The beginning
I woke up super early Tuesday morning because the heaters in my room were being squeakier than normal. Usually they rattle and bang, but at around midnight, they were strangely loud. But I ignored it and went back to sleep.
Then at 2 a.m., I woke up to the sound of shuffling, of something rummaging around by my books and in my heaters. I was groggy and assumed it was a mouse. I'm not terribly afraid of mice and got out of bed to look for it. After digging through some books and kicking the heaters, no mouse appeared and I returned to bed, determined to worry about it in the morning.
At 3 a.m., I could hear something running back and forth across the floor in the bedroom. It was moving really fast and kept crashing into my books and my closet doors. I figure it was a particularly energetic mouse and once again got out of bed and turned on the lights.
A bat, hanging on the curtains, stared back at me.
Ya, a bat. At first I thought it was a huge, brown bug. I gasped, froze in place, then bolted from my room.
In the safety of my living room, I did the most logical thing I could think of: I called my dad. He recommended I swat the bat down with a broom and carry it outside in a blanket. He was definitely half-asleep, and didn't seem to realize I'm terrified of bats.
So I spent the rest of the night sleeping on my couch with the light on, dreaming that the bat was flying around above me again, even though I knew it was safely locked in my bedroom.
Scared, but not beaten
Tuesday morning at eight I called the rental office and requested someone come and remove the bat. Two men showed up with a box and spent more than an hour tearing my bedroom apart, with no success. I was told to keep the room dark and go about my day. Hopefully the bat would stop hiding, so it could be taken out of the suite.
The day passed. After my class, my roommate, my boyfriend and I tore my bedroom apart once again. And once again, we revealed no flying demon, who I had nicknamed Alfred.
But we vowed to keep trying.
The triumphant conclusion
After cleaning the kitchen and making pathetic (seriously) Christmas decorations, I went from the kitchen to my bedroom to grab some Windex. Fortunately, I paused in my doorway and again found myself staring into the beady black eyes of Alfred. Time stood still, until I shrieked and backed out of the room, Windex forgotten.
I immediately texted my boyfriend, aware that there was no way I was going to remove the bat myself. From my spot safely on the opposite side of my bedroom door, I could hear it flying around and crashing into everything. I cursed it for getting bat germs on my belongings.
Pretty soon, Dan and a friend arrived to remove Alfred from the premises. Armed with only a broom and a pillow case, they found the bat between the curtains and the window, and bravely swept the bat - which sonared in panic - into the pillow case and carried it out of the apartment and released it back into the wild.
A victory for everyone. Especially me, who hid on the other side of the door and filmed the capture.
And here concludes this horrifying tale of Tuesday night when a bat somehow got into my bedroom. Did I mention it was flying around above me while I slept? Ugh.
Tonaya Marr considered using bows and arrows to defeat that bat, but didn't want to be melodramatic. If you want to get hold of Tonaya, e-mail her at [email protected] or send her a Tweet @TonayaMarr. She promises neither bat nor boyfriend was harmed in the 24 hours this episode took place.
