Midnight Toxic Orchestra

Doctor's Remedy

A week's pass from that day.
I spend the days sitting in my study, and write down everything that comes to my fancy.

Ding Dong Ding Dong
the doorbells rang.

The rings interrupt my study,
and so I wonder

Who on earth could that be?

I turn to see the clock to find that the day had come to a close, and the graceful symphony of the night had begun.

I stand from my desk and walks toward the door

A visitor? At this time of the day?

I reach for the handles and pull them towards me, giving way for the tall figure I see.

He towers over me, a man smartly dressed, with an alluring air of confidence.

His face braves a smile, and blaring eyes through big round spectacles.

Good evening kind sir...Are you the doctor I asked for this morning?
I inquired.

With a confident nod, he confirms me, and asks me to invite him in.

I did so, and told him to wait in the living room.

So Doctor, would you like me to brief you on my experience?
I ask him as I move and place myself on the couch beside him.

The Doctor agrees, and with an eager ear, he leans toward me and with his body drawing near,

please a simple tale to hear.

It happened not too long ago. In the middle of the night...I can't really say what time it was... I was fast asleep.
Though, what usually is a refreshing, good night's rest ended in a wholly unexpected way.

I could open my eyes... bit by bit... until they are wide opened, I thought I was awakened in the middle of the night...

...But then, I tried to tilt my head and move my hands here and there... but they felt very heavy, and my head felt very sticky... and I felt very weak.

I keep telling my fingers to wiggle but they won't, they won't move... I was too weak to move anything at all.

...That was when I realized...
...I never woke up...

So there I lay, voiceless, motionless, helpless...
It lasted for a long long time.

The worst of it is the helplessness,
I couldn't do anything about it..
All i could do... was wait it out...

Staying still for a while... then to minutes... then to hours...

Can you imagine it doctor? Not moving anything... not a single muscle in your body... for an hour?

I finished "my story" as it was.

The Doctor then has this oh-so-that's-what-this-fuss-is-about look.

He then explains it all to me,
and quite frankly.. it all makes sense.

What happened to me... was something called Sleep Paralysis.

When we dream, our bodies enter a state of "freezing" so that our bodies do not act out our dreams while we sleep

That state is called atonia.
Now sleep paralysis, is a minor hickup in the brain that causes people to "wake up" in atonia.

Simply said, we wake up... While our bodies are still sleeping.

Oh, and since we are practically still asleep, our minds conjure up hallucinations and our eyes and ears are aware of them, and mistake them as real images.

In other words, our nightmares overlap our reality.

So then I ask him for a cure.
He said there are none.

These only happen once or twice in a normal person's lifetime he says,

and that I shouldn't worry myself, for sleep paralysis is harmless beside panicking the person, it does little else.

The Doctor then pauses, and sits aback and peacefully smiles.

No words could further express my surprise. We both then stay quiet, as we both lost the things to say to one another.

I put my head in hand,
as I gaze the erudite man,
processing whatever I can,
and knowing, I finally understand.