Phantom Roommate

My apartment is haunted. Of that I am certain. However, I am not certain of its cause. I have at times doubted my own senses. However, all of my doubts evaporated once the haunting phenomena had been witnessed others.

I live in an old apartment building in New York City. It was built in the 1920s, has a marble lined lobby, an ancient manual elevator, and dumbwaiters that moan when there are high winds. The building is also haunted. I found the apartment three years ago. The rent was low and I gleefully signed the lease. I was not thinking about ghosts at the time. Rather, I was thrilled to have such a great apartment for a relatively low price.

My joy was soon disrupted by my first encounter with a phantom roommate. Shortly after moving in I was abruptly awoken in the middle of the night by my bed shaking. I awoke to find a weight pushing down on the bed. I could also feel the sheets being tugged on by an invisible force. I hurled myself out of the bed. At that point I felt a tugging on my shirt. I tried to scream, but I could make no sound. I lunged for the bedroom door while swatting at my shirt in a futile attempt to ward off the invisible hands tugging at my clothes. I spent the rest of the night on the living room couch. In the morning I convinced myself that I was only having a dream and did my best to forget the incident.

Another terrifying incident occurred while my boyfriend was over. I was making dinner for the two of us. I turned my back to the kitchen countertop to talk to my boyfriend while he faced me. His face turned pale as he stared at something behind me. Before I could turn to see what it was, the lid of my blender hurled past me and hit him in the chest. Dinner was over. He told me later that while I was talking to him he noticed a movement on the countertop. He saw the lid of the blender unscrew itself, hover, and fly through the air. He never came over after that and we stopped seeing each other shortly thereafter.

Over the past few years the spirit has done little things like rearranging knickknacks, turning on lamps, making noises in the closets and rattling glassware. The most demonstrative poltergeist activity occurs whenever I have a boyfriend over or I am on the phone with certain people.

I was on the phone with a guy I was dating when a casserole dish flew off the kitchen table and smashed into a thousand pieces.

The first time my current boyfriend came over for dinner he stopped in the middle of the living room and began to look around the room. We had been talking and he just stopped in mid sentence. After a short pause he said. "Oh M., you've got a roommate." I stared at him in shock. "You do know what I'm talking about don't you?" "Yes." I answered. He addressed the empty living room by saying, "Hello Sweetie, It is just me coming for a visit." The entity answered him by tilting a heavy mirror away from the wall. It hovered for a second and then dropped again with a loud bang. "See!" He said to me. He was so cavalier about it all. I was amazed.

He later explained to me that he felt that the spirit was a female entity. It had maternal feelings for me. She was very protective and when she did not like someone she'd let you know. (The boyfriends that engendered the most violent activity were real jerks. She must have some kind of insight!) She also loves to have some attention. Now whenever I hear the sound of someone rustling through my things in the bedroom or the light comes on in the hall by itself I simply say, "Hello Dear. How was your day?" I often get a final knock or rattle as a reply before the spirit quiets down.

The entity loves my boyfriend and makes its presence known as soon as he comes into the apartment by rattling something. She occasionally tugs at the sheets, but I now know that she is only trying to tuck me in for the night.

I am now happy with my friend. I call her Agnes. I was away all last week on business. When I arrived home I was welcomed with the sounds of a drawer opening and closing in the bedroom. I chose not to be afraid of this spirit and that has made all the difference. Once I made that choice, I really started to enjoy living with my own little "watch dog" ghost.