Short Stories

Paranoia

I'm not usually a paranoid kind of person but recently I feel like there is something out to get me. It started off small, y'know like a water bottle hitting the floor or the fridge being left open. I thought maybe I didn't put the water away properly and I had just forgotten to close the fridge door, normal mistakes that most people make. I just carry on with my day like normal, then comes night and I hear noises like footsteps going past my door or down the hallway. Didn't think much of it, thought the house I lived in was setting - it is a pretty old house - or the creak of a door but thought it was my roommate coming home from work and going to her room. Nothing out of the ordinary so I would go to bed and sleep the night away, that's when it gets not normal at all. My dreams are not pleasant ones, sleep paralysis is not really a fun thing to have almost every night of every day, they contain a creature that is not truly there and I know does not exist. But, that doesn't mean I'm not scared of them and what they will do, they never do anything just kinda stood there and watch me. I look around and every time it seems that there is this darkness trying to get me but before it can there is a voice but I never understand what they say. Then - BOOM! - I'm awake and perfectly fine and thinking what a fucking weird ass dream, why the fuck would my brain make that kind of shit up. Ignore it, it is not real so it doesn't matter just go one with your day.
That was my first mistake. Things just got weirder as time went on, I even asked my roommate if they have heard things or maybe even seen things...she said no. I'm not a paranoid kind of person, but I'm starting to think that might need to change. It just got worse. I could tell millions of stories about this part of my life but the one that stands out was one night, one I think is the beginning of my life now. It kind of started as a pretty normal day, went to work, went out shopping with some old friends, heading home and working on homework for my college classes. Pretty normal day, then came around night time and that's when went down fucking hill from here. It started peaceful, water bottles falling on the floor, a cabinet left open or the sounds of footsteps down the hall thinking it was just the house was setting, nothing to worry about just yet.
I was sitting on the couch in the living room watching T.V and working on some things for classes. I was sitting sideways with my leg outstretched on couch do my thing, just then out the corner of my eye I see some dark figure or at least some part of them standing right next to me, when I saw the figure at the same time I heard a voice in my ear, I didn't get a good read on what they said but they said it in like a whisper as if they only me wanting to hear what they have to say. That scared me so bad that I almost gave myself whiplash trying to see the dark figure but as soon as I did they disappeared, leaving me with my heart pounding in my chest but somehow also stuck in my throat. Breathing heavy and looking around frantically, I began to think that my imagination got the best of me in some kind cruel joke. Maybe I had imagined it somehow but I was now a little paranoid, I slowly began to just continue my work to get done and over so I could go to bed before morning sun arises.
I worked for a little bit more but that dreadful feeling of being watched did not leave my side, every now and then I would look around to maybe see something but there was always nothing. I wanted to stop feeling paranoid, it was not a good feeling, so I just stopped what I was doing and grabbed my stuff to take to my room but as I did so I heard that same damn voice again. I needed to leave now, I wanted to go towards my room and hide away but I couldn't leave the damn light on in the kitchen. So I did the best next thing as soon I hit the switch and it went dark I fucking booked it for my room, immediately jumping into bed hiding under my covers like a 10 year old kid trying to out run the creatures in the dark. When I finally felt safe to come out from underneath the covers, my room was pretty lit up by my LED lights and Christmas lights - I didn't bother taking them down after the damn holiday - so I felt good and that damn paranoia feeling finally went away. It didn't take long for it to come though, I don't know what but something compelled me to look at the T.V that was in my room. Big fucking mistake.
A woman, there was a figure of a woman in the reflection of my T.V, she was gripping her hair and violently swinging her head around like she was insane. I didn't believe in what I was seeing so I fluttered my eyes as if to reset them and rubbed at them to make sure, yep there was definitely some crazy lady in my T.V so I have decided to just lay back and try to sleep. That feeling of being watched is there again, I sit up to look around and then blank out looking at one of the dark corners in the room. There seems to be this man, I can barely tell what his face looks like but the longer I look the more deformed it becomes. Not believing my own eyes I took out my phone turning on the flashlight and pointing it at him, he was gone, I slowly put my phone down and started to have a staring contest with the dark, he was there again. I remember people using snapchat face filters and it tracking to another face behind or some shit, go to the app picking a random face filter and pointing it toward him. It did not pick up, but one thing is for sure is that I could still see through the phone camera.
