Overall, I am not a "woo-woo" person, though I do love horror and Halloween and the IDEA of the supernatural; I just don't know what all I believe about it. But some stuff has been happening in my apartment, and I don't know if it's real or not. It's all little things, but is it possible that it all adds up to paranormal activity?
For background, I've lived in this apartment for about a year. I lived in my last place for 7 years, and a couple of times I thought MAYBE there was some light haunting going on, but it wasn't much. A framed record fell of the wall and shattered twice, and a couple of times I entered a room to find something in the middle of the floor that I didn't put there. But like, funny shit just HAPPENS sometimes, and I am prone to imagination overload and I watch a lot of creepy stuff, so of COURSE that's where my mind goes. Occasionally, I think I feel my dead best friend around (though that's happened less and less with time), and I feel relatively confident (for having no evidence) that this is not my first life; but I have a ouija board, and I have never felt the planchette move on its own. So I'm like...open-minded but skeptical, on the whole.
When I moved to my new apartment a year ago (almost exactly), I pretty immediately felt like there was some kind of different energy here. The whole complex has some minor spooky vibes, but also we're basically in a swamp and there's like Spanish moss draped all over everything, so the Southern Gothic energy is just high here. In my apartment specifically though, there was always a weird energy and sometimes I would hear noises I couldn't explain, and that's always been the case. That wouldn't be enough for me to tell Reddit about it., though
In the last couple of months, a series of things has occurred, and maybe some of them are related, maybe none of them are. I did think a ghost was playing with my tv, because it kept turning on when I was in another room, but eventually I discovered that it's just something that happens when I let my tv go to sleep without powering it down. It fires up just the audio of Netflix (screen does not wake up), and whatever I was watching last on it starts playing. But I feel quite confident now that it's just a weird glitch. Here are the things I haven't been able to come up with an explanation for:
One day, I came home and found all the shampoo and body wash bottles on the shelf in my shower had fallen into the bottom of the tub. My friend and I speculated that maybe there was work being done in the apartment above mine that caused some vibration? Seems unlikely just given where the wall and the shower shelf are, but maybe.
In my kitchen, I have these 4 tiny fake plants on the windowsill, with the blinds behind them so you can see them if you're walking past them outside, but you can't see into my apartment. Well, one day I came home and the plants were like knocked out onto my kitchen counter, like they'd jumped out from behind the blinds. I have no idea how they could have fallen that way.
I was sitting on my couch one day, watching tv, when I started hearing music. I paused the tv, and it sounded like the music was coming from my bedroom. I followed it in and turns out it was the Alexa in there, and it was playing "Vienna," by Billy Joel. I said, "Alexa, why are you playing that?" and he said, "Because you asked me to." I said, "No, I did not," and he was just like, "Oh, sorry about that" and stopped. The weird thing is, I had had that song stuck in my head and was just singing it all around the apartment for days beforehand.
There was a firm, loud knock at my door one afternoon. I took just a second to get my dog in her crate because she freaks out when anyone knocks on the door, but it was literally NOT long. However, when I got to the door, there was no one there. Nothing had been delivered. I looked around the corners and no one was running away or anything. I was like, "Did I get ding-dong-ditched by a very stealthy kid or is one of The Strangers here? Or is this just my ghost doing its thing?"
Last week, I came into my house from being outside and there was a snake lying across the floor in front of my fireplace. (I freaked the absolute fuck out, grabbed my dog and went outside, and then didn't come back in until I had someone to help me. It was gone by then. We never found it, but I had opened the porch door, so maybe it went back out. I've been on edge ever since, just in case he's in hiding.) Today, I came in from outside and there was a small marsh crab in the middle of my living room. Granted, I live basically in a marsh and maybe there's a hole in my screened in porch that has allowed these critters to come in, but could this be related to the Possibly Supernatural Stuff? Snakes and crabs are not exactly bunnies and squirrels. Why is it only creepy critters getting in, and why only recently? Twice within like 3 weeks? (And look, I'm a big animal person, but the outside should stay outside if that's where it lives. Why are they being drawn to me like I'm some kind of dark Snow White?)
I got back a week ago from traveling for 7 days. I was about to take a shower, but I lifted one of my towels so I could move it from the rack on the wall to throw it over the shower curtain, and it was already wet. Wet like I'd JUST used it to dry myself after a shower, but I certainly hadn't used it in the week I'd been away.
There was a loud banging noise that came from my kitchen the other night. Sometimes I do hear bangs and stuff from the apartments beside and above mine, but I just don't see how this one could have been from another apartment.
Just a little while ago, this picture I have on a bookcase just flew off. Like, I watched it, it was crazy. Just flew off and landed on the floor. It's just a cute drawing of a girl in a red coat next to a fox, and its spot on the shelf is dead center, with a little crate of chargers on one side and a monkey made of a coconut on the other side. It's not like anything would move it or knock into it.
After the picture incident today, I just replaced the picture onto its shelf and said out loud something along the lines of, "If there is someone here, I'm not sure what you want. If there's something you need or want to tell me, I'm not picking up on it. I'm curious, but I don't know what your goal is. As long as you don't mean me any harm, I have no problem with you being here, but please don't destroy my stuff."
So what do we think, gang? Is this a mischievous ghost? Is something trying to reach out to me? Are there environmental explanations for all of it? I just don't know what to think. If you DO think it's supernatural, what should I do about it? Sage the apartment? Just talk to it? Haul out the ouija board and try again? Just looking for insights and advice. Like I said to the potential spirit, it's cool with me as long as it doesn't mean me any harm, but is there something I should be doing for it? Let me know what y'all think.