My Last Apartment Was Haunted

I don't know if I believe in ghosts, but there is no logical way to explain the things that occurred in my last apartment.

My boyfriend and I had lived on the second floor of our apartment building (Est. 1934) for three years and had zero "supernatural" experiences. During the pandemic, we decided to move into a cheaper unit, in the same building. That is where it all began.

Our new unit was on the first floor, set back from the road about 30 feet, at the backend of a small garden we could not access. The garden was gated, and we could not see the outside world from any of our windows. The farthest the sun would reach was the far edge of our neighbor's window but it never reached any of our windows. These few details lead to us referring to the new apartment as "The Dungeon". At the time, we had no idea how fitting that nickname would become.

SOME STRANGE THINGS WORTH NOTING:

1. I did some research and found out that a 68-year-old man died there in 2001, and a 90-year-old woman died there 10 years later, in 2011. Both on the first floor, where we lived.

2. We do not know what happened to the person who lived there before us. Our upstairs neighbor helped us move some of our things downstairs, and when he saw the unit we were moving into he remarked that his friend lived there and it was weird that he did not tell him he was moving out. Also, I guess he never filed for a change of address because after they left, we often received their mail. They frequently got mail from a psychiatric facility, which made me wonder if he had talked to someone about experiencing strange things in this unit as well.

Alright, let's dive into the undeniably strange and seemingly supernatural experiences we had while living in "The Dungeon". Everything I am about to say is true.

THE BEDROOM CLOSET:

Shortly after moving in, we had our first experience. My boyfriend was relaxing and writing in bed. I popped into the closet to record a voiceover for an upcoming project.

In the middle of one of my takes, the door violently shook, along with a tremendously loud BANG and wobble of the doorknob. I practically jumped out of my skin!

My first thought was that my partner, who is 6'3", had fallen onto the door while trying to get my attention or help for some reason.

I opened the door with a swift, "Oh my god! Are you okay?"

My partner was on sitting on the bed across the room from me with a terrified look on his face. He had one headphone dangling out of his ear, and at the same time I opened the door he asked, "Are you okay?!"

We looked at each other, wide-eyed and confused.

I said, "Was that you?"

"No? I thought that was you."

"Really? You didn't throw something or..."

"No. I thought maybe you were stuck and couldn't get the door to open."

"No...that was not me."

We just stared at each other.

He is a skeptic, but the way that door shook so violently scared us both so badly. Neither one of us could comprehend what we had just experienced.

THE HALLWAY CLOSET:

I remember sitting in the living room and hearing a POP! CREAAAAAK!

My boyfriend turned to me and nervously asked, "Did you hear that?"

I shook my head up and down and got up to investigate. I peaked around the corner and saw that the hallway closet was wide open.

This seemed a bit strange at the time, but I slumped it off as nothing, thinking maybe I did not shut it all the way. I clicked the door shut and pulled on the handle to make sure it was locked in place.

Later that night, THUD! CREAAAAAK!

"No way."

Sure enough, the hallway door was wide open.

This was something we would continue to hear and see at least once every couple of weeks, for the rest of our time in this apartment.

THE INTRUDER:

This was by far the scariest experience, followed closely by the bedroom door experience I recounted above.

We were having a chill night in. We had made some popcorn and were watching a movie in the bedroom.

Out of nowhere, the distinct sound we heard was our front door flinging open, hitting the wall, and several heavy boot steps tromping into our apartment.

My heart dropped and to be honest, I froze in fear and covered my mouth. I was certain there was an intruder and we were in danger. It felt like a nightmare coming true.

My boyfriend, like a goddamn hero, jumped into action. He grabbed the heaviest thing he could find and tromped out there to scare the intruder off. He was ready to fight, to keep us safe.

Breathing heavily, I grabbed my phone in case I needed to call 9-1-1. I listened, but I did not hear an altercation. My boyfriend's footsteps reapproached the bedroom door.

I will never forget the look on his face when he walked back into the room and shook his head, "there is nothing."

"No way! That can't be true!"

I could not believe it. There were no open doors. Nothing seemed out of place. Nothing had fallen. The broom by the door was still standing. We could not find absolutely anything that would have made sounds like what we heard. I was flabbergasted.

In awe, we talked and agreed that it did sound like the door slamming against the wall and a large intruder entering the apartment.

Again, he is a skeptic... but... how do you explain something like that?

THE MYSTERY OF THE CACTUS & MY DYING PLANTS:

Over our 9 months living in this apartment, we experienced many things that seemed out of place. Things would suddenly be in places we did not put them. We would hear noises out in the hallway, living room, or in the kitchen. Dishes would shift in the sink, objects would fall off the shelves, along with other unidentified clinks and bangs.

