What thing sends shivers down your spine? What makes you scream? What keeps you awake at night? Everyone has a fear or phobia that affects them in some way or another. There will be the traditional fears that are well-known and there will be a few...
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"Doctor, I had another episode last night. This time I was in my bathroom and my husband had just got home from work. As I stepped out of the shower, I saw the snake hanging from the ceiling vent getting ready to strike at me. I screamed and fell to the floor, my husband came running into the bathroom but the snake had already gone back in the vent. He couldn't find it anywhere." I paused to get a drink of water. My skin was crawling and my spine was so straight it hurt.
"Take your time. Continue when you are ready." I can hear the patronizing tone in his voice. My husband pats my knee to try to help calm me down.
"I'm not crazy, I know what I saw. There was a snake hanging from the vent in our bathroom. I don't know why Steve couldn't find it. It's an older building and the vents connect to other apartments. I went to the City Hall and got blue prints of the building. There are hundreds of ways that snakes can get into the building." I jump up from the couch and start pacing, swinging my arms as I talk.
"Honey, please sit down and calmly talk to the doctor." He turns to face the doctor "I didn't find anything last night when I looked into the vent. The dust inside didn't look disturbed. It took me several hours to calm Summer down. Our upstairs neighbor had even come down to check on her to see why she was screaming. If this keeps up, someone is going to call the cops thinking I'm hurting her."
"Summer, start from the beginning of why you think there are snakes in your building." His cajoling tone is annoying me more.
"A few months ago, an older man on the top floor died from a poisonous bite from a pet snake that he had in his home. His wife had found him after being gone for a few hours. They never found the snake and feel that it has died from lack of food by now. The animal control hasn't found any dead mice or other rodents in the building and no one's pets have had any problems. But, I know that it's there, watching me, waiting for a chance to strike." I sneer towards to the end because I can see the non-believing looks on their faces.
"You know what, I'm going home since neither of you want to believe me." I walk to the door and do just that, I leave and head towards home, walking since Steve had the keys to the car. It takes me about an hour to get home and I notice right away that our car isn't parked in our spot on the street in front of our building. I guess Steve decided to go somewhere else. Whatever. I don't care right now. I go to reach for my purse to get my keys, when I realize that I had left them in our car. My phone, keys, and everything else is in there. I just can't believe how this day is going along with this whole damn week. I look at my building knowing that most of the residents are at work or doing other stuff and wouldn't be able to let me in.
I walk down the alley to head to the back where the super's apartment is located but see that her truck is not parked in the back. Well, damn there goes that idea. I look at the fire escape and notice that an apartment on the sixth floor has their window open with sounds coming from the window. It's weird that the window is open since it's like 35 degrees outside right now with a light snow flurry every now and then. I pull down the retracted part of the ladder with the hook and start my long slow climb up.
