Where's the goddamn fire?

[raven]

I fell asleep at about twelve last night. And I was woken up at two am by the smoke alarm. It takes a very long time for me to wake up... very, very long time... so when I finally staggered out of bed, I was terrified I was about to be burnt alive, which seemed entirely too harsh a punishment for being a heavy sleeper. So I stumbled out onto the landing, and the alarm stopped. I was informed by my parents that it was just a false alarm, go back to bed, nothing to see here.

So I did. Go back to bed, that is. And I was falling asleep in seconds... and five minutes later it started again. To be clear, there are two smoke alarms in this house and one of them is just outside my bedroom door. And the noise is horrendous. Grating, wailing, hurts your ears with the volume, everything a smoke alarm should be, except there wasn't any fire. So. I got out of bed again, and wailed myself, "What the hell's wrong with it?"
Pedar is not a morning person either, and is just as sarcastic as me though he hides it better. "Does it look like I know what's wrong with it?" he demanded. "Would I be standing on this chair if I knew what was wrong with it?"
"Take the batteries out!" I yelled.
"It's mains-connected!" he yelled back.
"Are you sure there's no fire?" I asked.
He gave me a Look. I went back to bed.

Five minutes later it stopped. I sighed, snuggled down and began to fall asleep.
Five minutes after that, it started again.
And then it stopped.
And then it started again.
And then it stopped.
And then it started again.

Every time I came to the brink of falling asleep, I was jerked back awake by its caterwauling. After an hour of it, I was a complete wreck. I started thinking those random, half-asleep half-awake thoughts, and I kept on coming back to thoughts of the prisoners of war the Americans are not torturing, and how the BBC did a whole thingit on whether sleep deprivation and mind games are actual torture. Just think, I was safe and warm in my own bed, but an hour of no sleep and that alarm coming on at random intervals and constant suspicion that there was an actual fire that would creep up into my room and burn me alive the moment I fell asleep was shredding my nerves into tiny little pieces. I would have done just about anything if only it would fucking stop.

And then it stopped.

And I fell asleep.

Comments

[scarlatti.livejournal.com]

whether sleep deprivation and mind games are actual torture.

Eep! Seems obvious to me that they can be classified as torture, especially used like this. Poor Raven -- what a miserable night! Talk about shredded nerves. :(

Re:

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I have just about recovered now, specially as we got an-expert-in-fire-alarms in to take a look at it. He can't figure what's wrong with it either, so we've cut the wires.

Now we need a new smoke alarm.

Nevermind, at least I can get some sleep!

!!!

[whyihateyou.livejournal.com]

i think i wrote about this in my journal (i'm SURE i complained about it somewhere) but for the past.. oh, about a week and a half at my apartment building they've been 'testing the fire alarms'.. during which time it is necessary for them to turn the fire alarms on for at least an hour and a half at a time, in each building (there are like.. 6 buildings.) and they ALWAYS do it in the morning so.. needless to say, i was losing a little sleep.

and THEN there are the idiots who think it's cool and funny to trip the fire alarms at all ungodly hours (i'm talking either late nite or wee hours of the a.m.).. there are the same idiots that like to urinate in the elevators and throw beer bottles in the pool.

in short: fire alarms/smoke detectors suck.. and don't ever come stay with me because i live around a bunch of dumbasses?

Re: !!!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ugh! At least no-one's been setting off our alarms on purpose...

I feel for you, my friend.