Many many years ago before kids rescue animals a mortgage and a husband I was a travel writer in Europe I did most of my trips alone this story is about the first time I visited Prague I've never been to Prague and the trip was last minute so I had little time to prepare a travel partner had dumped me in another country and I was determined to make the best out of the trip by Visiting a place I'd never been upon arrival at the train station I visited the accommodation office and I asked for a hostel
not far from the center in my early 20s winging it was part of the fun but these days I'm far less adventurous the hostel they sent me to was a sprawling crumbling slate gray Art Deco building on a nondescript Street about a 10-minute walk to ster Mesto the inside was probably beautiful at one time but by the time I checked in it was Full of shabby mismatched furniture and cheap stained carpet most of the light fixtures were broken leaving everything but the lobby dark and gloomy it smelled of standing water in dust I found my
room a double for $12 per night and I made note of the fact that I had a roommate she wasn't there but on her side of the room was a suitcase a dress neatly folded across the back of a PL classtic chair and a scattering of makeup containers on the Beat up desk and a stack of German fashion magazines on the bed as I had no plans or goals on this impromptu trip I spent the afternoon exploring Oldtown Square the Jewish quarter and W sloth Square I purchased some sha Crystal for my mom and I
painted eggs from a street vendor for myself I also made reservations for a sunset dinner cruise for 1 at around 6:00 p.m. I returned to my room to shower chain clothes and unload my purchases when I left my room About an hour later there was no indication that my room may have returned at any point during the day after the cruise I stopped at a tiny bar on tinska and had a glass of wine I had heard horror stories about the dangers of Prague but I felt no more tredition than I did in any other
large city sure I mean the cobblestone streets fog rolling off of the Volva backlit Gothic architecture and winding alley made me think of Jack the Ripper and Dracula but in a good way it was nearly midnight when I returned to my hostel so I was surprised to find that my roommate still hadn't returned that wasn't necessarily uncommon though Backpackers are a Fickle lot she could have gone on a short overnight trip and just left her stuff behind maybe hooked up with a guy or girl and was Hol Up at their place or hanging out at
another hostel so I was surprised but not concerned I took another shower before bed however I was Surprised to find that things in the room had changed up in my return her bed was neatly turned down and the magazines had moved to the nightstand and the dress was gone the strangest thing though was the addition of a pink silky night gown spread across the bed and to my bed maybe she thought she still had the room to herself I didn't see how I mean my shopping bags and clothes and toiletries were in plain view I
gently moved the night gown over to her bed and Then I settled in for the night as I wrote in my journal I assumed she was in the shower somewhere or somewhere nearby so I expected her return shortly after about an hour though her side was still empty I needed to use the restroom before I went to sleep so I made one last trip down the hall the building was unusually quiet there weren't the regular sounds of Chatty Backpackers the clinking of glasses or music that would normally leak through the Walls there was nothing it
was hushed like a church after the congregation has left I found myself practically tiptoeing back my room was near the end of the hall and I couldn't shake the feeling that the corridor was darker than before the few working lights were blinking as they struggled to stay lit and it reminded me of a fun house a tightness began to fill my stomach and I subconsciously quickened my steps there wasn't a soul behind me yet so I kept Glancing back over my shoulder convinced that I'd see someone gaining momentum on me the only only sound was
the soft thud of my flip-flops as they struck my Souls I was flooded with relief as I flung open my door but it didn't last long everything was exactly as it was before except for the silky night gown which was now back on my bed sleep came in fits and starts I left the lamp on for a while still convinced my roommate would be right back but the Shadows It cast Made the room even spookier it was too dark with the light off I'd finally slipped into a deep sleep when I suddenly heard the door
open a man stood in the darkened doorway the hall light behind him showing just enough for me to see his contorted face I didn't mean to he sobbed you have to help me too confused and disoriented to be scared I sat up and scrubbed at my eyes and I reached for the lamp switch but once the room was light I saw that The door was closed there was no man I quickly bounded off the bed and went for the door it was locked nobody could have entered without a key in the hallway it was empty
I passed the rest of the night fully clothed sitting up in bed and with the light on though I paid for two more nights at 7:00 a.m. I gathered all of my stuff and went down to the reception desk to check out by the way I said to the 20-some receptionist my roommate never returned I'm a little concerned She picked up the room key looked at it hard and frowned and then glanced at her computer what room were you in again when I repeated it to her she looked back at her screen ma'am that room
has been empty for 3 weeks and it's been clean since then we only have six people in the whole building the hostel has since been renovated and is now a luxury Rotel never move in with a man or woman you've never personally known I've got a roommate from hell this way I mean this Man tortured me psychologically when I turned to sexual advances town then stole thousands of dollars from me over time even used my Amazon account to open up an account he got some of my personal info like Social Security and a lot of
other things once I left after calling the cops to help me leave he showed up at the Apple Store I was at just a day after I left even though I left to go live on the streets no family or friends As I was severely abused as a a kid I've been on my own since 14 so I'm accustomed to surviving on the streets for periods of time I was a million times happier that way than I ever was in his nice apartment surrounded by nice than in a fancy car I felt so relieved even
just living in a concrete garage I was a million times happier sleeping on concrete with a pillow made of a towel and a tiny little blanket in The cold and heat than I ever was living there with him he spent his time psychologic Ally torturing me and I don't regret leaving at all he would bang on the wall across from mine every morning and late at night to startle me awake he'd throw Pebbles or tap on my window in the middle of a night to scare me and keep me on edge he'd give me weird
little candies and teddy bears as if we were dating even ordered stalkerish love items from my own Amazon Account who the [ __ ] spends this much time on Christmas ornaments that says I'll always love and follow you if I'd go to the restroom he'd run kick his foot at the door so loud and suddenly that it sounded like a door being kicked down then he would steal my items if I left him alone for even a second so I'd have no way to go out if I had plans he would also put them back
