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New Apartment Adventures

 

Now that I got the old apartment out of the way, it's time for the events in my current apartment. Just under 2 years ago, we moved from the old building to another old building less than a mile away (same zip code). My end of town is old as I somewhat explained before; the Oceanview section of Norfolk, VA. Many places down here are 50-100+ years old (or older), the area is full of history, some of it dark and unsettling.

From the very first second I walked into the new place, I knew it was an old school. It's a solid concrete and brick structure that you can tell the original building had been added to at some later date, increasing it to 3 floors. Later I found out, yes in fact is was the Old Oceanview Elementary that had been replaced sometime in the 1940's with a new building a mile down the street. Since the beginning, I knew something "else" was in the building. Living in so many paranormally enhanced places makes you attuned to the stuff after awhile.

Within the first week of moving in, I sat alone in the living room and heard the sound of children laughing. Not normally am alarming thing, but it came from directly in front of me, in the middle of my living room. I still am not sure if it was from outside, upstairs or what, but it was slightly disturbing. A friend who visited shortly after also reported she felt a hand grab her hand as she walked into the apt, she said it felt small, like a child's.

A few months later, I was home alone again, but getting ready to head out. Allow me to give you a bit of a layout. The apt is laid out in an H shape, with a long living room space, which leads through an archway into the kitchen-hallway area. That narrows down to a hallway with a pantry on the left and the bathroom on the right just before the bedroom door. The bedroom, 12x14, is isolated from the rest of the place. You cannot hear anyone knocking on the front door from the bedroom. The building is made of brick, concrete, with plaster walls and a wooden raised floor. Technically the ground floor is below ground level.

I was in the bathroom, just getting out of the shower. I had the bathroom door wide open, it blocks the hallway otherwise, and in the kitchen-hall section was a large dresser with a 45 gallon fish tank. In the reflection of the tank you could see into the kitchen. As I flipped my head down to wrap my hair, I looked into the fish tank and saw a tall male standing in the kitchen. I quickly stood up and ran out, checking the kitchen, but no one but the cat and myself in the apartment. I went back to the bathroom to see if I could figure it out, but I never could and never again saw the figure standing in the kitchen like that.

Several more months later, my boyfriend, myself and the cat were in the living area end of the apt. All the lights were off in the other end and everybody, including the cat, was off the floor, sitting down. Suddenly I heard a noise from the other end of the apt like the sound of a foot dragging across the carpeted floor. Very recognizable. I looked at my boyfriend who was looking at me - neither of us knew what made that sound. The cat acted off all evening, following us closely and refusing to stay in a room by herself.

Two days later, the sound repeated but this time we; BF, myself and cat, were in the bedroom and off the floor and the other end of the apt was dark and sealed up. Again the foot scraping the carpet sound, as clear as day. We haven't heard this sound again and never found a explanation for it.

About this time we started leaving a light on in the front part of the apt at night (we are both grown adults, 27 and 31) but something gave us the creeps: the archway leading between the two sections of the apt. If you sat in the bedroom and the living room was dark, you will get completely un-nerved looking into the darkness of the archway. My boyfriend, several friends, and myself all felt this. If you sat in the living room and looked into the darkened hallway-bedroom, you don't feel anything. Also at this time, my boyfriend and myself started getting strange "I'm not alone" feelings if you were in the bedroom, but alone in the house. Several times I would get up and go looking into the living room to see if my boyfriend had come home, only to find the place locked up and empty. I swore it felt like another person had come into the house and as you can't hear the front room from the bedroom, I really did think he had. He later told me he had the same experiences if he was home alone.

