Odd

It was one of those scenes you see played out countless times on the telly. I was woken at around 4 a.m. by noises coming from downstairs. At first, I dozed off again, my brain convincing me that it was probably the neighbours. But then I woke again with a jolt. There was definitely something downstairs and something had just been knocked over.

Confused more than frightened, I got out of bed and crept downstairs. At the bottom, there was a picture frame lying on the last step. I put a light on and saw that there was a jar of flowers on the floor of the living room, water spilt over the carpet. A few ornaments had tumbled from a shelf. In the kitchen, there were things on the floor too.

As I tried to make sense of things, something scurried in my peripheral vision in the direction of the closed back door. I followed whatever it was, but it didn't want to be found. I reasoned that it was probably a cat, although not one that I knew. It must have come in earlier through an open window and was now trapped. I opened the back door and stepped back. I couldn't hear or see anything.

Still not 100% sure that it wasn't a rat, or something more wild than a cat, I stepped back and waited. Nothing happened. In the end, I left the back door ajar, closed all the others and went back to bed.