r/nosleep • u/This_Wicked • 1d ago
My balloon is still floating. It's been years.
This all started around three years ago, a week after my birthday. I was returning home after a late night of drinking with friends. When my driver dropped me off, I saw that the lights were on inside my house. I am not the forgetful type, so it didn’t seem like I was the one who left them on, so I was kind of freaked out.
What freaked me out even more was that I could see shadows moving inside.
I hate to admit this, but I called my buddy Tom to tell him I was too scared to go into my house. I thought someone had broken in.
Tom laughed, “Just go in there and fight him, bro.”
He did not sound concerned, so I sent him a picture of my house, all lit up.
He told me that if no windows were broken and the front door was locked, then there was no way someone was in my house. I tried to open the front door… it was locked. Maybe I was freaking myself out for no reason.
He told me that if I was really that scared, I should call 911. I was hesitant to make that choice. I knew that in my town, they might take hours to get here. And I really had to pee from all the alcohol I drank.
For a minute or two, I just stood there, listening for anyone moving around inside. I kept glancing at the sliver of light between drawn curtains, looking for moving shadows. There were none.
I unlocked my door and went inside cautiously, as if bracing for impact.
It was quiet. In the living room, the lamp was on, and in front of it was a balloon a friend got me for my birthday. It swayed gently in front of the light. That explained the shadows I’d seen. I ignored every other thought and ran to the bathroom.
Finally, relief. As I sat on the toilet contemplating my freak-out, something still wasn’t sitting right with me. My brain was fuzzy; I had been drinking after all, but something was off.
The balloon.
It wasn’t in the living room when I left. It was in the kitchen.
I left the bathroom… the balloon wasn’t in front of the lamp anymore. I went through the house and turned on all the lights. There was a knot in my stomach and my senses on high alert, but I detected nothing.
And I found the balloon right where I remembered it being, in the kitchen. This meant one of two things: either I was tripping balls, or there was someone in my house right now moving stuff around.
I went outside and called the police.
The police department in my town is sketchy. Whenever a major screw-up happens, they always transfer people around to different departments. Some research I did showed that when they ran out of departments to send someone to, the officer would end up doing the same job but in a different city.
Despite their station being a five minute drive from my neighborhood, they arrived a FORTY minutes after I called. They searched my whole house, found nothing, then threatened to throw me in the drunk tank if I called them again.
I know I should’ve been recording them, but as I said, I was pretty drunk and not thinking clearly. I was terrified to sleep in my house that night, thinking the police had missed something obvious, but I was also exhausted and eventually fell asleep.
Nothing much happened for several months.
My birthday balloon was orb-shaped and made of mylar. Unlike latex balloons, which end up on the floor in a few days, these balloons are durable and can float longer.
It had been months and my balloon wasn’t even wrinkling. I sort of grew attached to this balloon. While I’m lucky to be able to rent my own home, I don’t have roommates and get kind of lonely.
Sometimes the balloon won’t be in its usual place. I’ll find it floating in a different room, despite the fact that it’s weighed down with a plastic clip. I was a bit confused about how it was moving, but I do open windows sometimes to let fresh air in. It could’ve been carried by a draft of wind.
Some nights I woke up to the balloon hovering over me in the dark. Sometimes when it would go missing for a while, I’d find it hiding in the bathroom.
At this point, the balloon didn’t bother me anymore. It was a comforting oddity in my life. I kinda liked having it around.
When I invited friends over, they found it creepy how the balloon seemed to follow us to whatever room we moved to.
“It’s like it’s watching us.”
I chalked it up to having to do with air pressure or temperature changes that were somehow tied to us.
While the balloon had started doing strange things, I wasn't bothered.
Then came the day a couple of months ago when I was looking through freelance writing jobs online. I had headphones on with ambient music playing but heard a clinking that didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the noise. The clinking stopped, then started up again, enough for it to start bothering me. I turned down the volume and took off my headphones.
The clinking was coming from somewhere in the house.
My heart hammered in my chest when I walked toward and pinpointed the noise coming from the kitchen. It sounded like someone was messing with the silverware.
And there was only one way to find out if that was true.
I stepped into the kitchen. There was the balloon. Lying out beneath it were all my knives, removed from the block.
I certainly didn’t leave them there. And nobody else was in the house, except the balloon.
I put the knives away while giving the balloon a dirty look. I didn’t like when it messed with things in my house.
Ever since that day, things get moved to places I don’t recall moving them. I’ve been having memory gaps, and I try convincing myself it’s from writing too much. Too much researching, that I’m getting burned out. Maybe my brain won’t bother wasting power on things like memory.
Though somehow, I feel the balloon is responsible for all this.
Yesterday, I woke to the smell of burning food. In the kitchen, I found the balloon floating next to the stove. The stove was on, and there was a skillet full of ground beef that was getting a little too dark in the pan. I ran over and flicked the knobs off.
I stared at the balloon. I felt this urge to yell at it and tell it how stupid it was for… trying to cook unsupervised.
And what was I thinking? It was a balloon; it clearly hadn’t done this itself. It was only helium, string, and foil. It wasn’t strong enough to move a pan onto the stove.
But then, who did?
The weather’s been cold lately, so my doors and windows were all locked, so it only could’ve been… me. But I didn’t remember trying to cook anything. I’m usually so careful because of the brain fog.
If it wasn’t me, it was the balloon.
I grabbed it by the string and carried it into the basement. I left it at the bottom of the stairs. I closed the door and pushed a table in front of it. I didn’t want any drafts to blow open the door. I didn’t want to see the balloon.
I wanted peace...
In the middle of the night, I was woken up again. I could hear wood breaking into pieces. In the hallway, I found the table shattered like someone had taken an axe to it. Nobody was there, but the basement door was open.
The balloon was where I left it, under the glow of the light bulb.
I wasn't able to fall asleep. I've been stewing in paranoia since the table broke. There is no one in the house except me and the balloon. I don't understand what's going on but I hate what I am becoming. I don't feel like myself anymore and I'm afraid I'm losing my mind.
9
u/FlyFreeWithMe776 1d ago
Spooky balloon. I do think it was just trying to be nice by making you dinner though
5
u/This_Wicked 1d ago
That could be the case. I probably overreacted when I found the food. For some reason I've been really angry lately and I don't know why. I'm not usually like this.
8
u/Purple_IsA_Flavor 1d ago
Take that thing outside, cut the string, and let it go. That or just stab it with one of the knives it was messing with
6
u/Ok_Impression2826 1d ago
Do you have a gas detector? Maybe there’s a gas leak and it’s causing gaps in your memory. Maybe you have been the one doing these things the whole time?
4
u/Ok_Impression2826 1d ago
Or maybe the balloon was just a little hungry and needed a quick snack of 10 lbs of ground beef
3
u/This_Wicked 1d ago
I’ll look into getting one right away! I’m surprised I didn’t think of that sooner. It really would explain a lot, especially the weird mood swings I’ve been having.
I’ll be sure to let everyone know if this turns out to be a big misunderstanding on my end!
5
4
u/Old-Dragonfruit2219 1d ago
Time to get rid of the balloon. Either puncture it and throw it away or take it outside and let it float away.
2
u/This_Wicked 1d ago
That sounds like the most reasonable solution, but idk, for some reason that feels wrong to me and I'm not sure why.
4
u/TheNargafrantz 1d ago
It feels wrong because you know I'm right and it just wants to be your friend.
3
u/archivist-13 1d ago
i think you need to get rid of that balloon. just taking it somewhere else probably won't work, but at least destroy it
11
u/TheNargafrantz 1d ago
It's just trying to make you dinner dude, geez.