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Stony Brook University 1996:
There have been some interesting happenings here on Long
Island. I was not sure which one to share and maybe I'll share
them all. This particular tale takes place on the Stony Brook
University Campus. I attended school at SUNY Stony Brook.
Me, my future husband, and my best friend all lived in the
same dorm building.
It all started one night when I was up in my friend Darcy's
room chatting on the Internet around 2AM. She had just gone
into the bathroom when her computer went dead. I looked up
when her room lights went dead but I could still see the hall
lights under the door were on. Then they went dead too. Now
the weird thing is I happened to have a flashlight in my pocket
and I had been about to ditch it before I went to her room
but for some reason unknown to me I put it back in my pocket.
It was bulky and a bit uncomfortable. I turned on my flashlight
as Darcy screamed, having found herself in a dark bathroom
all alone. I went to go get her with my light and we went
back to the room.
Now if you know anything about dorms, you will know that
students are up at all hours of the night and you would expect
heads to pop out of doors at the blackout. The halls were
dead quiet. We became uneasy sitting in a dark room so I suggested
going downstairs to the lobby as there was a generator and
more students would be around. We made our way down the stairs
and noticed all the other floors were out too. Everything
was so quiet you would think you were lost somewhere in the
twilight zone. As we reached the bottom of the stairs we heard
a middle to high-pitched male voice say "Meow".
I thought it was some sort of prank so I yelled back up the
stars "Hey there are you out up there too? There was
no response. I asked it who it was and a few more silly remarks.
Darcy was absolutely petrified for some reason and started
backing away calling me to come with her. The man or thing
started walking down the stairs real slow you know like "thump"
"thump". I didn't like the way it sounded and his
feet were really heavy.
Needless to say we bolted through the lobby (no one there
of course) and ran up the other stairway. We got to Darcy's
room and found the door ajar. We were pretty sure that had
been locked so I went in and checked all the corners. There
was no one there. We got in the door and had just locked it
when we heard those footsteps again. They echoed down the
hallway and stopped outside our door. I could see the shadow
of feet underneath the door. After what might have been a
few minutes of fright I yanked open the door. At that point
the footprints were still visible under the door but when
I swung it open no one was there. It was at that moment that
the lights all came back on and about 10 students came out
of their rooms asking if the lights had gone off for a second.
Nothing happened the rest of the night and it was at least
6 months until another episode took place. This was the one
with my future husband John. John and me were sitting in his
dorm room talking and playing chess at around 4AM. I had just
net him a few weeks ago and we were sharing ghost stories
and the like. I was telling him about this phenomenon that
had happened to me before that I termed Mr. Meow. Anyway as
I was relating this story, which also happened in the same
dormitory, we both heard a scratch at the door. This was a
rather loud and forceful scratch. Then the phone rang. After
a few rings the scratch would start again and it went on like
this over and over. On the third scratch John opened the door,
right in the middle of the noise. The scratching continued
for a split second but no one was there. I then picked up
the phone. There was a man on the phone literally chanting
something strange and rhythmic. I handed John the phone and
he told me he heard the chanting stop abruptly and there was
silence. He gave the phone to me and it started again. After
some time went by with no scratches we decided that we were
going to make a run for my room as I had a test in the morning
and needed sleep somehow. Being the protective big guy he
is he volunteered to run with me. We sprang out of the room
and made it to mine with no obstacles. The halls were empty.
I turned in and went to my bed. My roommate was snoring and
it made me feel a little bit better to hear normal noises.
I lay down and within seconds heard the clicking of my magnetic
closet door being opened and closed. I knew that sound well
from being a student. I then felt, by my feet a huge weight
sit down on the bed. I felt its rear end (I guess) touch and
lean on my feet like someone sitting at the foot of the bed.
I sat up a bit and actually saw the depression it made in
the bed but without anything to fill it. Too scared to scream
I threw my blanket over it and it hung in the air with the
approximate shape of the figure. I grabbed my keys and my
book, both lying near the door and bolted. Needless to say
I spent the whole night downstairs in the lobby studying.
Well actually that is not entirely true. I did intend to
study, or at least to distract my mind a bit. There was maybe
1 person in the laundry room down the hall and the rest of
the lobby was empty. It was 5AM so this was not altogether
strange. After a few moments I started to get the creeps again,
you know that feeling if you have ever experienced anything
yourself. Everything got really quiet. There were 2 doors,
one on each end of the lobby. They both opened and slammed
shut at the exact same time. I froze in place for a few moments
but felt increasingly like I was being watched. It was coming
from behind me against the wall. Quickly I jumped up and turned
around.
The only interesting thing of note was a weird balloon shaped
shadow that I could not explain. I tried to find what was
making the shadow. It was huge like a balloon half my height.
I stared at it, trying to figure out its source. It began
to wiggle back and forth faster and faster until it was a
blurry frenzy. It was much like Jacob's ladder but without
a face. I ran out of the building as the sun was starting
to come up and ended up walking around campus the rest if
the night. When I got back it was around 7 AM and things just
felt safe, I do not know what it is about daylight and ghosts
but it usually seems to work.
The next morning I spoke to John and he said he had been
hearing strange things in his room too but he did not have
nearly as rough of a time. Later on that day I was alone in
my room and I called up another friend of mine to tell her
about the story. As I was talking to her I hear, inches above
my head, squeaking noises as if someone was rocking an old
and creaky rocking chair. It got louder the more I spoke until
I was sure I would see one right over my head doing a ghostly
back and forth. As soon as I stopped discussing the events
the noise died down. At this point I was cowering on the floor
in pieces between the sleep deprivation and the events being
fresh in my mind.
I am actually getting a chill writing this down, as I have
been rather selective with when and where I tell this story.
There were other little things that happened, I had some shells
on my desk and I would see them being moved around in the
evening whenever I was alone. It would start slow and get
faster ad faster until I got so scared I would leave the room.
I also had something happen outside the dorm. I was returning
to my room late one night and as I was walking through the
parking lot I heard a rather high pitched female voice say
"Meow" at me from somewhere in the parking lot.
It was exactly the same inflection and tone used in the original
Mr. Meow incident. None of these "meows" were cat
meows; it was like a human mimicking the noise. I could not
se anyone around but it felt so eerie that I ran straight
in and upstairs to my room. No sooner did I get in but I heard
a scratch at my window. This time it sounded like someone
was setting a ladder up against my window. I was on the second
floor. I rushed over to the window thinking it was a break
in, but there was no one there. I also checked for trees that
may have made the noise, but there were none nearby and only
concrete below me.
Anyway I got so sick of this that I finally talked to it
despite warnings from my mother and friends that it could
somehow hurt you. It was on the night of a very important
exam and it was moving the shells again, I had nowhere to
go and desperately needed to sleep so I finally told it that
I would try to leave a part of the room alone if it cuts that
noise down to a minimum because I needed to sleep. It seemed
to work and the episodes really calmed down. Eventually they
went away altogether. Of course there have been other strange
occurrences but none related to what I now term the "Mr.
Meow Saga".
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