I live in an apartment complex and while browsing around online I heard outside a woman's voice say "I don't want to get hit." and popping noises. The voice wasn't necessarily upset but the content and the sounds concerned me so I looked out the window to check.

A group of adults were playing outside, around the building, with black toy guns that look just like pistols. They sounded like they were having fun although one woman who was participating said that things were hurting.

Yikes. I started feeling horrible and scared. I determined that there was no emergency so my next job was to take good care of myself. I closed all my blinds right away to screen out the sight and prevent myself from watching hypervigilantly. I turned on a fan to mask the sounds.

A friend called and I told him what was going on, in the process I started crying. We came up with some good ideas, including for me to find fun distractions.

I've noticed that I'm still sorta triggery, dealing with frustrating moderation on another board makes me more upset, so I've stopped that for the day. I'm going to take a hot bath, eat something, and focus on a fun book.

I'm safe and I do have the option of asking our manager to have the adults take it elsewhere. I'm okay.