“I Know You Are”
By: CaspHer
November 20, 2018
So, she thought someone was in her apartment after she heard someone say, “I know you are” while she frantically packed an overnight tote bag. She had intensions of sleeping at her friend’s apartment to calm down to make sense of what had just happened. She was just down to her boxers and bra when she heard that male voice responds after she yawned. Like anyone else after a night of socializing with friends, she was clearly tired, yawned and said, “I’m tired” and heard something or someone say, “I know you are.” In the blink of an eye, she was fully clothed and ready to leave her shadow behind after grabbing a cane, phone and keys.
No, she was not hearing things despite her slow yet progressive hearing loss alongside her blindness. What she heard was pretty loud and clear. She had not ever had anything like this happen before. She grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and understood that Massachusetts is one of the most popular states for haunted visits. People pay to get scared while this woman only had to be alone in her apartment in south east Minneapolis for natural scares.
Little did whoever it was knew, she carried a weapon in her leg strap beneath her jeans. It was a long and pointed metallic device she had anticipated using on anyone who deserved it. She took mixed martial arts class was taught to never go easy on her attacker. She was trained to defend herself by her brother who served in the Army and her best friend from the U.S Marines. Both men told her to only use her strength when needed, never just for fun. This was a time where she was going to utilize what she’d learned on whoever snuck in with intensions to hurt her. Her fists and any body part were clearly an unregistered weapon to anyone seeking trouble. She preferred not to use her physical weapons at all in most cases. A shove of detest by the throat was a clear warning to leave her alone. It was the attacker’s choice if they chose to continue.
Unfortunately, this was not a person! It was a spirit that followed her home from St. Paul at a karaoke join in downtown St. Paul! She could not choke this to death single handedly. She needed something stronger than her body. She got in contact with Father John at a church nearby in south east Minneapolis after noticing more weirder things happening. In her three-bedroom apartment, she noticed dark spots in parts of the house, dark spots meaning “cold” spots. After explaining something and hoping she wasn’t going to be called crazy, Father John agreed with her that something very malicious had indeed come home with her. Father John told her that she was gifted with the ability to discern things like that wherever she traveled. Her ability to read energies in spaces was something many people studied many years to acquire. He blessed every corner of the house along with her and told her that her ability to “see” will be with her forever.
She’s a strong woman with many things against her since the day she was born in Florida and is still not afraid to travel anywhere in the world. She feels protected by something unknown. She is a very smart and informative person while dealing with many odd happenings. She doesn’t deal with these incidents on a regular but as they arrive, she is startled.
Her mother told her and her siblings as they grew up about going out and returning home at certain hours. The lesson was that if someone went out and returned home, never come back at midnight as the midnight hour was not for “humans” and that it was ideal to wait if they could. This saying may not make sense to many but for those of you who’ve heard it, you’ll understand. If you do come back within the hour od midnight, you’ll bring something home with you without realizing and begin to experience odd happenings at home or wherever you went. In order to remove whatever bad vibes that were brought in, you needed to sage/ cleanse that space. Her mother always said that no matter how cold or hot, it was best to leave a window cracked. If you leave a window cracked, whatever came in with you MUST get the hell out of your house. That is your space and you pay to be in there, not the bad vibes. Ultimately, whatever came in with her refused to leave until Father John and she prayed it out. She did not want to do anything because She was not sure what type of energy, she accidently took home. All she knew is that it was malicious and no good and that it needed to leave HER space immediately!
Her mother said that anytime she or any of her sons and daughters got their own house or apartment, they needed to cleanse every corner of the space as they’re unaware of what energy awaits them once they’re all settled. Or in this women’s case, get someone like Father John to bless each and every corner (closets included) of that space. Her mother was particularly concerned for the daughter living with deafness and blindness whenever she traveled more than her other sighted and hearing sons and daughters who barely traveled independently. These practices are not for anything malicious. They’re designed to clear out dusty ass auras from people with bad intensions pretending to be good people while they suck at life. If you sage your house more often, you’ll keep the dusty vibes out! If you pay bills and rent, you deserve to feel comfortable in the space you rest your head at, there should not be any questions about that. You should feel comfortable sitting on your toilet even if you aren’t doing a number 2. You’re in any part of your house because it’s yours and you pay to be in there.
Before Father John visited, she smelled cigar in her second bathroom and she was not a smoker, and neither were her friends who rarely visited during the week. Her pals visited for dinner a few times and noticed her second bathroom was cold even without windows and smelled like cigar. They brought it to her attention and she noticed it long before and was confused as to why the smell got stronger at times. Deep down, she knew what was going on and did not want to alert anyone. She dealt with the situation undercover. It took a while to resolve but it was handled.
She was honest about her feelings and she admitted that she was afraid for her safety and her pal’s safety. She stopped having people over until the situation got fixed. If she were a malicious person, she would let them keep coming over. In this case, she cared enough for everyone else and decided to host dinners at her friend’s house and they were more than happy to allow it. As an end result, they always got the rest of the cookies and food for the next day, that was a jackpot.
