A couple months ago, I managed to move out of my toxic relative’s house, and rented my own apartment. My own, quiet place, where I could be free from stress. However, as I’d later find out, I wasn’t that lucky after all.
When I first moved in, it was filled with crosses, paintings of God, Mother Mary, Baby Jesus… Dozens of stacked up icons and Orthodox bibles all over the shelves and walls, as if I had walked into a church. The place had no fridge, so I made an investment and purchased one. Whilst struggling to carry it to the 4th floor along with my partner, one of our neighbors stepped in to help. I invited him over for a chat and I came to find out, this place had a ton of tenants before me and my partner, unlike our landlords informed us. We were told that just an old doctor used to live here but shortly after, moved out, due to unspecified reasons.
It first started when we were sitting on the balcony for a smoke one night. I had dropped my lighter and turned my phone’s flashlight on to look for it. As we were searching, the light hit the glass balcony door. I saw many small handprints, seemingly from a young child. I do not remember seeing them whilst cleaning the windows and doors before, but I ultimately brushed it off. Then, we started hearing cats yowling very faintly through the walls, which we blamed on poor isolation due to the building being very old.
Many weird things occurred after, for instance having the constant feeling of being watched, the front door being unlocked even though we vividly remember locking it multiple times, experiencing unusual dreams almost every night, including voices calling out to me, asking me if I was afraid of them, faceless old men watching me from beyond the door frames, and the apartment giving an overall uneasy feeling, making us feel depressed and inducing bad luck during our daily lives. But none of this prepared me for what happened last night.
For a bit of context, a couple days ago I fractured my ankle, and I have to be bedridden for a while. I need help injecting myself with anticoagulants, as neither I nor my partner have any experience, so I called my grandma to help.
Last night I was having a particularly difficult time falling asleep. It was 2 or so in the morning. Our phones were charging on the nightstand on my side of the bed, and at one point my partner’s phone got a notification. With my eyes still closed, I feel my partner getting up, walking around the bed and stopping beside me. Shortly after, my phone dings as well. It threw off whatever sleepiness I felt, and just as I opened my eyes to mute them, there it was. I couldn’t quite make it out amongst the darkness, but as my eyes adjusted, I saw a tall and scrawny figure, staring down at me from the edge of the bed. I recall moonlight bouncing off its grey, bony, almost iridescent skin. It wasn’t there for long, though. Just enough for me to see it. Then, it was gone in the blink of an eye. I gasped in shock, which woke up my very confused partner, who was sleeping peacefully beside me all this time. I made him turn on the light, and explained everything to him. I honestly don’t know how I managed to fall asleep after that.
What’s weird is that it vaguely reminded me of my grandfather, who succumbed to dementia and leukemia back in 2017. If it really is him, we think he might’ve followed my grandma to us. We’ll be moving to another city as soon as I’m better, hopefully these encounters will stop.