It started with a smell. Not strong at first — just an odd, sour note that drifted through the hallway every now and then. Tom Fisher, a 42-year-old homeowner in the suburbs, noticed it one evening while making dinner. He figured it was something in the trash, maybe an onion gone bad or a bit of spoiled food left behind the stove. He cleaned the kitchen top to bottom, took out the garbage, and opened the windows. By morning, the smell was back.At first, Tom tried to ignore it. The odor seemed faint, almost ghostlike — appearing at random and disappearing before he could trace its source. But within a few days, it had grown into something sharp and foul, like rotting meat mixed with mildew. It seeped through the walls, clung to the curtains, and lingered in his clothes. He sprayed air fresheners, scrubbed the floors, even called the plumber to check the pipes. Nothing helped.

“I thought maybe something died in the crawl space,” Tom later said. “A rat, maybe a raccoon. I’ve lived here eight years and never had a problem, but there’s a first time for everything.”

The plumber ruled out any issue with the sewage or drains. The smell, he said, wasn’t coming from the pipes. It was somewhere in the wall.

That night, Tom couldn’t sleep. The odor had become unbearable — dense, sour, and suffocating. It filled the house no matter how many windows he opened. Around midnight, after hours of tossing and turning, he grabbed a flashlight, a screwdriver, and a hammer. He was done guessing.

He started with the wall in the living room where the smell was strongest. The moment the hammer struck, a faint gust of air escaped from a crack, and the stench hit him like a physical blow. His stomach turned. Something was definitely in there.