Noise nosleep

It was about ten or eleven at night. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sleep, so I wasn’t even going to try. The house was quiet except for all those little humming noises houses make when they’re alive. The refrigerator, the water heater, water pumps, and the little hint of static from all the gizmos and outlets. I was just sitting quietly in the living room with one light on, but the cacophony filled the room with its tick tock, buzz, hum.

Robbie was sleeping upstairs for another early work day. I felt as calm as anyone could sitting in the lamps spotlight on the warm dark night. I could see the pitch through the windows. During the day those windows look over the rose garden. Tonight they are a glossy black.

In the quiet hum I heard a shuffle in the basement. Not obvious, just louder than the regular house sounds. I waited to hear it again but all I heard was the tick tock, buzz, hum. I thought about waking my Robbie, but if it was nothing I didn’t want him to get annoyed with me. I didn’t want to look over dramatic. I didn’t want to die cut up into a thousand pieces and fed to my own cats either.

I was staring up toward the door that would lead to the basement stairs, still holding my book up to my face with my eyes peering over it when a shadow sprinted across the back window. I stared at it, a burst of panic made me shiver from head to toe. Our backyard would be very easy to get into. I wasn’t sure if I‘d be able to hear someone trudging around back there. There weren’t any crunchy leaves this time of year and the sounds of the house felt loud enough to cover plain steps. Could it have been part of the rosebush closest to the window, blowing in the wind?

I was probably just seeing things and imagining boogie men because I was scared. But I was scared because of the very real noise I heard in the basement. Or thought I heard. I still hadn’t heard another one.

I got up. I was supposed to be a responsible adult, so it was my duty, I felt, to confirm that the house was secure. It’s not like it was a giant spider, it might just be a cannibal recently released from the ward. I got up, slowly, from the couch, glancing over at the black window making sure no faces were forming in the darkness. I stepped softly in my fuzzy socks to my purse, grabbed my mace and made my way to the door leading to the basement. The mace made me feel a little better as I opened the door and flicked the light switch.

The bulb popped in a loud filament flash bang and I was left looking in a black cavern. I saw something in that split second of light. The same way you can see the city illuminated by a flash of lightning. It was like that for the basement. But what I thought I saw was so out of place, so surreal, that I stood there unable to move. It was a man. Very tall, and very broad, with a great big bowling ball of a head looking up at me from the bottom of the stairs. He wore a bulky dark jacket that made him look bigger. He filled the room at the same time he stood just at the bottom of the stairs. I slammed the door and ran upstairs in that sloppy panic run where your legs take over from your mind. By the time I reached the bedroom my body was weak and jittery from adrenaline. I shook my Robbie awake, hissing rather than speaking that there was someone in the basement. I saw him! He tried to bat me away at first but he got out of bed quickly after what I was saying got through his tiredness.

He came with me down the stairs. He didn’t grab anything. We didn’t own a gun or a baseball bat, but he was athletic, maybe he thought that he would just punch and tackle. But he hadn’t seen the size of the man. I had, so I griped the mace tighter in my hand. My finger rested on the trigger. He had his phone out and flipped it on its flashlight. He gripped the door handle and glanced over at me. I gave a quick nod and he flung open the door, pointing his flashlight down the flight of stairs. The man wasn’t there.

Tentatively, we started walking down the stairs. My head was jumping left and right as he swung the light around the room, scanning for any sign of life. There was none. No one was down here. As I took a further step forward my hip collided with an open work table. I didn’t remember pulling that open for anything. Robbie wouldn’t have either, I don’t think. My hip throbbed. There was a folded piece of leather on the table top. I rolled it open while he held the flashlight over it. It swooshed open to reveal a kind of tool pouch, but it was empty. There were several slots where there were greasy imprints where the tools used to be.

“Are you sure you saw someone?” he asked. “Positive” I told him. It had only been for a fraction of a second, but he was standing there, as solid as the washing machine. Robbie declared that no one was down here. He was seemingly unshaken by the empty tool pouch. But I knew it wasn’t ours. In a tone that sounded frustrated to be awake, and up and about in the house on concrete in his bare feet, he declared he was going back to bed. I couldn’t see it in the dark, but he was scowling at me. We both went to bed.

He fell asleep while I lay there, my wide eyes open, listening. Trying to hear even the faintest noise in the tick tock, buzz, hum. I kept thinking about that tool pouch. I had never seen it before in my life. I kept asking myself how would he have gotten out without a sound. Unless, maybe he was still in the house. Had we missed him? Or had my already spooked mind played a horrible trick on me. His face had been so real. There had been a shimmer of sweat on his brow, his nose and eyes were small, especially for the size of his head. In daylight I scoured the house and then finally was able to sleep for short time. But then at night, I couldn’t close my eyes. I listened, straining to hear anything through the tick tock, buzz, hum.

Every night, I listen.

Submitted September 02, 2016 at 11:10PM by IAmNancy http://ift.tt/2bIn0xw nosleep