Elmira College

I lived in Tompkins Hall as a transfer student and had the most disturbing experiences of my life. My room was in the far corner of an almost empty wing, and from the very beginning, I felt watched and drained, especially at night. Something dark was in that space—it wasn’t just fear, it was targeted torment. My mirror lights flickered on by themselves, objects shattered after a desk mysteriously tipped, and I felt a presence under my bed nearly every night, toying with my sanity. I saw a specific girl constantly in the bathroom—peering through stall cracks, over the shower walls, and standing behind me at the sinks—and years later my best friend (who lived across the hall) admitted she saw the same girl. The worst moment came when I fell down the stone stairs while leaving campus and felt something behind me enjoying my pain, like it was glad I was breaking. I had to move rooms three times, and each space felt spiritually bruised until I finally found one on the brighter side of the building that allowed me to sleep. Even then, I sensed someone on the other side of the connecting door. The fourth floor (where a suicide reportedly happened) felt heavy and mournful, and I avoided looking at the building from the outside for fear I’d see someone watching me. I didn’t know about the haunting when I moved in, but everything I experienced confirmed it—something lives in Tompkins Hall, and it is not kind.

June 2025

I was a student there for 4 years. My Sophomore year, I stayed on campus over the summer and had 2 encounters while campus was mostly abandoned. One night I was walking with a friend and her and I were looking at the campus cottage that she would be staying in at the end of summer, and as we were peering through the window to see the living area, the entire window rattled as if struck from the inside. The building was empty, and both of us were too far to hit the window.

The second was later that same summer, I was with a different friend, walking back to our dorms from a reunion activity and when I looked into Cowles Hall, there was a light in the top floor windows, but the building was under construction and the top floor was inaccessible, and the building was fenced off. When i tried to point it out to my friend, the lights vanished, only to reappear after my friend left for his room and I was alone. It freaked me out.

September 2019