A few more major creepy events. First, as I explained before, if the bathroom door is open, but not wide open, it blocks the hallway. One night my boyfriend was using the loo and I was in the bedroom with my cat, watching TV. I got up, turned off the TV and left the room, closing the bathroom door just enough to get by. My cat was right on my heels (Yes, she often follows me just like a dog would). We sat down and started watching TV in the living room. A few minutes later my boyfriend joins us and asked me if I passed by twice. "No, why?" He stated that just before I walked by the door, out of the corner of his eye he saw a pale female leg pass by the door. I told him that I would have had to move the door to pass, plus the cat was with me and if I passed twice, he would have seen me 3 times, not just twice. He doesn't know what he saw that night.

The very next night, he was in the bathroom shaving and I was standing the in the hallway, with the door open, blocking the hallway. I was talking to him and out of the corner of the my eye, I saw a pale white, sharp clawed female hand wrap around the doorknob then pull back around. I stopped in mid-word and the boyfriend asked what I saw. I told him and he looked past the door - nothing there.

The last straw was the dreams I started having of a young male, white between 20-23, dressed in military fatigues, who was fighting with a woman in the apt. Something happened and he ended up hanging himself on the steam pipe (8" pipe that runs through the entire apt) in the bathtub. I started seeing a green military style belt hanging off the pipe in the bathroom, out of the corner of my eye. It upset me greatly and did start affecting my mental health. Finally one last violent dream promoted me into doing a full-blown ritual cleansing on the apt.

Afterwards, the place felt better and most of the major weirdness stopped: no sounds, no shadows or shapes, no dreams of that man, and no major creepy feeling from the archway. BUT... Within the last few months has some strange things have started up again. Mainly misty or white shapes out of the corner of my eyes (my boyfriend has told me he swore he saw someone walk through the living room while home alone one morning recently), but also the uneasiness from the archway again. I guess it's time for another cleansing.

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The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, lazria, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

lazria (9 stories) (82 posts)
 
15 years ago (2008-11-19)
just an upate on the building: I did talk to the person who said they lived in the building - they were my upstairs neighbors for a time. It was nice to know that I'm not crazy as she and her friend had also seen some of the things I have. For the most part, nothing major or scary has returned. Sometimes the white shadows (out of the corner of one's eyes) come around, but nothing truely bad. I've had a couple of "feelings" that I think are attached to the miltary man I've seen the in apt, but I keep a cleasing on the place (6 months or so) and have hung windchimes which seems to help. Random non-scary stuff still occurs, feeling like someone came into the living room while in teh bedroom, odd random noises, and very great once and awhile the "terror of the archway" tries creeping back. The worst is this dang smell - like stangant standing water - that comes and goes, nothing gets rid of it, but there may be a logical explation. Since the ground floor is about 2-3 feet Lower (like a basement), they have built a raised floor for the 1st floor apt. Water could very well be pooling underneath accounting for this smell (LL said they did find SEVERAL large leaks in the buildings)

I recently had to do a smugging becasue they have done MORE rehab work on the place - which does seem to stir up things and other people kept asking me "what's up with the place" - ie, they feel creeped out. I did find alittle more history on the place - it has been several things during it's lifetime: a school, sometype of Veterans hospital and I've heard stories of a mental hosptial before that. So far I'm happy with the place and more than willing to clease the place to chase off the nasty stuff. Thanks all of you:)
marchtwolove (1 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-03-03)
hi lazria

i stay that these apartments, if you could email me and we could talk that would be great. I have loads of questions to ask...
marchtwolove [at] yahoo.comthanks

-amber
NightMaiden (6 stories) (21 posts)
 
16 years ago (2008-01-11)
Ahhh...creepy! 😭 how can you stand it?! I would have run out, I am such a scaredy cat. Whenever something happens I rush to another floor of the house to be with someone. 😆 That must have certainly disturbed you... Did you ask anyone if something related to the military or a war had happened with that building? Why was the school abandoned/built over? Sorry, I'm a bit inquisitive. 😊 Please please don't be worried. At the height of the moment all humans get scared out of their skins at some point when they've had enough.

