3113
Hello Summer!
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2005
- Posts
- 13,823
Okay, this was REALLY weird and disturbing.
First, the set up: We live in a suburban area with only urban wildlife: Possums, raccoons, squirrels, cats, dogs. The area between my building and the next is a real echo chamber and if the window is open we can pretty much hear footsteps, conversations, just about anything. There are plants, bushes and a short chainlink fence between buildings. One of the neighbors in the next building owns a very nice, large dog which is sometimes allowed out to trot back and forth in that limited area (don't worry, he gets plenty of walks around the neighborhood). He's a very quiet dog and we almost never hear him.
Late last night we heard...I dunno wtf it was!
Screaming is what I'd call it.
It was screechingly loud and high pitched, loud enough to hurt the ears. It woke us right up and I was sure, at first, that it was a scream of pain, maybe cats?...but not. I've heard plenty of cat fights--and, when my cat got herself pinned, yowling in panic and pain, I heard that. I'd recognize that sound. I've heard squirrels arguing and this wasn't squirrels--they don't get that loud anyway (do they?). I've heard dogs of all sizes howling and yelping. It wasn't a dog. And it wasn't a human being either--not child or adult. Believe me, if it had seemed at all human, we'd have been down there in a flash.
It wasn't a machine either...at least, I don't *think* that it was.
Now, the one thing I've never heard is a rabbit "scream"--might it have been that? It was an ear-piercing shriek that went on, and I've no idea why. It sounded like the thing was being eaten alive and I think (hard to recall now) that I did hear some rustling in the bushes...but all I heard besides it was the dog next door panting. Not barking or growling or seeming on the attack. The dog *seemed* to be trying to see and follow whatever was screaming in the bushes (our cat was also real interested in what was going on, too, she was trying to peer out the window with us).
I considered sending down the half-asleep husband, but I didn't want him searching through the bushes in the dead of night, maybe getting bitten by some crazed...um...Elf? Fairy? Homunculus? Mandrake root being torn out of the ground?
Finally it just stopped. It was fuckin' disturbing. We've talked to one of our neighbors. They certainly heard it. I think the whole neighborhood heard it. Like I said, it was ear-piercingly high and loud and right there in the echo-chamber area. The neighbors are as clueless and disturbed as we are and, no, no one's gone searching this morning through the bushes to see if there are any remains.
So what the hell was it? Can someone reassure this clueless suburbanite that I wasn't witness to some kind of horrific elf homicide outside my window?
First, the set up: We live in a suburban area with only urban wildlife: Possums, raccoons, squirrels, cats, dogs. The area between my building and the next is a real echo chamber and if the window is open we can pretty much hear footsteps, conversations, just about anything. There are plants, bushes and a short chainlink fence between buildings. One of the neighbors in the next building owns a very nice, large dog which is sometimes allowed out to trot back and forth in that limited area (don't worry, he gets plenty of walks around the neighborhood). He's a very quiet dog and we almost never hear him.
Late last night we heard...I dunno wtf it was!
Screaming is what I'd call it. It was screechingly loud and high pitched, loud enough to hurt the ears. It woke us right up and I was sure, at first, that it was a scream of pain, maybe cats?...but not. I've heard plenty of cat fights--and, when my cat got herself pinned, yowling in panic and pain, I heard that. I'd recognize that sound. I've heard squirrels arguing and this wasn't squirrels--they don't get that loud anyway (do they?). I've heard dogs of all sizes howling and yelping. It wasn't a dog. And it wasn't a human being either--not child or adult. Believe me, if it had seemed at all human, we'd have been down there in a flash.
It wasn't a machine either...at least, I don't *think* that it was.
Now, the one thing I've never heard is a rabbit "scream"--might it have been that? It was an ear-piercing shriek that went on, and I've no idea why. It sounded like the thing was being eaten alive and I think (hard to recall now) that I did hear some rustling in the bushes...but all I heard besides it was the dog next door panting. Not barking or growling or seeming on the attack. The dog *seemed* to be trying to see and follow whatever was screaming in the bushes (our cat was also real interested in what was going on, too, she was trying to peer out the window with us).
I considered sending down the half-asleep husband, but I didn't want him searching through the bushes in the dead of night, maybe getting bitten by some crazed...um...Elf? Fairy? Homunculus? Mandrake root being torn out of the ground?
Finally it just stopped. It was fuckin' disturbing. We've talked to one of our neighbors. They certainly heard it. I think the whole neighborhood heard it. Like I said, it was ear-piercingly high and loud and right there in the echo-chamber area. The neighbors are as clueless and disturbed as we are and, no, no one's gone searching this morning through the bushes to see if there are any remains.
So what the hell was it? Can someone reassure this clueless suburbanite that I wasn't witness to some kind of horrific elf homicide outside my window?
If there is something dead there, it will start to stink in a few days. 