once I mentioned them or when it was too late for me to leave for my plants if I got Any mail or a package he would always interrogate me what did you order I need to know like he owned me or something towards the end I was leaning doors and Furniture up against the door because he picked up my bedroom lock while I was gone and when I wake up sometimes there was stuff missing or moved in odd ways so I knew he was creeping around while I was asleep he was an absolute freak I
wouldn't put anything past him since he showed me how psychotic he Was if I was rarely happy or in a good mood he'd start criticizing and nitpicking at my body hair and face and even Behavior sometimes my voice just anything he thought I was insecure about anytime I leave my bedroom he would rush out of his room to stand right behind or near me like a weird little dog that follows you around panting he'd even piss in my hair products skin care products and vitamins he would throw out food that I Just bought and steal
my cash and even use my debit cards also ordered 30 or 40 plus items off of my Amazon account without my knowledge or consent it was the strangest thing I still have trouble believing this stuff happened as it was just so crazy to even think that someone is that crazy to do this about 2 years ago I moved into a new apartment the walls were very thin and because of the fire safety laws in my city my bedroom had one window which led Into the living room and none with outside access the window will be
important later it was three bedrooms one for me and one for the master tenant and one spare which at the time was rented out by pretty friendly guy well the pretty friendly guy had issues with his work visa and had to move back to Canada last minute leaving us about 2 weeks to find another roommate her quickest and easiest option was Craigslist due to my Work schedule I had no part in the selection process but I was content when the new roommate moved in a little later he seemed a bit off he was a very
tall large guy but pretty quiet and not someone I wanted to go out of my way to hang with but was okay to be around and be cordial with about 2 weeks into his move in the master tenant left for Hawaii leaving him and I alone in the home for the month-long duration of his stay for the first few days things are Normal all of a sudden about 4 days into the trip I am woken up at about 8:00 a.m. to a frantic knocking at my door my roommate we'll call him Kyle is standing there
when I open up looking frazzled he looks me dead in the eye and says so do you want to tell me what went on last night to which I was shocked and confused cuz I had come home from work at about 9:00 p.m. and immediately showered and went to bed I explained this to him and he tells me that he Heard me screaming and arguing with someone in my room that he saw me in the side alley out of the window arguing with our landlord whom I'd never even seen at that point and I he
heard people coming in and out of our house I tell him no way that none of that ever happened after staring at me for a little longer he leaves and doesn't bring it up again the next morning I wake up to the same thing this time he says he saw me arguing with My boyfriend but I was single at the time said that he had seen me talking with her other roommate who was in Hawaii and asking me for the badge number of the officer I'd spoken to since he had apparently seen me talking to
a bunch of police as well this time I start to get angry an more or less tell him to cut this [ __ ] out because I'm not doing anything and I don't know what he's talking about he gets a weird look on his face and says I Think I had a seizure in my sleep the next time happens call an ambulance and then he leaves for a bit only to start knocking again about an hour later and when I open up Kyle repeats the exact same story verbatim this happens once more before I tell
him to leave me the [ __ ] alone and leave for work I go to work as normal but I'm reluctant to return that night but also too tired to switch to an alternate location big mistake because at about 1:00 a.m. I woke up to slamming doors Kyle was pacing back and forth between his bedroom the living room and out the front door walking in and out of each room turning the lights on and off mumbling angrily and slamming doors I can see his figure pacing back and forth through the Frosted window in my room
that leads to the living room since my room is dark he cannot see inside suddenly he screams I can't live like this why are you doing this to me I Think he's on the phone and I don't respond a few moments later he screams my name repeatedly and I realize he's directing it towards me I knew I had to get the [ __ ] out of there immediately so I very quietly creep out of bed and start getting dressed and even packing a bag of clothes for work in the morning I'm almost done when he
screams I hear you and charges over to my room slapping the wall next to my door but not touching the door itself I look towards My window and I see his shadow lean All the Way Forward pressing his ear against the glass I was terrified and I sat completely still on moving he eventually screams my name again and moves away from the window and I hear him start pacing between rooms again now my shoes are kept on a rack outside my door and not inside my room so I know that when I leave I'm going
to need a moment to put them on I decide to wait until his Pacing takes him out of the front door again at which time I plan to grab my shoes put them on and run as I'm formulating this plan the pacing stops do you want to fight about this come out right now and we'll fight I swear see I'm very small a 5T girl and this guy is easily three times my size so I am definitely not looking to fight thanks after a few minutes he turns off all the lights and I hear the
door to his room open and close followed by Silence I wait for a moment to be sure I can't hear any movement and then I decide to take my chance I took a breath and pulled my door open quickly I step out and grab my shoes before I look up a second later and I see him standing shirtless with just a pair of boxers and socks on in the dark of the hallway his arms hung slightly outward in an awkward position he says in a low calm voice ma'am we need to talk that was a
hard not for me so I grabed my shoes and run Out the door with him in hand I run about a half block Barefoot before I stop to put them on when I look back he is standing in the porch light of our front door watching me run but not moving luckily I had a friend who lived about two blocks away and had their spare key so I let myself in and crashed there for the night and that's where I stayed for the next week or so while we worked things out with the master tenet
and Kyle agreed to move out within the Week he says he doesn't remember anything that happened or wasn't sure if it was real or not but if I said that's what went down then it must be real the day Kyle left he sends me a photo of the house key sitting on the table and says I'm out nothing else I take a friend over there with me to scout it and just to ensure that he is at actually left when we get there we discover that not only had he left a ton of food and
Furniture but he had ripped all of the Fire alarms out of the ceilings he had unscrewed and removed the dead bolt to the front door and left them lined up neatly on the front table we then realized that my front door can only lock by using a key from the outside and I had been locked when we arrived meaning Kyle still had a key we called a locksmith immediately even after changing the locks I was still terrified to stay there alone after afterwards and I never went to sleep at night without Barricading the doors with
