The Break-In of Dawn

Just when I was dying to call it a year (my year-in-review), something interesting happened in the dawn. My sleep schedule for the past week has been messed up. Long gone are the days when I woke up at 5 AM or earlier. So, I badly wanted to pay off my sleep debt last night.

At about 4:30am today, I woke up to a thud¹, as if someone had broken the main door. Unsurprisingly, I was totally not ready for this since all of my housemates had gone to their respective homes for the holidays, and it was a freaking 4:30am. Too many thoughts were running through my mind. Some of them were (in no particular order):

• Ok, this is it. I’m done today. I thought this was a safe neighborhood.
• Should I play dead? How can I get out of this?
• Should I call 911? I don’t wanna disturb them unnecessarily.🤦
• My mom doesn’t know any of my passwords to my money accounts. How is she going to figure it out after I die? I should atleast let her know my address.
• Umm, I’m worried about my duolingo streak. Should I do a lesson now? What an idiot!

I brushed all of this aside and started thinking (somewhat) rationally. First, I needed to try my best to not attract attention by making noise. This was more difficult that I thought and it makes sense why. When you’re trying too hard for something, you fail miserably! The good thing is my phones are always on silent mode. Next, I extended my hand to minimize the thermostat setting of my space heater so it doesn’t turn on at the wrong moment. Then, I grabbed my phone and entered 9-1-1, but I didn’t press the call button yet. I started messaging my mom on whatsapp. I hated to freak her out, but if I was dying, she needed to know immediately. So, I did exactly that. All this time, I was trying to listen carefully and estimate how many people might have broken into the house while rehearsing every essential detail I needed to tell the 911 operator. At home, I could hear a male talking (could be either on phone or to another person with him). I text my mom all the important stuff, and she starts to ask if I wanna message/call Priya akka or my aunt. She’s my relative and lives a few miles away. I could bug her anytime, but I chose not to. Just because I was lowkey freaking out at 4:45am-ish doesn’t mean I wanted to spoil everyone’s sleep unless it was absolutely necessary.

Then I entered a state of confusion. I could hear some shuffling for close to 20 minutes, but I couldn’t decipher what they were saying. I was not liking how this was going, and I wanted to sleep badly. I then started doubting whether I’m not trying enough to keep myself safe. So, I resorted to a second opinion from a friend who’s in a better timezone. On the other chat, my mom goes like “Stay online (x100)”. Does staying online mean staying alive? :)

At some point, I was too bored to be awake and do nothing but listen. It felt like I’m listening to a conversation in Mandarin - I can hear something, but I can’t understand anything and my brain isn’t braining. This is when I started realizing that if the intruders were actually here for robbery, it wouldn’t take them 30 mins to check each of the 6 rooms in the house, unless they were newbies. So, it was a good call that I didn’t call up the police (well, it could’ve turned out to be the worst decision). This is when I decided to ditch everything and go back to sleep thinking, “If I was destined to be shot to death in my sleep today, so be it. I don’t have any regrets.²”. I ended my chat with my friend like this and informed the same to my mom.

After sneaking out of the house for a dentist appointment in the morning and returning home a few hours later, I heard a chatter at the kitchen. This time, I was ready to confront. It turns out one of my housemates and his girlfriend had come back from holidays early. Dei! -_- Sacrificing my sleep and doing nothing for an hour for this? Atleast I’m happy that I’m not alone in this house anymore. I’m leaving this here. :/