the
bet.” Then Robert released Charles’s
grip on his wrist, walked into the room,
turned, shut, and locked the door. At
this moment, Robert’s friends didn’t
really know what to do. They were still
sort of shocked that Robert was actually
going through with this. I mean, even by
his standards, this felt particularly
reckless, they also felt kind of guilty.
I mean, they were the ones who
ultimately put him up to this. So, you
know, if Robert got hurt, which in
theory could actually happen here, it
would be partially their fault. And so,
Robert’s friends turned to Charles to
see what he was thinking. And Charles
had this very grave, resigned expression
on his face, and he just told them, “I
have one more thing to show you before
we go to bed.” So, Robert’s friends
followed Charles back down the hallway,
down the stairs, past the dining room,
towards the very back of the town home.
And when they got there, they found
there was sort of like a a studio
apartment area back there. There was a
kitchen area, a laundry area, and there
were several beds. Charles explained
this was where his servants lived and
worked, but he had given them all the
night off because he knew it was
possible that Robert and his friends
would be here for this vet, and they
would need a place to stay. Charles
pointed to a space right above the beds
where there was this row of all these
bells in a horizontal line. Each of
these bells were connected to various
bell poles throughout the house. And he
pointed to one particular bell and told
them that that was the one that was
connected to the bell pole in the room
Robert was staying in tonight. And so he
said it was their job tonight to
constantly monitor that bell all night.
So, somebody had to be awake all night
listening to that bell because heaven
forbid if Robert pulls that bell, that
was going to be the signal that
something bad had happened in that room.
And so, their job was basically to be on
guard all night to potentially run up
and rescue Robert if he needed
it. Last year, we launched our very
first graphic novel, and it went great.
I mean, it made the New York Times
bestseller list. So, thank you all so
much for making that happen. But ever
since this book came out, we have been
hit with so many questions about, hey,
when are you going to do another graphic
novel? When’s book two coming out? Well,
I have an announcement to make. Check it
out. We are doing a second graphic
novel. And this is the official cover
art. Here it is. This is Mr. Ballin
Presents Where Nightmares Live. It’s
going to have another set of nine
heartstoppping, strange, dark, and
mysterious stories. and it comes out
September 30th, but you can pre-order it
right now if you go to
book.bballinsstudios.com. Also, there’s
a link right here and in the description
below. There are some signed copies
available, but they will go quickly. So,
please head on over to
book.bballinsstudios.com to pre-order a
copy of our newest graphic novel. I know
you’re going to love it. Check it out.
Your nightmares are
waiting. Around three hours later, all
of Robert’s friends were sitting on the
floor in the servants’s quarters playing
blackjack. It was almost midnight and
all of them were exhausted, but they
were too on edge to sleep. They were so
focused on this bell and they were so
worried about Robert and, you know,
wondering if he was really okay up
there. And they also had become
convinced that, you know, maybe the bell
would ring and they wouldn’t hear it if
they were making too much noise. And so
they had made this decision to silently
play blackjack and just focus
exclusively on this bell. But it had
really created a lot of extra tension in
the room. They’re basically all just
staring at the bell, dealing one hand
after another, paranoid it would go off
and wondering what would even happen if
it did. And so hand after hand, the
friends are playing blackjack, you know,
anxiously watching this bell being
completely silent. And then suddenly
they hear this sound that makes them all
jump. But it wasn’t the bell. It was a
blood curdling scream coming from
upstairs. And for a moment, the friends
just sat there in shock. And then they
got up and began running out of the
servants’s quarters to see what was
going on. And as they did, Robert’s bell
began ringing furiously, so loud it hurt
their ears. And so they charge out of
the servants’s quarters and literally
bump into Charles, who also is coming to
figure out what’s going on. And as a
group, they begin running up the stairs
to the second floor. And all the while,
the bell is ringing furiously. There’s
screams coming from Robert’s bedroom.
And by the time they got to the second
floor, suddenly everything went silent.