chairs and other Furniture to this day I still have fear for my safety he was obviously psychologically unstable but I also wonder what could have happened if I hadn't been as lucky as I [Music] was I'm a 36-year-old female in Sweden I have worked in mental healthc care for the last 18 years May with people with psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia I was working at a group Home for 9 years and were very close with my co-workers there especially two females the last few years I worked there another female started working there let's just call her
M for this story and the four of us grew very close she was very timid and shy but also friendly and we got along well she was however often on long-term sick leave because of her own mental health issues so we didn't meet much at work but she always showed up at her Afterwork dinners so we continued to stay in touch even when she wasn't well enough to work full-time she told us that she had a history of schizophrenia herself just like the patients we were treating but that she was medicated and hadn't had any
psychotic episodes for years since I have an education in Psychiatry and a long experience with schizophrenia I have no judgment towards people suffering from the illness and it didn't Bother me being friends with someone who had a diagnosis like that and even after what I will tell you I still feel the same way in the summer of 2023 I had moved on to work at a new place also within mental health but this time forensic psychiatry like a halfway house for mentally ill murderers Etc the four of us had stayed in touch and still met
every now and then for dinner parties M told us that she had been evicted from her apartment because Of an incident where she had accidentally answered her neighbor's apartment in the middle of the night she told us that in the huge apartment complex the the doors all look exactly the same and that she simply walked in the wrong door by accident and that the neighbor had created a scene out of pure drama and reported her to the police I somehow felt that while that sounded out of proportion to evict someone just from that perhaps the
landlord took that kind Of action because he judged her based on her medical history so I felt bad for her I questioned her if something else happened and she claimed that it didn't and that this was just a full story in Sweden it can be very difficult to get a contract for an apartment when you've gotten aict you pretty much get blacklisted so em asked me if she could move in with me since she was literally on the street and literally homeless I said of course You can I've always gotten myself into uncomfortable situations by
saying yes instead of thinking about myself and I had no idea how severe this situation would get when I said yes to her I live in a pretty small apartment it's one bedroom that pretty much only fits a bed and a desk and a living room that fits a couch and a TV no room for an extra bed a small kitchen and a small bathroom and I have two cats we decided that mem was going to live in the living room and I Offered her to throw my couch out so she could have a bed
there but she said that she was finally sleeping on the couch since it's comfortable enough I insisted on giving her a bed but she declined there's a door between the living room and bedroom but between the living room and hallway there's just an open Arch so she wouldn't have total privacy I hung up a thick velvet curtain covering the arch so it at least gave gave the sense of a door and more privacy than nothing There's another door from my bedroom to my kitchen so I have two doors to my bedroom I have to have
one of them open at night since my cats like to go in and out and they also have their litter boxes in the bathroom and food and water in the kitchen I naturally kept the kitchen door open and not the living room door since that's where mem lived and we wanted to keep our privacy somehow she wasn't working at this time because she was on one of her long-term Sick leaves while I was working shifts so sometimes I had to get up at 6:00 a.m. sometimes I didn't get home till like 11:00 p.m. I have
some really severe insomnia and I need to comine ambian with herin and even with this I still wake up easily I told her that I would appreciate if she could try to stay quiet those nights when I have to get up at 6:00 a.m. but that is fine if she's loud when I'm off work or when I'm doing Evening shifts she was a heavy smoker and a coffee drinker so I bought her a coffee machine I did it to make her enjoy her living situation more the coffee machine in the sink is placed right outside
my bedroom door and the kitchen is very small so the first night together I had to get up at 6:00 for my shift as usual I had a hard time falling asleep em had been up several times at night to go out to smoke and I woke up every time at 5:00 a.m. she started Making coffee and since it was literally outside my bedroom door I got wide awake from the sound of it I asked her in the nicest way possible why she was up this early asking if she had any plans today I mean
she's on sick leave why not sleep at 5:00 a.m. if you can and she just said that she couldn't sleep I said oh I'm sorry I just would appreciate it if you could wait with making the coffee till 600 since I really need this last hour of sleep because of Work adding to why I need my sleep is that I have epilepsy that gets really bad when I don't get enough I usually get a lot of seizures when I don't get at least 4 hours of sleep I knew that I would probably get seizures at
work now meaning that this day would be both stressful and potentially dangerous for me since there's a huge risk that I fall and hurt myself and it's not a good thing to get cramps and seizures among mentally unstable criminal clients who You were supposed to care for I know that it's not an ideal situation to work in that field with my condition and I can inform you that I did quit after only 6 months she said that she really wanted coffee with her cigarettes but that she would try to wait the next time I have
to work I accepted it and I went on with my day but things didn't get better she continued to wake me up early in the morning and through the nights and continued to promise to stop but Insisted that she really wanted coffee with her cigarettes I suggested making the coffee the night before or drinking iced coffee or Coke instead but she didn't want that I may add that she demanded for me to be silent at 10 p.m. because that's when she wanted to sleep and I respected that she used to get these moments of binge
eating where she would empty my fridge and Pantry from everything I had I remember this one time when I had bought a big loaf of Bread and she texted me 30 minutes after I left the apartment saying hey I'm sorry I ate your loaf of bread I'll buy another one once I get money like an entire loaf of bread in 30 minutes I had told her when she moved in to feel at home and what's mine is yours so I couldn't really get mad but it started to annoy me for two reasons it was getting
kind of expensive since it was such huge amounts and it was always An Inconvenient times of the day like after An evening shift when the store was closed and I came home hungry and she had empty the kitchen from everything I had bought the same day mem had long black hair that was everywhere all over the sink the floor the bathtub I'm no clean freak but I think anyone could understand that this isn't the nicest thing to step in or see everywhere in your house she also left her fingernails and toenails on the bathroom floor
even pea drops on the toilet seat every time She had been to the toilet I even saw silver fish on my bathroom floor never seen one before that and I eat hair and skin and nails so I figured this fellow probably enjoyed life because of the new dirty condition my bathroom is in at first I didn't want to say it straight out because I thought I would hurt her and I didn't want to make her uncomfortable so I just put a broom in a shovel in the bathroom to imply that we needed to sweep the
