A Shriek in the Night

A shriek in the night, a scream unlike anything I’d ever heard before.  First it was outside my bedroom window, then around the back of my house. Was I under attack? Should I man my battle station? And what could I possibly use to defend myself against this unknown wailing creature? I lay still in my bed, reassuring myself that the noise was indeed real and I didn’t imagine it in my semi-conscience state. I then began chastising myself for not chugging some Benadryl and going comatose in which case I would be oblivious to this screeching siege and instead be drooling into my pillow. My dog was growling, the neighbor dogs were barking. Dare I get up and investigate? I don’t want to look for fear I will see the creature, make eye contact through the night and it will somehow consume my soul. My imagination runs wild, monsters flashing before my eyes as I curse myself for taking that Greek mythology course in college. And just as I summon enough courage to plant my feet firmly on the floor…silence. Had the immortal being vanished or had the neighbors dogs met their demise? I wait, sitting on the edge of the bed, expecting the roof to be ripped open any minute and a two headed dragon to envelope me in a cloud of fire. I really must stop watching movies. Following the longest moments of my life I slowly pull my feet back up, and slide back in between the sheets. Crisis averted.  After some stealthy online research of animals that do exist, I, a modern day Sherlock Homes unlocked the mystery of my near death experience. It was….drumroll…….a deer.