My friends and I recently acquired an old looking book from an antique store. The cover was worn so there was no title on the top and looked like it hadn't been touched in ages. The woman behind the counter warned us that once it is opened, it can never be undone.
We laughed, thinking it was some joke to get us a bit scared or something, but there was something in her eyes, true fear.
We went to Heather's house and proceeded to look inside the book. When we opened it, there was a slight chill in the room and a few of the candles that we had lit went out. We laughed nervously and tried to shrug it off as a coincidence. The first page had a little symbol written in red ink. The next page had something written in Latin. None of us were able to read what it said but Heather tried to read it. "Numquam dormit".
After she said it, everything had a heavy feel to it, like someone was now watching us. We hesitated, then finally, after a moment of silence, turned to the next page. There was nothing on the page but a name in the corner. Scrawled in small print, was the name Kayla. We freaked a little because that was Heather's best friend.
"Maybe it's just a coincidence. There's a lot of people named Kayla. It's probably just scary because we are tired. Let's just go to bed."
We all got comfortable, lay down, but for some reason couldn't fall asleep. It still felt like someone was watching us in the shadows. At about 2 am, I finally drifted off; the others had fallen asleep before me. I had very disturbing nightmares.
I was in a dark room, Heather was across from me and Kayla sat in the middle. Suddenly, a grotesque, female looking monster. It had bags under its eyes and looked like it hadn't slept for ages. Heather sat there blank faced and I watched in horror as it devoured Kayla. It looked back up at me, blood dripping from its mouth. Then pointed to Heather, then the monster and Heather disappeared.
I shot up in the dark, looked over to where Heather was and saw her sitting there, her face, white as a ghost; staring to where Kayla had been sleeping, who was now gone. I turned on the light and ran to the spot. There were blood stains on it. Heather sat, frozen with fear, I could tell she had the same dream. I looked at the book, which sat open on the desk. Kayla's name had been scratched out, and had Heather's added.
Heather had to be admitted to a mental ward after that. Her mother sent her in after she walked into her room. She hadn't slept in days and wrote "IT NEVER SLEEPS" all over the walls. Her mother assumed it had to do with her daughter not sleeping and told the doctors to simply "fix her". The doctors tried everything from electroshock to sedatives. She fought them, believing that she was next. But they didn't believe her; they thought it was just another episode. They gave her a mixture of a lot of sedatives, hoping this would make her sleep; little did they know, they made it worse.
Once again I was in the dark room, but Heather stood in the center, she looked sullen and like she had lost a lot of weight. I watched her disappear into the floor, glad that I didn't have to watch her be torn apart or anything. I jolted up and saw the book on my nightstand, which didn't make sense because I threw it out the other day. Her name was crossed off.... and mine was next..
The next morning, my mom told me they monitored her, and witnessed something very scary happen. They watched her strapped down body get thrown across the room, get torn to pieces, but the monitors that were showing her brain activity was that of a normal nightmare. How could a nightmare be doing this to her? Finally, after 3 am, she died. They said her death had been a painful one, even though she was asleep.
Now I fear for my life. I haven't slept in almost a week. I feel like it is staring at me, bearing a hole in my soul, waiting until I sleep, to get me.