floor more often but This didn't seem to work so after a while I told her in the nicest way possible with a smile on my face even do you think we could try to clean the floor in the bathroom more often we tend to lose some hair when we brush it and I'm afraid we may get pests I saw a silverfish the other day and I don't want to get get worse I even always made sure to say we instead of you so she wouldn't feel attacked she promised to think about it but nothing Changed
I then started dating a guy and I was head over heels for him he was also in a roommate situation so we had a tough time getting in you alone time I asked em if there was any chance that we could get one night to ourselves every now and then in the apartment that she of course would get the apartment to herself as well but she didn't like the idea and claimed that she had nowhere to go no friends or family now I wasn't asking her to leave for 24 Hours just a few hours so
we could get some quality time together she could just go to the library or take a walk or something I was at work for 8 to 10 hours 5 days a week so she had a lot of time to herself one of our old co-workers realized that this was really tearing at my mood to never get any time for myself and I started feeling really suffocated she offered that mem could stay the night at her place after all They were friends too M said said she didn't want to bother her but we told her that
she didn't and they are friends so she was more than welcome and that I really just wanted one night to myself and my man I didn't understand why she made such a big deal over leaving me in the apartment for just one night she eventually accepted and spent the night there and I spent the night away the next week so she could get more alone time too when I came home the next Morning from my night away I saw that my cat's water bowl was completely dried out there was no spill on the floor it
looked like he had been wiped out with a towel or paper I had filled it to the brim just the night before so I asked her how this was possible and she said that the cats must have tipped it out but like I said there was nothing on the floor my cats are overly social and usually cuddle up with strangers even after just a few Minutes of knowing them I noticed that the cats withdrew from her more and more over time and the last couple of weeks they never left my bedroom except from when they
ate or used a litter box it seemed like they were scared of her which I couldn't figure out since she was so timid I had this old saucepan from the' 60s that meant a lot to me you probably wonder how a saucepan can mean a lot to someone but it was my grandmother's and It's the only thing I have that belongs to her my mother used to cook for me with it when I was little so it has a great nostalgic value to me she burnt it one day and made no attempt to clean it
she just left it on the stove and went out to smoke I found it ruined and I cried she didn't even say sorry she also broke dishes several times and didn't bother to replace them or apologize this added to my frustration with her naturally it had probably been 2 months now and she kept waking me up at night kept binge eating my food never cleaned never left the house scared my cats and ruined my things I also realized that she stole my prescription sleeping pills lots of them and I only get one per night not
more or less and as you already know I really need them I had 20 of them in a nightstand when I left for work when I came home they were gone she denied which is pretty hilarious since no one else could have Been there my frustration was getting heavy the summer heat was strong and I felt locked up in my tiny bedroom with my two cats Never Getting Any time to myself never any time alone with the guy I was dating except for once every 14th day my apartment was messy and she was stealing from
me out of nowhere my old elementary school classmate text me on Facebook asking me how I Know M yet had seen that I had posted on Facebook that we were roommates now I told him that we were old co-workers and that she needed a place to stay cuz she got evicted he said I know do you know why she was evicted yeah she accidentally went into her neighbor's apartment he said yeah but that's not the full story she actually broke in and snuck up to their sleeping baby with a knife in her hand but luckily
the father woke up and wrestled her down and managed to save the baby I felt sick to my stomach could This be true it would certainly explain why she was evicted but it just sounded so horrible and she seemed so timid and like a nice girl I just had so many questions but my friend had the full police report apparently the couple that em had broken into was his ex-girlfriend and her family it seemed that em had a psychosis during the break-in but those parts weren't public it was however clear to me that she had
been lying to me about what had happened and about how Long she had been mentally stable I started getting quite paranoid and I was already frustrated with everything and really I just wanted her to move out we did however have a contract that she had 30 days notice I knew that if I asked her in a harsh way it would mean 30 days of chaos until she moves out so I wanted to handle this as nicely as I could I started looking for cheap hostiles for her that I could suggest to her so she wouldn't
be on the streets I Sat down with her and told her that I loved living with her and I feel really horrible for this but I just miss my alone time that the apartment is too small for two people I said it wasn't personal and that I wouldn't want to live with anyone right now that I wish it would have worked out that I'm really sorry and I hope we will still remain friends she looked absolutely crushed and said that it wasn't possible I showed her the hosel I found and said That I understood that
it wasn't the ultimate situation but I really needed her to move out because I felt suffocated and also with the summer heat it was just making it too tough to always have the door to the bedroom closed and that it was too tough for me to not get my sleep she finally said Okay and she said she was going to try to make move out but not until 30 days had passed and I said of course the first night after our Talk she got up and made her coffee at 2:30 a.m. I nearly had a
mental breakdown I was going to get up at 6:00 and I couldn't go back to sleep I asked her in the morning for probably the 10th time to not make coffee until I get up but she didn't even answer me she just sat on the sofa and stared out the window I said M and she kept staring I was freaked out but left for work she continued being weird kept making a mess and kept waking me up Kept eating my food and all I could think about was the incidents with her and the baby and
the knife I eventually got so mad about being woken up by the coffee maker so I unplugged it and I stored it in my attic which she had no access to it may be childish but I was getting so tired at this time my sleeping pills were stolen and I was starting to feel like Edward Norton in the beginning of Fight Club well the next night I woke up at 4:00 a.m. by Making coffee in a saucepan not my grandmother's sauce P that one was ruined I tried talking to her again explaining the situation but
she just stared and didn't reply me being frustrated and on the Tipping Point took the saucepan and stored it in the Attic as well I know I know but I was going crazy and I just wanted her to stop with these nightly coffee routines and just get the hint the third night I had the guy I was dating sleeping at our place Cuz I was getting really paranoid now over her weird Behavior not speaking with me and staring into space I woke up from my very light snooze by him poking me he whispered look in
