I’m not sure where to post this story. I was tempted to post it on LetsNotMeet because it’s a real thing that happened to me but I didn’t meet anyone. It was just a bizarre experience.
I live in a town near a highway. To leave the town you have to go through a tunnel under the highway and on the other side is almost pure darkness except for the streetlights along the road. The town is very safe so I often walk my dogs at night before bedtime. This night I walked them between 12pm and 1am and as soon as I stepped out of my house I heard someone honking their car horn. Just a quick little honk like when people are trying to be polite. I didn’t think much of it. It sounded like someone accidentally touched the horn while moving around in their car. Then it happened again about a minute later. Then again. And again. Two quick honks. Then again. It was clearly a person doing it because there was a very irregular rhythm to it. Not fast enough for you to get used to it but also not drawn out enough for you to forget about it. As I walked I took a look at the town’s facebook group to see if anyone else had asked about it. Like most small, safe communities people can be incredibly prickly about noice but to my surprise nobody had made a post about it. It was very late and not hot enough outside for people to open their windows so maybe everyone were sleeping through it?
I got worried that the person honking their car horn was in trouble and started walking towards the sound with my dogs. I was wearing big headphones but could clearly hear the honks through them. The irregular rhythm kept going and it seemed to come from somewhere beyond the tunnel. As I got closer I started noticing a strange chemical smell in the air that only got stronger and stronger. I finally took my headphones off and was hit by the sounds of helicopters. Several helicopters. I was used to the constant buzz from the highway which had masked the helicopters while I had my headphones on. I looked up but couldn’t see any lights.
The car horn kept going but the chemical smell was so strong now I started to worry about my own and my dogs’ health. I turned around and walked back the way I came while scanning the news and the Facebook group. Nothing. I got home and went up to my housemate’s room and told her “You should probably close your window” She shrugged “The car horn doesn’t bother me that much” “So you can’t smell the chemicals?” I asked. She shook her head but looked worried. Admittedly I couldn’t smell it either this far from the tunnel but I have a pretty bad sense of smell. I advised her to close her window again and as I closed her door I saw her pull out her phone to check the news. I didn’t even consider calling anyone because I assumed the helicopters were a response to the chemicals and we have a nationwide alarm system that warns people on their phone to stay indoors in case of chemical slips. I got no warnings so I just made sure my windows were closed tightly and went to bed.
The next day I searched everywhere on the internet but nobody else seemed to have noticed. Not the car horn, not the helicopters and not the chemical smell. If my housemate hadn’t confirmed that she heard the car horn I would have thought it was all a dream. Now it just felt like some strange personal experience. It’s a silly thought but a few days later I listened to a podcast about people claiming they slipped into alternative universes for a few minutes before coming back and that’s honestly how it felt. Like I was standing right on the edge of a portal I couldn’t see and made the wise decision to step back.