I have been living in my apartment now for about a year now. It will be a year 9/15/08.) The apartment has a lot of history! I still have some more research to do. My apartment sits on top of an electronics workshop, the business repairs stereos, speakers, electric pianos etc. Before it was an apartment/ workshop, it was a movie rental place. Before it was a movie rental business it was a movie theatre.
This apartment I live in is about 5 houses down from the house I grew up in (the previously haunted house I wrote most of my stories about). When I was a little girl, my friend and I were always afraid of going near that apartment (my home now). People would only stay there for about a year, and then move.
Once there were three boys that lived there. They were me and my friend's age (about 11 years old). Two of the boys were twins our age and the other boy was a year older than us. The boys would always tell us stories about the apartment. They would claim it to be haunted. We girls would get super scared. That year around Halloween, the boys turned their basement into "a haunted house..." It was so scary.
We entered it through the basement and would go around and in the dark. The boys would lead us around. There was an antique pop machine in the basement in the very back. We all stopped and stared at it. The boys said, "Where did this come from?" Then suddenly, we heard a scratchy man's voice say "hey!"
Then we all ran, including the boys. We girls thought it was part of them trying to scare us, but the boys were even more scared than we were. They claimed that they didn't plan that. Well, I say it could have been someone down there trying to scare us or it may have been a ghost. Who knows?
Fast forward eight years later. Winter 2006/2007 I was hired at this customer service call center about 30 minutes away from home, that is far away for a city girl; we aren't use to traveling more than 15 minutes to get somewhere in a car. I needed a job really bad at the time since I was tired of being a stay at home mom (it gets really boring and lonely).
It was the first day and I had orientation. I never thought that I would run into my old neighbor. This was a man that lived in the apartment for about a year sometime when I was about 13 or so. He was a rock & roll kind of dude. He was always sitting outside on his stoop shirtless, and wore destroyed jeans. He had long curly dark hair and he bobbed his head when we walked. He was a really cool guy.
This was a man that we called "the banana car man..." He owned a banana yellow, Cadillac (it was a make from the 70's; not sure what year). He was so different now though. He looked much older and his face had accumulated quite a few wrinkles. He was going bald and his swagger wasn't the same. He was old now.
We sat at the table during orientation and he kept saying, "I know you from somewhere..." (Keep in mind that last time he saw me I was a little girl; now I was a young woman with a baby). I agreed that I also knew him from somewhere. Then it hit me!
I said "Didn't you live on Milentz; in the old movie theatre?" He said yeah and then asked if I was that gangster's little sister. (My brother Salvador was a Mexican cholo, thug, gangster, what ever you want to call it).
I answered, "Yeah that is me..." He said," Man that place I lived in was haunted..."
He continued to tell me stories about the haunted apartment. He said one afternoon his son was taking a nap in his room (now my daughter's room) and he and his wife were sleeping in their room (now my room). He and his wife woke up to a loud thump and his son's crying. They ran to his room to find him on the completely other side of the room; opposite from where his bed was (about 10 feet away from his bed).
They asked him what happened. They then noticed that his wrist was broken. They rushed him to the ER. On the way he asked his son what happened once again. The son said that man picked him up and then dropped him. He also told me that at night he would here heavy footsteps walking up and down the hall.
The banana car man then told me something that really froze me in terror. He told me that the Southside rapist use to live in that same apartment years before he did. He really creeped me out with his story. Fast forward a year later.
I was apartment hunting when my father mentioned that the apartment on top of the electronics shop was for rent. I didn't find much interest in it, because I thought that I could find something better (I had totally forgotten about the banana car man's stories). He begged me to at least take a look at it. I agreed, and soon after I found myself in love with the apartment. I said, "I would absolutely love to live here!" The place was beautiful. It's one of those, "Don't judge a book by its cover" kind of deals. It was so ugly from the outside, but as soon as you walk through the door you are greeted with beautiful hardwood floors. The ceilings were high and the layout was perfect. The place was super big and the rent was only $550 a month. I moved in.
My first night there I was lying in bed thinking. I then remembered that this is the same apartment that the banana car man was telling me about. I was so afraid and couldn't sleep for the first month I lived there. Every night, I had a dream about a man, with big boots. He would rush through my bedroom door and grab me. Then, I would wake up. This happened every night.
After nothing every really scary happened, I stopped thinking about all of the stories the man told me. A few months later, I was using the bathroom and I was on the phone with my brother (he lives down the street). It was about eleven p.m. I was bored and had no one else to talk to. My daughter was at her father's that weekend. We were just talking of random things and making jokes.
Suddenly, I heard very heavy footsteps walk past the bathroom door. I whispered, "Oh my god Salvador, I think someone just broke in. I here a man's footsteps!"
Then he yelled that he was on his way and hung up. Not even 10 seconds later I hear someone banging at my front door. I had kept myself locked in the bathroom (I was a single young lady living at home). I then realized that my front door was still locked. I didn't know if I should go unlock it. Then I remembered the stories the man told me.
So, I thought, "I would rather take my chances and unlock the door before my brother knocked it down do to a darn ghost..." I poked my head out the bathroom door, looked right then looked left. I took my chance and sprinted down the hallway, then down the steps to my front door.
I said, "Never mind, there's no one here..." He demanded to let him in so that he can make sure. He barged through the door, ran upstairs, and checked everywhere. He looked in all the closets, under the beds and behind the furniture in the living room. He laughed, called me an idiot, then left. I didn't want to tell him that I was scared of a potential haunting. I let him leave and I sat in my living room confused and very afraid. I stayed up all night with all of the lights on and the TV on high volume.
Every night I sleep with the baby monitor on. I have one of those baby monitors with a screen on my end of the monitor that picks up the video monitor in my daughter's room. The camera is facing her bed so that I can watch her sleep. Most nights I have to go check on her because of the sounds I hear on the monitor. It sounds like someone breathing heavily. I know it is not my daughter, because it sounds like a man's breathing. Sometimes I hear shuffling around in her room, when she isn't moving (I watch her on the video monitor).
It is very hard for me to go check since I am very afraid, but I do for my baby's safety. As soon as I go into her room, it is silent. Then I return to my room and proceed to listen. It stays silent for a few minutes, and then it starts again with the shuffling. I do not have bugs or rodents living in my apartment. I want to conclude that all of this can be explained logically, but more things happen. I will be lying in my bed then I will hear things shifting around in my kitchen and dining room. I never really hear anything in the living room. Items in the house go missing and I will find them later where I thought I had left them.
My daughter is 2 years old and she can talk really well. Currently, she begs me not to close her door at night. I asked her why and she said she is scared of the monster. I can't get much more than that. I am worried, but if there is something paranormal going on, it hasn't hurt us at all. I know my daughter is scared of something though. I still hear the heavy footsteps. Sometimes I can see something moving in the dark, but I'm not sure if it is my eyes playing tricks on me.
One time I was sitting in my dining room reading a book, and then suddenly I heard someone yell really loud in my left ear. It was a man's voice just yelling, "AHHHHH..." It was a mad yell, and not a scared yell. That scared me so much that I left my apartment right away.
I am really afraid to do my paranormal investigation in my home, play with an Ouija board, or do any kind of EVP research. I am afraid of finding out that something really is haunting our home. If you read my previous story "Nayo", then you know I kind of believe that my cousin watches over me and my daughter. I just don't know what this could be. This time I really do need help and advice. Please comment.
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