I moved into my 2 bedroom apartment in Jan 2004. When I originally went to view the property with my soon to be landlord he was very persuasive. He assured me the property was in good condition,and he'd do me a good a deal etc. Anyway long story short, I signed the lease and arranged to move in.
The first night I moved in things were fine. I threw a little house warming, had my friends round things went well. Anyway the next day I was moving my boxes around and as I lifted one to put it in the hall cupboard the light bulb blew. . . .okay, so no biggy . . . I just changed the bulb and carried on sorting out my things. That night I was feeling a little edgy, I don't know why, I guess it was my first night on my own, so I left my TV on and went to sleep.
The next morning I woke up and the TV was off. Again no biggy . . . I probably knocked my remote during the night, or the TV cut out . .whatever?!
I got up got dressed and went to work.
That evening I came home walked into my hallway closed the front door, and went to turn on the hallway light. As I did it blew again! . . So calmly I changed the light bulb, and went to check the fuse box . . . maybe there was a reason it kept tripping? blowing? Things looked fine, all the switches were down. So I forgot about it and went to bed.
That night as I was drifting off to sleep I heard a shuffling noise. It was like someone was rubbing against the was near my head. I lay there for a minute, reasoning . . . what could it be? maybe the apartment next door? A draft? but as I lay there I could hear it was really close! All sorts of things were going through my head! I'm a female, I'm by myself . . what if someone's in my apartment? what should I do. I was panicking! Slowly I reached my hand out from my duvet, to pick up my cell phone, which was on my bedside cabinet. I dilled the police, but didn't press call. I got up from the bed, phone in my hand and shouted out. "H . .H . .HELLO?" There was no answer, I griped my phone, my thumb on the green dial button. I slowly put my hand on the adjoining bedrooms door handle and pushes the door open! I ran to the light switch and turned on the light. The room was empty! No -one was there?! That night I was really shaken, so again I slept with the television on, once again when I woke the next morning, it was off.
I got up, got dressed and went to work. I convinced myself that I was just a little nervous about living on my own. Me and my guy weren't getting on well so we had decided to separate for a while. It was probably stress contributing to my over-active imagination.
So when I went home that night, I was calm, I cooked myself some pasta, went to bed early things were fine.
At about 2, 2.30am I woke up and desperately need the toilet, so I went into the hall and flicked the light switch . . .IT DIDN'T WORK! . .I swore and felt my way to the bathroom. I put on the bathroom light, did my business, and decided to leave the light on.
Next morning I called my landlord and explained that the hallway light kept blowing! I was annoyed I had changed it 3-4 times in the last week! So he arranged a 13th addition. hmmm or a 16th . . .cant remember what it was called but its when an electrician comes to cheque all the sockets/electrics in the house. The electrician said everything was fine, that I was probably using cheap light bulbs! He said the electrics were in good working order.
So I went to the supermarket and bought x6 Philips light bulbs.
I changed the bulb when I got home, checked it was working, everything was fine.
That night things were quiet.
Next day I went to work again, came home, went into the hallway, and as you can probably guess the light bulb wasn't working!
I shouted out "I GIVE UP! . . " and that was that, I haven't had light in my hallway since.
Now that was only the start of things, the shuffling in the adjoining room continued, and I noticed a lot of damp patched on the walls in my sitting room. They were a dark greeny color.
By now I was fed up! Faulty electrics! shuffling! . . hmmm maybe mice?! ewwwwww! and now horrid damp patches in the sitting room!
I called my landlord and threatened to sue! I was paying full rent for a property with so many problems! My landlord said he would come around on the following Monday to look at the problems, and arrange for work men to sort them out.
The following Monday came, and when I got back from work, my landlord was waiting outside. We went into the apartment, walked through the dark hallway and into the sitting room. I turned on the sitting room light and looked at my landlord in amazement! The patches had gone! My landlord looked at me, I could see he was annoyed.
So he left.
That night, I went to bed really confused! . .what was going on? I went to sleep and at about 2am I woke up, I should hear like a laughing sound. I thought it was coming from outside. But as I became more awake I could hear the laughing sound . . . like a snarling kind of laugh . . almost evil . . It seemed really close, almost as if someone was in my room . . . I sat up and looked around, no one was there. But as I looked across the room my bedroom door was open, and it was swinging, not madly . . but just slightly, like it had just been opened.
I walked to the bedroom door and slowly peered out. The hallway was dark, except for a little moon light from the kitchen which illuminated a pile on the hallway floor. It looked like a pile of clothes . . except . . and I know this is stupid and sounds crazy . . .but there was like a shape of a head on top of the clothes . . long hear, with the head slumped forward. I wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light, but I hoped it was, so I ran back into my room and pushed my wooden chest of drawers up against my bedroom door.
That night I left the light on and barely slept.
Next morning, I got up and moved my cabinet out of the way of my bedroom door, I looked into the hallway, there was nothing there, I convinced myself the night before id seen a pile of clothes, and by a trick of the light, and tiredness I'd imagined something . . . but there wasn't even a pile of clothes! There was nothing there! I got ready for work and walked into my sitting room and the damp patches were back!
That was it! at work I called my partner, who I was currently separated from. I explained that things weren't going well at my new place, and he agreed to let me stay with him.
I went straight to his that night, and I slept so well. I think it was the first time I had slept properly in about a month.
Me and my guy talked things through, and decided to give things another go.
That weekend we went to collect my things from my old apartment. My landlord was there. I collected all my things, as I left I went to hand my landlord the rent for the next month, after all I had signed an agreement and it stated I had to give 30 days notice before I left, in order for my landlord to have time to find another tenant. As I handed him the money he looked at me, shook his head and said it wasn't necessary. He took me into the kitchen, where he proceeded to tell me, that the previous tenant had died in this very apartment. In the September before I moved in, the landlord had gone with two law enforcement officers to evict the tenant for non-payment of rent and when they entered the apartment they had found him slouched on the hallway floor. He had shot himself in the left side of his head.
On refurbishing the apartment, the landlord had found a load of syringes in the kitchen, and it was thought that the tenant had been a drug addict. Perhaps he had killed himself because of debt he had built up? However this was just a possible reason, and apart from rent arrears there wasn't any other proof.
I left that apartment, and I haven't ever been back. On the bright side though, it pushed my and my guy back together, we are now married, and trying for our first child.
Best wishes to anyone in a similar situation, or living in a haunted property,
