A) Normal coincidental occurrences that are completely explainable,
B) A result of me having some sort of hallucination, or
C) A damn ghost.
Allow me to tell you in detail exactly what happened.
I was asleep in my bedroom. I woke up, but I'm not sure if I just happened to wake up on my own like I normally do, or if some weird noises caused me to wake up. Lilly was laying in the bed beside me, fast asleep.
At any rate, I rolled over in the bed, and then my stomach started cramping up just a little. I laid there and thought to myself that all the citric acid in the grapefruit that I ate before going to bed must be disagreeing with me a little. I continued to lay there and listen to the rain. I noticed right away that the rain sounded strange. It didn't sound like it usually does.
Then I began hearing some noises outside. I can't really describe exactly what it sounded like; it was just kind of like all different kinds of random bumping and thumping. At first I just figured it must be the dogs re-adjusting themselves inside their doghouses, but the noises continued. Then I thought it sounded like somebody was outside; maybe messing around at the door to the crawlspace that leads under our house.
The bumping and thumping noises stopped, and I didn't think any more about it. I figured it must have just been the dogs getting more comfortable in their doghouses. I continued to lay there in the bed and listened some more to the rain. It sounded so strange. It was very distinct and clear, as if the window was open. I went so far as to think for sure that a window somewhere in the house must be open for the rain to be making such a detailed, clear sound like that. It was like I could hear the rain as clearly as if I was standing right outside in it. I laid there in the bed and tried to feel if the air in room felt cold to me (as if a window in the house really was open), but it didn't feel cooler than usual to me, and I didn't smell any fresh "outside" odor. I was almost to the point of getting up out of the bed to check to make sure all the windows in the house really were shut, but I figured that since the room didn't feel cold, and it didn't smell "fresh" like a window was open, then why bother? I guessed that maybe the rain just sounded strange because of the way it was dripping on the heat pump, or the tarp and black plastic covering the dog pen outside or something (even though it never sounded like that before).
I continued to lay there, and then a few moments later, it happened.
A disembodied man's yell.
Right outside my bedroom window.
It lasted for about 2 seconds.
When it happened, I knew instantly that it was a man; but not a living man. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind; it couldn't have been anything else at all. It didn't sound like the dogs, or any other kind of animal, or anything else. It was completely unmistakable. My first instinct was that it sounded like a man yelling in pain because he had just been shot (or hurt somehow). If I had to describe it, it sounded like a stereotypical noise of a male character in a video game getting hurt or killed. Except it was disembodied; ghostly.
That was weird enough on its own, but here's where it gets even weirder.
About 5 seconds after I heard the disembodied yell, then I saw the light.
I hadn't even been aware that there was a light, until I saw it fade away right before my eyes. The light was coming from the same bedroom window that the disembodied man's yell came from 5 seconds before. It was like somebody slid a dimmer switch on a light, and it took about 4 seconds to fade completely to black. The fade was gradual and consistent.
And that's when I thought to myself "OH SH*T" and got seriously spooked.
I kept laying there in the bed in the darkness, trying to comprehend what had just happened, and also trying to figure out what in the hell it could have been. Instantly, your gut instinct is "oh sh*t, it's a ghost", but at the same time, you don't really want it to be a damn ghost, so you start trying to rationalize it and figure out what it *really* was.
My first thought was that maybe it really was somebody messing around outside, even though the dogs never made a peep. So I turned on my bedside lamp, put my glasses on, and got up. First, I tried looking out my other bedroom window that overlooks the dog pen (it's not the window that the yell and dimming light came from). But because it was dark outside, and the glare from my bedside lamp was reflecting on the glass of the window, I couldn't really see anything. Then, even though I was scared, I walked over to the yell/dimming light window, and tried looking out of it (for just a second because I was freaked out). But just like the other window, I couldn't see anything.
Lilly was still in the bed sound asleep and hadn't moved.
So I walked out of my bedroom (my bedroom door was almost all the way open), turned on the overhead light in the hallway, and stepped across the hallway into Lilly's bedroom where Jamie was sleeping. Lilly's bedroom door lacked about 3 or 4 inches from being shut (we always put a shoe in the way so it can't completely close, so the silly cat can come and go as she pleases without meowing like a butthole and waking us all up). Jamie was in Lilly's bed sound asleep, and no lights were on in the room.