the doorway mem was just standing silently staring at us this was like a scene from a horror movie with her long black hair over her face I kid you not I didn't say anything at first because I wanted to know if she was just standing there for a second doing something by the door but I Realized after a while that she was actually just standing there still staring at us it reminded me of the ending of Paranormal Activity when Katie just stares at Micah in the final scene so I sat up and said what are
you doing but before I could finish the sentence she just slammed the door shut and I heard the sound of something metal falling on the floor and her running into the living room I yelled out you need to leave and started crying Hysterically because this was turning into a nightmare of course I didn't go back to sleep and I was really happy that I had company that night I just kept asking myself had she done this before stared at me in my sleep the next day when I got out of bed I opened the door
that she had slammed shut saw a kitchen knife on the floor so that was the metal sound I had heard before she ran off I took all of my knives and locked them in the Attic as well I then asked a friend of mine to come to my house and be here when I tell her that she has to move out immediately that I can't wait 30 days 27 days now during the conversation I really tried to stay calm I know she has a mental illness I know she means no harm even though I was
so frustrated I couldn't hate her I was mostly scared and tired she however didn't even answer when I talked to her she just kept staring out The window she left the apartment and sent me a text instead saying that I was disrespectful for bringing a friend over to her place night time came and I thought this would be a quiet night finally no coffee maker or sauce pans but at 3:00 a.m. I woke up by her burning dry coffee powder in her frying pan at this moment I just felt so terrified of her her face
was dead and her eyes were black I suspected that she had gone into a Psy Osis I stopped the fire and she just ran off to the living room in silence I knew she had an appointment with her psychiatrist the next day and while she was away I packed all of her things I then sent her a text telling her that she needs to pick them up and give me my keys back that I will give her money for a hostile for the upcoming 26 days but she didn't reply the guy I was seeing came
to keep me company in case she would fight about it she didn't she left The keys without looking at us and left our co-workers who were friends with us both told me that she moved in with a guy that she was dating and she stayed there for a few weeks till she somehow amazingly got an apartment of her own she started working again and I was really happy to hear this she seemed to be doing well then in January of this year one of our old co-workers told me that em had called her and told
her that everything must burn that she has a baby That she must save and other delusional stuff em had then proceeded to burn her entire apartment down because the voices in her head were telling her that she has to burn everything to save her friends and family her neighbors had tried to rescue her from the fire but she had fought them off and ran back and poured Liquor on the fire to make it burn more she was arrested and sentenced last week for aggravated arson she will serve her time in a mental institution Or prison
for a long time possibly forever what's ironic is that she will probably be in the facility where I used to work and end up where she used to work herself my old coworker was a witness at the trial and apparently she had stopped taking her medication because she thought that it made her feel numb and she thought she was stable enough to function without it but apparently not she also had stopped taking her medication the last few weeks When she stayed at my house so when she stared blankly into space she was going into psychosis
when she stared at me with a knife in her hand when she burnt the frying pan that last night it's disturbing to think about what would have happened to me and my cats if she would have stayed or if I would have been a heavy sleeper I also think about what would have happened to that baby that she snuck into before she was evicted and yeah I know it's crazy that I didn't just throw her out by then but it was complicated the reason why I haven't been able to talk about it with my friends
is cuz they sympathize with her and they have minimized my experience and they think that I made a bigger deal out of it than I believe it has been I sort of understand it since they have never seen that darkness in their eyes that I saw those last couple of days [Music] About 5 months ago a friend of mine got expelled from his program because of bad marks he was only halfway through his lease and he didn't see a point of staying in the city since he was only there for school he told me that
if I wanted to take over his lease as a subletter he'd only charge me half of the rent which I thought was a pretty sweet deal so naturally although I am from this town I thought it was time to leave my parents' place I had already Graduated and although I had been looking for a new job for a while I still feel like I couldn't miss out on the opportunity so I took over his lease and I moved into his place the house itself is actually pretty nice it was three floors including the basement and
it's located near the University of my town which is not necessarily a very safe place overall but I spent a lot of my University years here and I never felt Truly unsafe the room in the basement is pretty small but cozy and the other room down here is a girl who is currently a student and she's pretty quiet actually all the girls living here are pretty good roommates I wasn't thrilled about living with three girls but now I don't see why I would have thought it was an issue they were all pretty great in a
good time I'm the only one in the house who is not a student and also the Only one who was originally from this town the other roommates are actually all from cities they're all about an hour or two away at most so unless there's something special going on they all go home on the weekends my friend who got expelled also only lives 2 hours away so he would always go home for the weekend as well one thing I forgot to mention which is pretty crucial to the story is that the house actually has five rooms
but right When they all moved into the new place together one of the girls had a seizure on her bed and passed away this was pretty upsetting for everyone and the landlord told him not to worry about finding anyone else the rent never went up or anything and the room was left vacant according to the landlord he just found it insensitive to try and find someone because he didn't want to turn someone's death into a financial inconvenience for him so after the Girl's death the parents came and took her belongings out of the room and
it just remained empty since then I actually never looked in there because it just remained locked and I don't really have much curiosity to see the room it's on the second floor and I never go up there so I never paid any attention to it the first weekend I spent there was pretty uneventful I remember that I spent one night at my boyfriend's place and then the next Night he slept over after we were out drinking at one of the college bars near the place we were pretty wasted so we passed out as soon as
