This is a collection of occurances that I have encountered where I have lived.
The apartment I lived in for that year was a very new place. I was the first one to live in my apartment. But, just becuase it's new, doesn't mean that there aren't any old spirits floating around. The new building was built on land where an old farm house burned to the ground. And out of research, we found out that a small girl died in that fire. This is the same small girl who decided she was going to live in my bedroom closet. You must be thinking, "a closet??" but, to defend the girl, it was a huge walk in closet, plenty of room. :)
First thing I noticed was when I would go to sleep at nite, I would hear my hangers banging against the closet wall. Nothing spectacular, but I knew she was there playing. Later in the year, my oh-so-respectful neighbor decided to have one of her parties (again!!!) at 4 am. Being the fact that I had to get up at 6 am, I closed the bathroom door and then went to close the closet down to help drown out some of the noise. This was the first time I had ever closed my closet door, and it didn't want to shut. The door wouldn't close all the way as if it had something stuck in it, which after checking, I realized there was nothing there. So after a few hard pulls, it finally closed. Within a few minutes, the little girl decided that she did not like my closet door closed and told me so by scratching heavily at the door. I calmly explained to the little girl (yes, outloud) that I closed the door becuase of the noise from next door, and unless she wanted to go over there and somehow get them to shut up, the door was staying closed so I could get some sleep. And I promised that I would never close the door again, unless something like this came up. The scratching stopped, and I went to sleep. I relunctantly opened the closet door that morning, waiting for all my clothes to be on the floor. But, she must've understood, because she left everything where it was. I never had a need to close the door again, so I didn't. I still heard the hangers at nite, but never had the scratching again.
As soon as my lease was up at my old place, I found a new one. Didn't want to put up with the late nite parties anymore. My friend and I were driving around scouting out any for rent signs, when she turned down a road, not knowing why. We soon found out why, there on the corner was my apartment with a for rent sign right in front. It was the most beautiful brick building. The next day I called about the apartment, but no one called me back. I went to the building, just to get a closer look, and was in tears thinking I wasn't going to get the apartment. I hadn't even been inside yet, but knew for some reason I had to live there. So the next day, I went into the rental office and made them deal with me, after trying to convince me to have another apartment, I insisted on this one. When the agent told me she thought they were all rented, tears formed in my eyes. She asked another agent, only to find out that someone who had put down a deposit yesterday had fell through. She took me over immediately to look at it. I walked in the back door to the kitchen and the feeling was incredible! I could tell that it was a protected space, I felt so comfortable and at home. I looked at the agent and told her I'd take it. She gave me the strangest look and asked if I wanted to see the rest of the apartment. I agreed, just to see where I would be living. I wasn't disappointed, it was a huge, one bedroom with all hardwood floors and a sunroom to die for. I moved in within the week. With some research, I found out that it used to be an old convent, which really explains the red neon sign at the top of the building that says "praise the lord".
Later that fall, I heard my first ghost. It was late at nite and I was in bed asleep. I was awake enuf to look at the clock and roll over, when I heard footsteps in my apartment. Knowing it was haunted, I figured it was the ghosts and didn't pay that much attention to them. The footsteps came from the dining room into the hallway that looks into my bedroom. There they stopped, and I heard a soft, female voice say, "...and this is Ariel". I sat up and looked to the hallway, not seeing anything and said in a really loud voice, "I'm on a tour??!!" Then fell back into bed laughing.
Time passed and besides the occasional walking around things were pretty quiet. The day of my halloween party, Jen was putting on her make-up using the hallway mirror. When she took a step back, she thought she bumped into me and apologized, only to realize I was in the bathroom. A few weeks later, while putting on my make-up in the same place I also bumped into someone there. Guess those nuns are interested in make-up, huh?
Barely a month later, I was playing online and listening to some music. It was a cd that I had listened to many times before on this particular cd player. During one song, I noticed that the volume had been turned up considerably, then 10 seconds later, it was turned down considerably. This continued throughout the entire song. Each time I would turn around to see something (the cd player was to my back) I would see nothing, but as soon as I turned back to the computer it would happen. Laughing at the fact that I had two ghosts arguing over a song, I just kept doing what I was doing. After that song it stopped, and hasn't happened again.
Overall, the ghosts who live here were pretty quiet. I heard them walking around, and even slamming doors sometimes. And when they really wanted my attention I could hear them say my name. Guess it's their way of saying good-night. This summer I am moving to Chicago, and am so upset about leaving my apartment. But, I can't take it with me, and know that Chicago is where I need to be right now. Am just hoping I can find another place as great as this one.
Okay, so it's finally official. The new place is haunted. Only took me this long to find out! The first sign were the magnetic letters on my refrigerator. One day it looked as if someone pulled out 3 letters, but they didn't make any sense. Maybe they were initials or something.
Above my mirror in the bedroom, I have a Nightmare Before Christmas lunchbox and the tag hangs over my mirror. After returning home from visitng friends over the weekend, I noticed that the tag was facing the wrong way. I turned it back around, but haven't seen anything happen since.
When I get ready for work in the morning, I keep the morning news on. Last week, I was in the bathroom and noticed that it was pretty loud, so went back to turn it down a bit then returned to the bathroom. Next time I went out in the living room, it was on the wrong channel. Then just recently, I was sitting on the couch reading. The tv was still on, and all of a sudden it changed channels again. While I was in the room. Very strange indeed. No way I could've done it, was far away from the remote. Funny thing, both times the channel was changed, it was changed to the same channel, WGN.
That's all I got from the new place, which compared to the others are pretty damn boring. But, it seems that the ghost(s) are getting used to me, so this could just be the beginning!!!