I walked into the living room, turned on the front floodlight, and looked outside. Nothing. I looked out all of the other living room windows. Nothing. I walked to the kitchen, turned the garage light on, and looked outside. Nothing. I looked at the clock on the stove to see what time it was. It was close to 3:00 AM. Then I grabbed Jamie's bright LED flashlight and walked back to my bedroom, turning all the rest of the house lights back off as I went. I opened my bedroom window which overlooks the dog pen, pressed my face up to the screen, shined the flashlight around and looked. Nothing.
Then, even though I was still scared to, I swallowed, thought to myself that I had to be brave, and I walked over to the yell/dimming light window. I opened it, pressed my face up to the screen, shined the flashlight around and looked. Again, nothing.
At that point, my hands were trembling, and I was still freaked out and wide awake after the weird thing that I had just witnessed. So I ran across the hallway into Lilly's bedroom and hopped in the bed with Jamie and told him that I was spooked. He woke up and asked me if I'd had a bad dream, but I quickly shook my head "no". Then I explained to him what had happened.
I believe that ghosts/spirits/angels/demons really do exist. I don't know exactly what they are, or exactly how and why they happen, but I know enough to know that they are real. And I think that they can be caused by different things. But at the same time, I don't think that every dumb little oddball thing that happens is automatically a "ghost". I have to make absolutely sure that there is no other logical explanation before I'll consider the possibility that it even might have been a ghost. And that works 99.9999999999% of the time. I mean, I've written off plenty of really super-weird unexplainable stuff as "aww, it was just the wind/some random critter/a bug/the reflection of the moon", etc., etc., etc.
But this thing that happened last night, I'm having a hard time trying to figure out.
I'm not concerned about the weird sound the rain was making. But I do think it's interesting that since the rain sounded strange, it caused me to listen very carefully. I don't sleep on my back, but as I was laying there listening to the weird rain, I was laying on my back so that both of my ears were off of the pillow, purposefully so that I could hear good. Neither of my ears were covered up by the bedcovers or anything, so I could hear everything perfectly well. And since I was laying on my back, nothing was in front of my face to obstruct me seeing the light go dim right when it happened.
I am 100% sure that I was NOT asleep, and that it was NOT a dream.
I didn't have my glasses on until I actually got up out of the bed to investigate, and without my glasses, I can't see anything. But of course even without my glasses, I'm able to see a light, and notice if it goes dim.
Here's what's so weird about the yell/dimming light:
If it had been a person or animal outside (even within like, a 1/10th of a mile radius), the dogs would have been going ape-sh*t crazy barking. And they never made a peep.
I never heard any kind of footsteps or rustling outside, and our yard is pretty much completely covered in leaves, especially in the area behind the house where the yell/dimming light came from. Our house is nestled right up in the edge of the woods.
It was completely silent both outside and inside the house (aside from just the slight drizzling of the rain outside).
There were no cars or trucks passing by on the road below at the time.
There was no thunder or lightning happening at the time.
There were absolutely no inside or exterior house lights on at all at the time of the yell/dimming light.
The gas logs in the living room were not on.
My cell phone was in a pocket inside my purse in the dining room. Jamie's cell phone was sitting on the bedside table in Lilly's bedroom, but of course he was sound asleep at the time so it wasn't on; the screen was just black the whole time. Not to mention the fact that the bedroom door was only open about 3 or 4 inches. And neither of our cell phones has a "disembodied male yell" ringtone. O__o
In my bedroom, it bothers me and I can't sleep well if I can see even the dim glow that the numbers on the clock next to my bed makes, so I always keep the lights on the modem, clock, and cordless phone in my bedroom completely covered so that their lights can't be seen at all. And after the yell/dimming light happened I checked to make sure that that they were all still completely covered, and they were.
There were no toys or other electronic devices in the bedroom (or my adjoining bathroom) that make noise and light up. And no TVs, radios, or anything like that were on anywhere in the house.
Outside the window that the yell/dimming light came from, it's just thick woods for a very long way. There are no houses or roads behind my house. The only light source in that area is a wall sconce outside the back door of the garage (which is located right next to the window that the yell/dimming light happened at), but we rarely even use that wall sconce. It wasn't on at the time, and it doesn't have a dimmer. If a power surge happened, could it have caused just that one wall sconce on the outside of the house to somehow turn on without me noticing it (no), and then gradually dim until it turns back off? Can power surges cause just one light in your house to turn on and off, and not all of the lights?
