Sounds That Scare Me

Sounds That Scare Me

It was a typical night, all the babies were asleep and I had finished making my nightly rounds, turning off lights and checking the door locks. Three children were sleeping down stairs and the baby was across the hall from our room in her nursery. I tend to have trouble sleeping but this night I quickly fell into a restful slumber. Some time later I woke with a start. Lifting my head up, I wondered what time it was. It was so dark outside it could have been anywhere from midnight to 3 in the morning. I lie back down and am almost asleep again when I hear a grinding noise. I jump quickly out of bed because I know that sound, it is the sound of a chair being moved across the kitchen floor. My 3 year old son has a habit of waking up in the middle of the night and he is not the kind of boy you want playing in a kitchen with knives at night. I rush into the kitchen, fully awake now, only to find it empty. Sure that my son has run back to bed I chase downstairs to catch him, only he isn't awake. He is peacefully slumbering in his bed. Now my heart starts to race. If it wasn't him, who was it? Instantly I have images of menacing men hiding in my childrens' rooms. Wishing I had a baseball bat, and running into each bedroom, I check the kids, then I check each of their closets and make sure all the windows are still locked before running upstairs. The baby is upstairs so I take the steps two at a time. Who ever it is had better not go near my baby! I am unarmed but I don't bother about this because I am a mother ready to defend her babies to the death. As I rush to check the front door I see my husband in the corner of my eye as he sleepily shuffles to the bathroom. Why isn't this man loading a gun or strangling some masked man right now?

Yawning he drawls, "What are you doing?"
"Check the baby, check the baby!"
"A-what?" He asks as I'm checking more window locks and he scratches his belly.
"I heard a noise, didn't you hear that noise?"
"You mean when I passed gas? I was wondering why you jumped out of bed so fast. It wasn't that bad. You mean you..."

He spares a second or two to chuckle sleepily at my shocked face before closing the bathroom door on me. Before going back to bed I yell through the door, "Noises like that need to come with a warning!"

I still get spooked by unidentified noises, but now I make my husband wake up and help me label the sound before rushing out of bed in the late, dark, night.

This has been submitted to Scribbit's October Write-Away Contest. The theme this month is "Thing that scare me."