He is not doing anything, he is just watching me like he is waiting for something to happen or waiting to go back to bed. I get out of bed and turn on my lights so there is no more darkness, I know it is childish but I was never a fan of the dark. I loved it, don't get me wrong it was just the things that would hide in it. I grab a night light of a cat sleeping on a crescent moon, plugging it in hope it would stop the shadows appearing again. I turned off my light and let out a breath I didn't even realize I was holding in, my room was a shadow less room and I would like to keep it that way from now on. I walk back to my bed finally ready to sleep to a horrible night away, when I got in and under the covers I then heard footsteps outside my door. What made it worse was I could see a bit of shadows from the night light in the hall - we have that just in case we wake up in the middle of the night, we do not want to trip and die - then the silence, the shadow is just kinda stood there, no moving, no anything.
As I kept looking at it I heard a voice like right in my ear but I know no one is here, a chill like feeling of dread rattled in my body. I heard the voice again just barely understanding what it said, then another voice responded back to the other like they were having a conversation. I can't remember what they were saying then, I never really had the best memory. It was always fragments when I think back to it. I digress, I sat there watching the shadow and just listening to the non-understandable conversation, so the shadow left with the sound of footsteps following it. Aa soon the shadow left the voices seem to slowly fade out of existence, I then slowly laid back in my bed waiting. I don't know what I was waiting for but I know it never came and soon enough, I felt my start to get heavy and fluttering them to stay awake - didn't work and soon my eyes shut - before I knew it I was out like a light. I didn't dream that night but after all that I still believed my mind was playing tricks, of course I was proven wrong later on.
From that night things became different and hard to handle, the paranormal shit keeps happening from here and now but they seem to like my dreams more. I would get sleep paralysis twice to four times a week - yeah, a week - it is not the best feeling waking up scared and paranoid of what's in the dark and what the hell did I just dream about. The things in my dreams differ depending on what is going on in them, there have been many times that I have woken up in a dream and still be dreaming - I like to call that "fake awake" - that only happens when the darkness is seeming to be reaching out to get me or something has something to say to me, of course I never understand what they have said. There are others where creatures are there watching me, one who is nothing but blackness and looks like a child's drawing with no eyes but with a big grin. There was one dream where I saw nothing but pitch black but heard a voice and understood what they said, I couldn't see them but I could almost see them -- that doesn't make sense does it -- what they said "Oh, it you." Like they knew me or knew of me. Then there is him - I like to call him Mr. Showman - he doesn't do much, though he is freakishly tall, he wears a mask with no mouth. He seems quite nice, he merely watches and just talks of stories.
Then there are others but they don't stand out like those three, they seemed attracted towards me. I don't really mind them but they do creep me the fuck out, I'll live with them for the rest of my life I just know it. I told my roommate all of this and they said why explore this apparent ability of mine, I felt this feeling of dread it felt like I have been stabbed in the stomach. I booked it towards the bathroom and puked up what I had for breakfast, let me tell you chocolate waffles do not taste good coming back up. This was a sign not to do what roommate had just said, as I was about to leave the bathroom I looked in the mirror. Mr. Showman. Crouch down to my level and staring me in the eyes through the mirror, he is warning me, I blinked and he's gone but there is writing on the wall. "Don't listen to them, it is not them. :)" . The smile kinda threw me off, 'them' my roommate? A chill went down my spine as I realized what he had meant. Knock. Knock. "Hey you okay in there?" It was their voice, the one I'm used to hearing saying goodnight to me, the one I have known since highschool. I trust them with everything, but now I think I can't trust them with anything, "Yeah, I'm good, just a bad...stomach ache.".

I'm not usually a paranoid person, nowadays though I'm pretty sure that my roommate might be a demon. I fucking hate paranoia. 

A/N - I didn't really like this story as much as the other but hope you guys still enjoyed it!