This revelation sent shivers down Tanya's spine. They had always both been petrified of the supernatural. Tanya tried to reason through it, however, and calm Nat's fears. The building was only a year old, she explained. How could it possibly be haunted? They left the discussion rest there.
The first signs
A few weeks went by and Tanya had forgotten all about their talk. She didn't realize that Nat, who apparently was more perceptive of the apartment's energy, had been suffering in silence.
Tanya learned how deeply this was affecting Nat on the occasion of their joint twenty-first birthday party. It was an early morning hour when they finally got back to their flat from the celebration. Strangely, the lights and lamps were on in Nat's bedroom and the ensuite. Tanya was certain they had switched them all off before they left, but wasn't going to make a big deal about it. Nat, however, stormed into her room and screamed, "For f**k sake, leave me alone, you tormenting b*****d!"
"I was gobsmacked," Tanya says. "What had been going on that I was so oblivious to?"
The first attack
Nat broke down in tears and began to tell Tanya everything she had been experiencing. When she was alone in the flat or in a room apart from Tanya, she would often feel breathing down her neck and get really cold. (The apartment was far from cold, Tanya attests.) Once she went into Tanya's room - the room she dreaded from the first - to get something. She had left the door open, but when she turned to leave, it was not only closed, but jammed shut. She panicked, thinking an intruder was in the apartment, but then felt unseen hands squeeze the back of her neck with violent force. Then the door released. Nat had been so terrified, she left the apartment and waited for seven hours in her car until Tanya came home.
"We hardly slept that night," Tanya admits. "The next morning, I wanted to get out of the flat for some fresh air and time to think. Nat was already ready to go for the day. She made it clear she was afraid for both of us."
Despite their fears, the girls decided to stay in the apartment, and the next few weeks passed without incident. "We figured Nat had made it clear to the presence that she was afraid," says Tanya, "…then the last straw came…."
Next page: The attacks
