Hey

Long story short, I stayed in the hospital for over a week, without the surgery, as patients who needed surgery more than I were operated on first. I was also told I wouldn't be allowed to fly back to America for 1 month if I got the surgery, something I should have thought of at the beginning.

Anyway.. I stayed at my Uncle's house for the duration of the trip. My uncle was the enemy of many family members on my mother's side at the time, as he had found a new girlfriend less than a year after the death of his wife, my aunt. I was given the guest room to sleep in, which happened to be the room where some of my aunt's ashes were put.

That night, was invited for a night out at the pub, so we all went and got hammered beyond belief. I think I drank about 12 pints throughout an 8 hour session, which to this day is the most I've ever downed in one night. As the bar was closing, my uncle and his new partner left to spend the rest of the night at her place, while I went back to my uncle's house all alone. I felt pretty good, I was super drunk and really didn't give a shit about anything for the rest of the night.

After about 1 hour or so, I was still absolutely fucked, when I began to get the most painful heartburn in recent memory. The aches and pains were so bad that you would have thought I was having a heart attack. I remember almost being in tears from the sheer agony. I FaceTimed my girlfriend which I did every night during the trip, and I remember taking codeine that I was prescribed to attempt to get rid of the pain for the night.

The codeine made me feel like I could finally fall asleep, and after ordering a takeaway Chicken Tikka Masala, I hit the sheets. I was so drunk and still in some pain, that I just left the curry in the kitchen without touching it. Once I was still in my bed, with my drunken mind wandering, I finally fell asleep. I'm not sure how long I was asleep for when I woke up, but I'll never forget what greeted me upon opening my eyes.

I saw my aunt standing at the edge of my bed, holding my phone. Literally I remember the hairs on the back of my neck rising in disbelief. I nearly shit myself. A part of me thinks this was due to mixing codeine with alcohol, but I'm not sure. Some time later I looked the other way and then I saw nothing but the room, just as it was when I arrived. I immediately felt almost sober, with still a light buzz. I texted my girlfriend to tell her the scary experience when I realised the creepiest part: I had been texting my girlfriend all night, replying back and forth like normal.

It didn't make sense though.... I had a long passcode and didn't use Touch ID at the time, and yet the text message times were all while I was asleep. Then I thought back to seeing my aunt holding my phone. It was surreal, surely if I was texting my girlfriend while fucked up, the texts would be scattered with spelling errors like normal drunk text, but these were literally as if a sober person was sending the texts. Perhaps the creepiest part was the next morning when my uncle was told by his neighbor that a woman went into his house that night at around 4 in the morning.