Don't Move

      I never really talk about this experience, as I never felt that many people would believe me if I ever told them the truth.  I admit to having hallucinations frequently, and I do admit to hearing voices occasionally, but they were nothing like this.  This happened to me about five years ago.  Most people don't believe that this is possible, but there is some truth to this experience.  People sometimes undergo a condition where they fall into a light sleep but end up waking during the phase of sleep where your body freezes itself in place and awake in a condition known as sleep paralysis.  Many people report experiencing strange phenomena whenever they awake during sleep paralysis, and I was no different.  

      During a night where I had very little sleep, I woke up for some reason but was incapable of movement.  It was the first time I had ever woken up during sleep paralysis, but it was an experience I surely wouldn't forget.  At the foot of my bed was a large dark, humanoid figure.  Its eyes were a piercing metallic red.  It's face looked like a rotten and mistreated stuffed animal with razor sharp teeth.  Its body was the color of pure darkness, and reflected the light that seeped in through my window.  In its left hand, it held a large cleaver knife and slowly spread a wide smile across its hideous face.

      The figure floated over towards me, its feet never touching the ground.  It’s grizzly maw opened slowly, mouthing out the words it had for me carefully.  It’s voice was cold and metallic, almost like the sound of shredding sheet metal, “Don’t move.”  As much as I wanted to flee or cower in fear, I was incapable of movement.  I was even incapable of tears.  I wanted to cry out to someone, anyone for help, but I could only make out mere whispers.  My eyes however, were fully capable of movement, and could clearly see the monster that loomed over me.

      It lowered its face within just a few inches of mine and had its arm raised with cleaver in hand above my head.  I wanted to be anywhere, even in the pits of hell, just so I would be free of the suspense of having this hideous entity hovering over me.  It spoke to me again. “Count to three”.  I closed my eyes and slowly began to count up to three.

      I could feel the breath of the figure above my forehead, warm and moist.  I sounded off the first number “One!”  I readied myself to say two, but I felt the figure’s breath coming closer.  I wanted anything but to lay in my bed powerless to this being.  “Two!” I cried out to the monster and felt it grow even closer.  I opened one of my eyes and gazed deeply into the soulless stare of the entity that was poised on taking my life.  It’s open maw was close enough to sink its jagged teeth into my face.  It grew inpatient waiting on its kill and commanded me to continue.  “Do it!” it shouted as I closed my eyes again in fear.  I spoke aloud once more, “Three!”  

      I waited in my bed for five long minutes, hoping that it had already killed me and that the suspense was over.  It didn’t matter to me whether I was in heaven or hell, just as long as it was over.  Surprisingly to me that night, it was neither.  After I opened my eyes, I realized that I was not dead, and that I was fully capable of movement again.  I never experienced something like that ever since that night, and that night was one of the last nights I ever had a dream, nightmare, or horrific occurrence such as that.  Since then I have come to the conclusion for myself that the figure was likely a hallucination, made up by my own mind.  Some may say that it was a ghost or a demon, and I won’t deny their claims, but I can’t accept them as fact.  No matter what it was I saw that night, I hope I never see it again.