`xkcd` [Thread]

I have just one. It's not too crazy, but I was never able to explain it,
and what pisses me off is that I expect I'm never going to.

I was about 15 (late 1998 or early 1999). I had been really interested
in lucid dreams, and woke up one night at 2:30 AM from a long and
involved one. As was my habit at the time, I wrote down the whole dream
in detail on a paper near my bed.

While I was putting down the last few details, I heard music coming from
the hallway. The house was dark and quiet, my parents were asleep, and
the house is pretty small and has only one floor. The music wasn't like
anything I'd heard before -- it sounded like someone was pouring
sleighbells down a series of regular troughs. Lots of tiny tinkling
notes merging into a chaotic tune.

For like 30 seconds I sat on my bed, creeped out, thinking "this is so
surreal" and "where could this be coming from? someone parked outside?"
and other things you think when you're 15 and awake and home alone and
kind of a wimp. I finally got up the nerve to get up and walk over to
the door, and the noise got louder as I did -- clearly it was coming
from down the hall. I saw out through the ajar door that everything was
dark. I knew that I would have to walk out there to see what it was, but
it was such a strange experience and I found myself terrified of the
dark hallway.

So I chickened out. I backed away from the door, sat on my bed, wrapped
the blanket around me, and listened. I knew I wouldn't be able to
remember the music, but I tried to verify that it had a tune to it, and
it did -- chaotic though it was, I could anticipate parts of the melody.
And I took the piece of paper on which I had written my dream and added
a note at the bottom: "2:30 AM: Strange music. Scared." And then I just
stared at the doorway.

About a minute and a half later, the music faded down and stopped. There
was silence. I didn't know what to do. I didn't feel like sleeping.
Eventually I got up the nerve to walk out my door and into my parents'
room across the hall, where I stood awkwardly at the foot of their bed,
not sure what I would say if I woke them up. Finally, I decided not to,
and walked back into my room. I read for a while and fell asleep.

The next morning, I asked my parents. They didn't know anything, and
couldn't think of a piece of music that it might be (my Dad suggested
"Tubular Bells"). I've never heard it again or figured out what
happened.

The obvious suggestion is that I dreamed it. This doesn't fit for
several reasons. One, I've never confused a dream for a real experience
after waking up. Two, I remember thinking, at the time, "years from now,
when the memory of this has faded, I'll probably start telling myself
that it was a dream, and it'll probably help me wonder less, but I know
with certainty right now that it wasn't." Third, I can't really write
text in my dreams, let alone write a full page of narrative. Fourth, I
looked at the paper the next morning and saw the note. (I wish I could
find that paper again, but my room was always a mess of stacks of paper
and sometime in the next few years it vanished).

I don't expect anyone to figure this out, I don't expect to ever find an
answer, and I don't think this was anything supernatural. The lesson
here -- and the reason I retell this story -- is this: forget what the
horror movies teach you. Even if you're scared, go investigate the
strange phenomenon, or you just might find yourself wondering for the
rest of your life.

(And if you do hear this music one night and go to investigate, don't
forget your towel.)

  [Thread]: https://reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9hll7/hey_reddit_what_are_some_of_your_first_hand/c0ctdic/