Trouble in Tiltown

The shadow man

"You're.." he pauses as he tries to remember his name, "Abraham. Aren't you?" West questions him.
"That would be me. The one and only." Abraham answers.
I push myself up from my bed with the little strength I had left, "She's okay. We just have to stay for a few hours." I inform West. His eyes glance toward me before he kneels down in front of me, His eyes glistened against the softly buzzing lights that hung from above.
"Are you okay?" He inquired me. No, no, no. I'm not.
"Yeah, I'm good." I said as I lay myself back down against the firm bed. West stands again and faces his brother.
"I'm gonna get a coffee, maybe stick around here for a little bit." West explains.
"I should probably get one too. It was a long drive here." Abraham says. Their footsteps depart themselves from the room but I'm still able to hear their conversation barely.
"Oh? Where do you live?" West asks him.
"Uh, just outside of town. In the countryside with a whole lot of farm animals." He chuckles deeply as West does the same exact laugh. The exhaustion doesn't hit me until I begin fighting it as my eyes begin to flutter close.

I awaken, except my body doesn't. It's suddenly dark in the room excluding the equipment helping as a nightlight, but barely. I see the brothers sitting in chairs by each other. I go to speak up, but my mouth simply cannot be opened. Almost as if my mouth is glued shut. My arms attempt to wiggle from this invisible restraint but they didn't budge an inch. As my eyes scam the room, I see a tall figure standing in the corner. No, hunched. He was far too tall for the room, but there he stood anyway. He slid across the white wall, coming closer to me.
"What are you?" I asked the figure in my mind. Instead of a clear answer,I begin hearing whispers overlapping in both ears to the point that I thought I was going to go deaf. Beads of sweat dripped down my forehead. I closed my eyes tight, now afraid of what would happen if I opened them again. However, I knew I had to come face to face with this being. So, I opened my eyes to see the dark, tall and lanky figure on top of my torso.
"What do you want? Leave me alone." I thought to myself.
"Your energy called for me." A voice spoke back. Though, it didn't sound like a monster of any sort. It was that of a man. His shadow began to smother my view and it felt as though he could've been strangling me. I attempt to wiggle my toes, my body or anything that could possibly help me get out of this horrific situation. The more I wiggled, the less I saw of the shadow or heard the whispers, so, I continued doing just that.

I sat up screaming until it cracked. I breathe heavily as West and Abraham rush to my side with concern faces.
"What's wrong?" West questions me. As much as I wanted to answer, I couldn't get words out even though I was wide awake. My hand reached for the water that sat on the nightstand, chugging the rest of it within just a few seconds. Looking back on my pillow, I noticed a sweat stain as big as my head. Abraham followed where my eyes landed and flipped my pillow on the cleaner side.
"What happened in your sleep, Laurence?" Abraham asked me.
My eyes looked through his, "Shadow man." Was all I could say.
"Shadow man? What is that supposed to mean?" West asks as he tosses his hand up with confusion.
Abraham puts his hand on his brother's shoulder, "Sleep paralysis." He pauses as he goes to sit on the edge of my bed, putting his hand on my leg.
"Whatever you saw, or heard, it doesn't mean anything. They can't hurt you. They just want to induce fear in you." Abraham continued.
"How do you know about that?" I inquired curiously.
"Because I saw them all the time growing up. It's why I have these." He pointed to the dark purple circles that hid under his eyes. I get up off from the bed and walk over to the window, raising the blind up halfway. I turn around and see them looking at each other as if I were crazy.
"I don't want to be in the dark." I explained as I put myself back into bed, but not daring to lay back down again. Abraham and West sat back into their original chairs that sat below the window and began to relax again, but not allowing themselves to fall asleep quite yet. I check the watch that hung loosely on my wrist now, as it read in bright red, 8:48 pm. As the lights from the hallways lit up the room slightly now, I watched the nurses walking back and forth. Until I saw a red headed girl rush into the desk, frantically yelling to see someone as tears raced each other down her already red face. The nurse nodded calmly and escorted her to a room. While the red headed girl followed the nurse from behind, She glanced right at me for a split second. It was Kat. Why was Kat here? And who was she looking for that was causing her to freak out so badly? Then, another guy shows up to the desk like he was trying to follow her. The nurse says something unheard to him and he nods calmly but his face was the opposite from calm. He leaned against the desk as his face revealed itself to me. Jerrick? His eyes widened as he rushed into the room I laid in, causing West and Abraham to sit up quickly as if they had just been caught falling asleep.
He plopped onto my bed and held onto my arm, "Are you okay? I heard about what happened." He questioned me with panic.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Elouise is too." I informed him. He glanced over to her like he'd almost forgotten about her before looking back at me.
"Why are you and Kat here? Did something happen?" I interrogated him.
He glanced down for a moment, "Yes, but not to us." He spoke.
"Then, to who?" I questioned.
"They found Kat's dad." He admitted.