We Both Heard It

When I was about ten years old, my mother and her husband moved us about three towns over to an apartment that was like none I'd ever seen. It had four floors, and three apartments per floor. One of the bedrooms had no windows, as there was only another apartment on the other side of the wall. My bedroom had a small window on the top of the wall that didn't lead outside. Instead it lead to a small well between the apartments, and I could see windows similar to mine that lead to other apartments. I often heard people yelling back and forth between the windows, and could look up through my window and see them. I could only imagine that the apartments in the middle of the building only consisted of windows like that. The building was just weird, and creepy. Respectable people did not live there. In fact, most of the residents were what would be described as "white-trash," and probably drug addicts.

Anyway, we lived in Maine, but my mother's husband was from Arizona. His kids still lived there, and he'd fly them to Maine to spend the summer with us. They got out of school earlier than we did, so for about a month after they arrived, while we were supposed to go to bed, they could stay up as late as they wanted. His oldest daughter, Jenna, slept in the living room. My bedroom was off of the kitchen, which was next to the living room, and my brother's room was at the end of the hallway that extended from the kitchen. I'd often see or hear him walk past my bedroom door and go into the living room to watch TV with Jenna. Every time, I'd have the same thought, "He's going to get into trouble."

One night, I was sitting on my bed, which lined the wall parallel to my bedroom door. I was reading or writing, instead of sleeping like I was supposed to be. I saw a figure the same height, build, and hair color as my brother walk past my open bedroom door out of the corner of my eye. I heard the floor creak beneath his feet. I didn't look up at him, but I had the same thought that he was going to get in trouble. I never saw him walk back by my door.

A few minutes later, Jenna came in my room and said, "Did you see someone come into the living room?"

"Kevin just went out there."

Here eyes widened as she shook her head. "He's not out there." She said.

My instinct was to get up and meekly peer through my door, wondering if Kevin was hiding in the kitchen or something. Jenna and I started talking about how strange it was when we heard footsteps walking down the hallway towards Kevin's room. The entrance to his room was directly across the hallway from the bathroom, which was being redone and had just gotten a new door that made a certain squeaking noise when moved. We heard the footsteps stop and the bathroom door close and latch. No more noise followed.

We grabbed each others' hands and - together - stuck our heads out the door and looked down the hallway. Both the doors to Kevin's room and the bathroom were wide open. We freaked out. Jenna ran back into the living room and I jumped into my bed, turned my light off, and got under the covers.

The only other experience I had there was after my brother Chris had a baby and was supposed to move in with us. My room was biggest, so he, his girlfriend, and the baby were to get my room, Kevin moved into our little brother's room with him, and I got Kevin's room at the end of the hallway. One night something woke me from my sleep. I opened my eyes to see what appeared to be a young boy about ten or eleven - although I couldn't see his face. He was wearing a blue baseball cap, a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. He had bright red hair sticking out from under his baseball cap. His hands were in the pockets of his jeans, and he was looking down at the floor. He silently walked out of my closet and through my bedroom door - which was closed. I have heard of hypnopompic hallucinations, and I have had them before. The only difference this time is that all of the other hallucinations that I've had correspond to the dream I was waking up from. This one did not.