we got home the next weekend I was at home in my new room and I couldn't sleep so I decided to read a little bit I was really enjoying the quietness of this new house since the girls weren't home at all I come from a Latino family so this quiet and Serene environment was pretty rare I thought that I heard a few noises Upstairs so I figured that one of the girls should probably decide to stay the weekend at the house or she was just getting last minute things ready before heading home I really didn't
think much of it I wasn't very close with the roommates I didn't even bother asking them if any of them had stayed home I just felt like it was none of my business the girl in the basement however was for sure gone for the weekend because she apparently sleeps With her door locked and keeps it open when she's not home one weekend that same month I woke up to pee and I could hear a toilet flushing upstairs which was kind of weird since I knew that none of the girls were supposed to be home I
was going to check it out but in my tired State I was too lazy and I just didn't care enough it's funny horror movies are supposed to make you feel paranoid but the biggest lesson I got from them was that there's Always a rational explanation for things this would prove to be my biggest mistake because for a couple of months I was always brushing things off and ironically creating irrational explanations to rationalize what I thought were irrational thoughts for example I heard creaking coming from the second floor and I figured one of the girls must
have forgotten something and decided to come by to pick it up the girl must have driven 2 hours down and 2 Hours back TOS town in the middle of the night to pick something up one Saturday I woke up to get some water and I noticed that the roommate in the basement was gone her door was wide open and her car was not in the driveway there weren't any cars in the driveway but I should mention that one of the girls doesn't drive a couple hours later I woke up because I heard steps coming down
into the basement at this point I yeld out the girl's name who doesn't Drive because she's the only one who could have been in the house I didn't get a reply and I just heard the steps going back upstairs at this point I started getting uneasy about being home on weekends so I decided to just spend them at my boyfriend's house one of the girls made a house Facebook page which was supposed to address any issues like washing dishes or leaving messes but it remains pretty inactive since everyone seemed to Get along I posted on
there that some creepy stuff was happening on weekends and I asked them if they could start just letting me know if they've been home for the night or not they seriously thought I was joking around the replies were not receptive at all and consisted of laugh my ass off or oh my God you're so funny even my boyfriend agreed that I was being paranoid because he too believed that everything has a rational And perfect explanation the thing is when you say that everything has an explanation you're only invalidating paranormal explanations or ghostly activity which is
not what I am implying at all I have never believed in ghosts or Spirits or any of that jazz and I have never claimed to when I spoke to my roommates or to my boyfriend they kept on saying that the house was old and made noises but I know the Difference between old house noises and someone walking down the stairs and back up the stairs fortunately my roommates did start posting things on the Facebook page to let me know that they'd be gone it was always to the effect of hey lol I won't be home
this weekend so don't worry about the ghosts one weekend they all let me know that they would not be home and my boyfriend was on the midnight shift so I had to spend the night on my own my Boyfriend called me on his break and while I was on the phone with him I heard noises on the main floor I told him I was going to check it out and he told me to go ahead cuz the [ __ ] still thought I was being paranoid as I said this I heard the footsteps going back
up to the second floor once I got into the main floor there was nobody in the kitchen and all the doors in the house were locked I was extremely paranoid and I did not feel Safe my boyfriend called me down and convinced me that everything was okay so I never went to the second floor and it's probably best that I stayed on the main floor after that weekend I told my roommates in all seriousness that I was convinced that someone had been in our house at some point that night I told them what I heard
and the [ __ ] still claimed that it was the old house making noises my boyfriend was almost permanently on midnights by now so I did What I never wanted to do and I started spending weekends at my parents place the girl still posted on the page whether or not they were leaving the house and I decided that I should still do the same so I always started posting when I was and was not sleeping at the house one Friday night the Facebook page looked something like this roommate one not sleeping at home roommate 2
not sleeping at home roommate 3 staying at home because of midterm exams me I'm Staying at my parents place the next morning I received a frantic text from one of the roommates saying that the roommate with the midterms had been attacked apparently she was in her room studying and heard a noise right outside of her bedroom when she went out to inspect it she was greeted by a man walking out of the dead girl's room I later found out more details about the whole thing from the roommate who was attacked the man looked rough With
greasy hair and just a dirty face when they made eye contact he held his finger up to his mouth and uttered a sh while smiling the nail on his finger was long and his beard was apparently really scraggly and uneven like it only grew on certain parts of his face she screamed out of instinct even though she knew there was nobody in the house he lunged at her as she tried to shut the door and she wasn't beaten up too badly he just growled and told her to Shut her mouth and said something like I'm
not going to molest you but shut your mouth he beat her but not completely unconscious and then when he walked out of her room he went downstairs and walked out of the front door so he left the dead girl's room unlocked my roommate locked herself in her room and called the police who were there immediately what's pretty creepy about the whole thing is that when they Inspected the dead girl's room they kept asking for clarification so nobody has lived in this room for how long nobody has been rening this room right did the parents take
everything after the girl passed away the guy had a really sweet setup actually and had brought his own small mattress to put over the bed frame obviously the mattress was too small for the bed frame he left most of his stuff because he probably didn't expect a Confrontation that night I don't think he knew she would be there that night because she never was it probably sucked for him when I moved in because before me the bastard had the whole house to himself 2 days a week the police did asked me quite a lot of
questions and were very interested in hearing my statement about hearing footsteps at night my three roommates and my friend are now convinced that maybe the girl didn't die the way they Said she did and maybe he murdered her but I think the autopsy would have been able to distinguish a murder from a seizure in their defense the whole thing is really creepy we are not really sure how long the guy have been living here but it's very likely that it has been for at least a few months the theory is that the guy has been
