There shouldn't even be an update to this. More fun with Halloween decorations.

Yesterday's post should have been the only one. I read everyone's comments, but didn't respond because even though I appreciated the support, this is real life, not Supernatural. Maybe 10 years ago, when I was totally into ghost hunting and shit, I would have been on board with all this spiritual crap, but not now. I can't just burn a $10 plastic skeleton in my backyard because I got scared of a few noises last night. I bought it from goddam Walgreen's, for fuck's sake! It's a mass-produced hunk of plastic from China, not ancient Native American remains stolen from a sacred burial site. If anything is actually going on, then something is probably wrong with me, which brings me to this post.

The rest of my workday was uneventful, though I swore I heard somebody in another department say "who can it be now?" in the middle of some conversation that was mostly background noise to me up to that point. I don't think for a second that was anything other than me being paranoid, but thought I'd include it, since it happened. Nothing weird happened right after work. After my son went to bed (with Mr. Skeltal still being relegated to the glider again), my wife and I watched some X-Files on Netflix while I worked on finishing up a Gundam model kit I'd been working on sporadically for far too long. Eventually she called it a night, so I switched over to some Fringe episodes while finishing up the dry transfer decals (which are the worst things ever) on my kit. Everything was cool, and I had even forgot about the weird shit from the night before at that point. Once I finally finished up the model, I put it on the shelf next to the others, put all my hobby supplies away, and plopped into the recliner to pass out while watching Fringe.

When I first woke up, I didn't even immediately recognize what was happening. I was still groggy and half dreaming, and thought I was hearing my alarm. Then I realized I was downstairs in the recliner, and not in my room, so it wasn't my alarm clock. It was the Frankenstein head, still sans batteries, stuttering out "Who can it be who can it be who can it be who can it be" over and over again. I went into the dining room, and as soon as I grabbed the thing to pull it off the wall, it stopped. At that point, I didn't give a flat fuck what the issue was, I chucked it into the basement, hoping it broke when it hit the ground. I didn't even check if it actually broke, just went right back up the stairs, then went up to our bedroom. Didn't even brush my teeth. Passed out in bed fairly quickly for being unusually freaked out. Fuck off, Frankenstein head. I never even bothered to look at the time.

I woke up once more, and looked at my alarm clock to see the time was about 4:15 am. I figured I had just woken up because I needed to use the bathroom, but then I heard a noise outside our bedroom door. It could have been something else, it could have been my imagination, or the remnants of a dream, or probably a million other things, but what it really sounded like was the dangling plastic limbs of Mr. Skeltal, as if he was just outside the door. I mean, a dangling plastic skeleton has a pretty distinct sound, right?

I don't claim to be a brave person, because I'm not, but over the years one of the only measurable ways I've grown up is that I don't have patience for being creeped out by my imagination. I'm sure some of that came through in my post from yesterday, but my actions early this morning at 4:15 reflect this even better. I had to piss, and it sounded like a plastic skeleton was hanging out beyond my bedroom door. I'm wasn't going to hide under my covers, or wake up my wife, or wet my damn bed. I threw off my covers, and went right over to the door and opened it up. Even if Mr. Skeltal was right on the other side of the door, waiting for me, nothing would change the fact that he's like 3 feet tall and made of shitty plastic. I was ready to roundhouse kick him over the bannister, sending him back down to the bottom of the stairs like the previous night. Of course, nothing was there behind the door, because plastic skeletons don't animate themselves and they don't crawl up stairs or anything like that either.

I went to the bathroom, relieved myself, and as I passed by my son's room I heard another giggle come from behind his door, just like the one I thought I heard from Mr. Skeltal the previous night. I should have gone in there, and just taken the thing out of his room, just on the off chance that I was completely wrong and Mr. Skeltal was actually under the control of some demonic force who wanted to murder my family, but apparently I had pissed out the rest of my bravery, and I went right back to bed. My son is still alive, so sue me.

As I fell back asleep, I thought I heard my wife whisper "Who can it be now?" but that almost certainly just the start of a dream, or maybe she was just trying to fuck with me. Doesn't matter.

In the morning, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Mr. Skeltal was still sitting comfortably in the glider. Nobody noticed the absence of the Frankenstein head from the dining room wall. Nobody asked me "Who could it be now?". But now I'm at work, and at least 4 times I've heard somebody ask that very question, usually in the background, as if it came up normally in conversation with other people. At one point, one of my co-workers in my department actually asked me "Who can italicize this font without making it look like garbage?" and I almost freaked out before I realized the sentence wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I almost thought he was messing with me anyways, because it's honestly a weird question to ask, but I haven't told any of them about this stuff, and it turned out the font did look odd italicized.

Like I said, I shouldn't have a follow up to yesterday's post. This isn't normal. I'm actually going to make an appointment with the behavioral health center I've been to previously for the issues with ADHD, anxiety, and depression I've had in the past. I'm not a dumbass, and I know this has to all be in my head, and I'll get it sorted out. Hopefully I can get an appointment before it gets worse.

2nd update