Horror

Ignore

There is this fear that I personally believe everyone should have. Although this fear is completely far-fetched, it is certainly possibly. I would know. It happened to me. It's the fear of waking up. No, I don't mean waking up from a nap or a good night's sleep. I mean waking up... to a different reality. I mean waking up to the real reality. Let me explain. I was a 36 year old man... until I woke up. That's right. Do you get what I mean yet?

What if you lived everyday of your life only to wake up to a new one? What if you lived years of your life only to discover it has all been a dream, simulation, or just a massive figment of your imagination? What if every person, place, thing, and experience you ever went through was nothing more than a dream?

Believe it or not, that's not the most disturbing part. What disturbs me is something...a bit larger than that. Apparently, there were "signs". There were signs that told me something just wasn't right throughout my entire life. These were signs that, now that I look back, made me question if it was my dream or someone else's "project". What do I mean by that?

Well, I would say I noticed something wrong when I was about seven years old. It was fall and I lived in a house surrounded by several trees. On this day, the leaves were falling. That's when I noticed it. I noticed that one of the leaves that had fallen from the trees paused. As in, it stopped falling while it was still in the air. It stayed there motionless in the air for about six seconds before it resumed falling. When I told my mother about it, she insisted that I just saw it get caught on a thin line of spider's web. With that being said, I just agreed with her.

The next weird thing I noticed came about when I was 14 years old. I was in the living room watching TV. Meanwhile, my father was in the kitchen making dinner. The kitchen and living room were next to each other in a way that I could see my father from the living room out of the corner of my eye. As I was watching TV, I noticed something strange happen to my father. Out of the corner of my eye, I swear I saw my father turn into a huge blur. I know I was looking through my peripheral vision, but I could usually distinguish the outline of his body. This time, I know for a fact I saw him spread out into a blurry mass for a split second. When I looked over, he was still cooking dinner like nothing happened.

This final time came when I was 29 years old. I remember it like it was yesterday. I worked at a large supermarket. I was in the stock room with a coworker and we were bringing down boxes from a high shelf. Suddenly, my co-worker fell from the ladder he was using. Then, a heavy box proceeded to fall on his head. The sound of his skull cracking under the box's weight almost sent me into a panic. I'll never forget what he said.

"W-What?! Where am I-"

That's when he disappeared. He just...vanished into thin air. It was almost like...he was... deleted out of existence. I listened to him scream in agony for 20 seconds as his body twisted and distorted like he was glitching into nothing. The seconds felt like hours. After he was..."gone", I proceeded to vomit on the floor. It was even harder trying to explain it to the others. They were all so dismissive. When I blankly told them what happened, they just went around telling other people that he just walked out on the job. That's not what happened. However, when I tried to get someone to believe me, they would all say the same thing.

"Ignore it."

Listen. I really need you to listen. Can you hear me? If you don't listen to anything else in this story, listen to this. I can't really explain it myself, but I'm going to try my best. About two months ago, I woke up. I lived 36 years... but I'm actually 64. I don't look like I did in the "fake world". This is what I mean by being afraid to "wake up". What if your entire existence was a dream, simulation, or whatever is going on here? I don't know what exactly is going on. I don't know what to make of this. Whatever this is, it's something big.

I don't know what world you're reading this from, but don't listen to them. This world, your world, isn't what you think it is. If you see something... wrong, don't just stand there and pretend it's nothing. I feel like there's a connection between the fake world and the real one, but I don't know how yet. They are out there watching and waiting. They keep watch over you. If you believe that every choice you ever made was "your" choice, then you're wrong. I don't know if you're in the fake world or the real one, but there's a difference. You aren't who you think you are. You don't look like what you think you look like.

Does anyone else have this fear? I know I'm already awake, but I'm honestly afraid that I might wake up again. I'm afraid that, at any given moment, I will snap into another reality as someone else. I don't know whether I should tell you to wake up or not. Honestly, after what I've been through in this new life, I would love to go back to the old one... the fake one. I miss my wife. I miss my kids. I miss my friends. I wish I could go back. I hate it. Unfortunately, once you wake up, there's no going back. You have to come to grasp that every person, place, and thing you ever knew... is gone.

I know this is going to be hard for anyone to understand. Enjoy the life you have. You'll never know when you'll "wake up". If they tell you to ignore it, I would say don't... but it would probably be better if you did. I would give absolutely anything to go back. If you want to be safe, then just take their advice. Just ignore it.

Just ignore it.