Short Stories

Sleep Paralysis

Her eyes flickered opened, revealing the dark eyes of another staring down at her. Shivers went through her nape, then to her spine, and all the way to her feet. She managed a scream, or so she thought, only to be welcomed by her parched throat and a missing voice. Her hands wouldn't move, nor her feet. The body she had been living in was betraying her at the moment where she needed it the most. She urged her remaining muscles to shut her eyes but that too, was failing her. The figure hovering above her drew closer and a curve pulled from the edges of her mouth slowly, but surely, stopping at the sides of its ear. A high-pitched scream was let out by the figure before it sprinted and disappeared inside her, waking her from her sleep.

She stared at the rusted ceiling above her and felt the tears that were now dried on the sides of her temples. She faced her head towards the left side of the bed, and to the rotting corpse that she laid carefully under the blanket she said, "you should stop tainting my dreams, mother."