And then she gently tapped my pillow
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I watch a lot of true crime and lots of medical procedures on television. I read mystery/thrillers all the time about murder and mayhem. I’m intrigued by it, but I very rarely dream about it. So I thought I was becoming desensitized to it, which I’m not sure is a good thing.
And then I woke up last night.
It was your basic bathroom run around 11:30 pm and I thought Mr. C was on the computer downstairs. That seemed like a late night for him but it’s happened before so I thought nothing of it as I closed my eyes and pulled the covers up over my shoulders.
About 30 seconds later I heard a light thud. It was enough to make me cock my ear and wonder was that a toy that fell on the carpet or is someone in the house?
Yeah, someone other than the people who live here. Cue the sweat beads on my forehead.
Then I heard footsteps, but not the confident, measured footsteps of Mr. C. These were much lighter and tentative, but they still made the floor creak. At that point I was certain someone, who was uninvited, was inside my house. I continued to listen as I heard the familiar creaks going down the stairs to the first floor.
I was uncomfortably hot as my adrenaline kicked in so I took the chance to quietly lower the covers to my waist, freeing my arms for a potential fight.
And that’s when snippets of the shows I watch started to run through my head.
“There was no forced entry. The victim (Cardiogirl) must have known her attacker.” I thought I would have heard an intruder breaking in on the first floor and then climbing up the stairs. Plus the footsteps I heard began upstairs in the hallway and then went down the steps.
“This looks like a professional hit. She was shot execution style.” Oh God. I’m going to be shot in the back of my head. I’m lying on my side and this is going to be a close range shot. Into my head. I’m not even going to have the chance to get his DNA under my fingernails. Eh, he probably has gloves on and a long sleeve shirt and jacket. It did snow yesterday.
Then the light in the hallway went on. Like a complete wuss and compliant victim, I kept my eyes shut as I listened to the light footsteps and the creaking of the stairs as whoever it was returned.
My heartbeat was in my ears and the sweat was literally rolling down my forehead. Our bed is in the center of the room, so there is a pathway on each side. I had my back to the edge of the bed as I heard the slow footsteps and accompanying creaking of certain spots on the floor. Next to my bed.
I flexed all of my muscles in anticipation of impending doom.
Then I felt a light tapping on my pillow, near to my head. I really thought a deranged killer was standing next to me and he wanted to see the life drain out of my eyes as he strangled me.
Then another light tap on my pillow. I figured I could only play dead for so long, so I rolled over to see what was going to happen to me. And there stood Emily, my three-year-old.
“Hi Momma,” she said with a big smile on her face.
My mind truly went blank. I was seeing her but I had no thoughts in my head at that moment. Then I actually did the Scooby Doo eye-blink-double-take-in-astonishment. “Emily?”
She repeated what I said, pigtails askew from sleeping half the night, “Emily.”
“What are you doing?”
“What are you doing,” she parroted back.
“How did you get here?”
“How did you get here.”
That’s when my mind started working again. I thought maybe she had climbed out of the crib. I couldn’t understand how she got out without falling or making a loud noise. I couldn’t believe she made it down the stairs, in the dark, without falling. She can’t reach the light switch upstairs, you see, but standing on the bottom step she can turn on the light.
So I picked her up and walked back to her room, my heart rate beginning to slow.
When I turned the light on in her room I saw Mr. C sleeping on the bed next to her crib. He lifted his head groggily and told me she was wide awake an hour or so ago and he thought he would lie with her, to help her fall asleep.
He’s never done that before.
And clearly it didn’t work, because she climbed off the bed, went down the steps and then came back to talk to me.
She hugged me before I put her back in the crib and tucked her in. And then she reminded me to shut the door on my way out.
As I climbed back into my own bed I told myself I have to stop watching those shows and reading those books.
But I’m so close to finishing that book. The one about murder, mayhem and a kidnapped President. After I finish that book, I’m not reading any more of those murder mysteries.
Oh, who am I kidding? That David Baldacci is a hell of a writer.
First?? Superstar!!!
*ahem*
Just wanted to make a quick comment… it’s those murder mystery-inspired moments that keep us alive, methinks. Or, keeps the power companies in business cuz scaredy cats like us end up having to keep a light on!
Which reminds me yet again, I owe you a letter -.- Bad penpal! **HUGS!!**
You *are* a superstar, whether you write me a letter or not :) Yeah, I have to agree. That moment kept me alive last night.
oooh you had me scared cardiogirl, darn that was a good read. i read the same kind of books you do, have read at least 2 of david’s books, and i get that way too when i hear sounds, but at some point i reach for a weapon.
just last week i heard some weird noises i thought were coming from the bathroom. i knocked on the darn door, like the killer was going to say come in. of course it turned out to be nothing….i think they call it the house settling or one active imagination.
Thanks Natural.
Well, at least you’re a polite attacker, knocking first and potentially jujitsu-ing later. I would think a killer would respect that.
Oh! My heart was pounding just reading that!
I always play dead when my kids come in in the middle of the night, in hopes they will go bug Pete instead. It has gotten to the point that they go to him first. Score! I figure I was the one up nursing them at night for the first year, he can take over now. hehe
I have the same night time plan that you have for the very same reason! And like you, most of the time it actually works. YES!
I have this happen about once a week, when I have my kids. My youngest, 5, will sometimes come into my room in the middle of the night. Normally, he is still half-asleep, and he doesn’t say anything. I sleep on the left-hand side of the bed, if you are looking at it from the foot of the bed. I also sleep on my right side, so when he comes into my room, he just stands there looking at me in the dark. Like anyone else, I guess, there’s some strange psychic thing when your subconscious knows that someone is looking at you. I usually sense that, and wake up normally. Sometimes, however, I jump. That is what frightens me most: I might jump and hit him. Not knowing, of course, who it is I am hitting.
