Last night around 9:00 pm, my daughter and I had just laid down for bed. We were sleeping in my room, and my husband was going to sleep in the living room (It’s been hard to transition back to her room, since she slept with me recently while she was sick to avoid spreading germs to her dad). As usual, my dog was in her bed near the head of my bed.
A high-pitched squealing sound filled the room. It was not a sound that I recognized. No part of me believes that it was any of my pets, though I note that the bedroom door was open, so the cats could have possibly been in the room. My daughter’s voice was filled with concern. She jumped straight up, pulling her eye mask away as she tried to see around the room, and said, “MOM, what was that? What is that??” It seems like there were about three of those strange noises, then it stopped. My dog never barked or stirred. We both got out of bed and went to ask my husband if he had heard it. I thought briefly that maybe he had been watching a video on his phone or something, but when we went into the living room, he was already asleep on the couch.
It had a very mechanical or rough sound. It’s very hard to describe something I have never heard before! It was almost as though you were opening a door with a very old, corroded hinge, and it was scraping or whining. I convinced my daughter that it was just the cat, and we got back into bed. One of my cats did growl once from beneath the bed after we laid back down, but the dog never stirred, and my daughter went to sleep.
My mind thought of endless possibilities, but none seemed to fit the sound we heard. My phone and ipad were both in the living room, so it was not some oddity coming from either of them. Around 11:00 pm, I got up and went to talk to my husband about the noise. I could tell he believed me, but I also feel like until someone experiences something like that, they can never fully understand how exciting yet terrifying each encounter like that is!
Earlier in the day, I had been watching one of my favorite podcasts when one word sounded… different. Again, it’s hard to explain. The host’s voice changed, it was a completely different tone as he said one word, then the host’s voice went back to normal. Looking back, I feel as though it was an announcement or, without trying to sound scary, a warning for upcoming events, because the word was “contact”.
After talking to my husband about the noise, I went to sleep without fear, and from what I remember, slept all night until morning.
Stranger Than Fiction 