Though she had one friend who questioned her story and decided to sleep over at her house. Needless to say, neither of them slept because they were all sleeping in the living room. She never slept comfortably, and he was practically awake during the night waiting for weirdness. He was a thrill-seeker, but she needed him to respect her wishes and not provoke anything, let Father John come help her out and have this nightmare be over and done with.
Even after Father John reassured her that the bad spirit was cleaned out, she still felt scared that something was still lurking. She tried to get herself to believe that everything was okay, the residual feelings were from the fear she had experienced for that amount of time. It was well into November in Minneapolis and the apartment got a bit chilly, she turned the heat up for a few hours. She got nestled under a blanket and read a book under the recliner with her friends on the other couch. Her friends were scattered around the space while listening to Pandora and having baked goods. People felt comfortable despite some of the bad arguments people had with one another prior to entering her space. She preferred they leave the anger outside of her house, only come in bearing clear vibes. That was a primary house rule. No dusty auras allowed.
Her friend asked to sleep over again, and she warned him firmly that she was not responsible for anything that happened to him in that apartment. He became super cocky and said, “I believe you, but I need to see this for myself,” and she felt as though he had called her a liar. She warned again, “Dude, we are both two blind people who really could do without the ghostly dramatics, lets drop this instantly,” he insisted. He said, “I am a Christian and I believe in God and that he will protect us all in this building. I want to rebuke whatever is in here,” he started praying. She obviously did not interrupt him from praying but she knew something else was in there. She felt it in her spine and it did not feel good at all. Perhaps it was her residual discomfort, but she did not want to discredit herself as that can be a regretful habit she has since the age of 13. It was a dark, lonely and isolating feeling that kept looming over her whenever she went into that house. If she were anywhere else, she felt better. The energy outside of that space was lighter and more inviting.
Each day as she walked toward her apartment, she felt the dark, heavy energy pulling down on her as she got into the building and into her space. This was not a healthy environment for someone who was born susceptible to these things.
Surely enough as he came back to her house with his overnight stuff and she went to take her nightly shower, she came back and found him standing and facing the couch. He had a petrified tone as he spoke and was instantly relieved when she came out.
“What’s wrong?” she asked but she got the gist of what really happened.
He responded, “Oh-uh…nothing…I was just standing up…”
He began to rock back and forth nervously and poking into his right eye with his right hand’s knuckle. The eye poking and rocking is a “blindism” that some folks who are born visually impaired or totally blind may have. In this case, both of these adults were born blind. She did not have any “blindisms” that were as obvious as his. Her perk was with the mixed hearing loss and blindness where she tends to unknowingly turn or tilt her head to either side when trying to hear.
“Are you sure you want to sleep over despite all of the warnings I gave you?” she asked while prepping her recliner for maximized comfort.
He stands upright, still poking lightly at his eye, “Yes. I will still stay over. I am not scared at all.”
“Okay. I’m just trying to make sure we’re on the same page because I would rather be at your house instead of in here with what seems like something wicked lurking around even after a blessing,” she pulls the blanket over herself after setting up the speaker for music overnight.
The lights were left on in all of the rooms in the apartment and that included the bathrooms. She would deal with the high electric bill over finding something eerie and crazy looming over her.
It was around 4:15am and it was guaranteed that none of them would sleep well. During her very poor quality of sleep, she was awakened by a brisk cold breeze that brushed the backside of her left and right hands. The ice-cold breeze then made its way up her arms and caused her to feel a deep frost all over her body. She began shifting around in her spot and noticed her friend was awake as well and wrapped in his blankets on the couch.
“Dude, did you even sleep at all?”
He pops his head up from the pillow, “Nope. I couldn’t get half a snore of sleep. Feels like something is cold and looming over me,” he began to slowly sit up on the couch where he lay.
Both noticing that the music randomly stops, and the coldness gets intense.
She checks the windows and they’re both tightly closed which leaves no room for breezes to enter the room.
“Hmmm.that’s odd…the windows are tightly closed, and the heater is on but we’re both experiencing chills from out of nowhere,” she explains as she finds her way back to the stretched-out recliner.
He comes to his senses after all with his thick Southern accent, “Well my friend, I’d hate to tell you this, but I think your house is…. haunted by something pretty bad,” he tucks a pillow under his bearded chin.
She glares at him and pauses for a few seconds, “ya think? This is what I’ve been trying to have you avoid but you insisted on being here,” she tosses the thick wool blanket over her shoulders.
He unwraps himself from the blanket and sits upright on the wide couch, “I’m fixin to use the restroom. Be right back,” he shuffles over to the restroom and quickly shuts the door behind him. Minutes later, she hears the door to the same bathroom rattling violently and screaming, “Hey! Help me get out of here! The door won’t open!”
