This story takes place back in my college days. Sophomore year to be specific. I had met my two friends Jin and Raquel in my freshman year in the underclassman dorm, as we all were in the same building. All three of us had been so thrilled when we had now that we had moved into the upperclassman dorms: better food, bigger common room, and we were all going to be neighbors. Jin and I would be roommates and Raquel scored the single directly across the hall. In addition to all that Jin and I had received a bonus perk: a lot more space! Somehow, we had lucked out big time. As it turns out, our room a long time ago belonged to the RA, but has since been converted to host regular students since the RA for our building now resided on the other side of the grassy quad.
While our dorm had the more or less same furniture as the other doubles: two beds, two desks and one mini fridge, there were a few bonus features exclusive to our dorm thanks to its history. Although the chimney to it had been sealed, we had a cute little fireplace, which Jin liked to use to display her paintings over the mantle and we would use the little cubby it formed to tuck away this and that. And unlike the other doubles in the building which were just one big room, our dorm split into 2 rooms that were separated by a proper door. This feature was a life saver, and made cohabitation a snap. It was no trouble even though our schedules rarely aligned: one of us would just work in the main room while the other caught up on their z’s in the bedroom. And best of all, while all the other double rooms were capped at two closets, we had a bonus third closet in the main room which at first we had decided to share. I was on a bit of a minimalist streak at the time, so Jin effectively became the sole user of the third closed. Even then, she mostly just stored her suitcase and old moving boxes in there, so the closet was only ever opened when a break was coming up.
It had been doozy of a fall semester, so we were all ready to head back to our homes for some well-deserved r & r. Because it was the winter break, the dorms would be officially closed up for the holiday meaning everyone was going home. My finals had wrapped up a little earlier than Jin and Raquel’s so I got to leave a day earlier than they did. After I had gotten home, I tried to remember what day Jin said she was coming back, but all I remembered was that it was sometime after I would return. So, I would have the room all to myself for a bit.
After one whirlwind of a winter vacation came and went, it was time for me to head on back to campus. I had arrived in the early evening on Friday. After a full day of running around the airport, I had lugged by bag up the 3 flights of stairs to my room, where I stopped, only to find myself staring at the door with my heart racing. This was my absolute least favorite part of vacations: walking back through your front door. Not only did it mean that your break was done, but I’ve always had this deep-seated fear that someone might have broken into the house and stolen something, or god forbid was still inside. What was even more unnerving this time was that since Jin had left after I did, I would have no way to know if anything had been out of place.
I braced myself as I unlocked the door. And when I saw Jin’s desk on the other side of the room my heart stopped because I thought my worst fears had come true. Her desk which was normally covered with papers and knick knacks was bare, and most of her paintings that normally were displayed proudly on the mantle and by the window were gone. I whipped my head around to look at my desk to see if the burglar had done the same with my belongings, only to be confronted with the immense pile of junk and notebooks on my desk, exactly as I had left it. A wave of relief had washed over me, and my pulse eventually returned to a healthy range as I walked around the room double and triple checking that none of my belongings had gone missing. I had assured myself that there was no way a thief passed through the room as my Nintendo DS and DVD collection, the two items with the most recognizable value, had been left entirely untouched.
I suspected that Jin must have done some very throughout cleaning and organizing before she left, because not only was her desk bare, but her bed had been completely stripped of sheets and the pillow was nowhere to be seen. I had assumed at the time she could have taken them with her back home, which would have been odd, but not entirely out of the question. By then, dinner was already being served so I made my way down to the dining hall. I had texted Raquel what time she would be getting back to campus, and to my delight it turns out she was already there. So, we headed to dinner together. We chatted about all the fun things that we had done over the break, and on what we should do while we wait for Jin to come back. It was around this point in the conversation that I mentioned how Jin’s bed had been stripped, which Raquel affirmed was very odd. But we decided not to dwell on it and decided we would go shopping early the next day, I had a bunch of coupons that were about to expire, after grabbing a quick brunch.
Before bed I had decided to ‘re-organize’ the piles of books on my desk, and then tried to settle in by doing some reading. But I couldn’t get my focus because my eyes kept drifting towards that empty bed beside me, my mind puzzling why the bed would be empty. Eventually all the hustle and bustle of the day sank in and I finally switched off the lights to go to bed. It took maybe two minutes after I had gotten into bed when I heard a thud, and then a cascade of books crashing to the floor. I lay there under the covers still as a statue, ears pricked and eyes glued to the door which I had closed out of habit. After waiting for 5… 10… 20 minutes there was not so much as a peep from the other room. I could have checked, but our mini fridge was notoriously noisy. Every night the fridge would always make some strange thunk, clang or whirring sound. It only would happen for a moment, and for whatever reason always seemed to be after I had gone to bed. As for the fallen books: I was not a good organizer, I had seen too many precarious piles of belongings come crashing down in broad daylight even if no one touched them. Eventually I had settled down enough to go sleep.
