Have you ever heard something, a sound, that really messed you up? Well, I just did around 2 in the morning.

I'm laying on my bed, watching a deleted scene on the Legend DVD. I heard what I thought was a young woman scream twice. Two times real close together. I lay and listen. I was half asleep to begin with and thought it was just in the deleted scene (which made no sense considering the context of the scene). Then I thought maybe it was something on my computer, but the speakers were turned off.

Then my dad opens the door and wants to know if I'm alright. He said he heard somebody scream. Here's where that not so nice feeling starts to grow right in the pit of my stomach. I pop right up as he goes to check on my sister. She's asleep. Then my mother comes walking down the hallway wanting to know if we heard something.

My dad seems to have heard it the clearest. He said it was a woman or a child. He said it was a scream and then the sound of breath escaping. That sound of air leaving the body at the moment of death. He's heard it a few times in his life. He says he can't forget it. That feeling in my gut grows even more.

I check outside, and there's nothing moving, no wind or cats. Then a dog starts to bark. There's always a dog somewhere needing to bark. And they all pick really bad times to do so.

My dad starts to talk about the scream and how bad it's bothering him. My dad is usually not bothered by most things. Especially in things he doesn't believe in. It becomes clear that my dad is not only bothered by this, but spooked. And my dad doesn't get spooked. At least, I thought he didn't. Here's where that feeling in my stomach has spread to everything of me.

We begin talking of who the scream sounded like. It didn't sound like my sister. It really didn't sound like anybody I know. But if my dad is right about the type of scream, then... well, never mind.

I have a point of reference. A year or so ago, something happened. I was awoken by a child screaming. And later that day, I found out that during something horrible had happened. I really don't want to go into that any more. Let's just say, I have a point of reference.

So I'm sitting here, about an hour later from hearing the "whatever it was." My dad's up, still a little bit freaked. I think I'm going to be up for awhile, too.

It's a really terrifying, helpless, doom kind of feeling. Like being left out of something, not being able to stop something horrible from happening that you knew was going to happen, yet at the same time, you didn't know it was going to happen. Really mournful, sorrowful.

Yep, I'm going to be up for a long while.

  ¶ 3:12 AM