To be honest, I don’t have the vocabulary (partly because the experience is so strange, partly because English is not my first language) to fully describe what I’m experiencing. So, let me just describe the occurrence.
On Friday, I was on lock up duty after acting class (the class finishes at 7:30pm, and the coach usually has to leave immediately, while some of us students like to stay back and chat and rehearse if we have a performance coming up). It was exactly 8pm, and everyone else had left, so I locked the doors and was walking to my car. I heard a rustle, probably caused by a squirrel or something, and didn’t pay much attention to it.
I suddenly felt my eyes and cheeks wet, as if I was crying, but I wasn’t, and I don’t have particularly sensitive eyes that water due to things like yawning or smoke or wind or anything like that, so the tears were inexplicable. It felt very strange as I knew I wasn’t crying, but I was willing to shrug it off as my eyes just acting up (I had been performing crying monologues earlier at acting class, so maybe that had something to do with the tears?).
But what happened next is what makes me think there might have been something else going on. I got in my car and the time on the display said, 8:23pm. I was positive that I’d locked up at 8pm - we have a system where the person responsible for locking up has to put down the time they’re leaving in a log at the entrance, and I’m 100% sure it was 8pm. It usually takes me about 30 seconds to turn the keys and lock the door after making the entry in the log, and then another 30-45 seconds to walk to my car, so the time should only be 8:02pm or 8:03pm - 8:23pm just didn’t make sense.
Just to make sure that my car’s clock wasn’t messed up, I checked the time on my phone and on my watch, and they all said the same thing - 8:23pm. I wanted to go back in and check the log to see what time I’d put in, and I did and just as I thought, I’d put in 8pm. I glanced up at the clock above the reception desk, and it also showed around 8:25pm, but it doesn’t matter anyway as I entered the original time based on my watch, not the reception clock.
My heart began to race as that was almost 20 minutes that I couldn’t account for. It wasn’t like I woke up somewhere strange having no recollection of how I got there - this was during my normal routine, I was exactly where I’d expect to be, knowing full well how I’d gotten there (i.e., I was in the car park of the acting class building, after attending class, and I got there by leaving the class and exiting the building). But, 20 whole minutes were missing. How? Why? Did I black out or something? How was I still standing and on my feet in that case? And what was with the tears? Why was I shedding tears?
I don’t have the answers to these questions, and I’m very scared. What if this has happened before, and I just haven’t noticed? Did I do something, hurt anyone, in those lost 20 minutes? Did someone do something to me? Had there been something more sinister than a squirrel in the bushes earlier? I’m scared because I have my next class this evening.
EDIT: Just to clarify, I’ve never had any physical or mental health issues that could be the cause of this as far as I know, though I’m planning to see a psych within the next couple of weeks, if anything to help deal with my fear. Also wondering whether I should approach one of the nearby shops to see if they have any CCTV footage of the car park (the building with the acting class doesn’t have cameras, sadly).