A horror enthusiast, I love being scared. However, lately, I've been scaring myself, and there is no escape.
Nightmares used to linger when I was younger, but they went away for years. Starting last year, something woke them up, and it seems like they are trying to make up for the years they remained dormant. Lately, I have had a nightmare every other night while sleeping. Some of them are subtle, like the feeling of isolation, and some of them are terrifying, such as demons coming to get me.
My most terrifying nightmare, or sequence of, would have to be last year. For the first time in a decade I experienced Sleep Paralysis, and hopefully it will be the last. Sleep Paralysis can be defined as a feeling of consciousness without the ability to move while asleep. One can move their eyes, but cannot speak and cannot get up. I would define Sleep Paralysis as being a prisoner with one's darkest thoughts.
It all started a Monday night. I was sleeping soundly and suddenly my eyes opened up. I heard my door creak open and a shadow-like figure stood across the room. He had red eyes and looked into my soul with them. I was helpless as he stood and watched me sleep for the rest of the night. I woke up in the morning very startled, but shook it off. I figured it would end.
I was wrong.
Two nights later, my eyes opened to my door creaking open again. At the time, I had a desk chair moved to the foot of my bed for when friends came over to watch TV. This dark figure came right to the foot of my bed and sat in the chair and faced me. A booming laugh bellowed from a mouth that he didn't have, and he rocked back and forth in the chair. This time I could control my eyes, and I kept them shut, hoping the figure would leave. I woke up and everything seemed fine, but I was getting quite concerned.
The next night, nothing happened. Good.
But Friday night, he was back. My eyes jolted open. Nothing was there. Then I was able to turn my head over and see someone standing right over my bed. It wasn't the shadow this time, however. This time there was a girl (who I went to school with) standing in her underwear. "Sleep with me. Please. Let me into your bed." she said to me. I know that I couldn't say "no," but something told her that I was refusing. She crawled on all fours onto my wall and perched in the window. She shifted back into the shadow-figure from the other nights and her (now HIS) bellowing laugh haunted my ears.
I didn't sleep in my room for the next three nights. Hell, I was worried to sleep there for the rest of the year. If the figure really wanted me to let it into my bed, it DEFINITELY should have chosen somebody a little cuter to pose as. That was his mistake. Just in time for Halloween, i hope this story serves as a spook and really lets you think about nightmares.
