After moving to Texas from up north, I reluctantly looked at ads for rooms for rent instead of renting an apartment by myself, and found one that looked promising. It was splitting a 2 bedroom apartment with another guy around my age. We met, everything seemed fine, and shortly thereafter I had moved in.
My roommate Eric and I had similar interests. Playing video games, Netflix and chilling, and our jobs took most of our time. I was lucky in that he was not big on partying, so I didn't have to worry about him coming home drunk at all hours of the night.
I worked evenings while he worked regular day shift hours. It limited the amount of off time together, which was fine. Too much time in close proximity would probably get on my nerves. We both had weekends off, so that was the limit of gaming together. The whole thing just seemed to work for us both, and I considered myself lucky.
I had gotten out of work on Friday night at almost midnight as usual. By the time I arrived home and got settled, it was close to 1:00 a.m. Nothing new captured my attention on Netflix, so I was absently watching a movie I had already seen five times.
I heard a noise and looked over. Eric was just standing at the end of the couch watching the movie. It was a little weird with him just standing there. He hadn't said anything, he wasn't even moving, just standing there staring at the screen.
"Why don't you sit down if you want to watch it." I suggested.
I got no response, not even any indication that he had heard me. He just stood there in his pajama pants and t-shirt staring blankly at the TV.
"Eric, are you okay man?" I asked.
Again, I got no response. His blank stare with glassy eyes was kind of off-putting, but as I started to get up to address it further, he suddenly turned around and went back to his bedroom. Weird, but whatever. I went to bed around 5:00 a.m. with no further sign of Eric.
The next afternoon when I finally woke up, Eric was sitting on the couch playing the Xbox. I sat at the other end and watched for a minute before speaking.
"What was the problem last night? I asked as he continued playing.
"Huh? Problem with what?" he responded.
"You came out and just stood there by the couch watching the TV for a few minutes. I tried to talk to you, but you acted like I wasn't even there, then you went back to your room."
"No I didn't. I don't even know what time you got home." Eric said without hesitation.
I dropped the issue and grabbed the second controller to join the game. The rest of the day was normal for a Saturday. Gaming, movies, food, and more gaming before Eric finally called it a night. It was still early for me, due to my work schedule. I kept the same hours on my off days, since it was tough to readjust if I tried to live on everyone else's normal daytime schedule on the weekends.
At around 2:00 a.m. I was surfing the internet on my tablet while a movie played on the TV. I wasn't really paying attention to the movie since I had seen this one before as well, but I kept it on as background noise.
I heard Eric's door open up and watched him shuffle out and into the living room. Once again, he stood at the end of the couch and stared at the TV.
"Eric?...Eric!!" I called.
He turned towards me with that same blank stare. I wasn't even sure he was looking at me. I grabbed my phone and started recording video for proof.
"Are you okay? Do you want to sit down? Is the TV too loud? I can turn it down if it is." I offered.
He had turned back to the TV and just stood there as I recorded. After a couple of minutes, he turned and went back into his room.
The next day when I finally got up, I was armed with my proof. Eric and I had almost exactly the same conversation of him denying knowing what I was talking about before I showed him the video.
"Well, damn." Eric said as he watched. "I thought I was over that."
"So what's going on? We're you pissed at me last night or something?"
"No, no. Nothing like that. I used to sleepwalk when I was younger, but it stopped and I haven't had a problem in a couple of years. It's usually brought on by stress or fatigue. I'm not sure what's causing it this time. If it happens again, just leave me alone. Don't try to wake me up or anything. I will just go back to bed on my own."
"Alright." I agreed. "You won't try to leave the apartment will you? You don't drive while sleepwalking do you?"
"No, nothing like that," he laughed. "I just sleepwalk a little."
Curiosity got the better of me, and I read a little about sleepwalking. Some info said to just guide the person back to bed, but to wake them if necessary. Other info stated it was dangerous to wake someone who was sleepwalking. I wasn't sure, but Eric said to just leave him alone, so that was the plan.
The bouts of sleepwalking became more frequent. Most times Eric would only be up for a few minutes, other times he would actually sit on the couch and 'watch' TV. A few times he would show up in my bedroom while I was still awake. Whenever I would recount his excursions, he would deny any memory of them. Soon I stopped mentioning them altogether. As the weather turned warmer, it was not uncommon for Eric to wander the apartment without a shirt, or sometimes in just his underwear. A few times he exited his room completely naked. I made sure not to mention anything to him afterwards.
A noise alerted me to Eric's presence. "Here we go again." I said.