My Haunted Apartment

When I was 22 my mom helped me get an apartment in Jellico. I was really excited, after growing up in such a very small town, I was so ready for the life away from home, out on my own. I got a small one-bedroom apartment on 5th street. The apartment was on the far side of town from my parents. I always took extra precautions and keep an eye out for anything strange. I was a little nervous being out on my own for the first time. I just didn't know I would be running from what was inside of my own home.

Now, these apartments are old and I didn't know any of the history behind them or who had lived there prior to me. It had been about 3 months and I had not really seen or heard anything strange. The first thing that I began to notice was that I would always hear things coming from the bathroom around 7:00 a.m every morning. It sounded like someone was in there moving around, but I hadn't seen anything. Since the walls are thin, I figured it was the people next door. I did not think it was anything to worry about.

It was about my fourth month living there and I was sleeping. I have to sleep with the TV on I can't sleep in the dark. Since I don't care very much for cable, I would watch friends on the disc. I happened to be watching and there was a song that came on at the end "singing in the rain". When I was little I remember having sleep paralysis I know it is a very common thing. While I was sleeping I heard that song "singing in the rain" playing on repeat over and over. I was so groggy I didn't feel like looking for the remote, but it was getting annoying.

While I was waking up I realized that I could not move or breathe. I knew exactly what was going on, but this time it felt different. I looked at the swivel chair that I had in the bedroom next to my bed and it was turning on its own. As I watched it spinning I was terrified, everything started to get blurry and I could feel something was there. I was finally able to move and breathe again. I could not sleep for the rest of the night. I knew (or believed) that it was just an episode of sleep paralysis but I had never had one like that.

The apartment continued to freak me out, the longer I stayed there, the more things began to happen. I worked late until 4 a.m and I was so sleepy when I got home that I ignored whatever was going on. But every morning I was being awakened by the sound of someone in the bathroom. It was really bothering me but I just kept on believing that it was the neighbors.

One night my good friend was staying over and was in the bathroom fixing her hair. I went outside to smoke a cigarette and wait for her. I could hear her talking, I thought she was just being silly so I just didn't pay attention. I assumed that she knew I had gone outside.

She walked out and asked why I ignored her. I told her I had been outside the whole time. She told me that she saw me just a couple of seconds ago walking out of the bedroom and into the living room. I replied, "no, I have been sitting here on the porch smoking the entire time." She actually got kind of angry with me because she swore that I had just been inside and was trying to scare her. She would barely stay over after that.

A few weeks after, I heard someone in the bathroom again. I looked at the clock next to my bed and sure enough, it was exactly 7:00 a.m. I decided that it was time to face it and go see what was in there. I tried to open the door but it was jammed. I stood there in the hall with my ear against the door and could hear a woman's voice humming. I could even hear the medicine cabinet open and close. After about 5 minutes I was able to open the door, there was nobody in there of course. I was officially freaked out.

I went next door and asked the neighbor if they were awake every morning at 7:00 a.m, they said "no". After talking to them for a while I discovered that an older lady had lived in the apartment for like 30 years. Every morning she'd get up and go to work around 7:00 a.m. I was the first person to live there since she had passed away. The hairs on my neck stood up and I wondered to myself if maybe she was haunting the apartment. I kept that thought to myself though. I didn't want my mom to think that I was afraid to be out on my own. I sure didn't want my friends to think that I was afraid.

Later on more things started happening. Every day when I woke up, the recliner in the living room would be laid back. At first, I convinced myself that I was leaving it that way, but I started to double-check. Every night when I went to bed I'd make sure that it was not laid back, I even sit a teddy bear in the chair. The next morning, it was in the laid-back position again and the teddy bear was sitting on the sofa. This happened 5 or 6 times before I asked my dad to take the recliner out. I made up the excuse that I just didn't have enough room for it.

The T.V in my bedroom started shutting itself off in the middle of the night. As I said, I can't sleep without it on, so when it clicked off I'd wake up. I called the housing authorities and they sent the cable man out to check my connections, everything was fine. I eventually purchased a new television but it also turned off every night. I began paying more attention to the time frame and it would shut off at the exact same time every night.

One night I woke up hearing a woman calling "here kitty, kitty". I jumped up and dashed to the hallway, but of course there was nothing to be seen. I asked the neighbor, "did the lady who lived here have a cat by chance?". They confirmed that she did in fact have a cat that lived there with her.

After I heard the voice calling for the cat something else started happening. Every damn time that I went to bed I'd feel a slight pounce on the covers. It felt like a cat had jumped into the bed with me. By now I'm figuring that I must be scaring myself because things like this just don't happen. Eventually, I began to sleep on the sofa.

The last day that I spent there was the final breaking point for me. I was in the kitchen that morning making myself some breakfast. I was standing at the stove frying an egg when out of the corner of my eye I saw a cat jump up onto the counter. I jerked around and "you guessed it" there was no cat there. The whole kitchen smelled like freshly brewed coffee and I didn't even own a coffee pot. I have never been a coffee drinker.

I bid farewell to my ghostly friends and moved back home with my parents. I have since noticed a new resident living in the apartment. The neighbor has told me that they too claim to be living with a woman and her cat. It was all harmless, but just a little too much for my nerves to handle.