Reminds me of something that happened when I was very young. I don't remember if it was a dream or not, my asian family are very superstitious but as an adult now I'm assuming it must've been. I had a lot of weird dreams at this house, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Anyway it was extremely late. Everyone was still asleep, and I had just woke up in the middle of the night. Everybody slept upstairs, but occasionally in the early morning my mother could be found cooking in the kitchen. I was thirsty, so I started making my way downstairs for water. The house was completely dark and I couldn't see much of anything. I turned on the stair lights and went downstairs.

On the way down, I heard my mother's voice "Bang, is that you? Can you help me for a minute?" (Abang is like "brother") Oh, so she's already awake, I thought. At the bottom of the stairs, the view of the living room was completely dark, and the light switch was on the opposite side of the room from the stairs. But the kitchen light was off too. I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and asked "Is that you ma? Why are the lights off?" To which the voice responded: "I need some help, can you come and help me nak?" (Anak like child/son)

As a child, this situation felt very strange to me. It couldn't be a black out (which were frequent in my area) because I turned the lights upstairs on. So why would she be cooking in the dark?

In my increasing anxiety, I suddenly hear a voice from above: "Bang? Why are you shouting? Do you know what time it is?" And I shoot back upstairs.

That's all I remember from that night.