In the military, they have (had?) a rule that a soldier could not be charged for any action he/she takes for 30 seconds after being woken up. So, for instance, a private is woken up by an officer and he shoots that officer, no charges.
It did, very briefly, cross my mind what would happen if I tried to jump the “attacker” to catch him/her off guard. And after I realized it was Emily I was so glad I didn’t do that.
I’d never heard that rule about the military. I guess that’s where the saying, “Walk softly and carrying a big stick” may have originated.
I really thought I was going to be executed last night, no joke. But here I am, alive to tell the tale. http://www.cardiogirl.net/?p=853
Oh CG!! What a scare! I remember one time I was reading a thriller before bed where a woman was being stalked by a killer. I woke up in the middle of the night, certain that the killer was standing in my bedroom doorway, about to kill ME! Kurt forbid me from finishing the book; he didn’t need to be woken up by his girlfriend freaking out like that. Heh.
I’ll have to ask Kurt regarding that 30-second rule in the military. I myself hate waking him up for any reason, even if it’s just to crawl into bed after he’s already asleep. He always startles when I try to wake him, and I’m always thinking I’ve scared the wits out of him!
Sadly, blue, what I took from this comment is a desire, now, to read the book you were reading! Do you remember what it was called?
I would be afraid of waking a military person just for that reason. It seems like even on a subconscious level they have to be aware and ready to pounce.
My mind totally does that to me. But I watch ghost hunters so rather than a person…it’s a ghost. At least you can fight a person, what the heck do you do when it’s a friggen ghost???
Two thoughts:
1. I guess if it’s a ghost you freak out and then go insane.
2. I need to start watching Ghost Hunters!
Wow! I used to read horror stories. Years ago, while visiting my cousins, I was reading Salem’s Lot. My cousin decided it was a good time to get me out of the room…by silently getting into the room and scaring me. I must have jumped 2ft of the couch and vowed to read the book only during my cousin’s sleeping hours. I hated her for a while and was no longer my favorite cousin.
Mr. Wolf! Welcome to the Cardiogirl Empire. Am I to believe your handle comes from my most favorite film of all time — “Pulp Fiction?”
I would have to hate on your cousin as well, if I were in your shoes. And I’ve also been kept awake a few nights because of Stephen King.
Wonderful suspense builder upper…I was all ready to hear that it was Mr. C but dag namit it was one of the kiddies! And it’s a good thing that you didn’t go all Lifetime Movie Network savior woman on your daughter bursting out the room with slipper in hand and yelling, you could have really scared her!
Yeah, later on I thought that, too. If I did try to become the Ninja Warrior would I have really freaked her out? Probably. Better it’s me who’s scarred for life instead of her.
Girl, you really should stop reading those books if that’s the kind of reaction you have, LOL.
I know (hangs head) but they’re like chocolate. I just can’t stop even though I can’t get my hips through the door. I know it’s wrong, but it feels right.
[[[shiiiiiver]]]
I could NOT have turned around in that bed to face my attacker. Nope.
Yeah, I guess I learned something about myself last night. If I’m gonna die a horrible death I don’t want to see who’s gonna do it.
Through all the horror you remained so calm! I am a screamer, so I would alert any intruder that I was on to them and would be killed that much more quickly.
Well, there’s something to be said for a quick death, I think :)
The other night, I was just filling my water bottle in the kitchen and then shuffling off to bed, when I got to the hallway between the bathroom and my room. Trev must have just tiptoed out, half-asleep, to go to the bathroom. In the millisecond we both laid eyes on each other, we both scared the bejeebies out of each other! I had to hold him because we were both nearly in tears.
Now you can answer a book question I have. When I recently read, “Two Little Girls in Blue” by Mary Higgins Clark, I thought it was unusual that the perps supposedly placed two three year old girls in a crib (mine never lasted that long – probably because they learned to climb out too quickly). Would two three year old girls fit in your daughter’s crib??
Perhaps, my critical unwillingness to suspend disbelief is my subconscious way of not getting too hooked into these crime plots.
Isn’t it crazy how something so ordinary, but in the middle of the night and in the dark, becomes a horrorfest?
That’s interesting, Wendy. I never even blinked at that. Emily is almost 3.5 and she, alone, still fits lengthwise and has room to roll around in the crib. I suppose two of her would fit, I think, but there wouldn’t be much room to roll around. I guess I assumed those two felt the tension and the fear and just knew to stay inside the crib. Or else. Plus I figured twins especially would entertain each other.
I guess I’m willing to suspend disbelief more than I thought I was.
Well, that incident happened eight years ago, so I have no idea now what that book was. I remember it had a white and blue cover, and I’d never read that author before. I must have picked it up at a thrift store. If I ever think of it, I’ll let you know.
(snaps fingers) Damn.
You and I are so similar in so many things! I would have had a heart attack when that tap on the shoulder came. I’m glad it was just your daughter. I believe all the crime/mystery that I watch/read has totally warped my mind. I’m always convinced that every situation is a “possible serial killer” situation, it drives my husband nuts, LOL!
Mine too! (My husband, I mean.) It’s funny because half the time I read stuff there’s a tiny detail that feels like, yeah right. There’s no way that person would outwit an assassin when ten other people were just gunned down.
But then when I’m out and about I’ll see a shady character in the store and think, ‘He’s tailing us. We need to watch our backs.’
I would have FREAKED. Jeez. Your description of you frozen in fear actually reminds me of when I would think about monsters or demons or whatnot getting me in the dark when I was a kid. Or a teenager. Or like a year ago. Cough.
I’m a little afraid of the dark. ;)
I can still get my fear on — that childhood fear of the dark that only appears once in a great while.
Or intermittently, like you said :)