An Apartment with a Secret

After my divorce from my husband, I rented a one-room studio apartment. While moving my things in, I noticed some markings—triangular ones on the ceiling, round ones on the floor. Ignoring them, I tore them off and threw them away.

At night, I heard various noises and rustling sounds in that apartment. For a while, I attributed them to the nervous shock of that period. But one night, I was awakened by the sound of breaking glass. I checked all the windows—nothing. Entering the bathroom, I saw a shattered mirror on the floor, but both the screw and the frame were intact...

The next episode wasn't long in coming. That afternoon, I received a call from the company located below my apartment, saying I was flooding them. When I ran home from work, I discovered the kitchen faucet was running full blast, and water was already flowing from the kitchen into the living room and hallway. Meanwhile, the apartment was filled with a very strong odor, and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. After turning off the faucet and cleaning the kitchen, I went into the living room and began scrubbing the carpet with the edge of a broom. The smell was much stronger there. I pulled the carpet away from the baseboard and saw a large, dark red (almost brown) stain—the source of that disgusting odor. The entire floor beneath the carpet was covered in spreading white chalk stains.

For a couple of weeks, I, a devout atheist, slept with the light on. Then, little by little, I returned to normal. When friends came over, I told them about the incidents in the apartment. However, they probably dismissed it as the figment of a lonely, stressed-out young woman's imagination.

The last inexplicable incident occurred at night. My recently married boyfriend was spending the night in the apartment. When I woke up, I heard a rustling sound in the trash can next to the refrigerator. The sound was sharp, as there was thick cellophane on top. I didn't have any mice, but the rustling was too loud for a cockroach—the creature was clearly quite large. I woke my boyfriend. He listened, then ran to the can, turning on the light as he went. There was no one in the can, although the creature clearly couldn't have gotten very far in a matter of moments. Clean, empty, and quiet...

The next day, we started looking for a new apartment. Soon after, we moved out of the "apartment with a secret."