The Apartment Off Wilmington

(*For personal reasons and at request, I have changed names)

2011 was a tough year for me. My boyfriend of 5 years had suddenly dumped me at New Years, my grandmother grew very ill and died soon after, and I was back in a relationship after my break up with an ex. It wasn't easy but I found a job close to my boyfriend at the time and opted to move in with him. We had been broken up in high school but remained friends and decided to try to restart our relationship after he straightened up his life. So we moved into a nice 2 bedroom apartment off Wilmington Pike in Dayton. We didn't have much but we made due with the little bits of furniture his mother had given to him.

*Joey was a wild card. Although he was very sweet and smart, he often didn't use common sense and never really thought EVERYTHING through. This is what landed him in trouble after high school with his rowdy drunken behavior. After breaking an ex's car window at a bar and yelling in public enough to disturb the whole damn city, he opted to get better and start to settle down. Settle down to him meant just drinking at home and putting his effort during his off time to a hobby we both enjoyed and bonded over. The paranormal.

Joey was part of a local ghost hunting team. While I dabbled on and off between my 2 jobs, Joey put forth the most effort in the group. They drove to places around the city to investigate and even had a few people call to look into their own "hauntings". We had two rules when it came to investigating: don't bring anything home and don't bring a Ouija Board into the house. Obviously I wouldn't be writing this and sharing my story if he had actually listened to me.

Around August Joey went on a "hunt" at a former camp near the city. I stayed home to catch up on the house work. So I packed him up, kissed his cheek, and told him I'd see him the next morning. About 3-4 hours after he left, he returned. I was really surprised seeing as I was expecting them to stay the night at the location. I noticed when he walked in, he was hiding a plastic bag behind the sofa and looked pretty run down. I asked him what was wrong and what was in the bag but he just said he needed a shower and walked away. I peeked in the bag and to my upset, a damn Ouija board. I didn't want to argue so I just went to the bedroom. Joey came out a few minute later and joined me in the bedroom. I asked him why the board was in the house and why, when I looked in, it was busted up.

He then told me during a search of one of the old cabins, one of the guys brought out the board. All 4 of them in the group sat around it and started to ask some questions. Growing annoyed with getting nothing after 20 minutes, one of the guys busted it up and gave it to Joey to get rid of. Obviously Joey forgot to actually throw it away and thought it being inside the house until the morning was no big deal. I shrugged it off and asked him to please get rid of it by morning. It still didn't explain why he looked so distressed but I chalked it up to maybe knocking back a few beers and upset over not find anything at the campsite. By morning, Joey had gotten rid of the board.

2 weeks later, Joey went off with his mother to visit his grandmother for the weekend. I had come down with a major stomach bug and chest cold so I again stayed home to rest up. I had the whole weekend planned. Sleep, sip some Sprite, sleep, eat a bowl of broth and repeat. Well, my weekend wasn't all that easy. Not long after Joey left, I heard knocking at our patio door. Thinking it was the neighbor kid asking to borrow our hose or to sell us his schools fundraiser candy, I got up and looked out the door. Nothing. I walked back and heard it again so I again checked. Nothing. I had the feeling the kids in the complex were playing a version of Ding Dong Ditch I stayed beside the door behind the blinds. I heard it again and flung open the door to scare them. But nobody was there. No sooner after I shut the door and locked it, I heard a massive bang in our bedroom. Grabbing a baseball bat, I walked back to the room to again find nothing. I checked the windows, under the bed and in the closet. Nothing at all. Not wanting to spook myself out or bug Joey, I just assumed it was our upkeep department and opted to go to bed cursing out loud how rude it is to do repairs so damn loud.

About 2 hours after I went to bed, something woke me up. Joey and I shared a large waterbed. Although the movement was very soothing and never bugged me, this movement was damn near making me sicker than I was. It was like someone was wanting to wake me up and get my attention. Annoyed and confused I sat up and sighed. Looking at where the bed was being pushed I noticed a little girl at the end. I rubbed my eyes and when I reopened I saw the back of her running out. I got up and raced out to find nothing. I kept myself in the bedroom all weekend, with the door locked until Joey came home. It was after I told Joey about the girl that he opted to tell me why they left early.

