My boyfriend and I moved into this apartment just outside the city about two months ago. It’s nothing to write home about- the building is over a hundred years old, no elevator and the roofing in the hallways is peeling off more and more every day. The unit itself is updated and modern and the rent was reasonable, so we figured it would be just fine. It’s on a main road with everything we need and a subway station within walking distance. Plus it allowed pets so I could have my dog. All good things.
When we first moved in, I didn’t spend much time at the apartment during the day because my schedule was pretty jam-packed. My boyfriend was waiting to start a new job, so he was home quite a bit. He kept telling me over and over that he thought our apartment was haunted but I never got that vibe. I used to work in a psychiatric facility that was chock-full of ghosts, so I’ve seen my fair share of shadows and heard disembodied voices on numerous occasions. This did not feel like a haunted place.
So when weird things started happening, I naturally brushed them off with logic. We were in an apartment building with other people in their own units, so knocks and bangs were expected. When stuff started falling off shelves and counters, I attributed it to the uneven floor. The TV going haywire? Must just be the cables or connection. We just moved in, the TV needs time to adapt too I suppose. The curtains in the shower moving on their own must just be from a draft, even though the windows are sealed shut since we are on the top floor.
A couple weeks in, I would randomly feel something touch the back of my head. The first time it happened, I was laying on my side in the bedroom. I figured it was a pillow or some other thing in the bed, even though I was laying on top of the covers completely still except for my fingers which were scrolling my phone. The second time it happened, I was standing in the kitchen filling up a glass of iced tea. This time, it must’ve been a bug. The third time I felt a tap on the back of my head, I was sitting on my sofa, as I am now, trying to get the TV to listen to the remote. I brushed it off. No use in upsetting myself.
Then came the problems with my dog. I was sitting on the couch with him one evening while my boyfriend was out with some friends. My dog suddenly shot up and began staring at the corner of the ceiling in the living room, towards where the bathroom is. After a few seconds, he started to lowly growl at the ceiling. I tried to nudge him to get his focus off that area, but he would not budge. He just kept growling at the ceiling. I was getting more freaked out, so I distracted him with some treats, and he stopped. I took a video of my dog doing this and sent it to a friend, who suggested that there may be mice, or a bird could have landed on the roof and set him off. Although I still didn’t feel right because my dog had never done that before and definitely was not prone to growling, I kept brushing it off as just that. Something he could hear but I couldn’t.
Another day, I came home early in the afternoon. I was startled when I heard someone call from the living room, saying, “Oh, hello!” My boyfriend had just started his new job, I was not expecting him to be home. I called back out “Oh, hey, I’m home early.” At this point, I also noticed my dog had not run up to greet me. As I was taking my shoes off, I asked, “Where’s Max?” My boyfriend did not answer, I figured he had his headset on as he does when he is gaming. I walked through the living room doorway expecting my boyfriend to be sitting on the couch, but no one was there. Next I checked the bedroom- no one. The bathroom- empty. No one was in my apartment. I found my dog hiding under the bed, something he only does during thunderstorms or when a neighbor is setting off fireworks. But it was a sunny afternoon, why was my dog hiding under the bed?
I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and searched my apartment, but I found no one. I called my boyfriend at work to tell him what happened and asked him to come home as soon as possible. When he got home, he rechecked the apartment and also found nothing (it’s not a huge apartment, so it would be hard to miss a person hiding). We debated calling the police, but it seemed there was no point. Maybe this time I could’ve attributed it to another unit or people talking down on the street. But that did not feel right. The voice was so clear and sounded so close.
To give some context, I did not know the person who had rented the unit before me which I’d say is normal. Her mail was in our unit’s mailbox when we first moved in. I took note of her name, “Taylor White,” and the fact that her mail had a forwarding address handwritten on it. I did not think to remember the exact address, but saw that the forwarding address was to a small town maybe two hours away from the city. I could have been nosy and looked her up just for fun, but I was so busy with other things that I did not have time to bother. The mail sat in our mailbox for a while, until I ran into the mailman one day and convinced him to take it with him.
I met the two other neighbors on my floor sporadically. At first, it was just in passing and exchanging names and pleasantries. I asked them to let us know if we are ever being too loud or maybe if our dog is barking too much because we want to be good neighbors. The man that lived next to us, Josh, commented that we were fine so far. He explained that the walls between apartments are pretty thick since it’s an old building, so the only time he ever hears anyone else is when he is walking in the hallway. I agreed that I had noticed that as well, but just wanted to be curious.
We ran into Josh in the hallway one day, and he asked about a video game he heard us playing the night before. At first, we were apologetic, though Josh was only asking because he too enjoyed that game. We invited him over for some beers and video games the next night. Out of pure curiosity, I asked Josh if he was also friendly with the previous tenant. He explained that he would see her in passing, but that she seemed quiet and reserved so they never had a conversation passed, “Hello, how are you doing today?”
But Josh did have a weird anecdote he wanted to share. He said that the previous tenant had moved out suddenly and in the middle of the night. He only knew this because the movers had woken him up at midnight as they were carrying her things out, which he thought was odd. He had come out and asked them to be quieter, for which they apologized and agreed that they would try to keep it down. After that, he noticed that there were eviction notices on her doorway, so his conclusion is that she up and left and stopped paying her rent. “I don’t know what Emma did with her life, we never talked about it, but maybe she was in trouble,” he said. That caught me off guard. “Emma?” I asked. The mail in our mailbox was addressed to Taylor. But Josh knew her as Emma. I was starting to have a lot of questions about this place.
Here comes the kicker. Our bathtub started clogging almost as soon as we moved in. We were going through draino faster than is normal. Sometimes, if we showered for too long a rotten stench would come up from the drain. We decided to bite the bullet and hire a professional to snake the drain, thinking that there must be a really bad clog in there. So he comes, and my boyfriend and I sit out on the couch while he does his business. Whatever was in there was probably super gross, and I had no intentions of seeing it.
“You guys might want to see this,” I heard him call out. At first, we protested. No one wants to see the gross crap in their drains. “No, seriously,” he said. “You need to see this.”
I volunteered my boyfriend because I knew I would not be able to stomach it. I heard a round of explicative words coming from him next. They murmured between themselves and eventually my boyfriend rejoined me on the couch. “I think he just found bones in our drain.”
My ears started to ring as I could feel my body go cold. A lump started to form in my throat and I thought I might throw up. Against better judgement, I went to see what the plumber had found. Amid wet, matted clumps of hair were solid white pieces of something. I stumbled out of the bathroom, afraid I would pass out. My boyfriend and the plumber agreed it was best to call the police. They came and took the grotesque mess of hair and bones away, noting that while it did look like human remains, they would need to run tests to confirm.
Now I am just waiting for the results, waiting for the call, waiting for what will happen next. I’ve thought about moving out, finding a hotel room or something, but money is tight. We can’t afford to break the lease and certainly not stay in a hotel for an extended amount of time. A thought runs through my mind- where is the rest of the body? Images of a corpse sitting in the walls constantly play in my head. It’s almost as though I can feel someone over my shoulder now, watching me from wherever their bones may rest. Someone tapping me on the back of my head, trying to get my attention. Crying out for me to find them- hidden in my apartment.