This is not scary, update 2

The posts for which this is an update are This is not scary. I am not totally creeped out. Ah, FUCK.

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This is not scary, update

My shift ended at 11 last night. Things were totally different than a couple of days ago. Nearly everyone was annoyed with me. I couldn't do anything right. People who are usually friendly just about bit my head off over things that weren't anyone's fault. One customer threw his money at me and walked out of the store because he had to wait in line for a minute behind other customers during the last hour of my shift, when I was there alone.

The scariest and weirdest thing that happened on my shift was the change guy. He came in twice earlier in the night asking if I could break a big bill. The second time, I only about 70% sure he was the same guy, not just someone who looked really similar and dressed the same (I had at least a hundred customers in between visits) but the third time, when I was in the store by myself, I knew it was him.
So you understand why that is scary, I work at a convenience store. Yes, we do break 50s and 100s for purchases sometimes, if the buyer is purchasing enough that we aren't giving back a lot of change, or if there's enough in our changer-safe (which we can't get into, but which will dispense 20s if we feed it the big bill, if it's stocked with them) but we aren't supposed to have enough in our register drawers to change bills that big and still have operating cash left. If a robber comes in, corporate wants him out before he shoots someone, so there should be only enough cash to satisfy him, not enough to make getting it out and handing it over take too long.
The second half of why this is scary is the fact that locally, the chain that my store is part of has been repeatedly targeted by armed robbers. My store hasn't been hit by that group, but we've been hit in the past, and I had a very uncomfortable feeling about that guy, like maybe he was feeling out whether my drawer would be worth his effort.

The third time he came in was the kicker. He didn't just ask if I could change the bill for him. He asked me over, and over, as if I was lying. He kept saying, "you mean you can't just give me change for this? I have to buy something? Can't you just trade me your 20s? What do you mean you don't have any 20s?" Then, when a regular male customer offered to change the bill for him, he suddenly wasn't interested any more, feigned severe annoyance, and left. There is a description of him sitting in my manager's office. Since it's coming from me, she'll probably throw it out, but I've kept a copy. If we get robbed any time soon, I'm turning it over to the cops.

Needless to say, I didn't think I'd get to sleep quickly after getting home, but a little after midnight, my eyes were drooping, and I actually went upstairs to bed.

Now, my husband and I both snore. Normally, it's not too bad. Lately, his has been. Last night, it was weird. When I got to the door of the bedroom, he was quiet. When I walked in, I could hear his steady, measured breathing. He was asleep in the perfect position - the one in which he can breathe without snoring. I quietly slipped into bed.
As soon as I lay down, it started. Soft, little snores, almost perfect rhythm. Not too bad. I could still get to sleep. I closed my eyes, and the snores got louder, but not too loud. I rolled away from him and put the blanket over my ear. For a moment, I couldn't hear anything, and began to relax, but then the volume increased again, just enough to break through and disrupt my rest. I reached out and turned on the fan by the bed. I don't like using white noise, but sometimes it's necessary. The fan is pretty loud. It drowned out everything. I was just dozing off when SNRLGXXX! Crap. Right in my ear.

I turned and looked. He was in the same position. Oddly, as soon as the fan was off, the snoring quieted back to the level it was when I was just turned away from him. I got up. He stopped snoring. I sat back down. He started again. WTH? Never had that happen before.

I gathered up my "extra" blanket and headed back downstairs. I had to walk past the closet to get out of the room. Oddly, as much as it's seemed to be a doorway or something, I didn't think about it until I was all the way past, but it didn't matter. Nothing happened.

I sat on the floor outside the door for several minutes. I didn't like leaving my husband alone in there, either, even though whatever is bothering me has never once manifested to him. The whole time I was out there, he didn't snore once. I could hear, because the door was still ajar. I tried going back inside, but as soon as I stepped across the threshold, there it was again. SNRLGXXX! Loud as hell. I got the feeling this was going to just keep going. If it was happening to someone on TV, I would find this hilarious, but instead, I was just really annoyed. Realizing I was being pushed out of the room, I went downstairs and fell asleep on the couch.

There, I had this dream.

Even after that, and as weird and upsetting as it was, I was so wiped out from stress and lack of sleep that I couldn't stay awake. It was hard to tell whether I was dozing, and dreaming or awake and listening when I heard someone coming down my stairs. At first, I thought I'd just dreamed earlier my husband had come in and said goodbye, and he was just now getting up, but I realized that the room was too light, and the sun was coming up. He would all ready be gone.

The footsteps on the stairs sounded like someone wearing shoes, but trying to be quiet. I tried to look around, but was in kind of a mental fog, barely able to open my eyes, and unable to move. Recognizing the signs of sleep paralysis, I struggled to suppress the panic that always comes next, and focused inside myself.

There's a shielding method I've been taught that has worked well for me in the past. It involves imagining that the positive energy around me and inside me (my love and the happiness of my home) looks like a brightness. I focus on bringing that brightness to me, and surround myself with it, then focus on hardening it into a shell that other people's "negative" emotions, and "bad" things usually can't get through. Originally, it used to take me a few minutes to do that, but I've gotten practiced enough at it to do it really fast now. It's something that I usually don't think of when having a nightmare, but I do when unexplained things happen around me and I feel the need to be protected.

As the footsteps came down the stairs, I made my little egg-shaped shield around myself. Then, I started working on doubling it. I couldn't see it, because I couldn't keep my eyes open, but I could feel it, and I know this sounds weird, but I could hear it kind of humming, almost like a fluorescent light.

I felt and heard the footsteps' owner walk across the living room and crouch down beside the couch. There was a quiet chuckle from beside me, sounding very much like the female voice from that dream. Through my barely-open eyes, I could see the silhouette of a big, tall woman kneeling beside me. There was enough light coming from behind her that I couldn't see her face. All I could tell is that her hair is all silvery grey. It's shiny, but it's definitely grey.

She reached out and popped my "shield" like a soap bubble, poked me in the ribs, laughed at me, and proclaimed my "little bubble" to be "so cute." Her laugh is kind of rich and hearty, almost like a man's laugh, but not quite. It wasn't a cruel laugh, exactly. There was genuine humor in it, not a hard edge like when my boss laughs at me. I felt made fun of, though, and of all things, my feelings were hurt. I wanted to cry, but the paralysis kept that from happening.

She shook her head at me, and then my eyes closed and I couldn't get them back open. When I finally did, I was fully awake (but really sleepy) and the sun was up. There was no sign of my visitor. I'm still sore all over. My face feels bruised, but there's no visible bruising. I found a few long strands of gray hair on the floor by the couch, but I can't be sure if those are mine, or hers, and after she poked through my effort at a shield, I'm not sure I should try anything with them, anyway.

Continued here