FindingAlaska Thread

My friend and I were going to a party a few hours out of town, so we decided to stay at her family's holiday house about an hour south of the party (now three hours from home). We arrived around mid afternoon, and it was winter in a holiday town, so the area was completely empty - no other cars on the street.

When we left for the party I spent a moment deciding whether to pull the gate all the way closed. I'd had some trouble opening it earlier when we arrived, and if we were getting home late at night I didn't want to be stuck outside. I decided to shut it for security.

Party was great, we got back to the house around 12:30, and the gate was open. I immediately felt on edge because not only did I know I'd locked it, but I knee it couldn't just blow open in the wind, but I didn't want to make a big deal so I was vague when my friend asked if I'd shut it. We went inside, and decided to make a snack. I was wandering through the house when suddenly my friend raced from the kitchen into the hallway and virtually tackled me to the ground; she was convinced she'd heard someone walking around outside. We tried to calm ourselves down, but we had no cell reception and there was no one else around. Over the next half hour or so, as we sat in the hallway paralysed with fear, we heard footsteps outside, and the back door being jimmied.

We decided we had to leave, so we gathered everything up and got ready to make a break for the car. Just as we were at the front door ready to leave, there was a huge bang in the back yard, and suddenly what sounded like hundreds of birds started screaming. We legged it to the car, ended up starting it with all our stuff still on our laps, we hadn't bothered to even put it in the backseat. As we reversed out the driveway we saw somebody running up the side of the house towards us.

Sped the entire way home and even once we got back to my place, didn't sleep at all that night.