Contributor: Taran Washington
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I walk around my apartment, trying to do anything to keep my body from sleeping. I haven’t slept for three consecutive days, and if I was about to doze off I would force myself to remain awake. The exhaustion is worth it though, anything physical is better in comparison to what lies in my mind. Night terrors have haunted me since I was a child, years of therapy and various medicines had helped keep them at bay.
Something changed though, the therapy stopped soothing, the medicine stopped having its effect. The doctors told me that my body had adapted to the drug and they would look for a substitute. That was six days ago, and the terrors were back to an unbearable level, making me wake up thrashing and screaming, drenched in cold sweat. Dreams always start out normal, say I would be flying, the next moment I lay in a field of bone, and the next moment I’d be running from a pursuer, all under watch of a blood red sky.
When I awake my vision is obscured by white and red pixelated lights and all my body acts on is the primal urge of escape. Three days ago, my last attempt at sleep gauged my worst reaction. My body woke, but my mind was still in the hell, my body ran through my room resulting in me crashing into and unhinging both my bedroom door and my nerve.
So here I am still after 72 hours, doing all in my power to remain awake and sane. Fidgeting at every sound, my heart jumps into my throat as I hear a knock at my door.
“Y-yes…w-who is it?” I ask shakily as I walk forward.
As I reach the door, there comes a crash as a hand holding a knife protrudes through a hole in my door. I fall back onto the floor screaming, but as I face the door again the knife, hand, and hole in my door are gone. I curl up into a ball shaking and crying, I grab my head and yell.
“What the hell is happening to me?!”
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My name is Taran Washington, I'm a college student studying Management Information Systems. I elected to take a couple fiction writing courses and found myself with a new hobby. Now I write some flash fiction from time to time and I thought I would try my hand at submitting!
- -
I walk around my apartment, trying to do anything to keep my body from sleeping. I haven’t slept for three consecutive days, and if I was about to doze off I would force myself to remain awake. The exhaustion is worth it though, anything physical is better in comparison to what lies in my mind. Night terrors have haunted me since I was a child, years of therapy and various medicines had helped keep them at bay.
Something changed though, the therapy stopped soothing, the medicine stopped having its effect. The doctors told me that my body had adapted to the drug and they would look for a substitute. That was six days ago, and the terrors were back to an unbearable level, making me wake up thrashing and screaming, drenched in cold sweat. Dreams always start out normal, say I would be flying, the next moment I lay in a field of bone, and the next moment I’d be running from a pursuer, all under watch of a blood red sky.
When I awake my vision is obscured by white and red pixelated lights and all my body acts on is the primal urge of escape. Three days ago, my last attempt at sleep gauged my worst reaction. My body woke, but my mind was still in the hell, my body ran through my room resulting in me crashing into and unhinging both my bedroom door and my nerve.
So here I am still after 72 hours, doing all in my power to remain awake and sane. Fidgeting at every sound, my heart jumps into my throat as I hear a knock at my door.
“Y-yes…w-who is it?” I ask shakily as I walk forward.
As I reach the door, there comes a crash as a hand holding a knife protrudes through a hole in my door. I fall back onto the floor screaming, but as I face the door again the knife, hand, and hole in my door are gone. I curl up into a ball shaking and crying, I grab my head and yell.
“What the hell is happening to me?!”
- - -
My name is Taran Washington, I'm a college student studying Management Information Systems. I elected to take a couple fiction writing courses and found myself with a new hobby. Now I write some flash fiction from time to time and I thought I would try my hand at submitting!
Author:
Taran Washington
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