A few months ago I moved out of my parents, I managed to find this beautiful apartment complex for shockingly cheap in my area and jumped at the opportunity. the neighbours were quiet (and kind), the building itself was relatively central so I could easily walk to and from. Everything was great.
Then the cat started.
It was a couple weeks after I moved in, I have insomnia so I usually stay up late just scrolling through Twitter, watching YouTube or something along those lines. This all to say I was up late, nothing out of the ordinary when I started to hear meowing? Like the kind of endless meowing of like a cat in heat, which is strange because I don’t own a cat.
I shrug it off and assume it’s just coming from outside my window, might make fallen asleep a little annoying but eh, it’s whatever.
The next day I ran into one my neighbours and asked if they heard any animals outside last night?
According to them it was dead quiet all night, okay, bit weirder but it was late they were probably just asleep or something, again. I shrug it off.
Then it happens AGAIN the next night, it sounded harsher this time, angrier. My window was closed this time but it was louder than last time, that’s when the scratching began, something was scratching at my door. I live alone, with no pets, needless to say I was a little freaked out.
I didn’t sleep that night, my heart was in my throat and I couldn’t tell you why, I mean it’s just a cat right? Maybe I left my door cracked by mistake or it made a hole in one of my window screens and crawled in. But no, I was in a panicked sweat until morning, I don’t know when it stopped, I think I might have fallen asleep? I’m not entirely sure.
I checked my door the next morning to find the bottom scratched to hell and back and I easily spent the next full day throwing my house upside down to find nothing, no cat, no dog, no raccoon, no animal at all. My door was locked and all my windows were shut as well, needless to say I was a little concerned and very creeped out.
This continued for a week, sometimes it sounded angry, sometimes loud sometimes quiet but the scratching was always there and I could never muster up the courage to actually stand up and go see what the hell it was.
But I had an idea.
Fed up with this I decided if I can’t work up the balls to open my door and just SEE what was on the other side I could at least get a glimpse. So I duct taped my phone (shut up) to the wall outside my door, left it on selfie record and kept the light in my hallway on for the night, if I could catch whatever the hell it was then I’d have at least something to go on if I had to call animal control because my door was looking mighty ugly as this point.
Again, the meowing and scratching continued and I was glued to my bed, if you’ve ever suffered from sleep paralysis or had a night terror those are the closest feelings I can describe to what I was having, I wanted to jump up and run to my door, tear it open and throttle whatever shit-bird was on the other side, bad enough I’d most likely have to replace my damn door before I moved out but I’d lost a week of sleep and it was starting to get annoying, but I couldn’t.
I couldn’t yell, I couldn’t raise my arms, I just lay there, staring at my wall. Hoping for sleep to take me, it didn’t. The meowing and scratching went on for what felt like an eternity but I suspect was probably just an hour or two before a screeching cry came from my door and it began to rattle like someone was banging on it trying to pry it open, this snapped me out of my stupor and I rushed over and slammed myself into the door, whatever the fuck was on the other side I did NOT want to open the door to see anymore.
I sat there all night, at one point I think it tried to turn the door knob but outside of some rattling it didn’t move, I didn’t sleep. Its screeching kept up the whole night and when the sun finally came up and it stopped I opened the door only to find my phone smashed to bits.
I think it knew I was recording it and freaked out.
Now, a sane person might move out, they might run screaming from this apartment never to be seen in its area ever again, I am not that person.
This is my first apartment and I’m not going to take the nagging from my Dad about how I got so homesick I made up an excuse just to come home, no.
Instead, I bought a bolt. And I installed that bolt, onto my bedroom door. Alongside about 6 other locks, I also borrowed an old hardwood door from my parents saying I liked how it looked and wanted it for my bedroom.
That was a couple weeks back at this point, it still happens every night, not as aggressive as when I tried to record it but certainly not as calm as it was before, it’s gotten to a point where I’m able to just sleep through it if it’s a calm night, I’m also glad I got those locks as I think it’s tried the door knob every other night and it might’ve gotten in if I hadn’t.
As for the phone? I wasn’t able to salvage much, I got a lot of data out but all my camera roll was corrupted, I managed to recover maybe a half dozen pictures and a measly 30 seconds of staticy hard to see footage and whatever I saw on that footage wasn’t a person and it definitely wasn’t an animal.
I know I should move out, call the cops, animal control, an exorcist, anyone.
But I don’t want to, whatever’s trying to get in my room, it’s not around during the day and I’m just not going to take the risk of being outside my room after dusk.
Most importantly, this is something new, and I want to know what exactly IT is, I have some plans to try and record it and document it, obviously cameras won’t work if it was smart enough to know my phone was recording it, maybe I’ll get some nanny cams. I saw Paranormal Activity last night so maybe I’ll try that sugar method.
At first I was scared.
Now I’m intrigued.
Goodnight folks, and stay safe.