Living a nightmare

tick. tock. tick. tock. Seconds of my life being wasted as I lie awake in bed. The curtains were closed and pinned so that I would be oblivious to the outside world; and it oblivious to me. Nyctophobia. It engulfed me during the night time, too scared to see what is happening around me , for all I know a ghost may pop out of no where. And too scared to close my eyes , something may be in my room that very instant ; and I won't know what exactly, if I shut my eyes, or even blink. Something. Just something may happen; and I don't want to miss it. Tonight , the darkness was a much heavier layer, everywhere was just pitch black like tinted black glass. The lamp that kept the room warm and it's luminous glow that radiated throughout the room had died; a fused bulb. The AC was off but I had my blanket lain in a way that it covered most of my body. I felt safe; protected. Nothing like this ever made feel so insecure .

Hours later in the early morning, my eyes finally began to shut, I tried to blink back sleep but it overwhelmed me. Slowly drifting of into a dreamless slumber , such bliss. Suddenly the household security system blinked to life and blared it's piercing screech-like alarm, disrupting my almost sleep. I growled at the false alarm, turn the bloody thing off. Minutes later the shrill siren sounded , breaking the tranquility in the air; disruption of dead silence. I believed strongly that this was pretense, it was obviously fake. Minutes later the alarm blasted loudly again and I heard someone scream. I was too caught up in my slumber , I tried so hard to jump, but I just couldn't, lack of sleep was my downfall. "Charmian! Where are you!? Hurry up! Get into our room!" I heard them scream. There's an intruder in the house. GET UP! My pulse flared but my drowsy state slowed my movements. Slowly my arm lifted, subconsciously reaching for the door ... and I moved no more. What's going on? I willed my body to move but all that came was the felling of numb. It was like my whole body was anesthetized. I heard them call after me, till their voices were merely carried by the wind ; there was no more sound. My heart raced rapidly, what was going on? It's not possible to freeze up like this. I looked at my arm , I summoned it to move but nothing, just frozen. I heard loud footsteps downstairs which brought me back to reality. Cruel reality. I saw a black figure materialise at the corner of my eyes, it moved closer towards me, closer and closer till I could see the horribly disfigured person . I tried to scream but , my mouth was shut and my scream was internal cause all I heard was my heart beating. Then it hit me, there was no way a thing could have materialised out of thin air, I froze all of a sudden when I was trying to rush out of the danger zone. Sleep paralysis relapse. There was no other explanation. But why now ? I heard the footsteps get louder and louder and stopped. Then I heard someone scream, a woman's voice, mother. She must have waited for me for me. That moment I wanted to take my life instantly. I would get my wish soon. The footsteps now were headed in my direction, I could feel it pulse through my veins. My breathing was suffocated now and I had trouble coping. Curse bloody sleep paralysis. The door swung open and my frozen self was confronted with a man , a man who held dagger that dripped the blood of the innocent. The man's hair was messy ; it cascaded down his blood stained face. He looked vaguely familiar but my shock doused all spark of common sense and memory . He now stood at the foot of my bed and I saw him plunge the blood stained dagger into my skin. Sleep paralysis, I know how to cure it, just close your eyes for a brief moment and drift to sleep. I should have felt the pain at that moment but instead I woke with a startle.

Light seeped into my room and the house was brimming with life. I was still alarmed though. The state of my body was unscathed but I still wondered what happened . Was it sleep paralysis or was it just a dream? I'm sure just a dream. My last sleep paralysis encounter made me prickle with fear. The state of half unconscious awake. I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs, to my horror no one was home. Calm down Charmian, You're a sensible and logical person, I reminded myself. I checked the old grandfather clock the was nestled in the corner of the room, it was 7 am. My mother would have been out exercising this time, while my father would have sent my brother to school. See . That made tones of sense. My pulse simmered and I was my normal self again. But the I dreaded returning to my bedroom the whole day.