The world at night

I jolted awake in the middle of the night, from a particularly lucid nightmare. My heart was pounding in my chest, and my entire body was tensed for action. Although I was awake, parts of my being were still entangled in the dream with a vividity I just couldn't shake off. I swallowed. I blinked. I shook my head to clear the cobwebs. But the nightmare still had a grip over me which wasn't quite fading away. I glanced at the clock: 3:23am.

My heart still beating off-kilter, I decided to make a quick trip to the bathroom. I gazed at myself in the mirror. My eyes gazed back at me exhaustedly, the eyes of someone who hadn't had a restful night's sleep. As I stood there looking at my reflection, I suddenly had a horrific image of a raised arm attacking me from behind with a knife - and I hurriedly turned away from the mirror. I hate how movies plant these images in your mind, which your brain successfully suppresses until your most vulnerable of moments. I had a quick pee, not because I needed to (for a change), but because it at least gave me something distracting and mundane to do.

I was heading back to my room when I noticed a faint light glowing in the far corner of the apartment. Although every self-protective instinct in my body screamed at me to leave it alone and just return to bed, I was drawn as though hypnotically towards the light. Adrenaline and heart were collaboratively pumping maniacally as I inched towards the living room.

Step.
Step.
Step.
I entered the living room, my heart hammering in my ears.

Nothing. Empty room, everything looked normal.

One of my roommates had forgotten to turn off a living room light, that was all. I reached over and turned it off, and suddenly the entire apartment was plunged into an intense darkness which caught me off guard. No street light or moonlight lilted its way through the blinds, casting a dim silver sheen around the room. Just darkness. And a heavy, deafening silence.

Arms extended, I started groping my way back to my room. I felt disconcerted, at odds with myself, like a stranger to my own apartment. I had just about reached my room again when I heared another alien sound, which caused another skipped heartbeat.

A long, eerie beep. I froze, hand on the doorframe, standing stock still. Not even a hair on my arm dared move.
I waited, maybe a minute or two. Then another beep. Cutting through the silence of the night.

Slowly, tentatively, I inched my way back towards the kitchen/living room area. Every step, I felt that something was going to leap out of the darkness and devour me. Images from my dream flashed before my eyes in a lucid slideshow of horror. My heart had forgotten how to maintain a regular rhythm. I paused by the kitchen doorway, unable to muster the courage to enter, unable to tear myself away.

Beeeeeep.

I glanced up, it was the microwave, someone had forgotten to close the door properly.

I was irritated. Irritated with the apartment for having all these peculiarities, on this particular night when my mind suddenly found itself believing in monsters below the bed. Irritated with myself, for so entirely losing my grip on reality in such an infantile manner.

Nevertheless, my annoyance didn't stop me from scurrying back to my room, slamming the door shut, and diving under my covers. Once safely ensconced in bed, I peered out over the covers at the room around. Yep, everything was still normal, still safe.

Geez, I thought to myself. Next year, I'm planning to buy an apartment, which will entail living on my own for the first time in my life. How am I ever going to make it?!