What about lightning? It wasn't storming at the time of the yell/dimming light; it was just drizzling rain. It wasn't thundering or lightning. But if it was lightning, can lightning just appear without being noticed (no), and then take 4 seconds to gradually fade away?
I laid there in Lilly's bed with Jamie, my hands still trembling, going over all this with him and trying to figure it out for a long time. He told me not to worry about it; that it was just something weird that happened (whether it was a ghost or not), and to try to go back to sleep.
So I went back to my bedroom and crawled back into the bed with Lilly, who stayed fast asleep the whole time. (And don't worry, we haven't told her about this, and we won't be telling her about this, because we don't want her to be afraid). We don't admit to her that we even believe in ghosts; if she ever talks or asks about it, we just tell her that they're not real, so she won't be scared.
I turned on the little night-light portion of my bedside lamp, because I was still too spooked to do without it just yet. Eventually, I calmed down enough and managed to get sleepy again. I turned off my bedside night-light and went back to sleep.
Sometime after I had fallen back asleep, in real life, it started to storm, complete with thunder and lightning.
I can sleep through pretty bad loud storms with no problem. If there's a lot of lightning happening very frequently, though, it will usually cause me to wake up. In other words, I always sleep through "natural" things. But if something is making a non-typical noise (like Jamie is up walking around or going to the bathroom, Lilly's talking in her sleep, or there's a coon in the trash outside in the garage), or something like that, then I will wake up in a flash.
While I was still asleep after the scare of the yell/dimming light, I had a bad dream. First of all, I dreamed that me and Jamie were looking out the bedroom window that the yell/dimming light happened at. In my dream, there was about an inch or so of snow on the ground. And in the snow on the ground, you could see bootprints where something had walked up to the window from the woods, and then walked off back toward the woods, in a different direction. Then the dream changed. I dreamed that it was storming, and that a big tree had fallen down on the house, right above my bed. In my dream, I was laying in the bed looking up, and I could see the ceiling bulging downward a few feet above me with the weight of the huge tree. It was an awful dream (especially the part about the ghostly footprints in the snow at the window).
I woke up from the bad dream and noticed that it was storming pretty bad in real life with thunder and lightning. It was pretty unnerving considering the tree-crashing dream that I had just had, but I just figured that the storm happening in real life had just made its way into my dream and caused my brain to manufacture the dream about the tree.
A little while later, I fell back asleep again, and this time stayed asleep with no more bad dreams. In the morning (about 10:30 AM), Lilly woke me up, hungry for breakfast. I got up, but my hands were still trembling, and I was still freaked out from the yell/dimming light thing that had happened in the middle of the night. I felt so bad; I mean both physically and mentally. It was weird. I felt weird all day. Finally, I knew I was going to have to go to the grocery store, but before I did, I took a good, hot bath. It made me feel a little better, but my mind was still preoccupied with the weird thing that had happened, and the dream I had. I felt a little better, but at the same time, a little paranoid for some reason, all the way through the grocery store.
As I was at the checkout, the cashier girl mentioned seeing on the news about a tree that had crashed down on this house and hit this girl in her bedroom during the storm we had last night.
I turned white, and my jaw dropped open.
I hadn't seen the news at all yet, and had no idea that something like that had happened. All I could do was stammer something to the effect of "oh my gosh I had a bad dream about a tree crashing down on a house last night".
So I'm not saying that there is definitely a connection between my dream and what happened in reality, but I'm not sure. I'm thinking that it's most likely just a coincidence, but I don't know. And I don't think that the yell/dimming light and the bad dream was a premonition or warning that a tree is going to crash onto our house, but who knows? I guess maybe I feel like if I don't tell anyone about it, then it might happen, but if I do tell people about it, then it won't happen. (Even though that's dumb, superstitious, and irrational).
There's one thing that I do know for sure, though, and that is whatever happened last night was weird. And I just wanted to document it.
I've had numerous other very weird things kind of similar to this happen to me since I was a little girl, but not many people know about them. I don't go blasting it around because 1) if you're not 100% sure that it absolutely can't be explained as something completely normal, then 2) everybody's going to think you're even crazier than you actually are. ;)
But if a tree ever does come crashing down in a storm and crushes me to death while I'm in the bed, then at least do this much for me:
And who knows, maybe I'll come yell and fade away at your bedroom window one rainy night! ;)
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