Arny, My Sleep Paralysis Demon

The Truth

Arny could tell I was distraught, he thought to himself for a second what he could do to help me out. He finally got up and sat at the very edge of my bed facing towards me.

"Ask me anything and I promise I will tell you the truth. And I never break my promises, especially when they are this important to me."

He face became very serious and I knew that he would do his best to help me with all this confusion.

"Okay explain why I couldn't see you earlier downstairs, and why did you make such a loud noise a second ago?"

"That's 2 questions but I'll let it slide this time. Okay, the reason you couldn't see me downstairs was because I was hiding underneath you couch." It made sense because there was a big enough gap between our couch and the floor.

"And that loud noise you heard was me falling and tripping over random shit you have in your disastrous mess that you call a room! You fell asleep downstairs so I wanted to carry you to your bed."

He wasn't wrong my room was kind of a disaster at the moment. And I thought that it was sweet of him to want to bring me to my own bed.

"HEY! Who are you to judge my messy organized room. At least take back the disastrous part!"

He held a serious expression completely unamused by my comment.

"I won't be taking anything back. What's your next question?"

I was slightly annoyed that he didn't take it back, but decided to just move on... this time.

"How long have I been having sleep paralysis for?"

"Since you were about 8 years old. I don't know if you remember, but one night you began screaming saying that you couldn't feel your arms or your legs, and your parents rushed you to the hospital."

"No I don't, but wouldn't you have erased that memory already?"

"Sadly no, the first time is happens you don't have a sleep paralysis demon to help you."

"Okay... I guess that makes sense. How old are you? Don't tell me you're some 2,000 year old dude who's been watching over me since I was 8!"

"Haha no nothing like that, We are the same age actually. They think that it comforts the person more to send you a demon who's the same age as you."

"What do you do to help me exactly?"

A bunch of thoughts raced through my head, hoping that nothing crazy had happened.

"Just so you know it's nothing like that!"

My cheeks felt a rush of heat and began to go bright red

"I would never do anything like that! All I do is play music or read you a story, anything really just to keep you at ease until I can finally erase your mind of the incident."

"I see, and how long do you stay with me? Until I no longer have this issue orr..?"

"Hmm I'm not sure, see, your case is very strange. Most people don't have sleep paralysis issues for very long and it is very curable. But, as you know now, you have had it for 12+ years."

"Is it life threatening?!"

"No no no you have nothing to worry about. Most demons do leave their person once they have overcome their sleep paralysis. But, you still haven't overcome yours so I can't give you a solid answer on how long I'll be here."

"Okay I get it, I guess it's starting to make sense, eventhough this is completely insane!"

He cracks the cutest smile and let's out the smallest laugh that makes my heart skip a beat. Everything he is saying is so so strange, but it all somehow makes sense and feels right.

"Okay one more question, I'm kinda running out of time here."

I gave him a super puzzled expression wondering what he meant by that. He takes notice and points towards the window, the sun had started to rise. It was already morning?! It was to late to take it back now so I put two and two together and realized he could only be here during the night.

"Oh okay gotcha, are you gonna have to erase what just happened?"

He ponders this for a second, I don't know if it's because he isn't sure if he can or can't, or if he's wondering if he wants to or not.

"No I won't, I want you to be able to remember this moment and keep it with you. Plus you actually didn't have an episode, so I have no reason to erase it."

"Did you just call it having an episode?!"

He gave me a wink tagged to a soft smile and before I knew it I was waking up to my alarm.