Our New Dorm Room

My roommate and I moved into our new dorm room this past year, excited that we were going to be living in a much smaller, quieter dorm from the year before. I should mention (since it will be relevant later on) that this new dorm used to be an office building, so our doors had tinted windows on the upper half (think the doors of a detective's office from old 40's films). We put up construction paper and a curtain over it for privacy and to block out light.

One weekend I was staying in our room alone because my roommate went home. It was about 11:45 pm, and I was getting ready for bed as usual. I locked the door, turned off the lights, and got into bed. Fifteen minutes later, I hadn't fallen asleep yet, and I heard our door being unlocked and opened. I felt as if someone was there in the room. I opened my eyes and sat up in bed, fully expecting to see my roommate opening the door. I was surprised to see it closed and not moving.

I got up to check the door, and it was locked just as I had left it. I opened the door, peered into the hallway, but saw no one. In our old dorm, I wouldn't have been surprised if a drunk person tried to get into our room thinking it was his/hers (because that had happened a few times), but our new dorm was always quiet and well-behaved. I just shook it off and went back to sleep.

A few days later, I was at my computer desk working on a paper while my roommate was in the shower. I heard the door knob rattle and turn like someone was trying to get in. Again, I had that feeling like someone (I thought my roomie) was standing in the doorway, so I turned around to say something to my roommate, but the door was completely closed like before. At this point I thought it was weird that this had happened to me twice. I decided not to tell my roommate about the door because I thought she would tell me I was crazy.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I had an early class at 8:00 in the morning. My roommate's first class wasn't until 11:00, so she was always asleep when I left and when I got back, usually around 9:30. About a week after the second door incident, I went to my early class at 8:00, but I did not go back to the room afterwards because I had a meeting with one of my professors. I got back to the room around 10:30, so my roommate had just woken up for her class.

She asked how my meeting went and I told her fine. Then, she asked me why I came back to the room at 9:00. I said that I hadn't been in the room since I left for my class and at 9:00 I was still in there. She replied, "Are you sure? Because I heard you unlock the door, come in, and get into bed. It woke me up and I asked you why class was out early, but when you didn't answer I just thought you were in a bad mood or something..."

My roommate wears one of those masks over her eyes at night, so when she asked that question to "me," she never actually saw me because she didn't take off the mask. I reassured her that I was definitely not in the room at all that morning. It was time to tell her about what I had heard the previous week. Neither of us knew how to explain it and were a bit freaked out at the whole situation.

Over the next few months, we continued to hear the noises from the door from time to time. Then, as we were both lying in bed one night going to sleep, I heard the door knob rattling and turning again. I opened my eyes to look at the door. I didn't see the door knob move, but I could see the curtain moving. The whole thing wasn't moving, just a part of it.

About half way up on the right hand side, there was a 2 inch area of the curtain that looked like it was being pushed in. The bottom of the curtain was perfectly still. I even got up to get a better look. I watched the curtain being pushed in and going back for about 45 minutes, and it just stopped suddenly. A week later the same exact thing happened again.

I decided to investigate the curtain and surrounding area to see what could have made it move. On the left side of the door was the wall of the closet and only a bookcase on the right - no heaters, air conditioners, or windows that could have made a breeze. I still decided to blow and wave my hand around the curtain from many angles to try to recreate what I saw before. No matter where I blew or waved my hand, I could only get the entire curtain to move.

Also, I could never get it to move in on itself, but only out and away from the door. I put my finger on the spot that I saw being moved before, and I pushed it in. I pushed it and let go a few times. It looked just like what I saw at night.

A month later it was finals week, and I was lying in bed studying a book. I was turned on my side facing the wall. My roommate was at the library. I was pretty engrossed in my book when I felt someone grab my shoulder. It sent a chill down my arm and up my neck. Since I was in my own little world, I figured that my roommate had come in without me knowing, but when I turned my head to look for her, there was no one. I could still feel my shoulder tingling from whatever I felt. I got such a weird, eerie vibe from my room that I ran to my RA's room next door.

At the end of the week we both moved out, and I still have no way of explaining what happened in that room. If something or someone was trying to get our attention, it did just that!