The Dark Lurker

As you may know (especially if you read this post) I'm a big scaredy cat.  I'm afraid to be home alone.  I'm afraid of the dark.  I'm afraid of shadows.  I'm just plain afraid. 

Things have actually gotten better since I stopped watching true crime shows, but I had a real awakening the other night about the true helplessness one feels when their death is imminent. 

Here's what happened:

I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.  James was sleeping peacefully beside me.  I walked down the hallway, did my business, turned off the bathroom light, and started feeling my way back towards the bedroom.  The room was dark with a bit of light coming from the window on the other side of the bed.  I could see outlines of the bed, the furniture, and....a large man lurking at the end of our bed. 

It really is amazing the huge number of thoughts that can run through you head in a millisecond.  My first thought was It's James.  I looked to the bed, but couldn't tell if he was in there or not because it was so dark.  Once the huge man didn't move or say anything to me, I realized it couldn't be James because obviously he would have no reason to stand there creepily and not acknowledge me with a "Hello dear."  Next thought was James is dead and I'm next.  I embarrassingly let out the most pathetic whimper you can imagine and started backing towards the bathroom again, which luckily  has two doors so I might have had a chance to escape that way.  I turned to run (probably still whimpering...kind of disheartening that I couldn't get a good scream to come out) when the lurker started to move towards me and spoke these words, "Hey babe, it's me, I want to show you something." 

So...it was James after all...wanting to show me something so interesting that it couldn't wait till the morning light.  It turns out that when I got out of bed he had woken up and decided to adjust the AC.  It makes all sorts of weird rattling noises and is really annoying.  Apparently on this occasion James had noticed that when he stood (lurked) at one spot at the end of the bed, the rattling stopped.  And when he moved anywhere else in the room, it rattled again.  Fascinating stuff, really.  Needless to say, I wasn't impressed or pleased.  I had one of those I-just-escaped-death sobbing sessions, and about an hour later was able to fall asleep again. 

Next time I'm taking my bat to the bathroom with me, then we'll see who wants to lurk in the dark.