A Shadow In The Dark

Sleep Paralysis, very few of you might have heard about.

It is a transitional state between wakefulness and sleep. It is accompanied by terrifying hallucinations to which one is unable to react.

Well, that is what Science defines Sleep Paralysis.

Depending upon what happened to me last night, I would rather define it as,

It is not just a phenomenon that makes you unable to move or speak but it could, at times, give you a near-death experience.

Lying in my bed in the middle of the night, I woke up with a start to see a menacing dark shadow in the corner of my room.

Heart pounding in my ears, I tried to scream. When I tried to open my mouth, it was impossible. I was unable to utter a word - in fact, to my horror I found myself paralyzed and unable to move.

Lying on the bed with my eyes wide open all I could see was the shadow at the corner and all I could hear was the humming sound by the fan.

There was something different about this night. The darkness seemed to have intensified. 

The cold air enveloped the entire body. The moon cast a ghoulish glow through the window.

Suddenly the door begrudgingly creaked open. I still could not move, all I could do was try. 

Finally what seemed an eternity, but was probably no more than a few minutes, I found myself able to move again. The shadow was gone, the creaking sound made by the door made no further sounds. Everything was calm.

I got up and took a deep long breath.

I was weak, I had no strength left in me to walk still I anyhow managed to walk, went straight to the kitchen, took out a bottle from the refrigerator and kept drinking as long as the weakness persisted.

Sometimes you drink water not just to quench your thirst but to bring things back to normal. I did the same.

Once everything was back to normal, I put the bottle back in its place and headed towards my bed. I was feeling a bit drowsy. I needed a bed and most importantly, a sound sleep.

The moment I entered my room, a peculiar smell made the hairs on the back of my neck stand. What could it be?

What made this happen?

I had no idea what was happening. The steps got smaller and now there was an unknown urge that stopped me from moving towards my bed ultimately. It was such a terrifying ordeal. I wanted to be out of all this. I was stricken into silence and a ghastly whiteness spread all over my face. An uncomfortable premonition of fear pervaded my senses.

I wanted to shout out everything but that would all go in vain.

I gathered all my courage and moved towards my bed.

The earth seemed to slip from my foot. I was frozen to the spot. My stomach turned to ice. My heart almost stopped beating and I blinked sweat from my eyes.

I saw a body kept straight on my bed. It was dark, darker than never before. All I could see was a straight figure lying in front of me. Terror held me like a vice-like grip.

Running away could have been one of the options but only then my curiosity took over everything else. I, with trembling hands and a body full of fears, went close to the body to identify who it was.

I stared at the corpse with a grim and shuddering fascination. A view I could not believe.

It was me lying there on the bed being watched by me at the same time.

I could not believe my eyes.

I could not believe the night nor the bed nor anything else lying there in the room.

Am I dead and is this my body?

Am I a free soul who has come to watch its left-over body?

Or is this a nightmare?

Who is the real me, the one on the bed lying or the one watching this?

No answers. 

I needed an answer. With my trembling hands, I went on to wake that duplicate me up.

I gradually awakened to the realization. Someone just woke me up.

The clock showed 5 in the morning but I could not see anyone in my room.

I was sitting there trying to sort out what just happened to me.

What kind of a dream it was.

Everything went through my head but gave an answer to none of my questions.

It was all a nightmare and nothing else. Google named this sleep paralysis.

Two things still haunt my mind and are still a little confusing.

Later that day I found the same door opened which resulted due the shadow I saw. Also, the bottle in the refrigerator was half-filled.

If I had not got up that particular night and did not go to the kitchen, what could be the reason behind this cause?

If something of this sort would have happened to you, could you ever sleep peacefully at nights?