The Laundry Room

I lived in Germany for the better part of my childhood, my dad was in the army and we lived there on three separate occasions. The last tour was when my experience occured.

I was in the fourth or fifth grade (I can't really remember) and my friends and I always talked about the "haunted" stairwells and basements of the apartments that we lived in. Apparently some kids had died down in the basement of one of our buildings and they haunted the cubby holes underneath the stairs. I never took these stories serious, frankly, I never had a reason to. It was just something to talk about to pass the time.

The laundry rooms were in the basement of the buildings. My sister and I had a bad habit of leaving our clothes in the dryers overnight, for some reason we did not like to go get our clothes in the middle of the night. Well, my father insisted that we get our clothes out of the laundry room before we went to bed at night (He was stuck on the the idea that someone would steal our clothes). So one Saturday afternoon I decide to wash clothes a littler earlier than usual (for fear of forgetting to get them before I went to sleep), but for some reason I still forgot to go get them.

Just as I was getting ready for bed I remembered that I still had clothes in the dryer. When I got down to the basement I had to use my key to open the laundry room. I turned on the lights and collected my clothes as fast as I could. Just as I was closing the door I noticed that I had left the lights on, so I went back in to turn them off. The last light switch was just by the door, so I put my basket of clothes outside of the door and turned to turn off the last of the lights, but just as I reached for the switch, there less that 15 feet away, stood a man in a blue jumper. He just stood there in the room. Now I know that he didn't come in while I was getting my clothes, because the door shuts and locks on its own and you need a key to get in. And I knew the man did not live in our building. I was scared frozen, I just stared right back at him for what felt like hours (it was really more like 10 seconds though). I was finally able to avert my eyes and when I looked back he was gone!
I don't remember ever going up four flights of stairs that fast ever before or again. I have to tell you I did not wash my clothes for at least a month after that happened and even then I would only go in the morning with my sister.