Stories Of Horror

Die Before You Sleep

"Die Before You Sleep"

Do you ever wonder what happens to you when you die? Well, I have a little idea of it. People die at all ages, and all types of causes. Sometimes it's by injury, sometimes it's by disease.

Sometimes, old people just die without warning in their sleep. They were perfectly healthy, just old. There really is no explanation for why they die, but they just die. There was a little test done in the 1950's to see if they could explain this. They took 10 test subjects who were at least 80 years old, and asked them if they could stay here, in this facility, until they died. These people were particularly aged; you could tell they didn't have long left.

As each one died, something peculiar happened. Just before their heart stopped, their brain readings became incredibly erratic. But, they still matched a certain pattern. They matched the pattern of a person having a nightmare. But, this was nothing like they had ever seen. Their faces stayed so perfectly calm, along with their bodies... but they were not calm.

But, one of the test subjects survived. He seemed like a very resilient man. He had the brain readings, the same as all the others, but his heart did not stop. Instead, he woke up with a scream, and jerked up violently. The scientist rushed up to him, and asked what had happened in his mind. He said it was the most terrifying thing anyone could ever see. He said it that it was the reason people die in their sleep. He said that dying in your sleep was not peaceful. He said that it was the worst experience you could ever have. And as he was just about to tell them... his eyes rolled back and he collapsed onto the bed. He had died from exhaustion. His heart had collapsed completely.

Scientist were baffled. The project was stopped there. They refused to put any more people through this experience. The results were locked away,  and they project was hidden from the eyes of the world. It was lost in the government machine, for the public never to see. But one of the scientists was not satisfied with this. Many years later, that same scientist was of the age where he could die in his sleep. He remembered the project years ago, and decided to find out what the old man was about to tell them. He spent quite some time preparing his old heart for anything that could come at it. He wanted to make sure he stayed alive through this. One night he went to sleep, same as always. But this dream was different. He was in the dark. There was a small light emanating from what seemed to be a small bathroom.

He seemed to be drawn towards it. He couldn't stop himself from walking towards it. He opened the door. There was on small flickering light, a dirty looking mirror, a broken down toilet and shower, which seemed to be in the same condition. The floor was cold concrete. There was a sink. He felt himself forced to wash his face with the water from it. It seemed perfectly normal. He looked up from the sink to the mirror, and saw himself. He looked perfectly normal as well. He wiped his face off, and reopened his eyes, and saw his reflection again. But it was much, much, different this time.

The person in the reflection seemed to be him... but it was different. It was as if someone has taken him out of the grave about 6 months after death. The figure was decayed, but still retained some resemblance to him. The scientist was paralyzed with fear.

 But not paralyzed enough to stop him from fulfilling an incredible urge to reach out toward it. He slowly moved his hand toward the mirror. But, instead of his hand stopping at the cold glass, as expected, it it kept going towards the figure. He whipped his hand back with incredible shock and fear. The figure slowly began to speak. He said in a raspy, degraded version of the scientist's voice; "E-everyone h-h-has their time. Y-you were lucky enough to last this long. B-but your time has come... prepare y-yourself." The figure then moved towards him. He looked for any escape he could find. But the door had completely disappeared. He was trapped in that room. His fear completely froze him from any movement. It suddenly rushed at him, screaming with a more terrifying scream then you could have  ever imagined in your entire lifetime. As soon as it made contact with him, he woke up. He sat up violently, heaving massive breaths.

The scientist realised immediately what he had just experienced. He quickly grabbed a blank piece of paper that was sitting on his desk beside his bed. He had prepared beforehand, just in case. He scribbled out these words as quickly as he could, for he knew his heart was about to collapse.  The paper said "DIE BEFORE YOU SLEEP". He then threw the pencil and paper back down on the desk, and expected to die right then. But he didn't. He looked over to the exit of his room. Standing there, in the doorway was the figure from his nightmare.

The figure whispered "y-you didn't think you c-could get awa-ay that e-easily, did you?" The scientist's eyes widened with fear. Through his fear, he managed to whisper "what- what are you?" The figure then rushed towards the side of the bed, and whispered in his ear "I am God." And with those words, the scientist died.

The scientist was a lonely man, all of his family and friends were dead. All but  one friend. Nobody found the body for months. But, one day, his only friend came to visit. He went to his house, and knocked on the door. No answer. After a few seconds, he began to smell an incredibly horrible stench coming from the house. He walked around to the back of the  house, and looked in the bedroom window. Inside, it was dark. But he could make out the decaying figure of his friend, who had been in there, dead for months. The figure almost exactly matched the one that had caused him to die. He called the police, and they collected his body. The cause of death was simply labelled "Old Age". But they found the paper next to his bed. It was filed away as evidence, and there were a few local newspaper stories about it. And so everyone kept on believing dying of old age was natural, and dying in your sleep was the most painless why to go.

Well, good for them.