According to Joey, after they broke the board, he got a really bad feeling deep down. He said he tried to shrug it off but felt very uneasy once he and another member went a bit further into the woods to look at the other sites on the grounds. He said when they reached what appeared to be a school house, he suddenly felt very sick and passed out. While laying on the ground and his partner ran to get the first aid kit and the rest of the group fearing he had busted his head on a log or the cement blocks that are scattered around the area, Joey said he heard someone walk right beside him and kick his ribs. Joey said" "When I opened my eyes there was this really big black mass. It wasn't really human, it was just this very dark, heavy mass. It scared me but I couldn't yell out. I felt like I was being choked". He then said he passed out again only to be woken up by one of the guys asking him a series of questions.

I told him how the hell that would explain a little girl "ghost" (yes I used the quote marks while talking to him), he asked me if I remember what I learned about demons and other harmful ghosts. Knowing that a spirit can apparently manifest into something seeming very non threatening, I asked him if he really thought something came home with him. "I guess..." is all he told me. I explained I didn't really believe him about something coming home with him, but to be honest I was really worried about if something was attached to the board and then attached to him.

Fast forward a few months later. After a few bumps in the night, doors being open after closing them, and waking up to our stove on high for all 4 burners a handful of times; Joey and I were on the outs. He had been drinking more and had been hanging out with a young lady who he admitted he had slept with and was now proclaiming she was pregnant. Obviously this was heart breaking and caused a massive fight one night. I was standing in the kitchen yelling at him about the young woman and about how stupid he was (TBH, the girl is the trashiest thing this side of Ohio and has a terrible rep for getting knocked up over and over again without a clear remembrance of who she slept with around the time of her pregnancy. But I digress). Joey was a good 50 feet away from me in the hallway arguing with me. I took a step into the hall with one foot still in the kitchen. I was 15-20 feet away from our oven while we were yelling over each other. He stepped closer, got in my face as we just kept arguing. The oven door slammed open then shut as we stood there. It slammed down one more time as we both stood just looking at it. We didn't move for a good 2 minutes as we just shut up and tried to process what we saw. Joey then walked over, put up the oven door, and locked it. We didn't look at each other the whole night but soon apologized for the yelling and he apologized for his terrible choice. We opted to take a break but still live together until we figured what we'd do about this baby drama.

3 days after, I was cleaning the bathroom. Joey was due to be home after his shift at work, so I opted to clean up and freshen our bathroom. Hearing the door open I thought "why not scare the bastard". I hid behind the door, which had a lovely crack to see out to the main room where I knew he would be walking past to go to the kitchen to grab his nightly 6 pack before walking down the hall where I would strike! I waited for him to walk past... But he never did. Thinking he was trying to scare me, I snuck out and jumped out to the main room, hoping to scare him for scaring me. Nothing. I was very scared at that point and grabbed my cell phone and something heavy. I looked around until I reached the kitchen. Knowing nobody past me I just stood there confused. That was until the locked oven door slammed down and a huge gust of foul wind flew past me. I ran out of the apartment and down the end of the road where I called Joey to get home quick. After he arrived and consoled my scared ass, I told him I was leaving right then and there. I have never packed so damn quick in my life. I never went back to the apartment after that night.

Its been a few years now. Joey is the proud father of my Godson, *Greg and I am due to be married this year to a man I met at work while I lived with Joey. Joey ended up moving out of the apartment a few weeks after me. We have never gone back and actually ended up leaving stuff there. The only scary things that have happened after the move was us having very vivid nightmares and my godson asking me why I didn't want to play with the pretty girl at the apartment... We've never told Greg about the apartment so we have no idea how he knows about the girl...