The Haunted Dorm Room

From: Holly (cupid14@charter.net)
Story type: Ghost
Location: In college dorm room
Source: Form Submission

During July in the summer of 2001, I went to music camp at the University of Maine in Orono. My roommate and I were both believers in ghosts and we frequently shared stories of paranormal experiences. I didn't think, though, that we'd be experiencing such things there.

I like to stay up real late reading, so I'm not sure if I was losing my mind or what, but then again, I'm used to being up late. I remember that I was reading a magazine and everything was quiet. My roommate was asleep. All of a sudden, my bed, the whole bed, shifted, as if being moved from someone's way. I was quite shaken, so I was, for a second, paralyzed, until I was sure it was safe to move. I looked around at the bottom of the bed and tested ways that I may have moved it, but found no possible way that I could have moved it, or have come from imagination. I left it alone for the night and went to sleep.

The next night, I didn't stay up late. I decided that maybe I should have gotten some rest the night before. That was an inaccurate guess. What I needed was an exorcist or something, though no spirits were proven to be an immediate threat. In the middle of the night, I awoke to the sound of someone or something tapping on the desk behind my head. I froze, then worked up the courage to spin around and look. Nothing. I could see nothing, but the tapping stopped as soon as I had looked. Then, again, I decided to lay down and pretend to be asleep. It started tapping again. I could do nothing but listen until I could fall back asleep.

The following night, I stayed up a little, but quickly fell asleep. After a bit, I woke up again to see the shape of a man standing on my roommate's bed. She was sleeping. I wondered how she couldn't feel the pressure of the foot of the bed sinking beneath his feet. This time, I talked to him, and asked him not to stand on my friend. He nodded and descended to the floor. Shaken but unharmed. I sat talking to the spirit, who didn't do anything but nod and shake his head. I stuck to yes or no questions. I didn't get much of an explanation as to why he was there.

The next day, though, I learned from our Conducting teacher that during the year, there had been two cases of suicide from postal students. One was a girl who jumped off of one of the dormitories, the other was a guy who took a walk out into the woods behind the dorms and shot himself in the head. Whether or not these two suicides had anything to do with the hauntings, I do not know. But they did provide further insight as to what the possibilities were that the hauntings were ex-students of the University.

I did tell my roommate about these so-called sightings, and she asked me what I did about them. Of course there was nothing I could do. Our room was the only room with complaints about ghosts and I didn't have any idea as to what was going on with this particular ghost. It may have been the one that shot himself. I'm still not quite sure. But the sightings did leave haunting memories. And after I found out about the students, the ghosts never came back. At least not for a while.