3:31 A.M.

Recently, the hubs and I acquired some hand-me-down bedroom furniture. I was excited, because A.) I would finally get to have a “grown up” looking bedroom, and 2.) it had a very “country” feel to it. At long last, our bedroom was able to join the country/funky/antiquey theme the rest of our house has going. So we bought new bedding and rearranged everything. I even got one of those antique pitcher and bowl stands, which creeps people out, but I love it.

As I’ve noticed pretty much every time we make changes to the house, it seemed to rile up the spirits. With our bed in a different position, we now face the bedroom door, out into the middle room. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen “someone” standing in the doorway to our bedroom. Always very briefly, and it’s gone before I’m even really sure I saw it, but it still weirds me out.

A couple of weeks ago now, my younger son was spending the night at a friend’s, so the teenager had the entire upstairs to himself, which he was very excited about. Around 2:00 in the morning, he came running down to my room. He said he heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and then something slammed on the ground right outside his bedroom door. He said it was so loud, he thought it was me or his step-dad coming up to check on him. When he realized nobody was there, he freaked out.

Last week, my older son was at a friend’s, so only my youngest was home. He was asleep in bed with me, and my husband (bless his heart) was out on the couch. In the middle of the night, I woke up from a very strange/scary dream. (I don’t remember it now, but I did at the time.) I didn’t move or make any noise, just kind of laid there with my eyes open, trying to calm myself down. A few seconds later, my son sat straight up in bed and started reaching around like he was looking for something, mumbling incoherently. Just as he laid back down, I heard my husband get up from the couch and go walking through the middle room. At 3:31 am, all three of us woke up, completely on our own. That’s weird, right? I stayed up for a while, waiting and watching for something to happen, but nothing did. Still, it was pretty odd.

A couple of nights later, we were getting ready to go to bed, and my husband went into the kitchen and turned off the light. He said as he turned it off, he felt the sensation of someone covering his eyes with their hands. He said he couldn’t see anything, and could actually feel the hands covering his eyes. That night, he said he woke up very suddenly in the middle of the night. He looked at his phone. It was 3:31 am.

So, all of this is going on, and I can still say that it’s been a really long time since I’ve been genuinely scared in my own home. Until last night.

Last night, I passed OUT.  Fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. Which means that, naturally, I woke up a couple hours later and was wide awake. I got a glass of water, went to the bathroom, put on actual pajamas, and crawled back into bed. My dog, Sophie, wanted to join me.  She scratched frantically on the side of the bed a few times, using both paws. Scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch! I told her to go get in her own bed, and the scratching stopped. Then about a minute later, I heard (and felt) it again. Scratch…scratch…scratch. This time it was much slower. But I still heard it just the same, and felt the sheet tugging under my hand. I rolled over to swat at Sophie, but she wasn’t there. She was across the room, in her bed. I got up. Freaked out. Turned on the TV. Then tried to go back to sleep.

I tossed and turned for a few hours, then was awoken again by Sophie scratching on the bed. Scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch!  I told her to go away, praying that what came next wouldn’t happen again. But it did. Scratch…scratch…scratch. The sound was slow and deliberate. The pull of the sheets under my hand was undeniable  And Sophie was across the room, in her own bed. I had this overwhelming feeling that I had to get out of my room. So I grabbed my pillow and my phone and did exactly that. My head was killing me and I felt sick to my stomach. I settled on the couch for what little bit of sleeping time I still had left. I looked at the clock. 3:31 am.