The ringing stopped, the screaming
stopped. They’re in the second floor in
that hallway, and it’s just deadly
silent. And up ahead of them is that
closed door. And so Charles and the
group, they begin walking down the hall
having no idea what to expect. And right
as they’re about to reach the door, they
hear this loud bang sound and then
silence again. Seconds later, Robert’s
friends were at that door, pounding on
it, screaming for Robert, “Come open the
door.” Cuz Robert was the only one with
the key, but Robert wasn’t making any
noise. The room was still totally
silent. And so eventually, the friends
began kicking on this door to try to
break it down. All the while, Charles is
just kind of standing back in the
hallway watching this horrible thing
unfold. And then finally, the friends
manage to literally kick the door in. I
mean, it’s a hundred-year-old house. The
door gets kicked in and the friends
stumble into the room and they look over
towards the bedroom and they all just
freeze in shock. When Charles bought
this town home 10 years earlier, it came
with a very dark backstory. The previous
owner had apparently kept his violent
and psychotic brother locked up inside
of this second floor bedroom where
Robert was. And after this brother died
inside of this room, all these strange
and frightening things began happening
inside of this room. People began
hearing these awful wailing sounds
coming out of this room when nobody was
in there. And then they’d go into the
room and the wailing would stop, but
furniture had been moved all around the
room even though again no one had been
in there to do that. And then also
people began seeing this sort of
amorphous gray figure sort of moving
around inside of that room, especially
at night, kind of slinking up against
the wall and across the floor. And even
though nobody had any idea what it was,
it just felt like it was evil. And so
they began calling it the nameless thing
and they referred to it as the physical
manifestation of evil. However, not
everybody believed the story. In fact,
one person who absolutely did not
believe the story was Robert Warboy. He
thought this was just a tall tale
designed to scare people. And so when
his friends dared him to spend one night
inside of that bedroom where supposedly
the nameless thing lived, he happily
accepted because to him it didn’t seem
risky at all. You know, spending one
night in the haunted room was no big
deal because it’s not actually haunted.
He’d be fine. And anyways, it would make
for a great story to tell down at the
gentleman’s club. Unfortunately though,
the night in that bedroom did not go as
Robert hoped. When Robert’s friends
burst through the bedroom door and
looked inside, the first thing they
noticed was the bellpole, the ribbon
from the ceiling had been yanked out of
the ceiling. And Robert’s pistol was on
the ground next to the bed. And then on
the other side of the room, there was a
very obvious bullet hole in the wall.
And so that was the loud bang sound they
heard as they were coming down the hall.
It was the pistol going off. And then
there was Robert. Robert was laying on
the bed and he was totally rigid and he
actually was still clutching the red
ribbon from the bellpole. And as they
stared at him, they saw his eyes were
wide open and bloodshot and his lips
were kind of pulled back in this
horrible grimace with his teeth exposed.
And for a second, his friends thought
Robert must be having a seizure of some
kind. That’s why he was so tight on the
bed like that. And so they ran to him
trying to snap him out of it. But as
soon as they touched him, they realized
that the reason he was rigid was not
because of a seizure. It was because
Robert was dead. That night, Charles
would call the local coroner who would
come by and take Robert’s body and also
he would open up an official inquest
into Robert’s death to figure out what
had happened to him. And the verdict of
this inquest was that Robert had died
from massive heart failure caused by
unknown circumstances. But to Charles
and all of Robert’s friends who were
there that night and actually saw Robert
in the room, it seemed plainly obvious
that what had happened here was Robert
had come in contact with the so-called
nameless thing in that room, and it
literally scared him to death. In the
nearly 200 years since Robert’s death,
50 Berkeley Square has had many
different owners, and virtually all of
them have reported either seeing,
feeling, or hearing some sort of
malevolent ghostly presence inside of
that second floor bedroom. To this day,
that particular bedroom, where the
nameless thing apparently resides, is
considered one of the most haunted
places in the entire world.