Bewitching Monsters

Sleep Paralysis Demon - Part 2

Contains: swearing, brief suggestive scenes
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Overall, nothing happened with the sleep demon. Nothing seemingly helpful, that is. According to Lori, it didn't seem to respond to anything I asked. It looked me over, leaned in close to me, then returned to its position on the bed where it apparated. Then it just kept pointing at me and then to its mouth. When I obviously didn't understand what it meant, it became frustrated. It glared at Lori as it sharply pointed at me then at its open mouth.

Then the sleep paralysis broke.

Hopefully, this didn't mean it wanted to eat me—I had trouble thinking of any other interpretations, though.

The rest of the night I spent reading up on sleep demons and sleep magic. Since Lori didn't have another episode that night, I got a through a lot. And I had some new ideas to try out. The most blatant was leaving a written note the demon could hopefully read, then respond to. Others... well, I still needed to work out a way for me to talk to it before I could seriously entertain some of them.

Besides a note, my next plan was to also dreamwalk. I didn't care for the practice—I had seen it abused more than a handful of times. But there was little avoiding it right now. Since I didn't dream, I'd have to make a physical item to act as both ship and anchor. And that meant it was time to get a little crafty and make a sachet.

I always enjoyed going all out and adding as much small magic into the sachets I made. From the color and type of fabric for the bag and drawstring, to filling them with a well-rounded amount and types of items. When I could, I'd make them on days with celestial placements that would help further the intentions along. It didn't make much of a difference. But it was fun. Besides, I spent way too much time in school having to memorize such things that I was determined to get at least some use out it all.

That night, Lori was quite excited to try out my next plan, likely since it meant we had to share his bed. Again, he offered to wear pajamas. Again, I told him it was unnecessary. Though given his palpable interest, I definitely was wearing some.

Dreamwalking was a strange experience. When I first became conscious, I was sitting in a fog with a dull red string leading away from me. "Lori?" I called out. A soft glow lit the thread for a second. It didn't fully fade away. I stood up and started following the string into the fog, periodically calling to Lori.

The fog lifted, revealing hillocks of wildflowers and tall grasses. We were connected now. I turned and found Lori in quite the compromising position with some tentacled aberration. I looked away out of politeness, then cleared my throat to make my presence known.

Lori cursed as he began sorting himself out. "Witch?! Oh gods... Hold on." The scene shifted a little as I waited. Behind us, I could now hear the gentle burbles of a slow river. "I guess the dreamwalking worked."

"So it has. Hopefully this will keep us connected when you experience sleep paralysis—if you even do tonight, that is." I sat down at the water's edge. Lori joined me. His dream version of himself was taller and huskier; his fur might've been a bit longer too. And he wore an egregiously flowy robe, made of some thin fabric. I didn't dare tell him how much control he had; else I end up dressed like him instead of the simple black dress I wore over to his place that night. "Is there any commonalities between what you dream and nights the demon visits?"

He shrugged. "Not that I can think of. I mean, my dreams don't really deviate... except right now." He scratched behind his ear, looking away from me. "Fuck this is weird—to be aware! N-not that I'm not dreaming my... usual. Dreams. I'm just gonna shut up now."

I laughed and lay back on the soft grass. "Go continue if you want. We got time to kill."

He didn't. But judging by the subtle way I could sense the surroundings change, he was contemplating it.

Suddenly, we were snapped out of the dream. For a moment, I lingered in the fog again before forcing myself to wake up. It was a shock, at first. My body wouldn't move and there was a large, looming shadow at the foot of the bed.

Success so far. Now for the hard part.

Before bed, I instructed Lori to make pointed looks to the note we left on his nightstand. I also gestured the best I could with just my eyes. We got the message across. The paralysis demon slunk over us to look at it.

Fuck, did it feel ghastly to be so unable to shudder. It wasn't that it was frightening—it was as amorphous as Qiriol was. Its proximity just provoked that reaction.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem inclined to respond to the note. Instead, it turned to me, touched my chest, then again opened and pointed at its mouth. I wanted to scream that I didn't understand. I settled for trying to make as confused of an expression as I could muster—my facial muscles didn't fully feel frozen, so I hope I got something across.

And... I think it worked? Not that I was super excited by this, because then the demon's fingers slid down the front of my romper. The reflex to shudder was worse when it touched me. But when I recovered, things started to make more sense. The demon was holding up my charm necklace by the locket that held the drop of darkness Qiriol gave me. So it was a connection to dreameaters!

Finally, some real progress was being made. Though now I started to wonder if this meant I needed to eat it or just put it in my mouth. Maybe bite it? At least one step had been made.

The demon seemed satisfied that I understood, so it turned its focus to Lori. It made some gestures—some quite questionable, even when amorphous. I closed my eyes. I wasn't feeling particularly voyeuristic tonight. I did my best to ignore what was happening on the other side of the bed, and instead focused on what I had just learned.

Once the paralysis ended, I dispelled the dreamwalking charm. Lori could privately have his lewd dreams again. And with tomorrow's night now planned, I could sleep easy—on Lori's couch—with an easy, free day ahead of me.