ISOLATION

4.

I'm standing in a narrow corner. My limbs buckling in this abstract 's' shaped position. The palms of my hands press forcefully against the walls. Looking through a dull lens, the walls are more grey than usual, as if my eyes are incapable of seeing color. Nothing is vivid but the harsh contrasts of shadows. They turn the darkest crevices of my room into black holes. A foreboding mystification casts over all of my furniture. Desolation absorbs all of the empty spaces. Despite the incomprehensible differences, my bedroom appears to be the same. But I do not feel like myself. My arms and my legs are too long. My hair sticks to the edges of my face. With every breath my rib cage protrudes from my skin. I slip in and out of consciousness.

I steady my mind. I unravel and stand up straight. Why am I so tall? Why do I move without consent? I look into the mirror hung up beside me. It's a large oval mirror, the glass hasn't been cleaned in years. My reflection confirms this inkling that I'm not myself. I don't understand. My face is...wrong?

Behind me in the reflection, my actual body is asleep. It lies in the bed behind this body my consciousness is now trapped in. David is no longer asleep next to me. I'm just lying there alone, unaware that my mind has been detached.

Looking through the eyes of another, I see its jaw unhinge. This body slowly turns back around. It creeps closer to my bedside. As much as I want to stop it, I have no control. Its arms overextend as it gradually crawls onto the bed.

Its fingers clutch large bundles of white fabric. Its bottom jaw remains locked open. The blanket: once a safe haven is now a suffocating prison I'm confined in. Helplessly, I watch as this invades my personal space. All four of its limbs keeping me pinned down. A manic moan slowly slips out of the darkest trench. It shakes the walls of their throat. A surreal noise that comes straight from the heart of hell.

The only thing connecting me to this body is the devoting desire to hate the one below us. This urge to hurt myself acts as the only existential apparatus in a mind full of obscurity. It's the one thing familiar to me, but this foreign body shuts me out. It lowers itself down. Every breath rolls against my bodies face. The way my eyes flutter underneath my lids appears so real. This frustration causes me to steal the breath from the body I'm trapped in. I close its mouth and force its hands around my neck. Its thumbs, free of any wrinkles, digs into the pit between my collarbones. Harder and harder they press until I gag.

As if my mind suddenly warped through a tunnel of imperceptible energy, I reconnect with my body. I open my eyes and see the petrifying being above me. The weight is more than that of a normal person. Their body is thin and yet enormous. I cannot move. I can't even breathe. Their nails embedded in the ridges of my neck. Its eyes peering into mine. Now without a soul, their dead eyes are nothing but a gateway to nothingness. Its long black hair just barely touches the sides of my face.

I want to escape it, but I'm unable. There's nothing I can do, but lie in paralyzing agony. Their jaw pops out of place. It snaps to the side making them appear more warped. It groans again. I hear it from a third person perspective. "I'm. watching. you." It speaks words without expression.

This feels too real to be a nightmare. I can feel the body heat coming from David. He's asleep beside me again. More color ravishes my room. For a moment, everything feels substantial, but the grey walls start closing in around me. The blanket feels like metal, keeping me locked in place. A certain type of panic, claws at all of my nerves. Now fully aware, I try to maneuver my body. The large being above me lowers themselves. Their intention is vague. The pressure is heavy enough to cause shortness in breath.

The existentialism of this moment drives me into insanity. I want David to wake up. I need him to see the person in bed with us. I need to know that it's real.

"David?" I croak.

Their hands tighten around my neck. After finally gaining the strength to mutter his name, I'm trapped again in a state of paralysis. "P-please, st-op-" I cough. My eyes roll back into their sockets. Incapable of swiping the tears, they fall down my cheeks. Terror kills me slowly. While suffocating, I knowingly dream of my death.

At last this realistic nightmarish trickery is over. I open my eyes. This time I look up and see David hovering above me. His hands gently cup the sides of my face. He has this exaggerated expression, like he is witnessing something truly horrible. "Hey-hey-hey, summer? It's just a dream- you're fine- you're awake" His voice went on without time for spaces.

"Are they gone?" I ask,uncertain. After examining the empty black room around us, I cling onto him. "It's gone." I say softly, so soft in fact that David calms down almost immediately. I notice I cant breath out of my nose. My face feels dry, like there are stripes of tape stuck from the creases of my eyes down to the point below my chin. I've been crying. "You're alright summer, it was just a nightmare-" David comforts me. I'll use him as a totem for reality. His touch and his voice prove to me that this is indeed real. I'm awake.

"Summer?"

I steady myself before finally responding to him. "I'm awake?" I look towards him for more reassurance. "Yes, you were just having a nightmare. You're awake now-" He tries to pull me into him even more, but I'm still traumatized. I sit up and look around the room. Nothing is out of place. Nobody else is with us. David and I sit up in bed together for a while. I told him the gist of what I dreamt about. I could not go in-depth with it. I never even fell back to sleep after that. Despite how exhausted I felt. David held me close. Before passing out, he jokingly told me that he "will protect me". It was sweet, but I know he can't.