This brings me to the cactus on our window sill. The cactus sat on a small glass dish, in the window. A few months into living there, we heard a thud in the night. I quickly looked around, but could not find what made the noise.

The next morning, my cactus was lying on the ground. It was lying in a mixture of spilled dirt and quills that had broken off from the fall. My boyfriend helped clean it up and set it back on the window sill.

I had this cactus for years and it had never fallen over. In this apartment, however, the cactus would constantly be knocked to the ground in the night by an unknown force.

We would wake up to the cactus on the ground, repeat the clean-up cycle, set it back on the window, only for it to be found on the ground again. This was not the only living plant I had trouble with while living in the new unit.

Before moving, I had several thriving plants that I owned for 3+ years. In the new apartment, I placed my bamboo on my dresser and my large Snake Plant in the living room. I watered them the same as before, and for an apartment that got no direct sunlight, they were placed in positions where they were able to receive pretty much the same amount of sun as they previously received.

Within, several weeks of living in the new place, I noticed the leaves on both plants starting to brown. I tried adjusting their positions or seeing if they needed more water. They were unsalvageable. No matter how hard I tried, they insisted on dying. Within two months, they were both dead.

I was shocked at how quickly it happened, considering they were both so healthy. Between my plants dying and the cactus constantly being knocked to the ground, it was as if this apartment refused to host living plants.

SHADOWS IN MY PERIPHERALS & ORBS IN OUR PICTURES:

I am a very perceptive person, with a quick reaction time. In this apartment, I nearly got whiplash because of all the movement I would spot in the corner of my eye.

Shadows darting across the room, strange movements, uneasy feelings, things I swore I saw and when I would look they would not be there. This kind of thing can drive you mad.

There was one corner in the bedroom that would grab my attention all the time. I always felt like something was watching from that corner. In the dark of night, my eyes would pop open and dart straight to that corner. It was like I could feel a pair of eyes watching me.

If you don't know what an orb is, it is a small ball of light, thought to be the spirit of someone who has passed. It is a phenomenon often captured in photographs of "haunted places" that almost looks like a glowing circle.

Skeptics will tell you it is the camera's flash being reflected off dust or other floating particles in the air. But the ones we saw seemed too big and deliberate to be dust.

We did not take many photos during the pandemic, but the best orb I captured was on a polaroid I took of my boyfriend. A large, glowing orb appears to be sitting right on top of his head.

Everything we had experienced up to that point made it hard to write that orb off as dust.

BRUISES, SCRATCHES & VIOLENT NIGHTMARES:

I have always been an insomniac. Something I have struggled with my whole life is falling asleep and staying asleep. When I am asleep, I always experience vividly vibrant dreams. I lucid dream, dream in color, and sometimes I can even smell in my dreams.

In this apartment, my dreams turned into nightmares. For a long time, after moving in, I was having horrific nightmares almost every night.

These nightmares would be gruesome, bloody, and very violent. They just seemed strangely violent and unprovoked.

Not too long after the nightmares started, they began manifesting themselves on my body. I would wake up with bad bruises on my arms and legs, with no instances to tie them to from the day before. My boyfriend would wake up with deep, red scratches on his back. Often these occurrences coincided with each other. If I had a bruise, he had scratches.

Was something trying to communicate through my dreams? Perhaps. One thing I know for sure is that if something was trying to communicate with me, the message I received was GET OUT.

BAD MOODS & MENTAL HEALTH:

During our time in "The Dungeon", we were not ourselves. I would often get angry for no reason. I found myself getting anxious and agitated. I was irritable and easily annoyed by nothing at all. I felt paranoid like I was being watched. Overall, I was just in a bad spot mentally.

Now I know what you are thinking. Bianca, that can all be easily explained by the pandemic and lack of sun coming into the apartment. Sure, you might be right.

We were mostly inside, due to the pandemic. We did not see friends or family much at all, and the lack of sun definitely could have contributed to my mood (though I was taking a Vitamin D supplement). These things definitely could have been contributing factors, but the way I felt seemed different than just being non-social.

The way my heart would race and my blood pressure would skyrocket just seemed off. The mood swings were more extreme to me than "well, you are staying inside a lot."

The anger, the irritability, the paranoia, the nightmares, the bruises, and scratches... it just felt bad to be in that apartment.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Do I believe the apartment was haunted? I'm not sure.

Can I explain the things I experienced? No. I cannot.

All I know is that I experienced these things, they freaked me out, and I could not wait to move out of that dungeon.

Since moving, we have not had any supernatural experiences and our mental health has significantly improved. I feel like myself again.

What do you think? Do you think our last apartment was haunted?

IF YOU HAVE GHOST STORIES OR SPOOKY EXPERIENCES OF YOUR OWN TO SHARE, I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THEM! Please Tweet me @BiancaAnneShaw

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