I live in a small town in central Texas. In March of 1998
I separated from my husband and moved out of our home to a
one-bedroom apartment across town. I moved into this
apartment with my two daughters. The apartment was in an
8-plex building and was the front first-floor apartment
closest to the small parking lot. The place was small
with a kitchen, dining area/living room combo, and bedroom
with a connected bath. The kitchen/dining/living room
combo was L-shaped so that when you were in the kitchen
you could not see into the living room and vice versa.
While moving into the apartment my husband would not allow
me to take much of our furniture, limiting me to only 1
pickup load. (At the time of our separation we had been
married for nine years - I can only say he was a real
peach of a guy--) So out of a house full of furniture I only
took an entertainment center, TV, baby bed, sofa, and two
dining room chairs. I used an air mattress to sleep on
for the first few months.
Within the first couple of weeks there were strange
occurrences within the apartment. I did not like to be
alone in the house. I found that when things were quiet,
such as when the girls were asleep, I could sense and hear
these occurrences with more clarity. Most of the feelings
and sounds I dismissed as my imagination. The first
unnerving event was with my television. While watching a
movie I would suddenly hear a loud pop! It was like a
combination of a bang and a popping sound that would occur
within or very close to the television. The television
was only about three years old - had perfect sound and
picture except for this VERY LOUD pop. Aside from the
fact that I was worried I'd have to buy a new TV, nothing
else would happen, only the loud pop. So I'd go back to
watching the movie. This "popping" noise would increase
in frequency as the months went on, but my television
remained normal. It would occur when I was alone or with
friends. And it would startle you because it was so loud
and sudden. Everyone who heard it would comment that they
had never heard such a thing.
The next event would happen many times during the six
months that I lived in the apartment. While watching TV
or reading I would hear - a distinctive series of sounds
from the kitchen - someone would open the cabinet, take
out a big plastic cup, close the cabinet, and open the
refrigerator. That was it. I'd get up, cautiously, and
look around the corner into the small kitchen. No one
there, no cup on the counter, fridge is closed. This
would happen at least once or twice a week and it did not
matter if I was alone or not. The sounds were very
distinctive, even to the point that I *know* the cup was a
big plastic one. (The cabinet next to my refrigerator did
not have cups or glasses in it. It held cans and
spices.) Late one night, around 2am, I had two friends
over watching a movie, we had just eaten pancakes so the
kitchen was a mess. We were quite engrossed in the movie
when the sound of the cabinet, cup, and refrigerator
occurred in the kitchen. It totally freaked out my two
friends and they didn't know what to think. One friend
insisted that one of my kids had to have gotten up and
gone in there. He got up to check and was freaked out to
find that the kitchen was empty and the fridge was
closed. As time went on these sounds became more frequent
and I would get more afraid to check the kitchen, though I
was still compelled to do so. You could also hear these
sounds from the bedroom.
One of my cousins worked the late shift in town but lived
in another city nearby. Occasionally when he had to work
overtime and would be too tired to drive he would come by
and sleep on my couch until morning. I had given him a
key to my apartment for this purpose. One night, not long
after I had finally bought a real bed, he woke me up very
upset. He said that he had let himself in and been
surprised to see me sitting up on the couch waiting for
him. He had turned on the lamp by the door and very
startled when he saw that I was not there. No one was on
the couch at all. He claimed he could see a person
sitting there perfectly because of the light from the
streetlight coming through the window. He could remember
details such as that their hair was sticking up, they had
their hands folded in their lap, and that he thought they
were sitting cross-legged because he did not remember
seeing their legs below the knees or feet. He definitely
saw something that night because he would not sleep on the
couch and was too scared to drive. He slept on the floor
next to my bed until morning. Some weeks later a similar
event again took place with him and he refused to stay
over anymore unless I moved. Prior to my cousins
experiences, I believe that I also had encounters with
this intruder, though I never saw it, I would get up
during the night to go to the bathroom, but often I would
not go into the living room because of a creepy and
sinister feeling I would get. I would hurry past my
bedroom door and get quickly into bed.
I did finally move in October to a different place. A
year or so later we were having a party when someone
mentioned that they had lived at that apartment building.
He asked if I had ever noticed anything odd. We compared
notes about different strange experiences that went on
while we lived there. As a note, my children never seemed
to notice anything other than the noise the TV would
make. For the record, we still have that television, it
never made that noise again, and it still works
wonderfully.
Contact me here: wonderbird@satx.rr.com
Submitted From: