What am I experiencing?

[Moonlily]

Hello, all! This is my first time posting. I've had a few weird experiences in my apartment that I can't explain, and wanted to ask your opinions (sorry for the long post). I've lived in a 2br in Brooklyn with my sister and her cat for three years. We only have three neighbors and they're really quiet. Everyone keeps to themselves.

We've always heard odd sounds, but nothing noteworthy. Lately, it's gotten weirder. A few weeks ago, my sister heard a baby crying in our apartment. She's heard it several times at night now. Our walls are really thick and sound doesn't travel, and no one in the building has kids. I have no idea where it's coming from. Then last night, I woke up at 2 a.m. and heard a woman humming loudly in our apartment. I thought it was my sister, even though she never does that. I also heard footsteps, as though someone was pacing and humming at the same time. When I asked my sister about it this morning, she said she had no clue what I was talking about and it definitely wasn't her.

The weirdest thing happened last week on the night of the full moon. My sister and I were sitting in our living room watching tv. It was freezing, even though the heat was on. It was getting late, so I went to lock up before bed. First I locked our patio door (which connects to our kitchen), and then I turned off the kitchen and living room lights. I do the same thing every night. This time, when I got back to the couch, I looked up and saw the shadowy outline of a man standing directly in front of our patio door. I hadn't thought to turn off the outdoor light, since we hadn't used it that day. I don't know why it was turned on. The light was behind the man, thus making it impossible to make out his features.

At first my sister and I thought it was burglar, but it's impossible to reach our patio from the street. And for some reason, we both knew it wasn't a human man out there. It was the right shape and size, but it wasn't moving, and we just didn't get a vibe as if it was a threat. We live in NYC and if someone was on our patio, we'd call the cops and run. But this felt different. We were too scared to open the door and check, but I looked through the blinds and nothing was outside. I feel crazy saying it, but it felt like it was a male spirit who just wanted us to see and acknowledge him. I didn't feel scared for my life, but I felt a little creeped out.

We sit in the living room every single night, sometimes with the patio light on, and we have never, ever seen a shape like that before. We experimented with the lights the next night and couldn't create the same shadow effect. The shadow was so clearly that of a person, and there's no way it was a trick of the light. Do you have any idea what we are hearing and seeing? It's getting to the point where I can't brush these incidents off as totally normal. I don't feel threatened, but I'm curious and I'm not sure if I should be concerned.

[SnowCat]

How old is the building, and who lived in your apartment in years past? You may be right, that is it was just a spirit wanting acknowledgement.

Snow

[Moonlily]

It was built in the early 1900s, so it isn't terribly old. My landlord lived in this unit for 10 years before renting it to us. I'll ask him who lived there before that.

There have been other odd things throughout the years, like lights turning on and off and items rearranging themselves on shelves. There has always been a loud howling sound in my room (it comes and goes) that I attributed to the wind, and sometimes when I'm going to bed it sounds/feels like someone walks in and sits on the edge of my mattress. It's not menacing, almost maternal. I've brushed these off as isolated incidents that can probably be explained if I bothered to investigate. It wasn't until I was forced to see something, very clearly, that I have no logical explanation for, that I started to think it might be something more than my imagination.

Thank you for the reply, Snow!

[SnowCat]

It sounds like the building is about a century old. It could be that some of the previous tenants decided to stay on after their physical passing and just be sort of caretakers. It doesn't sound like any malicious activity is happening.

Snow