Sleep Paralysis

Stan awoke to the sound of his wife screaming.

It took him a second to remember he no longer slept in their king size, but a lonely full bed in the new budget apartment far away from their old one. From where Mona was taken. He had moved to be away from the haunting memories. But also from the monster that took her.

Buzzing filled his ears like static from an old box television growing louder as if screaming from terror.

Stan tried to sit up. He couldn’t move.

I’m too late, he thought. It’s already here. It’s found me.

The monster emerged from the dark closet, birthing itself from the shadows. Blackness dripped from its black long coat like amniotic fluid and it wore the same vile soft-brimmed hat the night it came for his wife. It floated toward Stan, its limbs shifting into cutting blades as it drew near, it’s toothy grin salivating, smiling.

Stan tried to throw his head to the side—move any part of his body—but it would not listen. It had abandoned him to the creature.

Darkness began to swallow the room. Stan wanted to scream, but nothing came out.

The buzzing became a high pitched, painful whir, like a dentist’s drill. And then a voice broke through the silence.

“Dada!” The three-year-old girl was crying.

Darkness stopped overtaking the room, and the hallway outside lit up warm and yellow. The monster turned away from Stan and looked toward the hall.

No, Stan thought.

Little footsteps padded against the hardwood floor quietly like dripping blood.

The monster pushed off the bed and started toward the footsteps.

Look at me! Take me! Stan’s mind screamed.

The thing turned toward Stan slowly, taking a different shape as it did so. Its black, shifting form began to curve here and there, solidifying. Its skin took on warmth and its coat became a cream, silk nightgown. The soft-brimmed hat collapsed down around its shoulders like brown, shiny hair.

Finally, it looked just like Mona.

She smiled at Stan with dripping, ravenous teeth. And then she turned and went to the hall just as Carrie, their daughter, stepped into view.

Stan tried to lunge at the monster, but he was helplessly sewn into the mattress.

Carrie looked up and saw her mother and stumbled backward into the wood banister. She steadied herself with small, chubby hands.

“Mommy?” Carrie rubbed her sleepy, weepy eyes and then blinked. “Mommy!” She reached her arms up and threw herself at the monster, but her arms swished through the creature like trying to catch fog.

“Are you a ghost, Mommy?” Carrie said, beginning to cry again.

The creature nodded a little too excitedly. “But you can come visit me and then I can hold you.” The monster used Mona’s gentle fingers to scratch a line in the air, tearing a black, smoking hole to another dimension.

Stan thrashed in bed without moving a muscle. His mind was huffing and sweating, but his body would not follow. He pushed and he shoved but remained still.

“Dada, can I go with mommy?” Carrie looked toward the hole with frightened eyes. Her voice sounded unsure, as if she didn’t really want to go, but didn’t want to hurt her mom’s feelings either.

Stan squeezed his muscles and his neck finally raised a couple of inches off the pillow to look Carrie in the eyes. He forced air from his diaphragm up and out his burning chest and into the air. "Don’t go" was what he meant to say. But his voice choked short.

“go.” He tried again.

“go.” No, no! Please!

“go.”

Even though it was a whisper, the word hit her face like the back of his hand. Tears welled up in her frowning eyes.

She nodded her head and looked up at the monster and then down. Mona motioned for the girl to go through the black hole.

Stan tried to scream “Stop!”, but it came out as a weak puff of air.

Carrie stepped toward the black hole which then reached for her and pulled her in with skin-slicing claws. She disappeared with a scream.

Mona turned around to face Stan and mimicked Carrie’s scream with a grin. Then, she used the same nail she had used to open the black door and drew it from the crown of her head, cutting her flesh down to her navel. The skin fell off of her and the monster reemerged from beneath. Carrie’s scream grew louder and louder until the light in the hall burst and blinded Stan.

Then the room was dark again.

As he regained his sight, Stan wished it had stayed pitch black forever.