Noises In The Dark

This isn't a very scary story, I just find it odd. I will explain my bedroom first.

It is downstairs, now my basement isn't totally underground, half of it is. I have full windows in my room. Where my desk is positioned I can lean over it and see the stairs that lead upstairs. We have a landing, and then another set of stairs, finally reaching the kitchen.

It was getting dark, and no one was home. This is not unusual, for I am alone quite a bit, since I am 19 years old.

I had a couple of lamps on in my room at the time the incident happened. I looked over my desk at the stairs, and noticed that the whole upstairs, was pitch black. This usually doesn't scare me, but this time it was a little darker than usual. I decided to turn on the light that was directly above the landing I mentioned before. That seemed to make my house seem "less spooky" I was sitting at my desk reading stories off this site (maybe not such a good idea to do while being a little spooked) when I heard the upstairs toilet flush. I know I heard it because I thought to myself my dad must be home, so I didn't really think too much about it, until later on that night I went upstairs to get something.

I looked in my parent's bedroom, and my dad wasn't home. Needless to say I went back to my room and didn't go upstairs the rest of the night.

A little note to add to that, as soon as you get to the top of the steps you can see in the living room and kitchen and he was no where to be seen. He came home later that evening.

As I was going to bed the night after this other incident occured, I was just about to sleep, when I heard this awful scream outside my window. (My windows are right next to my bed) It screamed twice, I opened my eyes wide and thought what the h*** was that! I have no idea what it was. I thought maybe it was cats fighting outside, but the more I thought about it, it couldn't have been cats. It sounded like a scream or screech of some sort.

I have no idea why this happened to me. My house is not very old, and we are only the second people to live in it. If anyone has any idea what this could have been I am open to any opinions.

Thank you for reading this.