Something is Wrong in my Apartment...

Hey Reddit, I’m going to post this story here because I’m not sure any other sub would take me seriously. Something really strange and scary happened in my apartment and I’m looking for answers. I'm not sure what it is, but something is definitely not normal here.

A week ago, I moved into an apartment for college. I’m a sophomore this year, so I was able to get one of the university-owned apartments on the south end of the campus. They aren’t super nice, but they’re way better than the one-room dorm I had to live in last year. On move in day, I went to the community center and got my official check-in sheet, and it looked pretty basic. It had all your standard college-housing rules on it; no alcohol, no loud noise after 10:00 PM during the week, etc. The only thing that really stuck out to me was a rule regarding windows- it said that the windows always had to remain closed. That sounded kind of inconvenient since it was August and it’s still pretty hot out, but when I asked the resident advisor, they said it was because the campus had an issue with birds coming in and nesting through open windows a few years back. As silly as that sounds, I accepted that the rules were the rules.

My first night in the apartment was fine. My three roommates and I got along well, and we stayed up pretty late playing Cards Against Humanity. The next day was the beginning of a heatwave- it got up to around 98 degrees Fahrenheit, and this is a Midwestern state! We figured there’d be a variance on the whole windows rule for a situation like this, so we opened one of them up and put in a box fan.

That night we all went to bed around 1:00 AM, but I ended up getting up again to pee. As soon as I got up I noticed this smell in the whole apartment- it’s only a three room thing, but this smell was just oppressive. It smelled like something burning, that kind of acrid and bitter scent, but with an undercurrent of bleach. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from in the apartment, so I figured it had to be coming from outside. Maybe one of the frat houses had a bonfire or something. I went to go close the window, and that’s when I saw one of my roommates, Caleb. He was just sitting on the couch in our apartment, eyes completely glossed over, staring at the TV. He had been on a Friends binge earlier, so I figured maybe he hadn’t gone to bed when the rest of us did and fallen asleep. I touched his shoulder and he startled a bit, but I asked him about the smell. He said he could smell it too but had no idea what it was, so we decided to tough it out and go back to sleep.

The next night was another scorcher so we left the fan in the window. Campus cops didn’t come tell us to take it out, so we figured we could get away with it one more time. Again we went to bed late at night, but I woke up to the sound of the TV going. Usually I’d just brush it off, but since we’re paying for utilities I decided to go make sure Caleb hadn’t fallen asleep by the TV again. I got out there and there he was, in front of the TV with the same glassy look on his face… but the TV wasn’t right. It was playing Friends again, but it kept playing the same scene over and over again. Joey would come into the coffee shop, say something to Monica, and Ross would laugh. After three run-throughs of just that scene, it finally froze on Ross laughing- it just played this mechanical-sounding laughter over and over again. It freaked me out but I figured that our Netflix had just crashed after too long a session, so I turned off the TV and got Caleb to go to bed again.

The next night, we left the fan in, and everyone slept soundly as far as I know. But three days ago, things got really weird.

This time, my roommates Austin, Allen and I all woke up because of a thumping sound. It wasn’t a constant thumping, it was more of a soft, thudding sound with no real rhythm to it. Just an occasional thud, a pause, two thuds, a longer pause, and then another thud. We went out to the living room to see what was happening, and we found Caleb just standing against the wall, backing up and walking back into it. He seemed like he was sleepwalking- just constantly stepping back and then stepping forward into the wall. The TV was still on, casting a blueish light over the room. It looked like Friends had been playing, but now it was frozen on a shot of Monica screaming at something. I thought that Caleb had paused it, but the TV didn’t respond to anything from the remote control.

Just as we pulled Caleb back from the wall, we noticed the smell again. It was stronger this time- the burning smell seemed to permeate the entire room, and somehow it smelled like we’d just bleached the entire floor. Suddenly the TV kicked back on and unfroze itself, but the audio and frames didn’t match up. We heard Monica screaming at something while on the screen, she was walking towards a door, grabbing a jacket and then going out. Then the whole screen went black.

At this point, we thought that Caleb had a serious sleep walking problem, so in the daylight hours we told him everything that had happened. He claimed that he didn’t remember any of it, but said that he’d look into getting some medication. We thought that would be the end of it all.

Then last night, everything went to hell.

We woke up because we heard the thudding again- Caleb wasn’t in his bed, so we went out to the living room/kitchen to find him just scrubbing the countertop. Every once in a while he’d stub his toes on the wall or the cupboards, making the thudding sound. He was just scrubbing away at nothing, and his toes had been stubbed so many times they were starting to bleed. Austin, clearly starting to get a little frustrated at losing sleep, grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to wake him up. Caleb made a jerking motion like he’d just been hit by a truck and started screaming. It was just one loud, drawn out scream that sounded like it held all the pain in the world. Then he suddenly stopped and threw down the scrubbing rag. He looked Austin dead in the eye and said, “He’s going to clean you right up, you ungrateful bastard! He’ll scrub you ‘till you bleed!” Then he ran right out the door. We put on shoes and tried to follow him, but he was gone. We looked around everywhere and called the campus police to report him, but they just told us that they’d keep an eye out for him.

As soon as we hung up, the burning, bleachy smell came back stronger than ever before. We were starting to get a little bit nervous that it was some kind of leak or malfunction from our kitchen, so after double checking the oven, we went back to bed, leaving Allen up to watch for Caleb.

This morning Austin and I got up to the sound of sobbing and deep voices. Allen was in the living room, sitting at our table with a police officer with his head in his hands. Apparently, Caleb was found dead on a country road about two miles from our campus. The officers suspected a hit and run, as his body was in pretty bad shape, but noted that it was strange how clean the body looked. There was no dirt or blood or anything on him, they said. It was like he had taken a shower right after having his organs ripped out and his spine broken.

The officer finished telling us this, and as we took it in in shock, he looked over towards our window with the box fan and went stiff.

“What is that window doing open?” He asked us sternly. The sound of the fan faded into the sound of Allen sobbing.

“It’s just so hot, we thought we could put a fan in the window. Our roommate just died, are you really going to drill us for a little violation like that?” I asked him.

“This campus has rules, and we expect that those rules will be followed!” The officer yelled back. With that he got up, ran over and pulled the fan out the window, and finished the show with a slamming of the window shut.

“Now you boys keep these windows closed! I’ll be back here later to question all of you, and it better not be open when I get back!” And then the officer left.

I don’t know what to make of this, Reddit. Allen said that Caleb never had any problems with sleep walking or dementia or anything like that, and they grew up together. And why was that police officer so mad about the window being open? I don't know what's going on here, but the officer should be back for questioning in a few hours, so hopefully I can slip in some questions of my own. I’ll do a follow up post after that.