My girlfriend won't let me deadbolt our closet door

After 3 years of dating, my girlfriend and I finally moved in together. This is great and all, but for any of you out there considering a similar move, please try to set any ground rules before you make the decision.

I thought Lizzy & I were on the same page, but she threw me a curveball on day one.

"Now we can finally get rid of that creepy deadbolt on your closet!" She said

I know you're probably jumping to a bunch of conclusions about me right now, but there's a good reason for it- and beside that, she knew about the deadbolt beforehand. This hadn't been brought up when we discussed the move. Hell, she hadn't even complained about the lock for years!

Before you start jumping to conclusions, let me give you the background- which I pretty much have to give any time someone sees my closet the first time.

When I was a kid, I was terrified of my closet- typical kid stuff like "there's a man/monster in there!" I used to wake up my dad multiple times a night saying the closet door opened itself and I saw or heard something in there. He would come check, reassure me, and close the door. A few hours later, the same would repeat.

Finally, my dad got sick of waking up 3 times a night and decided to put a lock on my closet, convinced I was either opening the door in my sleep or intentionally to get attention.

A normal lock didn't work, but he was still convinced I was somehow picking the lock and opening the door. He installed one of those chain locks they have at hotels at a height I couldn't reach. I would still wake him up saying the door was cracked open.

One night, my dad was up late and heard slamming coming from my room. He checked, and I was standing by my closet just opening and slamming the door in my sleep.

The next day he installed a deadbolt, and he has slept soundly ever since.

I am taking my parents' word for a lot of this, because I was only around 4 or 5 at the time- I remember running screaming to my parents' room a few times, but that's pretty much it.

Anyway, bolting my closet became a nightly routine that I grew up with, and the few times I tried to stop, I would have awful nightmares and wake up to an open closet. I pretty much just resigned myself to bolting the door.

When I moved out of my parents'house, I decided to give up the habit. My friends gave me crap about it since I was young, and the last thing I was going to do was bring a girl back to a room with a deadbolted closet- serious ac murderer vibes.

I had the familiar nightmares I associated with the other times I had tried to quit, but I decided to push through it.

I woke up to the closet door open so many times, that I stopped closing it at all.

I started waking up in the middle of the night and seeing things in my closet. This shook me, but I would turn on the lights and see something to explain it away.

For example, I would think I see a person and it would be my golf bag. I would hear scratching on the door and find a branch outside my window. I would hear "Warren" whispered and think it was just the AC kicking on.

This pattern continued, but the "plausible explanations" became less plausible.

I would see an unnaturally tall man in a bowler hat with twinkling eyes, and when I turned the light on, there would be a bowler hat with some Christmas ornaments...in July- and I've never bought a bowler hat. I looked for that hat in the daytime many times without finding it.

I would hear whispers of "Warren, come join us. Join us" that would build up into yells, then mix in with the sound of my fan.

One night, I woke to the bowler hat man. He let out a deep chuckle and then lunged from the door, bounding at me on all fours, limbs twisting at alarming angles. I turned on my lamp, and a bowler hat sat in the middle of my room.

I went to a 24 hr Walmart, bought a deadbolt, and installed it the same night. I slept like a baby.

Explanations be damned, I kept that lock on my closet in every apartment.

Lizzy knows this and knows how terrified I am of the closet, but she won't let me put a deadbolt on. She says "it's time you get over this phobia". It has been a month since we moved in.

The nightmares are back. The closet door is always open. I hear them whispering to me. "Come, come, join. We will dance together. We will shower in the red."

I dreamt last night that I awoke wet, smelling metal. I walked to the bathroom and in the mirror I found myself drenched in blood. The bowler hat man stood behind me- smiling, pleased- and patted my shoulder. He rolled down and whispered in my ear, "yes, join us"

This morning I woke up and the closet door was closed, but I was inside. I felt a peculiar feeling on my head and reached up to find I was wearing a bowler cap.

I begged Lizzy today to let me put on my lock. She is insistent that this is all a fantasy of mine. I don't know what is happening, or what will happen next.

I have to put the lock on. I can't last another night.