23.
“I lived alone in my first apartment and had been living there for almost a year. I had recently gotten a new neighbor who seemed kind of sketchy, but he minded his own business, so I minded mine. One evening, all the lights were out because I had no ceiling lights (for some reason), and I was just on my bed, kind of looking at the ceiling, not doing anything. … I started hearing some kind of commotion, but my neighbor often had male visitors over for pretty loud sex, so I thought he maybe just had a visitor. All of a sudden, I heard footsteps that seemed to come from inside my apartment, but since it was dark, I couldn’t see.”
“The footsteps came closer, and it became very apparent that they were in MY apartment. Someone was kind of stumbling around, trying to figure out where to walk in the dark. I started hearing the person touching the walls, flicking light switches to turn on the lights, and that’s when I saw the shadow of a person standing in the doorway into my room. I have never felt my body freeze like that before. Some stranger was in my apartment in the dark, walking around. I immediately thought he was going to find me and maybe hurt me, and so I started debating with myself if letting him know someone was home was just gonna get me hurt or maybe scare him off. Out of nowhere, I just let out this pretty loud ‘Hey!’ and he froze. I kept on going with, ‘What are you doing? Can you go out again?’ I spoke in a lower register, which I didn’t know I could naturally speak in. He quickly started apologizing, tried to turn around and find his way out in the dark, and said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Didn’t know anyone lived here,’ and he proceeded to fumble out, to which I fucking replied, ‘Oh, that’s okay. It’s okay,’ in some weird attempt to still be friendly.
When he got out, I caught my breath, freaked out on the inside, and ran to the front door to find out it wasn’t locked. I ran back into my room and saw these two shadows on my wall and heard men laughing. … I couldn’t completely make out what they said, but it sounded like the dude who was in my apartment was kind of nervous and confused, saying, ‘I didn’t think anyone would be in there. You said no one was in there,’ to which my neighbor laughed, and they walked into his apartment. I started crying my eyes out because I had been so prepared to get hurt, then called my dad and freaked out (and he freaked out on my behalf).
The next day, I contacted my housing company. I told them what happened, that yes, my door was unlocked but that it sounded like my neighbor had sent his friend into my apartment, knowing I lived there. They replied and said sorry for the situation, but they were very confused that I had a neighbor since there was not supposed to be anyone living in that apartment at that moment. Then I freaked out about who the fuck this dude and all his friends were, and my housing company acted just as confused but decided not to figure out who he was or why he was there and kind of just let him stay there. I have never felt so unsafe in an apartment before or since.”
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