I had woken up early the next day, a little too early. It was only 7, and the dining halls never opened until 10 on the weekend. This was a normal occurrence for me, a die hard morning person. I investigated the main room, to which all I could find was the fallen books and no other sign of disturbance. I also checked my closet to make sure no one was hiding inside, and I found it was empty. I had considered opening the other 2, but every fiber in my body was telling me not to, and I wrote it off with the excuse of respecting Jin’s Privacy. After all, I was one tiny college student and the only one awake at this hour. If I uncovered something, I would be in far more danger than if I had left it alone. I tried to brush it off and pulled out my laptop to kill some time. On any other weekend I would have slapped on my thick soundproof headphones without a care and binged watched YouTube videos until I could get breakfast. But I couldn’t make myself be at ease in that dorm. I elected instead to use my old earbuds instead, only using one at a time with the volume set as low as it would go, my eyes constantly watched Jin’s closet and the door to the main room while I sat on my bed.
Ten AM came without incident, I met Raquel in the hall and we headed to brunch. After we inhaled our meal, we ran to the bus stop. If we had missed it now, we would have to wait a whole other hour before the next one would come. We made it with 3 minutes to spare. While we waited, I checked my purse to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything, but to my surprise I had forgotten the coupons. I quickly retraced my steps in my mind and remembered I left them on my desk in the dorm. I considered running back to go get them, after all the hall entrance was only about 20 feet from the bus stop. I could probably make it, but it would be cutting it close. Not only that, but I had this gnawing feeling in my gut, saying ‘don’t go up to the room’. Raquel checked the bus schedule and saw it was running late. That meant anywhere from a 5 to 15-minute delay. Time was not really a limiting factor anymore but again the intense instinct continued to insist that I stay away from my own dorm room, even though there was definitely nothing wrong with it. We ended up waiting for a total of 20 minutes before the bus came and left for the mall, without the coupons. Either way, we had a great time. In total we had been out of the dorm for about three hours.
We had returned and decided to nap and relax in our own rooms until dinner. When I opened my door again, I found the door to the third closet sitting wide open. Other than a few folded up boxes, it was totally empty. And to my surprise, when I ran back into the bedroom, Jin’s bed had magically been completely made. All the sheets and pillow back in their place. The covers slightly ruffled and thrown back as if someone had just been lying down for a nap. While one part of my brain thought Jin must be back, another part of me grew more suspicious. I worked up my nerve, again checking my closet and finally opening Jin’s, both now cleared of suspicion. Some part of me wanted to believe that Jin had in fact returned. After all, she usually was out of the house until 8 or 9 PM anyway, even on weekends. So, I waited until dinner time. After eating with Raquel, we decided to hang out in my dorm until Jin returned so we could spend some time together. And so, we waited. At 7, there was no sign of her. At 8, there was no sign of her. By 9 o’clock, Raquel decided to text her to finally ask where she was, and if she was on campus. To our horror, she replied that she wouldn’t be back for a few more days. She had been hundreds of miles away the whole time.
Every thought, every emotion left my body. Raquel was screaming and raving about how it was possible. I replied flatly that I had no idea. I asked her what I should do, and she suggested we call the RA. I quickly made the call and tried to explain the situation as best I could. The RA told me that I should call the police, and asked if I wanted her to be there when I did. To which I said yes eagerly. She arrived more swiftly than I had expected, even if it was her job to be available for such emergencies. The call with the campus police had been brief, at the mention of the break in they told us to wait while they dispatched the officers. While Raquel paced nervously, I sat patiently at my desk. 15 minutes later 2 officers had arrived. With one look at me, stone faced, and a look at Raquel, actively shaking, they turned towards Raquel and asked her to explain what happened. To which she corrected them that she was just the friend from across the hall. The officers looked skeptical, and their confusion only grew as I recounted what had happened earlier that day, namely the re-appearance of the sheets and the opening of the closet. I made no mention of the sounds I heard the night before as I had no evidence there was a connection. The officers questioned if I might have been miss-remembering, but Raquel was quick to support me, as we had discussed the missing sheets the day prior.
The police were quite stumped as to how the culprit could have accessed the room, as practically every plausible theory was shot down. Did Jin forget to lock the door? No, it locked automatically whenever you left the room. Did we lose a duplicate key somewhere? No, I had never made a duplicate and I trust Jin when she said she never had either. Did they climb through our window? Unlikely, as they have locks that neither Jin nor I have ever unlatched while we stayed there. Plus it was a 3 floor vertical climb to get up there. A staff member would have the keys, but no motive that easily explains what happened. Regardless, the locks needed to be changed, but it would take two days before it could be done, so for two nights I slept on the floor of Raquel’s room. Every time I went back into my room for something, I did a check of every hiding spot just in case until the locks were changed.
And in the end, nothing else really became of that incident. But for those 24 hours, I my greatest fear had become a reality: that while I was away someone had broken into my home and was in all likelihood hiding in my closet.