The Sleeper in the Dark
Eric Williams
Copyright 2011 Eric Williams
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Thanks to my family for all their patience.
What? Uh...where? What time is it? Is it still dark? Sleep, go back to sleep.
Drifting,
Falling,
What? What was that? A creak? S'nothing the house is just settling, sleep.
There it is again. There isn't someone in the house is there?
Yes.
No, I locked the screen door, the chain and the deadbolt too. There it is again. Wait...wait...it's not just dark, my eyes are closed, why are my eyes still closed?
Open.
Open.
OPEN!
Oh god, what the hell is going on? Why can't I open my eyes? Open, just open! I can't move. I can't move at all. Lift your arm, move your leg, wiggle your damn finger. Oh Jesus Christ what is going on here?
That noise again.
He's here.
Who's here?
The man you saw on the news, the one that killed all those people.
What the heck? Where did that come from?
From inside, because you know don't you?
That doesn't make any kind of sense. He's in jail, and you can't even open your eyes, how do you know it's him?
Oh, it's him, and he's finally coming to put an end to this joke of a life.
What? Why the hell am I thinking this? God dammit open your eyes, just please, please open your eyes and just look. If you look you can see there is nothing there. When you see there is nothing there, you will realize you are just freaking yourself out and you can relax and go back to sleep.
How could you think of sleep at a time like this? You're about to become the next victim, like you've always known you would be.
No, there is nothing out there. This is just some lucid dream or something. This isn't real.
Why are you deluding yourself? You know this is real. You can hear him stepping on the front tile, the scrape of his boots against the ceramic. He's in the house.
There is nothing, you are not real, and he is not real. I am going to drift off and this will all fade away and be just a bad dream.
Yes, just a bad dream. Why don't you just relax? That isn't the sound of him walking across the living room. You're a smart man, you know better than to believe in the things that stab, and slice, and cut in the night.
Exactly, this is stupid, I've always been scared of imaginary garbage anyway and this is no exception.
No exception at all...unless you're wrong.
I'm not, this is just a...This is just something, but it is not real, I'm just scaring myself again.
Can't you hear him? He's at the stairs now, that creak is the middle of the first step; you would recognize that noise. How many times have you said you were going to fix that step, and now it's sounding the entrance music for him. That thump is his foot coming down on the second step. While he takes his time coming to you, you just lie there waiting to die.
No. No, this isn't possible.
Yes. It is.
No, I'm a young man, I may be prone to imagining things but there is no way a killer is in my home.
Why not? That does sound an awful lot like footsteps on the hall floor doesn't it?
Oh god, my pulse is racing, my heart is pounding. I don't want to die. Why can't I just move?
You are weak. You are a victim.
He killed all those people, he cut that one man's head from his body. He cut his fucking head off of his fucking body! That's what he's going to do to me, I know it now.
Yes.
He's going to enter my room and he's going to walk to my bed. Then he is going to run his blade straight across my throat, bathing me in my own blood while I lie here helpless.
They say he had to hack at that guy's neck to get it separated from the body. It took him a few minutes to get the job done. I wonder how long you'll be conscious after he starts. How much time will he have, sawing through your throat, before you die? Will you feel it as his blade cuts through your windpipe? Do you think you'll,
Stop it
feel it as,
I said stop. Stop thinking these horrible things.
the knife hits bone?
Shut up shut up, just open your eyes please, just please open your eyes and prove there is nothing there.
What was that?
He's turning the bedroom doorknob, can't you tell? He's outside your door now.
No he's not, no one is there, this is all in my head, and you are just my goddam imagination.
What will your family think when they find you? Died helpless and stupid in his own bed? He was just too much of a pussy to open his eyes and defend himself?
I can't, I can't open them. Why aren't you helping me? Please, I am begging you, LET ME OPEN MY EYES!
How soon before your girlfriend finds another man? Someone who doesn't just lie helpless and allow himself to be butchered? How long before she finds a man who has some goddam balls?
Fuck you, fuck you, I'm fucking paralyzed here. I can't help this, why is this happening to me? I've never done anything to anyone. Why is this happening? Why can't I just move my fingers or open my damn eyes?
Can you feel it? I'm so excited, he's here now. He's in the room with you. That draft across your cheek, that's the door opening. He's standing there, savoring this moment. He's watching you lay there, to impotent to get up and fight.
I can feel it, I can feel him, in my chest. The pressure, I can't breathe. He's here and I can feel him. I can't, I can't breathe.
Hey, why don't you hope for the best? Maybe you'll get lucky and have a heart attack before he carves into you. You know what? I bet the smell of your piss and shit oozing from your body after he begins his work will disgust him with how goddam pathetic you are. Look at you, unable to open your eyes and face your death like a man.
I'm dying, I can feel it. I can't breathe, my chest, the pressure
I bet he knows you're awake. I bet he's enjoying every moment of this. All of his other victims filled the night with the music of their screams, but you are something different. You're a grown man who doesn't even show the fight of a child. A fight that you know he has witnessed firsthand.
My chest, can't, I can't, he's at the foot of the bed.
Breathe!
Can't, he's looking at me; he's just staring at me. Can't, my eyes can't see.
Here it comes now. That drag you feel on your blanket, that's his hand running up the side of the bed. Soon, you will die a pathetic death. Soon, you will meet the end of your miserable, hopeless life. Soon...
I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die.
He's right beside you, he's right here. He's leaning over you. Can you feel his hot breath wafting over your face? Feel that warm, stale air entering your lungs? You're beginning to become one with him, can you feel it? He's going to be here for the most important moment of your life. Doesn't that make you feel special?
Why...?
Hhuuuuuu!!!
I can breathe! I can see! Oh no, where is he, where is he? Where? He's not here, there's no one here. What happened to me? What was that? Did I imagine it? Was it some kind of hallucination? I think it was just a nightmare, a horrible, waking nightmare.
What's that noise?
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From the Author:
This is a true story, mostly.
Sleep Paralysis, or Old Hag's Syndrome is a very real condition and is experienced by many people at least once in their life. What happens during sleep paralysis is the conscious mind becomes aware, as if you are awake, but your body remains in REM sleep, paralyzed. This paralysis is typically accompanied by panic, fear, hallucinations, and paranoia, like the above story. Sweet dreams!