The Creature Inside

Nestled between the sheets of my bed, warm and tranquil, I begin to drift. I feel the swaying motion of my body, fighting to stay awake as my head bobs. I give in.

An instant passes. Awakened, in what seemed like hours in the world of my dreams, with a tug at my sheets, leaving me cold and exposed. My weary eyes glance at the blur of the digital clock's gleaming light. Its 3:56 in the morning. I use the little strength that I have to investigate the mystery of this interruption. Through the darkness I can see the blob that is my covers waded up like some sort of cocoon at the edge of my bed. I must have kicked them off while I slept, I guess. I reach out stretching my arm to retrieve them, making minimal movements as possible. In that instant, however just like a cocoon about to sprout to reveal the creature inside, my sheets begin to move.

Startled at this realization I begin to agitate the cocoon in an effort to further advance its transition. I poke it until a hand pops out. "What the fuck?" I whisper to myself, not wanting to wake the person inside. At this point my eye lids become heavy making my head gravitate down to my pillow with great force. I was cold without my sheets. This only made me frustrated, since I couldn't sleep without them.

I knew who it was, my roommate has been sleepwalking for the past two Weeks, waking up in weird places, like the floor of the livingroom, the boxes we used to move in laying in the garage, and even the bathroom. And here he was, in the strangest of places, my room. Something really bothering must be on his mind to have ended up at the edge of my bed, especially if my door was locked. "That requires skill," I say as I look towards the door at the bent doorknob, "damn..." I begin to pull him up to the center of the bed, seeing that he was on the verge of falling off and possibly awakening from a cracked skull or at least a bloody nose. He was aligned with my waist since he was pretty heavy and that's as far as I could get him.

I take my sheets back, leaving my roommate naked, not literally, but he was in his underwear. That made this situation uncomfortable for me because I was in my boxer briefs as well. I couldn't face away and have my butt in his face and I surely couldn't do the same with my front side, so I determine that having some space between us would be the best course of action.

The mumbling started around 4:41 ruining the silence, of course I wasn't asleep anyway. I tried waking him up at some point, but I read somewhere that I shouldn't do that to a sleepwalker. Some of the things he was saying were incoherent, though I listened.

"Please, don't!" He said under his breath, shaking his head, bearly audible. Was he trapped in a horror film, running from a man with claws?

"Come back!" this time he spoke a little louder. Being used to the darkness I could see his face, he had a crestfallen expression as if he had lost everything he loved. Feeling sorry for him, I cover his legs with my sheets.

I'm awake again. Its 5:24 A.M. I feel really bad for the people who have to go to work at this time, luckily my job was less traditional. however, the situation I was in at this moment was not so lucky. His arms are around my waist, I can feel his facial hair prickling my stomach. This is not good; just a few inches and his face would be in my groin. I knew he wouldn't like waking up to any kind of pine or coconut.

I try to set myself free, but am unsuccessful. With every move I make, he holds me tighter. "Fuck!" I blurt out as I realized that in my attempts to unhinged myself, I have become exposed.

There it was, warm on his cheek. He begins to move and I freeze up. His eyes open ever so slightly and close. The beast is at bay.

I am finally able to free myself, pulling my boxer briefs back up I leave my room to lay on the couch watching the sun rise. "I can't believe that just happened," I say as I fall asleep.

"Good morning!" My roommate yells into my ear.

"You asshole!" I yell back, pushing him away.

He falls on his butt laughing, saying, "man, I had the craziest dream last night."

I suddenly remember everything. I had wished it was all a dream, but it couldn't have been since I was clearly on the couch.

"Yeah?" I say, rubbing the back of my neck. "What about?" There was no way he could have remembered a split second of being awake in the midst of everything.

"I dreamt I was being slashed into pieces, it was fucking crazy!" He laughs at this.

I sigh and laugh with him, relieved that he wasn't aware of anything that transpired just a few hours ago.

As our laughter fades we end up smiling, looking into each others eyes. There's an awkward pause and I notice his eyes shift to quickly glance at my waist and back to my eyes.

No no no! I think to myself. Of course he knew! Why else wouldn't he have questioned the fact that he came out of my room.

My face blushes red and I break away from our gaze and walk briskly into my room. He knew, but it was more than that. He was well aware of everything; the sleepwalking, the "involuntary" cuddling, and even my exposure. Some might even say he liked it.

I look at the bottom of the partly closed door as two little shadows of my roommates feet appear.

"Hey, you want to go eat some breakfast?"