I was on the verge of sleeping or had just fallen asleep when I realized that I wasn’t alone in this cottage. My rational mind told me otherwise, since I had checked that the windows and the front door were all closed and locked and it was so silent here that nobody could have walked past in the gravel yard without being heard. Which reminded me that that there should actually be a terrace - but now there was just gravel. Of course there was the possibility that if you came down the cliff and through the forest and sneaked onto the front porch very carefully, staying next to the cottage while not touching it...

I shook those ideas away. After all, the door was locked and the only way into this remote cabin was now through the chimney, as I had left the fireplace damper open because I had kept a small fire inside the fireplace in order to warm this place up. It had already been freezing cold outside the last few nights and, as this place had been without heating for some time, it was equally cold inside until the fireplace spread the heat to the entire cottage. Even though the fire had seemed to be out I had left the damper open since I was a bit worried about the carbon monoxide and I had forgotten to buy a new battery for the alarm.

Way too late to worry about that now.

Now I sensed it again and I cursed that the ear wax softener worked so slowly. I could sometimes get my ears blocked by wax and therefore I was an experienced user of the earwax softener. This morning I had felt too busy and it hadn’t felt too bad. I had used the softener in the middle of the day and again just before going to sleep, but my ears were still blocked and it seriously affected my hearing. But now, I was sure that I had sensed something. It. Whatever it was.

My body was tired and aching all over from the physical exercise caused by the renovation I had done during the day, but it didn’t stop me from shivering as I suddenly remembered all the stories regarding this remote coastline area: People who went missing and were never found, the historical stories about the Huldras who had taken people to their underworld. Which was close to what I now clearly remembered. It must have been a quick dream I saw the moment I fell asleep. Hypnagogic. That was the word. Hallucination when falling asleep. My doctor had said that I should not have those because I didn’t suffer from narcolepsy. Yet I had. I just had had to accept the fact that I could have vivid and real dreams. I tried to open my eyes even more.

I might as well have kept my eyes closed all the time since it was so dark that I didn’t really see anything. Or that was what I first thought, since now I was sure that I saw something. Some movement. Or maybe it was the same thing what happened when you tried to take a video when it was too dark and all you were able to record was the background noise of the sensor. I tried to convince myself that all the movement I saw was just some background noise generated inside my own head or in the sensory cells at the back of my eye sockets. Then I almost sensed it again. Not quite, but almost. It was like the air next to my cheek had moved and I was able to sense the movement with my body hair.

Very carefully I started moving my hand reaching for my mobile which would have a flashlight.

When I finally had my phone in my hand, I tried pressing to power button in order to wake it from sleep. Nothing. I pressed again, harder. Nothing. Now I really wanted to curse, since this fancy new phone had done it again - died without any warning and the only way to get it working again would be to open the back cover from the tiniest little gap with the smallest screwdriver you only could find, remove the battery and reinstall it again. Not a big deal since I had no issues with my vision and my fingers worked fine. You just needed some light so that you could find the tiny gap from which you could open the back cover.

Had it been female laughter that had been the last thing I heard in that vivid dream?

Now my eyes were better accustomed to the darkness and that background noise - or movement - wasn’t there anymore. Instead, I was able to see the windows as there was some light outside the cottage. Or maybe it was too much to call it light when it was more like a shimmer than light and I got a feeling that it kept on changing; like someone was moving out there. I tried to focus my gaze there, but I could not really see anything outside. It was no wonder since the sky had been overcast and there hadn’t even been any stars visible. I already knew that the moon was new tonight and the rain last evening had made all the surfaces dark and light-absorbing.

Then I sensed the air move again ... now on the other side of my face.

From the back of my brain came the reminder that this was Halloween night even though it hadn’t really been celebrated here until lately. Instead, we had had our Kekri, the end and the celebration of the harvest season. Like Samhain with the Gaelic. Maybe I should have had the bonfire outside. At least I had had quite a good meal which I had brought with me, but not a bonfire. Again I cursed myself for forgetting the candles, since now when my mobile refused to co-operate they might have been an easily available source of light.