The big blue light

Ever since I moved in with my future wife I had to accept some changes. She could only sleep with a form of noise, I woke up if a passing seagull sneezed. I was used to sleeping in a double bed with lots of space, now i had to wake up if I turned over so don't fall out of bed. The hardest part is her habit of having the noise coming from her massive tv, so she sleeps with noise and pictures.

After a few weeks of deal making we came to an agreement, noise from tv or radio, when i go to sleep and she's very asleep I can turn the noise off. Part of the deal was to change the TV light for a small set of lights that gave off enough light that she could sleep. This worked until in the middle of the night on random nights, the TV turned itself on, always with a very bright blue background.

My wife slept through, I told her the next day and she put it down to the satellite company running updates. This would make sense if the receiver woke up in the night, but why was the tv coming on as well. It lit up, stayed on for a while, did the countdown timer and went off again. We weren't rolling over and landing on the remote control, we had made sure the box and the TV were turned off.

Usually I was able to see the TV was on but stay enough asleep to not worry too often. That was until I woke up to turn over and realised the tv was on again. As I was fairly conscious I reached for the controls on the bedside table and turned the TV off. I started to drift off I heard a very strange rustling noise, followed by a tapping sound. We always had the bedroom window open, so random noises drifted in every night. So we probably dismissed regular noises, this one wasn't normal.

I was ready to grab and evict one of the cats, then I saw the door was still shut. I even looked round to see if we had accidently trapped a cat, nothing seen. My cat likes to lick plastic, so would seem the perfect culprit. I had never seen a rat or mouse in the house, I had one seen a squirrel on the window sill, but that was it.

Next was check things on the window sill that the blinds may have touched, there was no wind so that was a negative. There wasn't a bird tapping on the window, there was so little evidence anywhere I gave up. I lay back down, presumed I had dreamed the noises and got comfortable. I can never sleep quickly, as I was just dozing the tv turned back on and the noises repeated. I then tried to connect the tv coming on to the noises, after all they appeared together. How they could .in fact, be connected was the thing.

If a channel had been making the noises then there would be a picture on the screen. Anyway, the red light shone on the box, it was off. So I went to the only possible source of the noise, the tv. The stand was clean around the tv, nothing rested on the tv and its speakers were clear of obstruction. As I looked closer I was sure I detected some sort of movement on the screen, right up in the corner. If I didn't know better I could have sworn there were a pair of eyes looking out.

I decided that it was a TV channel broadcasting a scary program, designed to frighten people in their sleep. So I went further then normal, I unplugged the box, turned the tv off and decided that was it. For some reason , I turned the torch on from my phone and went to look in the corner. I couldn't see anything at first. I even looked behind the tv. I moved back to staring at the front, there were a pair of eyes, mixed in among the pixels on the tv.

They were not exactly human but followed some traits. The pupil was black, the surrounding was purple and the eye lid blinked sideways. I bit my lip to check I was awake, unfortunately I was. The eyes remained in place , blinking slowly every few seconds. What it was, where it came from and what it wanted were all mysteries. The only minor salvation is that whatever it was didn't seem to exist anywhere but in the tv.

Trying to find logic in the impending chaos I made some decisions. I wouldn't tell my partner, I wouldn't tell anyone and hope for the best. I went to the TV and talked to the eyes, why I thought this being talked English didn't occur to me.

"I have no idea who you are or why your here. But in order for this to continue there has to be rules. Stay in the tv and don't do anything else but look. If I see anything else I will dispose of this TV and you wont be able to look at us. I guess you turn the TV on to see us, so instead we will leave a light on and you leave the tv off. I'm going back to sleep now."

I simply turned round and went back to bed, the TV was off and I slept. Whether it was a dream, a delusion or a breakdown , the tv hasn't turned on again since I had the little chat with it. The noises I heard before hasn't affected my sleep, or maybe I am just used to it now.

Sleep tight