"And they mostly come out at night. Mostly."

--Aliens


Who's afraid of the dark? At 23. Not me. Psssh. Nah uh.

.....

Yeah okay well here's the deal.
I no longer have power in half the house (the most important half: computer room, bathroom, and bedroom).
I don't have any television sets in the house anymore (they've been moved to my dad's new place).
I no longer have internet (due to power being out- I'm currently at my dad's).
The two dogs, aka the alarm systems, now reside in my father's new garage.

So this means I now live in a place devoid of light, laughter, and love. The dogs brought love.

When I come home at night, there are no dogs in the backyard to greet me, so I have to trust that my footsteps are heard by whatever manner of creature may be up on my back deck. Without Burrito around to thin out their numbers, I'm sure the raccoon and opossum population is flourishing in the woods. And I really don't think I could handle having one or two spring out at me in darkness, white teeth flashing, shrill shrieking (mine or otherwise raccoon/possum's) echoing into the night. Yeeesh.

Without either dog around to bark at anyone who comes near the house, I have no idea if anyone is walking down my driveway or running through my backyard to get to safety after a police chase (which has happened from time to time).

Without television, I have nothing to use for background noise in the dark, quiet house at night. Without internet, I can't entertain myself or communicate with anyone before bed.

I am utterly alone.

And without power, I stumble around the house. I really have to hope my aim is true when I step into the bathroom. That's crucial.

So then I settle into bed. And that's when the craziness sets in. See, I used to just set the sleep timer on my television and let the soft, soothing sounds of Adult Swim lull me to sleep. If any noises were heard in the house, I could blame it on the dogs downstairs in the basement. If ever there was a sound outside the house, I could trust my dogs would scare it away.

Now, I have NOTHING to pin those creepy night sounds on. Instead, I lie there in the pitch blackness of the bedroom, listening to every creak, every shudder that reverberates through the house.

Are the rats back and have they found a way upstairs?
Is there someone on my back deck?
Has the ghost returned?

(yes, I said ghost)

After instances of having neighbors get robbed, hearing about how my father stumbled upon lawn-mower thieves in the front yard, and seeing police helicopters circle over my house as cops pour into my backyard to search the woods for suspects on the run (among many other stories involving cops parked all in front of my house searching for people that may have escaped into my backyard for cover), can you really blame me for worrying about intruders?

It wouldn't be so bad if I had a TV to drown out every other noise I could possibly worry about. Or if I had dogs to blame. Or if the house wasn't so dark and possibly concealing felons in the shadowy corners of the unfinished upstairs.

And my dad took all the guns back to his place too. And the bow and arrow. So target practice is no longer a possibility.

I might start sleeping with a large knife under my pillow. Like I did my last few days in Los Angeles, when I slept on the floor of an empty apartment. Alone. Yeah, that place is crazy.

Anyway, the situation is really not that bad. But it kinda freaks out visitors now when we sit in the living room to watch a movie on my laptop, and the only source of illumination is a small lamp in the corner because the lightbulbs in the fan-light have burned out.

I just don't want the house to look abandoned, but with the dogs gone and the power out, how could it not look that way to anyone passing along the street? Or the backyard, for that matter, looking for a place to hide?

So now when I leave the house, I just let my laptop play music as a warning to anyone who might end up in the house.

Because come on, if you stepped into a living room and heard Aqua's "Barbie Girl" blaring away through the loud speakers, you'd run as far away as possible too.

--Cbake, who now returns to the long dark of Moria...