It was August 18th when I moved into Berry Residence Hall. It was a pretty normal day for Charleston — the weather was warm and humid and the traffic was horrendous.
I was so unbelievably excited to move into my new home for the next school year and meet all of my suitemates. I remember walking into my suite and thinking that this was the beginning of a new chapter of my life. Sure enough, it's been a hell of a new chapter.
All of the strange occurrences, that are now considered the norm for the third floor, I began experiencing since my first night here. It all started with the noises.
And when I say noises, I don't mean hearing your neighbors' conversations or hearing things drop from the next room over. I'm talking about tapping on the walls, hearing footsteps, creaking of a door, and the classic sound of marbles rolling on the ground noises.
How do I know that the strange noises aren't just loud neighbors?
My dorm is between two maintenance rooms that haven't been opened since we've moved in. Now, originally, I was told that this was the worst of the worst — that the scariest thing that happened to residences who lived here was the sound of the marbles rolling next to your bed.
These were things that I thought I would eventually become accustomed to over time, and honestly, I have. But nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.
It was a Saturday afternoon and two of my suitemates were hanging out in the dorm with me. One of my suitemates and I decided to go do some laundry while my roommate was on the phone with her sister. Understandably, I'm still getting used to having to carry my key around and I realized I left it in the suite.
As soon as I open the door to grab my key, my suitemates' door starts to slowly creak open, like doors tend to do in all of the good horror movies, and I see a shadow darting back and forth across the wardrobe. At first, I assume it's my roommate in the bathroom walking around until I see her sitting at her desk, Facetiming her sister.
The overwhelming feeling of dread and adrenaline that ran through me is almost indescribable. I've never understood the term "frozen in fear" until this moment.
After bolting from the room and leaving my roommate to fend for herself, I had already decided that there was no way I could live like this. I couldn't possibly stay in a place where I was constantly in fear of seeing shadows or hearing nonstop tapping on the walls. I was absolutely sure that I was never going to spend a night in this suite, on this floor, or in this building again. Yet, here I am, writing this article, and listening to the sound of tapping on the wall.
I'm not really sure if this story has an ending yet or if I'll ever have a paranormal experience to this degree again. All I do know is that I really would have appreciated some sort of warning or disclaimer to coexisting with the paranormal at Berry Residence Hall.
So, consider this my warning to you. It doesn't matter if you believe in spirits or ghosts or if you think it's just a wild rumor that surrounds Berry, the noises, shadows, and kid's laughter are all very real and very present in the halls of Joe E. Berry.
