I had too much to drink and knew all I needed was a good sleep. As I went to bed the next thing I saw was a shadow moving. Immediately my mind knew it was the drinks speaking so I decided to just go with the flow. It started as a dream where I saw a shadow walk into my room and sat beside me. Somehow I knew the shadow but then again it was unrecognizable. I tried speaking but couldn’t, it suddenly looked like the more I tried to speak the more I was drowning in my sleep. This was the moment my dream was becoming a nightmare.
Now the shadow was beginning to have a physical face, then suddenly another shadow came in, this one was also familiar but unrecognizable. The fear began to rise from my guts, I was already feeling sick in my stomach with the realization that I couldn’t speak. The more I tried the harder it was, so I decided to move and discovered it was also impossible. Now I was really scared, first wondering who the hell were these people in my room, what the hell did they want from me, The only thing I could do was try to look at them to see how familiar they were, but I couldn’t and the thought of it was making me scared.
Now my nightmare was looking real, it was feeling real, I could feel every bit of it in my bones, I could feel my legs shaking, I was so pressed, I thought I would wet my bed, cold sweat had already soaked my clothes and bed, and the cold I was feeling had nothing to do with the weather because it was coming from the inside. I wanted to pick up my phone, but even moving a finger was impossible. Then I saw the shadow coming close to my face, it touched my head and I felt the cold directly coming from it. I could feel its breath on my face and all I wanted so badly was to tell it to move away from me but I couldn’t.
Then I saw the other shadow pick something from the corner of my room, it was where I normally leave my laptop bag, and this time my laptop was inside. At the thought of what it could be picking my heart immediately sank into my stomach. “God don’t let it be what I am thinking” I prayed earnestly in my heart, “Don’t let this be robbers again” I said inwardly. My fear this time was palpable because I was still recovering from a recent robbery incident and if my official laptop were to be stolen again it would spell doom for me as I would not know how to explain two robbery incidents in one year.
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Thinking back at the loneliness I felt after the first robbery incident, I was even more scared in my bones and just wished I could do something immediately. The shadow on the other hand decided to climb on top of me and was holding my head. I could not tell what it wanted but I did not feel it was anything good. Now I was scared for my life and my properties because if this was a planned attack then I got myself into a very bad situation and played right into the hands of my attackers through the drink. “If only I could just move,” I said to myself. At this point tears started rolling freely from my eyes to my ears, it was uncontrollable as I could feel the water gather inside my ears and it was cold.
Then a spooky sound came silently that startled the two shadows, I saw them look behind them as though something had called their attention. Then I heard a bang, I don’t know where it came from, but I felt it right inside my soul. Following the bang was the voices of two women I know very well, one called me babe and the other called me brother Kelvin. They sounded far off and when I heard the voices my heart began to beat even fast. A part of me wanted them to come inside the room and another part of me was scared for their safety. After a moment of hesitation I began to pray that none of them would enter the room. But at least if I died someone would know what happened to me.
But then the sounds kept getting closer, and my heart kept raising faster. Soon I knew something was wrong, or perhaps nothing was wrong because of how close the voices were. I began to feel like my eyes were closed even when they were wide open, and this time I felt as though if I could just open my eyes everything will be over, and so I did and behold squatting right on top of me was my girlfriend covered in sweat. She was calling my name over and over with fear in her eyes, and right besides her was my sister doing the same thing.
Slowly my mind began to catch up, I was already drenched in sweat and water. It was a bad dream and they were trying to wake me up after they saw me struggling in my sleep. The shadows I saw were them all along, but my drunken state only noticed their presence and not their actual faces. That was why I saw them as shadows. My sister had carried a bowl I kept close to my laptop and given it to my girlfriend to pour on me. She was doing a cold press and I thought I was dying. Now thinking about it my face turned red in shame, if only they knew the turmoil going through my head.
THIS IS MY ENTRY INTO THE INKWELL COMBINED WRITING PROMPT #55