climbing in through the window so it's possible that he was even there at times when all of us were there the police are really Interested in talking to the landlord because they want to know how the man found out about the vacant room the landlord is a pretty decent guy so I don't know if there's anything going on there I don't even feel an I Told You So attitude from this whole thing I think that I am just glad that the girl is okay because she seemed pretty Shak up I just wished that more people
were willing to listen to me when I told them that I thought somebody was coming into Our home I even said it might be a squatter which everyone laughed at this happened very recently so it might be a while before an update as of now the man has not been found but the police remain optimistic about finding him this had been a terrible month for me and I don't know if I want to be at this house anymore I don't have much left on the lease and I recently lost my job so it might be
best for me to leave the place now I doubt the guy will come back because all of his stuff has been taken out but I still find it feeling creepy in this house I definitely don't spend weekends here anymore I had been having problems with my dorm roommate since the beginning of the semester she didn't shower or wash her clothes regularly left dry top ramen noodles all over the floor for me to step on never washed her hands or flushed the toilet inside in a way that Sounded like sex noises constantly showered with the door
open and got water everywhere and just so many more things that I hated basically every single pet peeve I had was born in this girl at first I pled it on her not understanding American etiquette she's a foreign exchange student from China but things started to get creepy when I went home for the weekend a few weeks into the semester I gave her a heads up that I would be gone she did That weird sex ey again and look sad and betrayed at the same time like I was doing something wrong by leaving her she
said something along the lines of why are you leaving me I don't like sleeping in the room by myself I feel more comfortable with you here with me mind you I only met this chick on moveing day and only said a few words to her I should have known to keep my guard up after that every once in a while she would stare off into space longingly for Half an hour sometimes I would catch her watching me study out of the corner of my eye after a long day of studying in the library I went
to the patio in our dorm to get some ice from the machine and found her with her head on a table with her eyes wide open staring at something in the distance I think she scared off the guy I likee because he stopped coming around to see me once he found out she was my Roommate after she creeped me out so much I started staying away from my dorm only going to sleep and to grab things I need she seemed like a nice person but I couldn't live with her anymore today day I emailed my
residential development that I wanted her room change I told her that I wasn't comfortable living in my dorm anymore with this girl I was sitting in my room while my roommate was out today when I hear a Banging on the door I was then greeted by two solemn looking campus police officers and the Rd of my building they calmly asked me where my roommate was but I had no idea I told them her usual lurking spots and went back to what I was doing I knew something was off I asked them what was up and
they just ignored my question and asked where she might have been the police officers at my campus are usually really Pleasant looking too since there isn't much crime On my campus and they don't have much to do 30 minutes later I hear banging on the door again I'm greeted by my roommate who has tears streaming down her face she rushes past me to her bed and plops down she starts wailing and screaming and then eventually hyperventilating I thought maybe someone close to her died and was feeling sorry that I had asked for a room change
during her time of need I I could only make out a few bits and pieces of what She was saying to the Rd I'm sorry I didn't mean to I promise I won't do it again suddenly she was right behind him screaming don't you dare go through my things you think I'm going to harm my roommate I wouldn't do that that's just Silly by then the Rd dragged me out of the room and told me what was going on she got into a big fight with her best friend I didn't think she had any and
started sending her threatening emails by this time I was in complete complet Shock I just saw someone completely loser right in front of me she told me that she had received my room change request was going to meet with me tomorrow after my roommate calmed down a bit I went into the room when the two RDS were talking to her to quickly pack a night back she apologized for acting so crazy and I halfheartedly accepted grabbed my [ __ ] and got out of there I was waiting in my dorm common area for my friend
to get back to her dorm when I Realized I forgot a blanket I went inside thinking that someone was going to be in the room room keeping an eye over her but she was alone she glared at me as I walked past her to grab my blanket there was pure hatred in her eyes where are you going I have never heard her use this tone of voice with anyone before she was livid I'm going to stay with my friend for the night why because of me I swear I saw smoke rising from the top of
her head and a vein her Forehead was about to burst sleepover in the happiest tone I could muster you have a midterm on Friday FR not completely untrue I'm just glad I'm quick on my feet I got out of there and nearly ran to my friend storm I talked to the Rd once more and there are no more rooms open in my housing complex and if I want to move to another complex my parents would have to pay an extra ,000 they are Furious and want me to move immediately because the police Officer was incompetent
he jeopardized my safety by asking me that question in front of her they don't want to pay for me to change rooms because it was my University's fault for putting me in this awkward situation I'm just afraid that she is going to take this out on me I don't think I can return to my dorm she looked like she was out for blood when I came back this happened years ago but still affects me to this day I apologize for The length ahe in advance but I feel like I have to tell the whole story
summer after I graduated high school I was still living at home I was up late one night and I was packing for a camping trip with my friends it was unbelievably hot and I had the window open as I sat and folded close it was around 2:00 in the morning and the next thing I knew there was a hand coming through the Gap in the screen of my Window I screamed and the Hand flew back out I was stunned but there was a part of me that wondered if it was my younger brother pranking me
I got up and looked out the window and I just saw the figure of a man staring back at me I ran into my brother's room and he was playing video games so we called the police who came and searched the area they found nothing warned me and my parents to lock the windows and doors and left we were all shaken up and my mom had a feeling That they would come back it turns out that a mother's intuition is right she went outside and waited on our back porch after about 20 minutes or so
she saw a man dressed in black slink into our backyard along the tree line there wasn't a fence on that side unfortunately he hid behind a tree for a few seconds and ran to another tree and headd there slowly working his way towards my window my mother yelled something to him and he took off running The police came back out and again found no trace of him I never opened that window again not even the curtains my parents install some motion detecting lights and that seemed to be the end of that about 6 months later
