Weird Story Time

Okay my dudes! Lil setup for this weird story: I'm living in student accommodation atm with four lovely flatmates, and all of us are comPLETEly baffled by this-and I'm aware it doesn't sound like a real story, pls bear with!

So a few weeks ago Mary asks me if I've been using lots of vinegar recently because loads of hers has gone missing, and Hannah and Cara have noticed it too--like, two bottles of vinegar and a balsamic vinaigrette dressing, which is weird, but fine, they just were curious about where it had gone. And I'm like... no? What? That's odd? But I carry on with my life and mostly forget about it.

A few days later we're chatting in the kitchen with Ryan and I remember he doesn't know about the vinegar, so I get Mary to tell him about it, and he's confused af too because he doesn't use vinegar either, and how can vinegar just disappear? So me and Ryan, being funny, go ahead and buy a bottle of vinegar each (apple cider and malt if you must know), expecting nothing to happen.

Then we virtually forget the whole thing again.

AND THEN

A few days later I'm making toast and I open the cupboard to discover that Ryan's vinegar is about an inch emptier than it should be? So I'm weirder out and I go get him and he's like BUT I HAVEN'T USED IT I DON'T LIKE VINEGAR and we're checking with the others to see if they've used it and nobody has, and we're weirded out man.

At this point the logical conclusion is that one of us is just using the vinegar and not saying anything and ik it sounds a bit daft to not think that's going on and you might not believe me but I legit don't think that's what's happening coz man we get on really well and none of us would bother lying, you know?

Anyway so his vinegar disappears a bit more and nobody's touching mine and I'm starting to feel a bit left out (srsly like what is my vinegar not good enough?? 😂) and then we're walking home from my gf's when we bump into Mary and Cara who tell us their weird account of the night before.

See, Holly's home for study leave and me and Ryan had been out until like 5am, and they'd been alone in the flat when they heard footsteps and doors opening and closing in the flat. Thinking we must be in, they knock on our doors to see if we wanna hang out, except our rooms are empty (obvs) and there's nobody around. But the noises keep on, and there's music playing in Ryan's room (sometimes) and the front door hasn't opened once. Weird, right? So they lock the door and go to sleep and warn us as we're heading back that not only do we have a vinegar thief but the flat might be haunted. Hype.

So we're stressing (hey don't judge, it was scary and we were a bit high) and by the time we get in we're convinced it's all connected, that we're haunted by a vinegar powered murder ghost, and the first thing we do is check on the vinegar. Naturally.

AND MY FUCKING VINEGAR'S GONE DOWN. I'D SAY A GOOD THREE FUCKING TABLESPOONS. WHAT? I get that this doesn't seem that dramatic but I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS REAL UNTIL IT STARTED HAPPENING you know? We bought the vinegar for a bit of banter and it's fucking real?

We go to bed and lock our doors and we're determined to not think about it but this morning when I checked again there was even more vinegar missing and holy fuck, guys.

It was just me and Ryan in the flat last night, nobody else could've taken it. But neither of us were here when Cara and Mary heard the noises and vinegar went missing then. There's literally no one who's been here for everything-I have NO IDEA what's going on or how this is happening?

We've been googling disappearing vinegar and disembodied footsteps and surprisingly enough we're getting fuck all results, and I really want there to be a simple explanation because as much as this is funny af it's also SO WEIRD like maaaaan what is going ON?!

So like, if you've ever heard of anything like this before or you have ANY idea what this could be hmu coz I'm like dying here 😂

Soz for the long read and PLEASE SEND HELP 😂❤💛💚💙💜

(Not my flatmates' real names, privacy and shit 👍😊)

Okay, but this is actually HUGE in terms of representation, right? How are we supposed to encourage inclusiveness when even in advertising corporations won't use POC, LGBTQIA+, disabled etc. actors in case they lose customers in other parts of the world?