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| Photogapher: Erwin Serrano |
"Oh God, Annizah!", I thought.
"What if....?"
I was sleeping soundly until I suddenly woke up. I opened my eyes and saw complete darkness. I immediately grabbed my phone and checked what time it was. It's around 3-ish in the middle of the night. Then I just realized... DAMN! It was a brownout! I totally freaked out! No one's with me!
Just so you know, I cannot sleep if I'm not with somebody, if I cannot hear any noise, and if nothing illuminates any part of my room. Hence, Auntie Pina (my nanny) sleeps in my room everyday except on her dayoff wherein she returns home on Saturday afternoon and comes back the next day. I sleep with the lights on and with the noise of the air conditioner/fan.
But at that moment, I was alone and it scared the hell out of me. I played music thru my phone and used my other phone as my flashlight to give light onto my room. I was waiting for the electricity to come back on. After minutes of waiting, I decided to message my mom who's in abroad. I asked her to phone me, knowing that it was already 10 pm there and she's already asleep though. Initially, I wasn't receiving any call and so I gave my mom a ring. Luckily, she called me back. I told her I was scared. She was really worried. We talked on the phone for half an hour. My mom didn't end our conversation until I felt alright. I thought I was relieved but after a few minutes, fright struck me again. I messaged Arianne, a friend of mine who lives in the same town as mine, to ask if the power in their house was cut too. She said yes. I wanted to call her but decided not to because I dint want to disturb her from sleeping.
As fear ran all over my body, I was having different bloodcurdling thoughts, like horror movies or I might see a lady in white beside me. One of my crazy thoughts was the movie Emily Rose wherein a bad spirit attacked the protagonist every 3 midnight. Berserk!!! Probably, I was able to pray a million times that moment. :/ I was also thinking if I could disturb my sleeping uncle in his room, however I was scared to go outside mine and might see hair-raising thing.
I knew someone who's always ready to stay awake for me and take this fright away from me... Daryl, a special person. I dint want to call him at first because we are currently not on good terms and don't speak to each other much. Until barking dogs and moaning cats outside home were heard and my one phone had ran out of battery. I called him right away. And as expected, he entertained me without faltering. He answered my call with his newly-awake yet sweet voice. I gave him the details about the crazy stuff I was experiencing. He tried his best to comfort me. He cracked jokes, narrated some stories, uttered sweet words, etc. In the middle of the conversation, I heard something's slamming on the roof. I started to cry on the phone. I was scared to death. Daryl kept on comforting me and telling me there's nothing to cry about coz I'm a big girl already. But the scary feeling was prevailing. While inevitably crying, I heard the phone's low battery warning tone. What the heck?! I told Daryl about it. He said, I should wake my uncle and get the emergency light before the phone's battery would deplete. I followed him but he had to keep on speaking thru phone so I wouldn't be scared that much. I made it! I got the emergency light. Finally, I could see a little bit of brightness inside my room. IT WAS A BIG RELIEF! Later on, my phone lost its power. Thank God, I was able to sleep after the conversation. Perhaps, I got totally tired of everything that's why I slept that easily. :-(
You think this whole thing was only a piece of crap?! Dear, it's a big NO-NO! :-) Oh yes, I admit that I'm such a crybaby and stupid to cry over something stupid as I am. Nevertheless, I had realizations and lessons learned from it. I asked myself, having fear of the dark, what if I'll be blind one of these days? All I could see is darkness. I might kill myself then. How about you? Try to imagine yourself blind. What would you do? You would not see the beauty of surroundings, your loved ones, and you might be a useless individual in this world.
I may posses these things called "Achluophobia" or fear of the dark and "Autophobia" the fear of being alone. But I realized how blessed I am to have a good God. He loves me so much that's why I can see, hear, smell, taste, talk, and feel. :-) And even felt so much blessed of having these people around me who erased "autophobia" from me, who never get tired of loving and taking care of me and who are always ready to be there for me.
Thank You so much, Allah!
