You know what I hate the most? Being home alone. I mean, you never know what could happen, right? Somebody could break in, there might be a murderer loose that I don’t know about, the ghosts in my house might finally show themselves and everyone will think I’m crazy. Or maybe nothing will happen at all which can be even worse  because you are left with your own imagination and anxiety. Bonus points if you’re home alone at night. Well tonight happens to be the night my mom goes back to work and, as an only child, I am left all alone. All alone with my imagination.
I lie in bed trying to fall asleep but my brain says otherwise. I roll over and grab my phone and turn it on. I am welcomed by my Doctor Who lockscreen. I unlock my phone and go straight to Pandora. I can’t stay in the silence of my dark room any longer. I swear my mind was playing tricks on me, I swear I just heard something fall from my shelf.
“It’s just my imagination.” I say out loud,  trying to reassure myself that it is really only my imagination. I am finally able to ignore it as soon as Pandora loads and my music starts. The first song to come up is Soap by Melanie Martinez.
“I think I just remembered something, I think I left the faucet running.” I sang along.
A few songs later I look at my clock on my messy nightstand. The glowing red numbers read 11:04. “I guess I should get some sleep since I have dance at nine tomorrow morning.” I turn off my phone and set it on my messy nightstand. I rolled over and closed my eyes. Everything just went downhill from there. My imagination ran wild.
For most people their imagination is their best friend. Their imagination lets them create something amazing and even beautiful. Their imagination comes out as creativity. That’s not my case at all. My imagination is my worst enemy. It makes me think I’m not actually alone, it makes me think of worst case scenarios, scenarios that I will know will never happen but I’m terrified anyways. My imagination comes out as anxiety, not creativity. It sucks.
I jump at the as a loud clatter sounds through my room. I quickly hide underneath my covers and try to think rationally. As I search my mind for as reasonable explanation for the noise I come up with increasingly unrealistic explanations. It’s a ghost!  Something or someone is in your room and is here to kill you! How did they get in? Who knows, but they’re there, watching you. Or my favorite, don’t freak out but I’m 99.9% sure that when you weren’t paying attention that the murderer that lives in the crawl space that leads to your creep, spider infested attic, snuck out of your closet and knocked something over. Now said murder is watching you cower underneath your blankets like they can protect you. and figure out which scenario is real. Oh yeah don’t  worry it might take you all night to figure out what actually happened.
You’re probably wondering now what I am currently doing. Well the answer is simple. Trying to ignore every thought that crosses my mind so I can just sleep. Does that happen? No. Do more and more irrational scenarios torment me and deprive me of sleep? Yes. What do I do? Freak out. My heart is beating at a mile a minute, my hands won’t stop shaking, I’m sweating like I just got out of dance and it feels like it’s a hundred degrees underneath my blankets but I don’t dare take them off. I mean it’s not like I can help it. It kinda just happens and no matter how hard I try I cannot find the ability to shut that emotion down. I lack the ability to.
There’s only two things to do. Either wait till I’m so tired I fall asleep, or wait till morning and not sleep to find out it was probably just one of my posters falling again and that I freaked out for no reason. Well, I usually freak out for no reason anyways so it’s not like I’m not use to it.
I jolt awake to my phone blaring Fight Song by Rachel Platten- my alarm. I look at the clock drowsily. The red numbers read 7:15. Right, I have dance at 9:00.
“When did I even fall asleep last night.” I wondered aloud. I looked over to my wall.
“Yep just another poster that fell.”