It was late at night and I was folding laundry as quietly as I could in my bedroom. I didn’t want to wake my sleeping Partner who was nearby on the bed. I had my ear buds in so I could watch videos while I did my chore. I had left the window open because my Partner had recently gotten a lip piercing and I didn’t want the musty warmth that the room usually was filled with to affect it.
I was listening to a trip report on YouTube when I thought I had heard something from behind. Instinctively I turned and found nothing out of the norm. My Partner was fast asleep completely outside of the covers, and awkwardly splayed out in their underwear. As I said before, this was nothing out of the norm. I assumed that the sound had just come from the video I was watching. Trip report videos typically have strange noises or music in the background to add to the trippy vibe.
I carried on with my folding. I turned around to grab another shirt from the basket, only to hear the sound again. This time it was louder and it felt as if it was outside of the earbud’s audio. I wasn’t sure what I had heard either as the narrator speaking into my ears made the outside world sound muffled. I paused my video and faced my Partner. I pulled out my earbuds and waited for the sound. Through a crack in the curtains I could see the street light glowing on the edge of our court. Once again I heard nothing and wondered if it really had just been part of the video. I put my earbuds in and went 10 seconds backwards on the Trip Report. In my peripheral I could see my Partner move slightly in their sleep. I listened to the video’s audio to see if it really had been the sound’s true origin. I heard nothing. Just the narrator and the music. I played it back another 10 seconds and still found nothing conclusive. I pulled out my ear buds again and slowly sat down on the edge of the bed. My Partner moved a little in response, still fast asleep. I stared at the crack in the curtains.
This moment had brought me back to when I was younger before I had started taking my anxiety medication. I shared a room with my younger siblings and if I heard sounds in the night, I would turn my phone flash light on and scan the room in terror. I’d stay up on my phone until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. This fear grew and grew until one night when I was laying in bed and facing the wall. All I could hear was my younger brother’s small breaths and my beating heart in my head. It would sound like footsteps pounding in my ear. That one night I felt as if a pressure had come down on the side of my bed near the back of my head. Like someone had sat down beside me. That was when I decided that medication was necessary for me to sleep without fear. Now, here I was, five years later and taking my medication every morning, watching the crack in the curtain with that same dread.
I felt braver though. I had discovered earlier on that being with my Partner made me feel more confident and protective. Before I would have hid under my blanket with my earbuds on blast to distract myself from my fear. Now I needed to make sure that everything was safe. I approached the window slowly. All the while it felt as if I was in a horror movie. I pulled open the curtains and looked out into the night. The court was empty. The driveway was empty too, but this was to be expected as my Partner’s parents, the home owners, had been house sitting the past three days.
For a second I felt relief in the fact that nothing was out of the ordinary until I noticed that the gate to the backyard garden was open. That’s when I heard it. This time in the opposite direction. Through the door the sound had been clearly audible. A Thump. Then, soft footsteps emanated from the hallway. Immediately I felt ill. The realization that something like this was really happening brought back that terror I had experienced long ago with the pressure on my bed. This time instead of calling for my mother, I knew I had to call the police. The only problem was that I had left the phone on the other side of the bed near the laundry. I didn’t want to make a sound. I convinced myself that if I was too loud, whoever had invaded the house would come after my Partner and I.
I stared at the door knob to our bedroom trying to figure out if it was indeed locked. The small fairy lights on the ceiling only allowed so much to be visible. I began to panic as I couldn’t remember if I had actually locked the door earlier when I entered with the laundry. As quietly as I could, I took a step forward. Realistically it would have been very hard to hear this step, but in my paranoid mind it sounded very loud. I took another step and reached out for my phone on the bed, my eyes still glued to the door. All the while my Partner slept peacefully in our bed. I gripped my phone and clutched it tightly against my chest.
I was going to take another step towards the door, but I heard more noise from the hall. The familiar creek of my SO’s parent’s bedroom door being opened. I stood frozen in fear. Once again there was only silence. I tried to type in my phone password while keeping my eyes on the knob. Now, another door could be heard opening. The bathroom door closest to us.
“What’s going on?” My Partner asked me from behind. I nearly jumped. They had woken up. I didn’t even turn to them.
“There’s someone in the house. Just be quiet.” I whispered. I could almost feel the terrified energy emanating from them on the bed. I took a final step towards the door and now I could see that I had indeed locked it. Before I could celebrate this discovery, footsteps rushed towards the door and a heavy force slammed against it. I tumbled back in surprise, landing on the floor. My Partner cried out. I looked around frantically, realizing that my glasses had fallen off of my face. Once again the person in the hallway slammed against our door. I heard my Partner’s voice above on the bed calling 911. They must have found their own phone. I couldn’t hear what they were saying though as the intruder was now hitting the door in repetition. The wood rattled with each impact and gave off the illusion that the entire room was shaking. I didn’t know what my partner was saying, but I could tell that their speech was growing more desperate.
I clambered to my feet, my vision still blurry, and ran to the door. I pressed myself against it in fear that our intruder might somehow manage to break through. My entire body vibrated with the wood. None of it felt real. The overstimulation mixed with my lack of vision put me in some kind of dissociative state. My senses came back to me when the door stopped rattling and stayed that way.
Nothing. No more slamming. Just silence on the other side of the door. All that could be heard was my Partner’s communication with the police over the phone. I stayed in my spot, anticipating another impact, but for some reason the assault was over. Quietly I could hear the footsteps move away from the door and back down the hall. My heart beat pounding in my skull, I stared down at the ground, trying to process what had just happened. I spotted the blurry outline of my glasses on the floor. Slowly I reached down and picked them up. I put them on and finally got a good look at my Partner for the first time throughout this ordeal. I had never seen them so visibly distraught. Through the window I could see movement in the distance. I rushed over, not even caring to see what was there and quickly shut and locked it.
“He’s leaving the house through our backyard gate.” I heard my Partner say behind me into the phone. I peered out and sure enough there he was. The intruder’s dark silhouette could be seen standing near the fence. I watched as he casually closed the gate behind him. He turned away slowly and stopped still. I knew at that moment that he could see me. I could feel his stare. His arm raised into the air and to my astonishment, he waved at me. Like a child waving at an animal at the zoo. With that, he strode down the front lawn and onto the sidewalk. My Partner narrated it all from behind. I watched him walk away, the street light making his back visible for just a moment. All I can recall was that he was wearing a gray sweatshirt with jeans and that his hair might have been blonde. In the span of 30 seconds, he had disappeared from sight.
Whoever this guy was, the police never ended up catching him. Somewhere out there, he’s still living. My Partner now suffers from night terrors almost every night and I find it almost impossible to sleep. I’ll stay up late, just listening. Fearing that this man will someday return.