The hour was late. The house was dark expect for my reading lamp. Jeff’s rhythmic breathing could be heard next me. I was trying to fight off sleep to be able to read just a few more pages.
Crinkle
What was that? I was jerked out of my book by some strange noise coming from outside the bedroom. I put the book on my chest and listened….
Nothing. But I listened some more just for good measure.
Still nothing. There was no repeat of the noise that I heard. I wasn’t quite sure what that noise was. But I convinced myself that it must have been that cat. I picked my book up and began to get lost in its pages once again.
Crash
Crinkle
Smash
Crash
What in the world? I sat straight up in bed. That was diffidently not the cat. My heart was racing. I looked over at the baby monitor. It buzzed its quiet buzz meaning that the kids were all still asleep.
Screech
Scrape
Smash
Good Lord! I think there is someone in the house! I could feel the panic begin to rise in my chest. I looked over at Jeff and he was still soundly sleeping next to me.
“Jeff,” I whispered, “Jeff are you hearing this?”
I got no response. So I tried to say his name louder but not too loud as to call attention to us in case the would be intruder didn’t know we were awake.
A sleepy, “Whaaat?” was the response that I got. “I was sleeping what do you want?”
“Did you hear that noise?” I asked.
“Uh huh,” he mumbled.
“Are you going to check it out?” I said trying to keep my pitch of my voice down to human level so that dogs around the neighborhood wouldn’t start barking all while trying to impress upon him the urgency for him to go and check things out.
“Yeah,”he said with a sigh. He threw the covers off his body and slid out of bed.
I watched him walk into the kitchen. I tried to calm myself and pick my book back up but my mind was racing. I wanted to get up out of bed and see what was going on but my butt was froze in its spot. The only thing I could do was sit up straight and listen.
I willed my ears to hear better than they had ever heard things before. I listened for signs of a struggle, for signs that I truly needed to get up out of bed and help defend my house. I also tried to convince my ever active imagination that it was nothing. It had to be the cat or something else because like I learned in the past axe murders don’t ring the door bell.
After just a couple of minutes, Jeff returned to the room. He said nothing as he crawled back into bed and turned over to go back to sleep.
“What! What was it?! What was going on?” I said giddy with anticipation.
He rolled over and looked up at me with that ‘are you freaking kidding me, I am just trying to sleep’ look. “It was just Jake. He had pulled over a stool to the counter, climbed up and was trying to get a pacifier.”
“Oh,” I said with a nervous giggle.
“What?” Jeff asked. “Were you scared that it was going to be something else? Did we not have this conversation in the past? Axe murders are not going to ring the doorbell and come into the kitchen and start making noise.”
“I know,” I said trying to hide my anxiousness.
“Good. I am going back to sleep. Goodnight.” He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.
As Jeff turned back over and settled down to go back to sleep, I picked up my book and started to read once again. But I didn’t get to far when a overwhelming urge came over me to check all the locks in the house. You can never be to careful because you never know, an axe murder very well could ring the door bell.
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I had a moment like this not too long ago. I SWORE someone was in the house but it turned out we’d just left the garage door open (not a good idea either, btw) and the neighbors cat was into something on one of the shelves and made something fall. Scared the be-geezees outta me! Thanks for linking up!
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