She shoots up from her spot and rushes over to the bathroom he somehow got trapped in. She pulls and pushes on the door. It seemed like something heavy was leaning against the door to keep her out and him trapped inside. While they fought with the door, they both heard what sounded like eerie hissing from inside the bathroom where he was. He screamed louder, and she told him to back away from the door. She was going to kick the door in to let him out. She braced herself for the breakthrough and said again, “Get…back…from the door!” He screams back, “Okay okay…I’m as far away as I can get, just help me get out!”
She kicks the door open so hard, it flew off the hinges with her leg still stuck in it! He of course didn’t move far enough and ends up get swatted by the cheap wooden door. No one got injured except for the door.
His thick Southern accent gets harder to understand, “What the heck was that?”
Her Boston accent makes a heavy appearance, “I have no idea what that was! It was wicked weird!”
She asked if he was okay and he was even though he’d been swatted by the door pretty hard. It seems like the adrenaline blocked off that painful hit by the door and its metal knob.
“You really need to get a new apartment my friend…this is not safe for you at all,” he fixes himself up and returns to the couch where he was laying at.
Before she could sit, he asked if her leg was okay from kicking the hallow wooden door open.
“Yeah, my leg is fine. I don’t mind kicking in more doors, “they both laugh together. By that time, it was already 5:45am and they needed to start getting ready for work. Both of them were going to work at the same place, they would catch the bus together to be on time. Neither of them slept very well at all. Both of them were terrified and took showers with the door open.
This was not the time to be insecure about whether someone heard you singing in the shower as they just wanted to be ready and on time. Both friends wanted to forget about this horrible experience and move along with their lives. They ate breakfast together and left that haunted apartment as the same time.
Later that day, she got a call from her mother on the phone doing her daily wellbeing check-up and they spoke. Her mother could hear that something was wrong, and she broke down and told. Her mother simply said, “You know what to do” and that was all she needed to hear. Yes, she got someone from the church to help her do things the way she believed was okay, but it didn’t seem to fix. Her anxiety was running at a million miles an hour. The best thing to do was leave that building entirely and never go back there again. It was the young lady’s decision to leave and not her mother’s idea.
She still resided in the Minneapolis area, but the South Minneapolis area and it gave her direct access to the buses and such.
It had been nearly a year later since that happened, and she was finally at peace where nothing weird ever occurred again. She got a call from someone else who still lived there and was told that many people were experiencing what she had. At first, they thought she was going crazy and talked about her behind her back for a long time. Before she moved out, everything seemed like it was just her that it happened to. Immediately after she moved out, others were waking up to a sensation of being strangled and physically assaulted out of their sleep and so much worse.
Shortly after hearing from others who once thought horrible things about her, everyone that lived there was suddenly asked to vacate and find another place to live. Some folks left Minnesota while others wound up back with their families in other parts of the state until further notice. It turns out that building had been haunted and the apartment she lived in had a death. Someone died in that apartment she occupied and in that exact bedroom she slept in which explains the cigar smell and the voice she heard when she came home from karaoke. That apartment number was 112 and an old guy died in there and he was an intense cigar smoker. Quickly after his death, they repaired some parts of the space and moved her there within two weeks. She did not get a chance to sage the space which left her with his residual energy which was pretty wicked.
The first few weeks of living there seemed very cool and nice. She felt pretty comfortable there, it was a little before the karaoke party things began to darken very quickly. She was able to spend hours in the three-bedroom apartment alone without any worries. She cooked dinner and invited friends over and everyone seemed okay. No one complained about anything odd. With the exception of the cigar smell that seemed very light at first. After a while, the smell of smoking and cigars intensified as if someone were in the house smoking. Everyone knew she was not a smoker. The smoking scent became the first problem and from then on, everything got dark and distant fairly quickly. She immediately began to hate that house and was no longer happy at all. Her misery showed in her appearance. There was never a day she hadn’t thought about the time she would pack up and leave that now horrible place.
She found other things to do besides going home after work after being released at 4:30pm. From 5pm to 9pm, she was hanging out on Hennipen Avenue in the library reading and writing. After all, if she got hungry, she could just go to Gay90s and grab a bite and some music. If she did not want that, she could have gone to RayJs and they were very close to that apartment.
After her grand departure from misery in a sunny apartment after hours, she has moved on to much better opportunities and had relocated to Massachusetts. She is now a disability advocate and a well-respected photography instructor for the blind and visually impaired. She has found better and positive friends who she is allowed to have better encounters with. She travels more than she has ever done. Though she is still connected to friends in Minnesota, she may never live in South East Minneapolis ever again. The Minnesota Vikings are her favorite and she absolutely loves Caribou Coffee and orders some to Massachusetts very often.
Photo description:
CaspHer is wearing a black fedora hat with the red feather and a military scarf navy blue with the black T-shirt and deep maroon colored pants with vintage shoes. And my background is too acrylic paintings from and Art Gallery in Detroit. The artwork consists of vibrant bright colors.
