The Effects of Sleep Paralysis #TNTHorrorContest

Chapter Three

Our staring competition continued on for the next week. I began to expect the sleep paralysis when I went to bed at night. I knew I would meet the creature from Hell who would stalk me, waiting until I looked away to make me its prey.

I wasn't getting any sleep. I began relying on energy drinks and coffee to get me through the day. When I thought I was safe, I would try and catch five minutes here and there, always making sure to rest where there was sunlight.

Emily suggested I make an appointment with my doctor. I had told her about the paralysis, but not the creature. Somehow I didn't think a prescription would help. I thought I would be locked in a deadly child's game forever, being forced to relive the same situation every night.

Clack-clack-clack-clack.

I opened my eyes at the creature's arrival. As long as I kept my eyes on it, it wouldn't move closer. A claw appeared over the bed frame. Then its disfigured body. I felt eerily calm, already used to this stalemate.

But something was different this time. The air was cracking, like it was filled with static electricity. As my nightly visitor drew to its full height, I noticed it shaking. Not in a whole, body convulsing way, but more like when someone has a tremor. Except, multiple the speed of the tremor by one hundred. The creature was basically vibrating.

Still, I didn't look away. If I did it would move—

Creeak.

It moved onto the bed, inches away from my foot. Slowly it raised a clawed hand, reaching out to me.

I tried clenching my fist— something I had read would take you out of the paralysis, but I couldn't move a muscle.

Slowly it leaned its face closer to me— not its whole body, just the face. It was stretching, morphing. Then its jaw unhinged and its body shook, as if letting out a silent scream.

The vibrations shook me and once again I broke my calm, trying to scream for my fiancée.

Then all of a sudden everything stopped. The air returned to normal. The quaking disappeared. And the creature was stock-still again, stuck in its unnatural scream.

Its finger pointed at my heart.