last night......
i didnt sleep at all. i went to bed at midnight. at around 2:30 (looking at the clock at the time) i heard a noise in the next room, it sounded like shuffling. the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as it continued and it sounded close by, like around my counter or in the living room. i thought to myself that it could be a burglar or some animal like a raccoon or something pried the door open because maybe it smelled my garbage. i didnt know. i crept slowly out of bed painfully aware of the noises the springs made as i creeped around reaching for any sort of weapon i could find. i reached around in my closet for what seemed like an eternity trying to find the spiked mace i knew i kept in there as its heft would have made me feel much more comfortable. i didnt find it. so i leaned as far as i could and peeked into the next room barely lit by the octopus lamp and saw nothing, heard nothing. i reached over to my dresser and grabbed the sheathed bayonet that had a blade roughly 18 inches long. i held the handle in my right hand and the sheath in my left, ready to use the metal sheath as a club before i stabbed whatever the hell was in my house. so i moved as slowly as possible....into the doorway of my bedroom, searching, listening for any movements, shuffling, or breathing. i heard nothing. i saw nothing. so i stood there, for about 5 minutes waiting, thinking maybe they heard me and were waiting to catch me by surprise or see what i did. after 5 minutes i unsheathed the blade which made a loud *shing* noise which bolstered my confidence a bit and i searched my house, first in the dark, then turning on the lights one until turning the outside light on and checking the porch. still nothing. so i loaded my pistol, locked my door and went back to bed, leaving the outside light on, and laying my loaded pistol on the pillow next to me. i laid there listening for another hour, drifting in and out of sleep still pumped full of adrenaline. i remember having a dream of riding my motorcycle and being alone in the desert with no supplies, nothing to turn back to, and no destination in mind, just a long lonely journey that i knew was going to end in a slow, dry death of dehydration. i wasnt thirsty, but i knew it was inevitable. it had felt as if i had accepted that fate long before i was conscious of the situation in the dream and i just fell into the middle of it. then i woke up....exhausted. i checked my house again, unloaded my pistol and i still wonder what made that sound.