Fluid Reality

The Twilight Zone

Jimmy was cramped up in his bed, staring off into the darkness that wrapped itself around him. He was thinking idle thoughts, anything to get his mind tired enough to drift off into sleep. He twiddled his toes and stared at the ceiling, but he just couldn't sleep. The light leaked off into his room through lines that protruded from his windows unto the ceiling. Turning on his side, he looked at his collection of books perched on a shelf. He could read one, they always put him to sleep, but then he would have to turn on the lights. Jimmy heard the wind battering his windows outside, the trees rustled along with it. Jimmy focused in on the sound. He tried to ease into the rhythms of the wind and let them slowly drift him off into the lands of his dreams. Soon enough, something caught his eye.

It was a small, flashing red light. It flashed on and on, at first Jimmy thought nothing of it, but it seemed to flash in a very ominous way. Perhaps it was just the darkness that scared him, painting an unsettling hue into an otherwise normal situation. After some rational reasoning, he came to the conclusion that it was probably just his phone. He felt the compulsive desire to go and shut it off, but he was too lazy to get up and decided he'd just let it shut off by itself.

Little Jimmy faced the ceiling, closed his eyes, and allowed his mind to wander into sleep. Click click, click click. A strange noise came from the bathroom right across from his door. Click click, click click. It sounded like someone was attempting to flush the toilet, but the handle wouldn't move all the way and instead made a clicking noise. Paranoia creeped into little Jimmy's mind and he couldn't help himself. He stepped off his bed and leaned over to see if anybody was in the bathroom. Nobody was there. The clicking noise went away.

Little Jimmy was still startled from the sound, but he was intent on going to sleep. He slowly eased himself back into bed and waited as time passed. Silence engulfed his room once more as everything began to settle. Suddenly, he felt a nudge or two from behind his back. His bed sheets progressively solidified until he felt fingers take form and crawl up his back. At this point, Jimmy was beyond creeped out. In fact, he was frozen in place. He couldn't exactly point out what it was, but his room felt different. The darkness in the air, the scent, the walls, all of it had a strange feel to it. Something felt wrong. He didn't feel like he was home anymore. The room began to smell of fear, like perfume diffusing into the walls, corrupting them, transforming them into something alien.

The clicking noise from the bathroom started again, and the fingers kept scratching his back. Jimmy's body went cold and his toes went numb. A familiar sense of paranoia crept up on him. He slowly leaned over to see if anybody was in the bathroom. Click, click, click, click. He heard the noise go on and on. He squinted as hard as he could and the darkness slowly unravelled itself. He saw a figure come into view. Arms, body, legs, piece by piece until he saw the whole picture. He saw himself standing over the toilet, trying to flush the toilet. Click, click, click, click. At this point, Jimmy was shaking. Suddenly, the figure that looked exactly like him stopped trying to flush the toilet and looked at Jimmy dead in the eyes.

Jimmy retreated back into his bed, cold all over, praying that he's dreaming. He heard a car pass by his street, his room illuminated completely for a second as a car passed by his window, then back into darkness. All was silent again. He looked at the toilet once more, there was nobody there. No click, nothing. Jimmy waited with fear, expecting something to disturb the stillness of his room. Surely enough, something did, he heard a beep coming from his phone. It was flashing red again.

More cars passed by his window, and spots of light slowly illuminated his room. He heard a light thud on his window sill, then more thuds. He examined his window from his bed, it was rain. It started to drizzle outside, as light specks of rain decorated his window. For a while that was all he heard, the soft drizzle of rain all over his home. But he couldn't sleep, the feeling wouldn't let him sleep. It was the itch in the back of his mind, an instinct deep down in his gut screaming at him, telling him something's wrong. But he didn't know what. It was a horrible feeling, the darkness was sapping away his energy, his sanity. He sat there, alone in the dark, blind to the unknown. It felt like the shadows could move and speak, whispering in soft and subtle noises. He shivered as the darkness eased in to him, covering him in a layer of ice. The shadows whispered and whispered throughout the night, the whispers started to form words in Jimmy's mind. The more he concentrated on the whispers the more he understood, the more he heard. "The devil has ears" they said, over and over and over again. "The devil has ears"..."The devil has ears".