My name is Garrett and this took place when I was a sophomore in college. When I didn't get a dorm after freshman year I scrambled for off-campus housing. I ended up in a Co-op part of a three house community, that was sort of near campus but not really; it wasn't ideal but it was cheap and I didn't have many options plus I had a bike so I didn't really mind the extra travel time.
Most of the residents were young students like me but there were few exceptions; there were a handful of alumni one or two and few older people ....getting their degrees later on in life but the person who immediately stood out to me was an older woman... who lived on one of the other houses; from what I could tell she was maybe in her late 50s even though she looked little older than that, she had graying hair and walked with a sort of limp like she had some kind of back injury. She was really quiet and mostly kept to herself and she always had this blank expression on her face. I assumed she had some kind of connection to the university faculty or maybe an alumni but no one explained and I didn't ask.
The first time; I saw her do something strange was in our common kitchen, which was a little weird to begin with because the two other houses had their own kitchen so I wasn't sure why she had be hanging out in hours, she wasn't cooking or eating or even talking to anyone; she was just standing there, while the rest of us were talking and running around making dinner and listening to music. She didn't try and join in she just watched us blankly.
Part of me got the feeling that she was watching me specifically, even though I knew that was unlikely no one acknowledged her, which I thought was a little weird too maybe they knew something I didn't.
Later that week, I was doing some homework in my room when I saw her again, I glanced out my bedroom window and there she was staring up at me as if that wasn't strange enough. By itself, she wasn't even on the sidewalk, but rather in the middle of the street, it was getting late and it was recently cold too. So she must have been freezing out there. I couldn't tell if she was looking into my window or just in the general direction of the house, but I felt like she was staring at me specifically, I don't know why I did it, but I waved at her trying to be friendly. The moment I did, I instantly regretted it. She didn't wave back instead, she jumped up-and-down a few times like she was excited and then ran towards one of the other houses, presumably harsh. I felt kind of sick not only had I acknowledged her, but I had confirmed that she had been looking into my room the entire time and even if she hadn't she now knew which one was mine.
Later that night, I asked one of my housemates about her, he told me that that woman had always been there and I should try my best to ignore her like the rest of them did. I inquired further about her, but the guy generally don't know anything and said he was just repeating what someone had told him when he moved in, it didn't sit right with me. So I asked around until I got some semblance of an answer.
One of the seniors in the specific house she lived in, told me that she was associated with the university and was a little kooky. But that she didn't have a history of violence or getting physical. I asked him why no one found that as strange as I did. And he told me that she really couldn't control who live there, as that decision was up to the property manager. I wasn't fully satisfied with that answer, but there was nothing I could do. So I tried to just block her out of my mind, but then it got worse.
One night I walked out of my room and nearly ran into her. She was in the hallway. Standing right in front of my door I literally jumped back because she caught me off guard, it was past midnight on like a Tuesday, so the house was mostly dead. She didn't say anything when she saw me, she barely even reacted instead, she just turned and walked away as if I were the one who had intruded on her.
I'm not going to go into every little detail, but there were several more occurrences like that one where I caught her either snooping somewhere where she had no businesses being or doing something she had no business doing at some point I lost my room key. All 3 houses had once been part of the same hotel. So the rooms had personal locks and keys. I am someone who couldn't sleep comfortably, knowing someone could just walk into my room, so losing my key was a big deal. Everyone had a spare, including me. But I was pissed because I had have to go make a copy of the key and that was an extra annoyance couldn't afford at the time.
A few nights later, I woke up randomly in the night, I wasn't sure why, at first, but then I heard it, there was a soft bumping coming from my closet every 20 seconds or so it sounded like something shifting behind the door like something was moving inside of my closet. I am not one to scare easily and I'm definitely not one to be hopeless in a dangerous situation So I was going to deal with this myself, quietly got out of bed and took a deep breath, I slowly walked over to the closet, trying to keep my breathing under control. My heart was racing in one fluid motion I ripped the closet door open and screamed like a crazy person, just as I expected, the woman was in there, she had one of my ties wrapped around her neck and her eyes were open wide. She holding a kitchen knife with her other hand my screem must have startled her, because before I could react, she lunched at me with a knife outstretched again, only this wasn't pretend it was a scream of pure fear, I wrestled her to the ground and was able to grab her pretty easily given how frail and small she was that. Didn't make the situation any less terrifying, though she kicked and fought and bite as I pinned her to the ground. Screaming the whole time I yelled for help, and I heard some doors slam, followed by some of my housemates running down the hall, my friend Lee immediately helped me immobilize the woman and the two of us kept her pinned while someone else called the police, the rest of the night was a blur.The police got there quickly and arrested her on the spot. By that point, she had stopped screaming but she refused to say anything either which was extremely unsettling, the cops found by room key wity her real big shocker there.
A few weeks later, we got our answer about who she was apparently... she was the property manager's sister who he had been letting live there under the radar. She had several mental health issues and instead of getting her proper care, he had just thrown her into one of the unoccupied rooms, I believe the property manager was eventually arrested for negligence and a sue of other things and rightfully, so I honestly blame him so much more for what happened than her. If anything I feel bad for her, but my pity won't erase the fact that she tried to kill me, I could have lost my life that night and I have no idea why she seemed so interested in me specifically, but I can only hope nothing like that ever happens to me again.
I am graduating soon and I am definitely going to miss college but I don't think I will ever able to look back at my time here without thinking about that.