Hypnos: A Short Story

I wake up in a cold sweat. I get out of bed, use the bathroom, and dive back into the void. I wonder how long it will last this time. I don’t bother looking at the clock because it seems pointless at this point. I lay there in a timeless daze pondering why Hypnos must waste his antics on me. As I dive deeper into the perpetual limbo between tired and alert, the terror sets in. I wonder if it will happen tonight, I lay there wondering until suddenly I hear something from behind my window. I try to turn to see what it is but I can no longer move. Terror turns into horror as I realise that the void has sucked me in too deep. Now there is no going back. As I feel Medusa’s grip tighten, Morpheus's spell stems into a maelstrom of chaos. Illuminations of human spirit are released and they aren't happy. My carpet surrounds my bed like raging waters surround a ship. Fantastical beings appear from the waters, black smoke surrounding them as they morph in and out of the clouded sky which is my ceiling. A crescendo of screams enters my mind and continues …show more content…
The more recent condition that has entered my life is known as sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is the temporary inability to move or speak when waking or falling asleep. The most horrifying moment of my life is the first time I had experienced sleep paralysis which was at the end of freshman year. At the time I was experimenting with a sensation known as lucid dreaming; the ability to be conscious inside of your dream. I had been practicing methods, which I had read about online, that would allow me to lucid dream whenever I wanted to when I fell asleep. The strategies to lucid dreaming would usually involve tests to see if you were dreaming or not. I did these tests periodically throughout the day for a week and eventually, they worked and I lucid dreamed for the first