My Old Appartment Haunting

Let me start off by stating that I have lived in what could be considered haunted houses on and off my whole life (currently 31), including both of the apartments I moved into upon leaving my parent's home. I've seen as few things that I can't 100% explain, felt things, and even "know" things that I probably shouldn't.

This story is about my old apt - Pinewell Commons. I moved in mid-year in 1997. It's a 3 story brick, OLD building (built in the 1920's). The units are seriously small (less than 300sqft) but considering I was 21 and poor, it was priced right. In the middle of the building was an elevator - the very first day I saw it, I didn't like it. Didn't know why, didn't really care, just gave me the willies. My apt was on the second floor, on the backside. For the first year or so, I didn't spend much time in my apt due to work and family issues, so if anything happened, I never noticed it.

It wasn't until year 3 that I started to notice things. The first was a male figure, dressed in an old Seacoat, smoking a pipe, who would walk down the main staircase at odd hours. I thought he was a new tenant and basically ignored him. Until one day, while carrying up my laundry from the basement, I met him in the hallway. He was standing at the landing of my floor, staring at me, pipe in his mouth. I opened my mouth to say excuse me and he disappeared. Yeah... I double take'd, but shrugged it off and logged it away. I would see him every great once and awhile, but always at odd hours.

Nothing else happened for a while until I spotted a new figure - this time a woman, almost a year later. She was slowly walking down the hallway, but that wasn't the alarming bit. She was dressed in late 19th/20th century clothing, complete with bustle and feather fan. She turned toward me, I remember seeing her bright green eyes over the fan. She nodded at me then disappeared. Again, I logged it but didn't let it worry me and continued on my way.

About this time I gained a boyfriend, who for lack of better wording, was dabbling in the arts. He was also slightly mentally unwell. Well, unfortunately for me, he did something, brought something, whatever in to "view" that I wasn't overly excited with. It started with a figure walking back and forth in front of my front door. When I would look out the peep-hole, no one was there. A few weeks of this, then it changed. Now, when the footsteps started, you could see shadows underneath the door, but still nothing visible in the hallway.

Then one day I heard the footsteps again and this time they stopped, directly in front of the door. I could see the shadow of the feet. I got up to check and this complete and utter terror overtook me. I knew if I got close to that door something VERY bad was going to happen. I sat back down on my sofa for 4 hours waiting, until I looked over and noticed the shadows gone. Shortly after, I broke up with that man. Although I would hear the footsteps once and awhile after, I never got that gut wrenching feeling of terror again.

Then, for almost another year, nothing major happened. I continued to see both the Old Man and the Painted Lady (and I started to call them) and I gained a new boyfriend. This time things worked out great, but new things started to occur in the apt. First was the elevator - it was flooded during a hurricane and stopped working. I always got a strange sense of fear from it, but now I was almost dreading walking by the doors. Late at night, you could hear the car shifting in the shaft (or that's what I hoped it was) and I swear it sounded angry. Yes, angry. And it wasn't just me who felt like that, both my boyfriend and several friends also told me the same thing.

Another new disturbance was the Shower Ghost. Laugh all you want, but I used to enjoy long soaks in the shower after work. It relaxed and refreshed me, but around year 5 strange things started happening. After spending a few in the shower, the curtain would attack me. At first I thought it was the steam build-up, I would put bottles on the edge and leave the door open. It would still do it, even if I was taking a cold shower. I kind of blew it off until one day, I fell asleep in the shower. I started having this dream where this man was trying to wake me up, he was afraid I was going to drown. He kept hitting me, over and over. Finally, I snapped awake when the curtain blew in and knocked off all 6 bottles. Afterwards, I got the impression that somebody wanted me out of the shower, fearing I was going to drown. This continued to the day we left that apt (note: it NEVER did this to my boyfriend, who often took scalding hot showers).

A few more noteworthy occurrences happened, a few fell into the world of ghosts, others I'm still not sure of. Names being called, things touching me, small items moved, the cat often acting freaked out. The biggest thing I recall was what I call the Baby scream. One afternoon I was sleeping, on my stomach, my face toward the headboard. I was out cold when a scream woke me up. Upon opening my eyes, directly in front of me should have been the headboard, but I saw a baby's face. It's mouth was opened in a scream and its eyes were squeezed shut. I recoiled in shock and it faded away instantly. I'm not sure what it was, but it has never repeated itself - there or anywhere else.

The last major thing to start happening the last year or so we were at that apt, was the solid white forms. What would appear to be the opposite of a shadow (white outline) in the form of a human male, would walk by doorways in the apt. Always out of the corner of your eyes or from beside you, never looking straight on. Also, this would occur in any doorway in the apt (there was 6 doors in a 1 room apt) including the closet. Many people saw these: my boyfriend, several friends, my youngest sister and myself. They were never threatening, just alarming.

After 8 long years, we finally moved. Not far, just 2 miles down the road. They (new landlords) renovated the building and re-leased it out. I've never been back to check if anything still happens, but often wondered. But I've got the new place to worry about now...