Dim the lights, set out the candles, and get ready for a REAL ghost story.

During my freshman year at New York University I lived in a five-person suite. The suite was separated into a two-person and a three-person bedroom. I lived in the three-person bedroom.

On and off I had noticed eerie shadows and sounds from the room. I attributed them to poor lighting and the thin walls. One of our closets reeked of stale vomit and rotten fruit; it was the closet towards the front door. And though it was the biggest closet there, the last guy to move in ended up getting it because the rest of us couldn't stand that awful stench.

Unbeknownst to me, my suitemates had also been noticing eerie shadows and sounds. None of us said anything until the end of the first semester.

One night, near the advent of Winter Break, James, one of my suitemates, brought up the topic.

"Hey guys, any of you ever notice anything weird going on in this room?"

The damn of silence was finally broken. We all suddenly poured out similar experiences. Most of the stories where the usual, "I thought I saw someone out the corner of my eye" variety. But four main stories have stood out in my mind.

One

The first story happened to my suitemate Mike.

Returning from a full day of classes, he entered the suite and found it empty; the rest of us were either still in classes or at a dining hall. He walked into the three-person bedroom to watch some TV. In his peripheral vision he thought he saw someone walk into the two-person bedroom. Then he heard the door slam.

Believing that his roommate had returned, he walked over there to greet him. He opened the door and the room was dark. A gust of cold wind blew into his face.

Maybe the window is open, he thought. He checked the window and found it closed and locked.

Two

The second story happened to Rafael, a fraternity brother of Mike's and James'.

During Winter Break, Rafael stayed in our suite because he had no where else to go. The entire dorm had only a skeleton crew of administrators and students. Most of the other students, including me, went home for the break.

While he slept, he often heard laughter from the two-person bedroom, a female's voice. Beyond the walls creaking, he also heard footsteps as if there were right next to him. And it was constantly cold in the room, though the windows were all shut and locked.

He never actually saw anything. But when he inquired about the laughter, it was found that no one else was in any of the adjacent rooms, above or below.

Three

The third story happened to me, indirectly.

I was studying for my Spanish class on my bed one night. I remember doing some of the exercises before drifting off to sleep. The only other person in the suite was Mike. He was on my computer doing his Computer Science homework.

He walked out of the room for a minute to grab a soda from the vending machines downstairs. When he left the room, he kept the bolt open so the door could not shut all the way. The door automatically locks itself if shut. We would keep the bolt open so we could leave the room without our keys.

The next thing I remember is my Mike pounding furiously on the door. He shouted that I locked him out. I was sleeping the whole time though. To this day, he still blames me for locking him out and trying to scare him.

Four

The fourth story also happened to me.

I was alone in the room. I was at my desk, doing some homework. After a few hours, I got bored and called up my brother. While talking to him, I swiveled around to face the wall behind me.

I heard some papers rattle. I turned around and noticed all of my homework on the floor. After I picked up the papers, I checked the windows; they were closed and locked. I passed it off as nothing and faced the opposite wall again.

My desk lamp was casting my shadow along the wall. As I talked, I suddenly saw my shadow move across the wall.

I turned around and was faced with an eyeful of bright light; my desk lamp had been twisted upwards with the light bulb now facing me.

A surge of chills froze me there for a moment. Even as I write this, I'm feeling those chills again. I hung up the phone and ran down to the common room. I didn't return to the room until my suitemates came home.

. . .

I ran into a guy who was living in that same room two years later. For kicks, I asked them about any eerie shadows or noises.

"Oh, yea, the ghost," he said ever so casually. He didn't have any significant experiences beyond moving shadows and slamming doors. But he confirmed that another generation of suitemates were all going through the same frightening experiences we did.

. . .

Do you have any real ghost stories?