Cancelling the Apocalypse

So there I was, on the night of the freezing rain. It was past midnight and my eyes were droopy.

I took care to switch off all the lights and adjusted the thermostat down. Didn't want to bake myself.

I climbed into bed and got comfortable. Double pillow beneath my head, I was all set. Third pillow was there for me to clutch. I drifted off into dreamland, content as can be. Time for my imagination to run wild.

I soon placed myself in the siege of Bastogne. I was huddled in my blanket with the continuous thunder of artillery in the background. Little did I know how close that situation was to reality.

Eventually the "artillery" sufficiently roused me from consciousness. Not fully awake yet, so imagination still had quite the hold on me compared to rationale. I thought myself to be hiding in my room, as a mob hammered on the door. I recognised the siege of Bastogne as fantasy, but believed this to be reality instead.

A combination of drowsiness and fear perhaps kept me frozen in my bed, unwilling to meet the enemies at the door.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash and some unintelligible yells. The hammering stopped. I was wide awake at this point, the yelling faded into background noise. I was keenly aware of all the sounds of the apartment. Heating, plumbing, refrigerator. I reached for my phone and it informed me "4.49 AM".

Now more aware of my surroundings, I began to take in the yelling. "Get out of my fucking face!" was the very first thing I made out. The voice of a man. "Let me in!" was the immediate reply of a woman.Listening on, it seems the man had told the woman "Never to come back". The woman protested "Where am I supposed to go?". More verbal lashes from the man, all to similar effect of "Go away, never return". Heavily punctuated by various permutations of "fuck" of course.

The woman replied with a variety of protests. Among them being "I need to get my clothes", "I was sick", "I didn't mean to do anything" and "Can't you just let me in?". This went on for some time. I went to take a leak at one point, careful to leave to door open so I could hear well.

According to my trusty phone, it was around 5.24 AM that things started to die down. The foot stomping had become less frequent and the voices more muffled. The time had come for me to return to bed.

Later in the morning while I was jovially taking another leak, this shrill beeping noise burst out of nowhere. It triggered a flashback, suddenly I was back in Bastogne. It took all of my self control to finished the leak
in an orderly manner. I chose to believe in myself. I readied myself to open the door. I was going to face the monsters and bring the fight to them. I turned the doorknob. Today, I was going to cancel the apocalypse.