Cathy's Place

I live in a city in New York, Syracuse. Its not the best city in the world, there have been a few murders and a kidnapping of a 5 year old girl here within the past 6 months.

My cousin Cathy had never gotten the best apartments in the best neighborhoods, they were all cramped and the neighbors were usually drug dealers, so when she finally got a nice place on the corner of Grumbach street, I was extremely happy for her.

My cousin, a few of her friends, and my boyfriend, Paul, moved her in in about 5 hours. Completely cleaning out the old place. Her new apartment though was full of boxes and some stuff she just ended up throwing away.

One night I was over there helping her clean up her new place and get things organized. After she went to bed at about 11, I stayed up. (I have a sleeping problem and I cannot sleep all through the night.) I called my boyfriend, Paul (Who lived around the corner and a little ways down) and I invited him over. He told me he just had to finish up his laundry and he'd be right over. I asked him if he wanted me to meet him halfway because it was kind of late. He said he didn't want me to because he just wanted me to stay inside. (Cathy's new neighborhood wasn't bad, but Paul just didn't want me out wandering at 1 am) I went to the backdoor and went down the two flights of stairs to make sure the screen door was unlocked. I unlocked it, but made sure it was tightly closed because if you don't slam it just right then it will stay open and the neighbors cats will get into the back hall. So I made sure it was tightly closed. After that, I went back upstairs and closed the door at the top of the stairs and I chain locked it.

About an hour later, Paul came over. We watched movies until about 4:30(am) then we settled down on the futon to go to sleep. Paul fell fast asleep but because of my sleeping problem, I was still wide awake. It was a little after 4:30 when I heard a slamming noise out in the kitchen. I got up to go see what it was just because I didn't want the noise to wake up Cathy. The noise was actualy comming from down the back stairs. I figured Paul hadn't closed the screen door all the way and it was banging. So I opened the chain lock and the bolt lock that I had locked after Paul came up and headed down the stairs, sure enough, the door was banging.

I closed the door and locked it. As I was heading back up the stairs, I got to the landing and the banging started again. The door had come back open. So I went back down and closed it again this time making sure it was tight and locked. I went back upstairs. I was a little nervous now because I wasn't sure if it was someone playing a trick on Cathy. (The little girl downstairs loved slamming that door when Cathy was upstairs. That was her way of saying "Come out and play") I didn't think it was the girl because I knew she wouldn't be up so early in the morning.

I went back into the front room, took off my shoes and cuddled up next to Paul again. Then the banging noise started again. This time though, It woke up Paul. He said to me, "Nikole, what is that noise?" I said "Its the screen door downstairs, it won't stay shut." So Paul and I both went downstairs to try to close it again. Paul pulled the door very tightly shut, and I flipped the lock. I didn't think even we'd be able to get out of the door when we went to leave the next morning. As Paul walked up the stairs in front of me, there was a knocking noise. I turned around and looked at the screen door. Paul did too. It sounded like someone was knocking on the door. But the street light would shine right into the back yard and there was clearly no one there.

Paul and I just decided to lock the door and just go to bed. About 10 minutes after getting into bed. The heavy banging of the door downstairs started back up again. I couldn't believe it, Paul just looked at me like "I'm not going back down there." So we just let the banging continue, we were both too creeped to go back down.

The next day when Paul and I were leaving, we went down the back stairs and the door was closed and locked still. The same way it had been when we locked it for the third time the night before. We just passed it off saying we were nuts or something.

I really don't know what it was and I haven't stayed the night at Cathy's place since. She claims she never heard the noise the night it happened, and she says shes never heard any noise of the sort that Paul and I described to her.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.