Scary Next Door Neighbors

I wasn't sure I wanted to post this but now that it is over, and I will never see these people again, I'm not worried so my family can know without them being worried about me.

During college I lived in a different apartment every school year and summer. Most, well all of the places were cheap because, let’s see, I was a poor college student. There was one place that was definitely scarier than the rest. It was an off campus apartment building and during the school year I lived with some friends and when they left for the summer, I moved to the apartment next door to live with some other friends. My new roommates were great. We got along really well. (Except when they would come into my room while I was sleeping and I would yell at them in my sleep. I still feel bad about that. I have now done it to my husband.)

Story 1
One evening I was upstairs reading when one of my roommates called for me. I went down and she was sitting forward on the couch looking at the back door that led out onto a little back walkway. Unless she sat forward she was hidden from view. Someone had come in through the back door and started rifling through her purse sitting on the kitchen counter. At first she thought it was me, I was the only other person home and we hadn’t invited anyone over. She realized I wouldn’t go through her purse so had leaned forward and saw a young man looking through her wallet. She asked him what he was doing and he ran out of the room, to the apartment next door. After a few moments he headed down the back staircase and we never saw him again. We never left the doors unlocked after that, even when we were home.

Story 2
There was one evening when I was home alone and a lot of strange noises drifted over from next door, including screaming and strange thumping noises against the wall. It kept getting louder and louder and then there were people yelling in the parking lot, revving car engines. I broke down and called the police. I told them what was going on and begged that they keep the call anonymous. I sat on my roommate’s bed in a dark room, clutching a knife that was a gift for someone else as I waited for the cops to come. I stayed that way until long after the cops had left and the noises quieted down.

Story 3
Since it was summer the nights were really hot. We didn’t have air conditioning so we often slept with the windows open. It soon became apparent that we would have to chose between staying cool or staying sober. The people next door decided the best place to smoke their illegal pot was on the back porch, under our bedroom window. I had some weirder than normal dreams some of those nights. (I would like to blame my sleep talking on the drugs but I’ve done it for years.)