When The Night Comes

I awoke with a start, the primal instinct taking over as the first thought that urged my body to move was ‘RUN!’ And I ran, all the way to my mom’s room, hammering away at the door, which she had locked.

Before anyone starts thinking that I’m a mommy’s girl, let me de-mist the situation.

A few nights ago, when I had finally drifted off to sleep at 2 a.m., I was jostled out of my slumber by a very loud, very long thunder. Mingled in with my instinct to run was my rational (or irrational, whichever you may please) thought saying, “The end of the world is here. The monster has awaken from the land.” (For those who don’t understand, ask a Muslim about the monster that is supposed to emerge when the end of the world is nigh). In all my life, I have never heard a thunder that sounds so much like a monster roaring at the heavens, and I have been through some of the worst rainstorms to hit my area.

I couldn’t sleep for an hour after that. I had to psychically and mentally calm my body down, which was unfortunately still on edge at every single sound, the muscles twitching in preparation for leap. I woke up a few hours later, exhausted and tensed. It was not a good feeling.

It makes me wonder whether anyone else has a problem like mine. My house used to be extremely sensitive to thunder and lightning so the slightest thunder vibration will automatically shut the whole house’s electrical system, engulfing us in darkness. Ever since I saw a ghost in my room at the age of 14, I wasn’t able to sleep without a light on after that and so, somewhat as per Pavlov’s classical conditioning, whenever there’s rain at night, I will wake up scared. Why? Because rain = thunder = electricity off = darkness = something I don’t want to see!!!

Yeah, yeah, call me a baby. But can I help it if it’s been imprinted in me? I’m only fine if someone is sleeping with me but since I’m not married and I don’t have any siblings staying with me, I have to make do by kidnapping my cat to sleep with me on my bed. Which he doesn’t mind, by the way, since he’s scared of thunder as well.