A Horror Short
Monica is sleeping in her room. Her tall body stretched along the length of her tiny bed; her feet touching the bed's foot. She is sleeping now. Well, she was, but now she's staring at her bedroom window in front of her.
One half of the window is closed because she was too lazy to open it and the other half is lazily opened. She could see the silhouettes of branches and leaves, through the mosquito net on the window frame, dancing in the wind in the background of the night sky. Everything in her room - her bag, her table, her half-open book, everything – is in its right place.
Before she could finish observing the shadowed nature and before she could get started on the thought of why on earth she was awake, a monkey jumped on that half-ass, lazily opened window. Monica didn't panic; she observed.
It was a regular brown monkey you find at some temples in India. Nothing unusual, but also, something very unusual about it. Its teeth were very sharp, like that of a vampire. It had the look of a lunatic – confused and scary.
It was looking around now, trying to cross that net and get inside. It was, as I said earlier, very unusual. It looked like it was there with a plan; it was strange. It looked like it knew how to attack; it looked horrifying. It looked like it was there to get her, probably to tear her apart with those blood-thirsty teeth, while she'd cry for help and try to fight that bastard off.
But why not fight it now, before the monkey figures out a way around that mosquito net, just like the mosquitoes figured their way? Why not take that mosquito bat from the table beside her and whoosh it hard enough to send raging winds that scare the monkey away?
Get up Monica! Get up and do something! It's looking around faster now and looking at Monica. It looked strange as if the monkey didn't want anybody else to watch what was happening, or whatever horror was going to happen.
But Monica couldn't get up. It was like the times she felt like peeing after lying comfortably on the bed for the night, and it's impossible to get up. It was like that, but it was scary and seemed almost deadly. And she did not feel under control of her own body; she couldn't move.
She was conscious about the presence of that thing and she knew in her rational mind that she had to scare it away before it got an upper hand. But she couldn't get up. She kept staring as the monkey started to figure its way around the net.
She stared, scared and unable to do anything but stare. She desperately wanted to shout, but she couldn't. She was paralysed; she was sleeping; she was paralysed in her sleep. And now, as the monkey is reaching out its monstrous arms to rip the net apart and get her… Monica's awake.
She wasn't awake then. Or was she? The bedroom seemed too real and that monkey too. And the wind shaking those leaves seemed real too.
Sleep paralysis was becoming a wake up routine lately. Last night, she heard snoring on the floor next to her bed, and someone had their heavy legs on her calves and two fingers to her neck, choking and releasing, choking and releasing. She tried to push that hand away, but she couldn't, she breathed heavily and wanted to scream for help, but then she woke up. She looked around, confused and tired - a stinging feeling in her eye, and a thumping fear in her chest.
Why would dreams feel so real? These events of horror are happening in her sleep. But she not only could hear every sound, feel every touch, and see everything so clearly, but she could even think with complete rationality. It was just that she couldn't move and take action according to her brain. It was like her body was failing her and that is terrifying.
She feels a little scared to sleep these days, for those dreams, those "real" dreams might not stop before the horror begins. That monkey might one day tear away at that net and pounce on her and start tearing away at her flesh, and she wouldn't move. She wouldn't wake up. She would be dreaming the same, but the dreams would turn into reality and pull her into that unconscious, dark existence. And in that sleep, and in that paralysed yet fully conscious state, she'd be dying a horrible death.