Visitation of a Different Kind

Here's a weird one. I've had a house guest during this inclement weather. To cut a long story short, we were sharing the bed most nights but, on Tuesday night, unable to sleep, I took myself to the sofa.

I wasn't able to sleep any better there than I had been in my own bed, but it was a little quieter. Gradually, I felt myself getting to the point where I might just about fall asleep... and then, just as I thought I was gone, I had a visitor.

Naturally, I assumed it was my guest. She sat down on the floor next to me and, holding my hand, asked what was wrong. I came out with some reply that I don't remember and was probably barely comprehensible at the time and, after a few moments, she departed.

Sometime later, again on the cusp of sleep, I heard my guest call out "Are you alright?", then start padding around the flat. Eventually, she made her way into the lounge, knelt down next to me and, stroking my face, asked "why you sleep on sofa?"

Again, I mumbled a response, wondering all the while why she felt the need to come back and ask that when she'd already popped in earlier.

Imagine my surprise, the following morning, when I asked her how many times she'd come into the lounge, and she quite emphatically stated that she'd only been in the once, recounting in great detail the sequence of events that led her there.

And that's not all... because that's the second time I've experienced something like that. About seven or so years ago, when I was living with my folks, I woke up in the middle of the night to find a distinctly female form sitting in the bed, silhouetted in the moonlight through my blinds, watching me. Having registered her presence - and apparently quite comfortable with it - I closed my eyes to go back to sleep. Then it hit me that someone was in my room, sitting on my bed, so I promptly woke up again... and no-one was there.

This more recent experience suddenly became all the more disquieting because, on both occasions, the presence was somehow familiar and thereby nonthreatening. And this time it actually enquired after my wellbeing. And now, instinct tells me it was the same presence - similar build, similar hair length... though I never quite saw a face.

But, hey, maybe I was asleep after all, and it was just a dream.

Still weird, though.