I moved into my new apartment a few months ago, right towards the end of summer. This apartment is very typical, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, a kitchen which leads into a living room as well. This would be the first time living on my own, but I was confident. I knew when my rent was due, my budget for food and all that stuff.
I was sitting on my bed looking for jobs when I first heard it.
I heard my door creak open, and then close abruptly. As you could imagine I was very confused, but a couple of searches throughout my apartment let me calm down. A few minutes later it happened again, a slow creak and then a sudden slam as the door was shut. This time I was more annoyed than scared. I went through my apartment one more time and found nothing. After a little thought this was the explanation I came up with
The door to my bedroom has this broken latch, which is stuck, as if someone was constantly holding it open, which means that my doorknob is useless, and I can push and pull my door open. As I tend to shut my door often, this means that my bedroom can get pretty hot and the air becomes pretty stale. This means that I have my window open almost 24/7. This means that my door opening and closing is a result of the draft that comes through the window. The wind will push the door then get cut off, letting the weight of the door push it close. This began to happen so often that I didn’t even bat an eye to it.
A little while after I started my courses, I was up late studying for some of my first exams. It was particularly cold that night so I went and closed my window. From my position on the bed I didn’t have an immediate sight line on the door, and I would have to lean forward to get a good view on it. As I was reviewing the material that my professor had posted, I heard that all too familiar slow open and abrupt close. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and immediately I felt the sensation that I was being watched. I took a weary step towards the door and opened it, staring into the dark void that was my bathroom. I went through my entire apartment, and no window was open. In other words there was no way, no reason for that door to open like it normally did. There was no logical explanation.
Unless…
No, stuff like that isn’t real.
I went back to my bed and tried to get back on track with my work, but I couldn’t think straight. All I could think of was somebody hiding somewhere in my apartment just watching me. I thought to myself that there was no way I was sleeping in my apartment tonight, so I called up a bunch of people from school, or anybody in the area, to see if anybody had any room for me to sleep. But alas, they had no room for me, as most of them already had 3 college students in a 2 bedroom apartment. Totally pissed off, I looked towards the direction of my room, and shuddered. I ended up sleeping on the couch.
Nothing happened for a few weeks, and I had almost forgotten about it, if it weren’t for the door almost constantly drifting open and then slamming over and over.
One night at about 2am I shot awake suddenly. I had no nightmares, no bad dreams, nothing. I didn’t even feel tired. I was dead awake. I had closed the window before I went to sleep, because my apartment is right next to a train station, and the noise was unbearable.
I had sat there just listening in dead silence, the only noise was the blood pumping through my ears.
When I finally lay down. I heard the door creak open.
It didn’t close.
I leaned forwards to get a better view of the door, and I screamed.
Looking back we’re two eyes, equally bloodshot, as if this thing was just crying. Its pupils were as black as the darkness that had surrounded it.
I sat there, paralyzed.
I saw a hand, which looked like it was manifested from the darkness, resting on the door. The skin was wrinkled, and hung loose from the bone. Its fingers were long and thin, and its nails were like daggers attached to the end of its fingers. It rhythmically tapped its fingers on the wood, still staring. It’s eyes were upturned as if it were smiling at me, yet I did not see any mouth. I was beyond horrified. All I could do was watch as it waded into the room, moving awkwardly as if it had just grown these limbs and was just testing them out.
He came to a stop at the foot of my bed. It looked as if this figure had been built from wire, elongated beyond proportion. I could see his ribs poking through his skin, begging to be freed from his rib cage. He was almost as tall as my room, easily being over 10ft tall. He raised his impossibly thin arm and pointed at me. I heard one thing.
Leave
I didn’t have to be told twice. I bolted out of bed and ran past him towards my front door. It felt as though I ran for 100 meters, it felt like an eternity. That it was impossible to escape and I wasn’t moving. But i reached the front door. I swiftly grabbed my keys and sprinted out. Before I left I took one look back. And the figure seemed to be smiling, staring at me run away.
I quickly moved out after that, only returning during the day to pack my shit and leave. I found another apartment that was a bit more expensive but I was happy to pay whatever to get out of that place.
A few months after whilst I was working on an English essay, the news station that was on in the background caught my attention. “Recently, a landlord at the [redacted] apartment buildings has been arrested for the murder of 6 tenants over the course of 3 years. His most recent victim, Sadie Redfield, was reported missing 2 months ago, and when Sadie’s neighbours reported a foul stench coming from her apartment, room 163, two police officers showed up on the scene, and found the landlord cuddling with Sadie’s decapitated body.” The news showed an image of the landlord and his name, and my blood ran cold as I recognized the man as my own landlord.
Just then there was a knock on my door, I walked up to it and on the doormat was a box, I looked left and right down the corridor and saw no one. That’s weird, first of all I didn’t order anything, second there wasn’t a delivery guy outside, and third of all, how did someone get away so fast without causing any noise? I picked up the box and attached to it was a small post-it-note. ‘See you soon’ I opened the box and screamed. Inside the box were a bunch of photos of me sleeping and laying on my bed. All taken from that creaking door.