Footsteps in the Morning

From: 
Story type: Ghost
Location: Chicago
Source: Form Submission

In the spring of 1998, my wife and I drove back to Chicago from Los Angeles to visit a friend of mine from the Marines. At the time, we were pretty poor and couldn't afford a hotel, so his girlfriend was kind enough to offer her place. We gladly accepted...

Her place was on the 3rd floor of an old "Brownstone". Nice & bright and part of it's charm were the hardwood floors. We stayed several nights. The last morning we were there however, things got very weird. At about 8:00am, we were lying in bed talking about the planned day ahead when the deadbolt on the back kitchen door unlatched. I got up and sat on the side of the bed, "Kate, is that you?" No answer... Again, "Kate, is that you? Kate? James??" And then footsteps started. First through the kitchen, then through the living room and down the hall all the way to our bedroom. They stopped at the half closed door... "Jim? Kate? Hello?" Peeking around the door I told my wife that nobody was there. I sat back on the bed and the footsteps started again, this time heading back to the kitchen, retracing the steps it had made. We got dressed & went to the kitchen and noticed the lock was a very old, inside only latch. There was no way anybody could of gotten into the apartment. We both had agreed that there had to be some explanation and just left it at that.

As we were saying our goodbyes, we thanked her for letting us use her place. Jokingly, we told her of our experience and of the strange footsteps... She gasped and turned white! The exact same thing had happened to her on 3 different occasions, at different times of the night. She had never told anybody about it because she thought it was just her imagination. After comparing details it seems it was the same thing time after time. First the latch in the kitchen, then the footsteps (with NO creaking from the old oak floorboards) and them stopping at the bedroom door. A few seconds later they start again, back the way they came with the latch clanking one last time. It spooked us good and she moved two weeks later....