my friend and I got an apartment downtown together we were really excited as this was our first place on our own the apartment wasn't exactly the best quality but it was so fun to be living in the city the downside was that it was street parking Only after a few weeks my car was broken into nothing was taken out but a single row sat on the passenger seat it was creepy but I vowed to be vigilant and safe I always tried to park close to the entrance near the lights but often it was difficult to
get those spots and I would often have to park farther away on darker streets things quickly began escalating at this point my car was broken into at least once a week Most of the time a flower was left which I always threw on the ground but once a pair of men's underwear was left and even more creepily once a bag of Tootsie Rolls as they were my favorite candy this made me wonder if the person knew me personally and I started to become more suspicious of everyone there was a laundry room in the basement of
the apartment and one day I went down to get a load that finished drying as I started to fold I realized all of my Undergarments bras and panties were gone another week I had a mail friend over from school and his tires got slashed during the visit by the time the first letter arrived I had already started making plans to move elsewhere the letter described a love for me that had been going on for years he noted things that proved he had been watching me closely I was able to arrange for another friend to take
over my lease and I moved in with another friend on the Other side of the city it was a secured building and had an underground parking garage that was only accessible to tenants I felt much more sec here and the extra money spent was well worth the Peace of Mind things were quiet for a few months but then my roommate got a boyfriend most of us were wary of Ashley's new boyfriend from the beginning for one they met on MySpace after he reached out to her another reason was that new boyfriend Matt was Extremely good-looking
and while Ashley was a wonderful person she just wasn't the type of person you would typically expect someone like him to date Ashley was thrilled and she had never had a boyfriend and really felt like he was her prince charming I thought he was weird and creepy from the beginning though Matt was on the quiet side and always seemed to be sporting an uncomfortable learing smile it was difficult to carry on any Sort of a conversation with him because he would always make it weird with some random facts that were completely unrelated to what we
were talking about I had deleted Myspace when the initial stalking began but I created a dummy account to learn more about Matt it didn't look like he really knew any of his friends in real life there were only pictures of himself and the rest of the information was vague my friends and I gently tried to Discourage her from seeing Matt he technically hadn't done anything wrong but he was just so strange she would immediately get defensive and would shut the conversation down matt started to spend more time at the apartment and I found myself finding
any excuse I could to avoid coming home one day I came home from work and I found Matt on my couch alone drinking a beer Ashley had been called into work and she told him that he could just hang out I was Furious Because I didn't want to spend any time with him so I grabbed a beer and a snack and headed off to my room and shut the door about 30 minutes or so he knocked on my door and suggested that we watch some TV and get to know each other better because we both
loved Ashley I didn't want to but I decided that maybe I need to give it a try he put on a movie and I tried to just focus on the movie because I didn't want to talk at one point I glanced over to Matt and he Was staring at me with a smile on his face I snapped what at him and he just continued smiling and said I just can't believe it believe what I asked he said nothing and went back to watching the movie still smiling I had no idea what he was talking about
but the interaction had every hair standing up on my body I excused myself and locked the door to my room another month or so went on and I had managed to avoid being home for much anything beyond sleep and Showering Matt practically lived there and even brought a bunch of his things into Ashley's room I really didn't want to move again but I was beginning to look for other options on their 6-month anniversary I saw a huge bouquet of flowers on the table and an already open card propped up next to it I rolled my
eyes and I was about to leave when I decided to see what the weirdo wrote to her when I opened the card my heart started beating Through my chest without even reading the words he wrote I was shaking the handwriting was exactly the same as the one my stalker had sent I had kept them as evidence and dug them out of my desk for comparison the handwriting was unique and identical Matt was my stalker I called the police first as they were on the way I called Ashley and asked her to come over she was
at work but said she would be there when she could I was terrified to tell Her cuz I knew she would be shattered the police took a statement from me and actually went to Ashley's work to get more information from her and they ended up breaking the news apparently Ashley called Matt and left a furious message even though the cops told her not to do that or or say anything and he completely disappeared after that there was no mat or anyone matching his resemblance at the place that he said he worked Ashley had never Been
to his apartment because he said he had been staying with friends while trying to save money for a trip to Europe his family lived out of state and she had never met a friend of his because he said they had a falling out because he was choosing to spend so much time with Ashley it was all lies and in the end she was daing a stranger we didn't even know if that was his real name the cherry on top of this whole thing was when when we went through Matt's things he had left everything when
he disappeared and Ashley and I started to go through everything there was a duffel bag that was full of gym clothes but in one of the compartments there were about 10 pictures of me all were taken from far away the exception of one of me sleeping the Sheets Were current so I knew I had to have been at the current apartment before I started locking my bedroom Door a few pictures dated Back to Before the incident at my parents house which made us think that was him as well two pairs of my missing underwear were
there and I shuddered to think of what he did with the rest a Starbucks live with my red lipstick marks a necklace I hadn't even noticed missing and a few other random sick souvenirs the police never tracked him down I decided to accept an opportunity overseas that I had been considering and I got the hell out of there unfortunately Ashley and I quickly drifted apart she had a really hard time accepting that her first love was a complete psycho I think I had some underlying anger maybe misplaced for believing all of his lies and letting
him into our lives I don't know what his endgame was would he have tried to hurt me or was he simply content with being in my world I'll Never know being stalked changes you even when I lived across the world I still look over my shoulder everywhere I went I still have no social media accounts attached to my real name I am now married with Children and I know that he moved into apartment and I know that he's probably torturing other women now but every time I visit my hometown I am tense and keep a
low profile part of me will always worry that Matt will resurface again [Music]
