my apartment

I had just come back from my trip to Barcelona and was dead tired. I was interning in Munich and used to travel on weekends. I was texting my girlfriend the pics i took from my phone of the historic Spanish city and was lying to her that the trip was boring as she wasn't there with me. 

It was 8pm, Apartment was a mess and I still had some energy left after all the drinking and travelling that weekend. I cleaned up the room with all the energy i had left. My other flatmate was never home as his 40 year old gf was pregnant ( that was his horror story :P ) 

I usually locked the door and turned all the lights off, before finally going back to my room at nights, as it is rude to waste energy in Germany ( unlike here in America). I was texting while laying down in bed when my body decided to give up and i dozed off unaware. 

2:30 am, same night. 

I was in a dreamless sleep until I hear someone whisper. At first I could not understand what exactly were the words. The whisper soon started getting louder (still whispering) - ''Auf''. My sleep was disturbed but I wasn't completely awake. "AUF" the whisper started growing in volume and felt closer. I could feel the moisture around my ear. This continued for a minute or two until I slipped out of my sleep with pounding heartbeat when a final loud angry deep voice right next to my ear went " OFFFF !!"

I woke up, sat up on the bed shocked ! ( To be honest I was a little  scared but there was nothing weird in the room ). I realized that I had fallen asleep and my lamp was still turned on. I thought, maybe My mind is unconsciously trying to wake me up and turn off the lamp. ( Energy conservation bi***es ! ) 

So, I get up and turned off the lights and hit the bed again. My heart was still racing. As I am about to sleep again, I see at the bottom gap of my closed room door. I could see light seeping in. A quick shadow in the light had grabbed my attention. 

I decided to go and have a look around the house to see if my flatmate was back and might have turned the lights on. I opened the door to find that All the lights/fans/appliances were turned on by the switches. Each and every room. Even the bathroom and balcony. 

"Swen ? Are you here?", I asked with a loud stable voice. I was hoping he was back and checked his room to find he is not there and soon checked the lock of the main door and it was locked. I still have no idea how I gathered the courage that night. Mumbling prayers I started switching off all the lights. That night I was faster than light. Within few seconds I turned off all the lights of the apartment and finally ran back to my room and turned off the lamp once again and hit the bed before my room was dark. I was terrified and forced myself to sleep again by convincing myself that I was the one who might have left the lights ON which was highly unlikely. The rational engineer self of me convinced myself that I might have forgot somehow and forced myself to sleep. 

Next day: I started off my day normally. Had bought some gifts for my gf and took some pictures of the same to send it to her later. Came back from work in the evening and thought of sending the pictures to her. 

And there it was:
 one the most terrifying moment was when I opened my camera pictures folder. I had pictures of me sleeping taken from the front camera with a blur in front of my clueless sleeping face. (3 pictures of me sleeping and 4 pictures of the room all between 2:14 am and 2:17 am). 

I was numb and remembered the whole "OFF" and 'lights' incident that happened  the previous night. I thought of rationalizing again but this time I gave up. If i am asleep, I had to unlock my phone ( had a complicated pattern swipe to do that then open the camera app, take my pics with eyes closed without missing my face in the frame, then switching to back camera and and taking pics of my room ??) I sometimes sleep talk but this was out of question. 

Could not sleep for days. Maybe my fear was induced somehow but I felt someone watching me all the time. 

I decided to track the incidents and would deliberately arrange furniture and stuff in my room in a certain way and take a picture before leaving for work. The confirmation that there was someone/something else present was certain when almost everyday when I came back from work and get into my locked room ( used to lock it with my separate key so that no one can enter if at all it was a prank ) and found either the chair or the laptop or the light/fan was on/ or at the different place or orientation from how i left it before leaving for work. 

I got a clear warning and decided not to investigate further and before I turn crazy, I decided to leave the apartment and live someplace else. It was not a surprise that within a week Swen said he never got good vibes from that apartment and had decided to leave too when I told him I wanted to leave.

Within 2 weeks both of us were out of that place.