I felt like it was going to be a night like any other, ya know, laying in my bed for hours, just staring at the ceiling with nothing to do because of my insomnia. Ever since I was diagnosed with insomnia, I’ve never been the same.
I lost sleep, my grades plummeted, and my friends didn’t want to hang around me anymore because I was hardly ever awake.
Although, whenever I tried to sleep I kept getting the strangest feeling... as if someone were watching me. Most people feel like they’re being watched when they’re alone in the dark, but no.
This feeling followed me wherever I went, I couldn’t even walk down the street without getting chills down my spine. I started to get used to the chills... Then, I began to hear things.
Every waking moment of everyday, I would start hearing high-pitched whispers in my ears. What were they saying to me? No idea. I had no idea what was making these noises or where it was coming from, but they needed to stop. The voice kept telling me to do psychotic things.
As odd as it may sound... It almost gave me the urge to... Hurt someone. I know it sounds crazy but it made me feel as if I really wanted to kill someone. Hurt them, watch them cry. These whispers, I hated them. I hated all of it.
Before any of this even happened I was fine. The normal kid outside throwing a football around with his dad. Not anymore, I’ve changed. I’ve changed way too much. In a way I felt attached to these whispers. No not the whispers, the thing causing the whispers. Sometimes it almost felt too close for comfort.
I honestly can’t tell you how I felt. The only way I can really describe these whispers is... tempting. I can’t really explain why, but these whispers made me feel as if... as if needed to do this. As if it was my job to do what it said...
It was like any other normal day. Tossing and turning. Sitting in that room full of silence, when I started having visions. They weren’t normal, let me tell you that. Trippy effects, neon colors flashing before my eyes. I wouldn’t really call them dreams considering they weren’t something a normal kid would dream about, or at least not what I think they would. Should I call it a nightmare? Yeah, that one sounds better. Anyways, I saw this person flash by a few times.
Actually no -- scratch that, it wasn’t human. It was this creature. A demonic creature. It was naked, I could see it’s whole bare body. Nothing but a cloth had covered in between its thighs. It was a small dark figure, almost shadow-like... but with a human shape. It’s face consisted of two dark black pupils. It’s smile was vicious, and I could see it’s sharp rotting fangs hanging out of its mouth.
The things head I wasn’t too sure about. It had these horns, kind of like a ram’s horns. I didn’t know what to think of this. All I knew was that at this moment that screeching, yet whispering creature could not keep taunting me like this. It was the reason for my insomnia, my anxiety, my everything. I kept hearing the faint-menacing whisper. It told me to... to kill my parents. I sat there in shock as “it” sat there in the dark of the corner, grinning.
“No, you’re not real. I won't do it. I’m not --”, before I could even reply the creature jumped on my bed and stabbed a foreign, sharp object into my ribcage. I felt the cold blade puncture my skin, and the warm blood, trickle down my body; It looked me right in my face with a satanic grin and replied... “I came from the darkness at half past four, I entered your bedroom, but not from the door, If don’t kill them before half past five, no one in your house will be left alive”.
I jolted from my bed. Heart racing, my fingers were clutching my bed sheets. I wiped the sweat off of my forehead and took a few deep breaths. I looked down at my stomach, no stab wound. With a sigh of relief I looked at my alarm clock. “4:28”. I stood up from my bed and looked over at my closet. The door was opened.
I recalled shutting that.. I remembered. I narrowed my eyes and stared at it for a few long-lasting seconds. I then remembered the dreadful nightmare I had, I walked backward into the far right corner of my room and began to motion my body down the wall until I had hit the floor. “No this can’t be happening, this can’t be real. Not me no this isn’t true.” I put my head in between my knees and sobbed. My sobs began turning into laughs. Moments later I lifted and realized I was no longer sobbing, I was laughing. I looked at the clock again.
“4:38”. I jumped to my feet.
“Half past four.” I whispered.
I stood there in shock. What has happened? Could what that creature had said to me be... true? Would it really kill me and my parents if I didn't kill them myself? Was this creature even real in the first place? ...I didn’t want to take any chances, I didn’t like my parents anyways. Especially my father. As a child, he’d compare me to my sister. A smart, successful, brilliant woman.
Unlike me. I’m a horrible insomniatic student who slept through most of their classes and didn’t even try most of the time. My father always told me how much of a failure I was compared to her. God, I hated him so much. My mother on the other hand, wasn’t as bad at torturing me as him. She was much nicer to me. At some points, she’d even yell at my father for being so harsh on me. It didn’t matter now. They were both going to get what they deserved.
I slowly crept down the stairs and made my way into the kitchen. I grabbed a kitchen knife from one of the drawers and looked at the oven clock. “5:08”. I was running out of time. As I walked into my parent’s bedroom I noticed the creature’s small, black, piercing eyes peering at me through the darkness. It was screaming at me, “Do it... DO it.. DO IT!”
I held the knife above my head and screamed “LEAVE. ME. ALONE”. My parents awoke to the image of me standing there holding a knife, about to brutally murder both of them. My father jumped out of his bed, tackling me to the floor. As my father tried to wrestle the knife out of my hand, my mother was calling 911. Less than 10 minutes later the police showed up and lugged me out of the bedroom. As they were dragging me through the halls I looked back at the clock. 5:23. I was so close... this could’ve all been over, if only I’d had a few more seconds. I could’ve finished this...
Seconds after the police officers threw me in the back of the cruiser, I blacked out. I woke up minutes later, the cruiser was driving down a long road to the police station. It was raining. I looked out the window and it seemed as if I went deaf for a moment. All I could hear was a faint whisper in the distance, “It was half past four, now half past five. Neither you or your parents, will be left alive.”
I snapped out of the trance and looked at the clock in the car...
“5:31”. My eyes didn’t leave that clock for what seemed like hours, trying to portray what was going to happen, in my mind. Seconds later, one of the officer’s walkie-talkies starts going off. It’s from the officer who was interrogating my parents at my house.
He said he went to get his notepad out of the car and when he came back... they were dead. They had stab wounds all over their backs and their throats were slit. However, there was one thing that stood out along wreck... The time, “5:30” written in blood on the wall...
“M-my parents, t-they’re... Dead.” The car pulls over to the side of the road and the two officers just sit there...
Unable to comprehend what has just happened. After about 3 minutes of sitting in silence the cruiser starts back up and continues down the road, the men don’t even glimpse back at me. We arrive at the police station minutes later. I was greeted by two muscular men who suited me up in a tight straight-jacket and throw me into a white, padded, windowless cell.
I sit there and think, and think. I can’t remember how long I’ve been thinking at this point. Days? Months? Years? I can’t remember. All I know is that this is my life now... sitting in my padded cell where all my screams for help are ignored and my requests for help are disposed of. I just sit here day after day, after day. Awaiting for this creature to save me from this inescapable nightmare. If you’re reading this then please, I beg of you. Take my advice... Don’t look at the thing in the dark of the cor--