Good luck with your house!
Ohiowatha (11 stories) (415 posts)
 
16 years ago (2007-12-03)
Wow, supercool account. Great detail and expression. I really get a total-feel understanding of this one. What did you mean by "white clawed?" --that she had actual claws or just long nails? Just curious. Creepy!

Thanks.
whitebuffalo (guest)
 
16 years ago (2007-12-01)
Nice one FRAWIN 😉 Ajax 😊
I'm going with Bellissima on this one. All of the evidence seems to point to the land or building, but there is still the possibility of the ex having done something in your presence, or with the use of one of your personal effects to have caused a "bonding of your soul with that of old". Do, please, when and if you do a second cleansing of this new place, do make sure to cleanse yourself also. Sometimes we think we are safe because our space is clean, when we ourselves apparently have a velcro-ed SOMETHING with or on us. Thank you for sharing this story.
KimSouthO (27 stories) (1960 posts)
 
16 years ago (2007-11-29)
Well, that is absolutely frightening! Thank you for sharing! I would agree with perhaps having a cleansing for ou and not just the place/ Also, place crosses in each of the rooms. If within your belifs, wearing a cross may be very helpful considering what you are going through!
keep us posted!

God Bless! 😁
Bellissima (12 stories) (792 posts)
 
16 years ago (2007-11-28)
Hi, lazria. Thanks for replying and for sharing some of the history that you've found out. I hate the thought that something is following you, and I might be way off on this, but I sort of think if it was to do with you, then the activities taking place would be of a more personal nature. The children and fact of the army base being so close suggest to me that the events you've described are connected to the building or land. Maybe you are simply more open and accepting of these types of things or, (shudder) something the old boyfriend has somehow done around or to you causes you to have opened yourself up. Another thing that makes me think you're not the cause, or that nothing is specifically attached to you, is that your boyfriend has seen and felt things too. The events seem to be harmless, although scary, as if whatever it is just stays around the place. This is certainly a story that's worth giving some serious thought to. I hope we've been some kind of help or have given you something to go on. Could you please keep us updated on any new developments?
lazria (9 stories) (82 posts)
 
16 years ago (2007-11-28)
Frawin, Belli, Annie - that thought, that something is attached to me, has occured to me as well. I've done several things over the years, but I'm not 100% what's going on and what to do to correct it. It's a bit more personal than I simiply want to type out here, but I'd be willing to discuss it via email.

A wee bit of background on the building/area - the east coast's largest naval base is less than. 5 mile away from the building. Many military people do live around this area, going back 50+ years.
Annie (202 posts)
 
16 years ago (2007-11-27)
Bell's right. Except for the sound of children's laughter, this sounds like something that happened before the school was built. I'd do some investigating. Find out what was there before. Frawin also made a very good point. It could be something that you brought over with you from your old apartment, complements of your OLD boyfriend.
I got a good chuckle over your Ajax reference, Frawin! 😆
Bellissima (12 stories) (792 posts)
 
16 years ago (2007-11-27)
Hi, lazria. Thanks for sharing your story, it's definitely a creepy one. Have you done any research on the history of the building? Maybe even before the schoolhouse was there, you could find out what had been on the land. It seems like there are a few different types of things going on there. The first things you noted seem to be somehow related to children as could some of the feelings of not being alone. The other things seem to have an underlying darkness associated with them, the figure of the man, the claw-like woman's hand and your terrible nightmares involving the military man and woman fighting. They sound like tragic events that you wouldn't associate with a school or children. It may help you figure out what you're up against if you can find the history. It would be a good idea to try another cleansing or a smudging ceremony.
FRAWIN (guest)
 
16 years ago (2007-11-26)
Hi lazria,
I thanks for sharing your story, it was an interesting one. Here`s something yo think about, the next house cleansing you do make sure you cleanse yourself before re-entering. I went and re-read your other story and it occured to me that you may be the source of the haunting because both haunting seem to start up very similar. Your ex, the one that dabbled, may have put something on you that will take more than ajax to take off.

Be Safe and God Bless

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