Want to see a real bat for Halloween? I don't.

It's been awhile. I know. Sorry, but I've been too busy trying to maintain my actual blog, the one that matters to me, and also going to school and all that jazz. There was an incident this week, however, that must be shared.

I was sitting at my computer on night, dutifully going through a lesson for my online class, when I see a large shadow zoom across my wall. I thought "stupid fly." Then I stopped and thought, "wait, flies aren't the big..." I then preceded to look up, and sure enough there was a bat flying circles above my head. I did the responsible and mature thing: screamed and ran upstairs to get my roommates.

The three of us slowly walked down the stairs, and luckily we could see into my study from the stairs and see the bat still flying in circles. We closed the bathroom door, and tried to close my bedroom door even though it doesn't close from the outside, opened the windows, then looked into my study again. It wasn't there. My very brave roommate thought to check my window. She moved the curtain aside, and sure enough he was curled up on the side of the window, refusing to move. She tried to capture him in a Tupperware container, at which point he freaked out and started flying again and we all screamed and ran to the stairs.

New plan. We decided he was somehow attracted to the light, since it was the light in my room he was flying around. With the windows in the kitchen wide open we turned the light off in my study and on in the kitchen, then stood in the stairwell to wait. After a few minutes the bat finally flew out of my study and into the kitchen, unfortunately it looked like he was flying at us in the stairs and we all ran to the third floor and locked ourselves in one of the rooms there. We waited 10 minutes then went back downstairs. The bat was not in the study. The bat was not in the kitchen or living room. We thought the bat had left. We breathed a sigh of relief.

We went about our evenings. I went into my bedroom to get changed into my pajamas, and while I was there I decided it would be a good idea to check my windows just in case. Window over my bed: no bat. Window by my closet: bat. I of course fetched the roommates. The bat was in the upper corner of the window, and refusing to move, so my brave roommate was able to open the window. Her plan was to then nudge the bat through the curtain with a mop handle, hoping he would freak out, get stuck in the curtain, and fly out the window as the only available exit.

He freaked out and escaped the curtain. We ran out of the room and pulled my door shut. At this point it's been a couple hours, and tired, scared, and fed up my roommate called the guy who used to live downstairs. He came over with a friend and they bravely went into the room. After a few minutes they came back out saying they did not see the bat. They checked over every corner and nook possible, and there was nothing. We're hoping he finally figured out the window was open and flew outside.

That night I slept very uneasily. I had to turn my fan on for white noise, since every little sound was freaking me out. I turned on my desk lamp because I was afraid I would wake up in the dark to the sound of something flapping over my head and not be able to see it. The next morning I went to class and ended up leaving early (my teacher totally understood) and went home to relax before my evening class. When I got home from my evening class, it was to see both my study and bedroom door shut. Uh oh. I went upstairs to ask my roommates, and sure enough the bat was spotted. She assured me that it was gone, and I went to my study and locked myself in for the night.

The next day there was no sighting. The next night, however, holy crap. One of my roommates and I got home at the same time. We walked into the house and she went to turn on the light. She shrieked and ran back outside the door, and I saw the bat was flying around in the kitchen. I had, thankfully, shut my doors before I left earlier. My other roommate was upstairs so we yelled to her about the bat, and she came down to be panicked with us.

We called animal control, pest control, police non-emergency, but they were all useless. Apparently they only respond to calls about bats if there is a child or elderly person in the house. How useless is that? They did give us the advice to open all of the windows, turn the lights off, and stay inside our rooms with the doors shut based on the theory that the bat was probably hiding because we scared it. So that's what we did. We haven't seen the bat since, and it's been two days. Our landlord called a professional bat-man, who is coming over this afternoon to check the place out.I'm hoping I'll soon be able to sleep without my desk lamp on (I really should get a night-light).

The point of the story? I don't care if the bat is a fitting theme due to it being Halloween weekend. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. Flying things are creepy. I look forward to being able to laugh about this in the future.

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