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Try not to have sleepless nights after reading this man's tale about his haunted apartment

Truly terrifying.

Rachel Thompson

on August 11, 2017

When things go bump in the night, many of us try not to fear the worst.

But one chap's tale of scary dreams and strange nighttime happenings in his apartment may make you rethink blaming those weird noises on your plumbing system.

Illustrator Adam Ellis has been tweeting about alleged paranormal activities occurring in his apartment in New York City.

Reader be warned, you're in for quite the scare.

Ellis says his ordeal began with the "ghost of a dead child" haunting his dreams. Because that's not creepy at all.

He said that, for a while, the ghost in his dream just stared at him. But, then "got out of the chair" and began "shambling toward the bed."

A few nights later Ellis had another dream.

In the dream, a girl came up to him and said, "You've seen Dear David, haven't you?"

David comes back, though, according to Ellis. He says that in his dream David is sitting in the rocking chair near the window, staring at him while he's in bed. This time, he decides to ask David a question.

When Ellis asks who pushed the shelf on his head, David doesn't answer.

Ellis tweets that he spends the next couple of days Googling deaths in the city, but can't seem to find anything about a child named David dying in a store.

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Several weeks later, the apartment above his is vacated and he has the chance to move into it. He moves into it, as it's a bigger space. For a month or so, it seems like the days of David haunting his dreams are over.

But, lately, strange things have been happening late at night. Paranormal things, one might say.

Earlier this week, Ellis tweeted that he "had a weird feeling" and so he looked through the peephole. He says he's "certain" he saw "movement on the other side." YIKES.

So, he went to investigate.

He tweeted that he thought David might have found his new apartment.

On Wednesday night, he tweeted that for the sixth night on the trot, his cat had walked over to his front door to stare at it.

He filmed a video of his cat behaving strangely at the door:

Too scared to open the door, he looks through the peephole. Then he takes some photos through the peephole.

He thinks he sees something "out there."

"I deadbolted the lock and got in bed because I don't know what else to do. I can still hear my cat meowing at the door," tweets Ellis.

Ellis made it through the night unscathed.

But, on Thursday night, it happened again. His cat stood at the door meowing.

Then, both cats are at the door.

The story ends with Ellis drawing a line of salt in front of his door.

Sounds like Ellis has a very active imagination.

That said, his tweets make for entertaining/chilling reading. He should probably move apartments just to be on the safe side.

Topics X/Twitter

Rachel Thompson

Features Editor

Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.

A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.

Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.