With Halloween coming up at the end of the month, I think it’s appropriate to share my most recent “home alone and freaked out” story.  This one involves weird noises, me, and my mom.

First and foremost, I’m a huge scaredy cat.  And not only do I get freaked out easily, but I also freak myself out just as easily.  Strange noises, weird looks from strangers, horror movies, etc. – ALL of these things cause my imagination to go crazy.  I can’t even tell you the number of times I’ve convinced myself that there was a serial killer/ghost in my apartment ready to get me. 

You would think that a woman who’s travelled on her own and lived by herself for two years would be the farthest thing from a scaredy cat.  Not this woman.  All I can say is that I’m working on it in my own way.

And these insane thoughts never run through my mind when I’m around other people.  In fact, if I’m with someone who is scared, I become a calm force.  But all bets are off when I’m alone.  Weird, I know.

Anyway, I freaked out in broad daylight late last week and called my mom thinking she would talk some sense into me…not so much! 

It all started around 7:45 am.  I was sitting at my desk checking my work emails when I heard a strange noise coming from the living room.  At first, I thought I was hearing things.  Then I heard it again.  It sounded like an older man breathing in and out very deeply.  I tip toed to my bedroom door and peeked outside.  No one was there (obviously) but I heard the noise again.  I jumped and ran into my room thinking, “What the hell do I do? Should I call Vishnu?  No, he won’t pick up.”  So I called my mom instead because she would know exactly what to say to make me feel better.  Or so I thought.

My mom picked up almost instantly and started chatting.  I interrupted her and told her I was hearing weird noises in my apartment (I did my best to mimic what I heard).  This is when I thought she was going to tell me that I was being silly.  But no.  Instead, she asked if I looked under my bed.  Umm…what?! I told her there was no way someone could fit under our bed, to which she replied, “What about lying down?”  I told her it was impossible so she dropped the bed idea…thankfully.

Then she told me to go into the living room and unplug our TV and other major appliances.  I unplugged a few things and turned off Vishnu’s TV computer unit thing.  I remembered him mentioning that it makes a lot of noise. 

My mom had to go but told me to text her if I needed anything.  I felt a little better because obviously it was one of our appliances…not a ghost!

A few minutes later, my mom texted and told me to work from a coffee shop because she didn’t want me to be home alone.  Again, not what I expected her to say!  I spent the next 30 minutes or so listening for more noises.  Since I didn’t hear anything, I decided to stay home. 

Later that night when Vishnu got home, I filled him in on what happened.  We laughed at my mom’s suggestion about checking under the bed.  And then I told him about turning off his computer unit.  He asked me why I did that so I told him.  He said it wasn’t the computer because he fixed the noise issue a long time ago.  Umm…WHAT?

To this day I have no idea what was causing the deep breathing noises I heard.  Maybe it was my imagination going into overdrive, maybe it was one of the other appliances…but then again, maybe it wasn’t… 

Are you a scaredy cat?  Do you enjoy being spooked?