Sleep Paralysis

Chapter 1

A common hallucination of Sleep Paralysis is "The Intruder", a figure stands near where you are sleeping. You see him. You can not move. I see him, but this time I can move. This isn't sleep paralysis playing tricks on me, it's just Sam climbing through my window again. He's always climbing up here when he can't sleep, the jerk used to unlock my window during the day and climb in at night. Now I just leave it unlocked so he doesn't have to be so sneaky.

"Hi Sam" I speak quietly, my voice barely above inaudible as I move over in my bed, making space for him to sit.

"Hi Anna" he rasped, his voice was only raspy when he cried.

I moved my hand to his and gently squeezed, urging him to speak about what happened. "It's my step mom," he sighs, "she was scolding Mac and she just wouldn't stop no matter how much he cried. She just kept belittling him over and over." I move to get the tissues from my bedside table, "I couldn't do anything either or she would start world war three, and Mac me and the others would have to be punished while our dad does nothing to stop her. I made sure to put Mac to bed before I left, but I couldn't stay in that house with her tonight." He had sat facing away from me on my bed as he talked, placing my hand on his shoulder he turned around. "Will you be okay?" I inquire, his well being is my main concern right now, "and is there anything else I should know?" He looks tired as he continues, "I didn't cut," he absently rubs his leg saying this, "and I'll be okay, mind if I crash here tonight?" I've never minded.

He fell asleep next to me fairly quickly, I tried to sleep, I didn't sleep.

I had to have fallen asleep at some point in the night because before I knew it I was waking up. I wasn't awake though. My mind may have been but my body was asleep. Fear enveloped me. My heart speed up. I could hear and feel the flow of blood as it pulsed through my arteries. I couldn't breath, another common symptom of sleep paralysis, asphyxiation. I tried to gasp for air. My body did not respond. Shadows danced around me in eerily familiar shapes. I could feel haunting me. I tried to move. It was teasing me, telling me that my life meant nothing. I feel tears run down my cheeks. 'Sam, please wake me up' I pleaded over and over as I tried to force myself awake. My heart beat raced faster. The shadows moved closer to me. They became clearer as they moved in and their distorted faces turned to that of demons with burned flesh and scars. They moved around me in wisps. Coming closer and closer as they sent chills through my very soul. One began to fly directly to me and -

I bolted up sweating and panting as tears streamed down my face. SAm woke up next to me, pulling me into his chest. I cried as I held onto him. "I'm sorry Anna," he breathed, "I didn't know, I'm so sorry." I cried harder into him, I know he didn't know,so realize when it's happening and he was very much asleep. He held me as I cried, letting me get out all my pain and fear. My tears soon ceased to fall but I didn't let go of Sam.

"Annabel?! Are you up yet?" my mother barker from down stairs, "I won't be happy if you make your sister late again!" I have never understood why she says things like that. For one, my sister drives herself, Sam drives me, and my dear little sister has never once been late for school. "You wanna ditch that mandatory hell hole today?" Sam tries coaxing me into ditching with him almost everyday.

"No Sam," I pull myself away from him, "We have a test in AP Calc today and you know that." He groaned in anger as he buried his face in my pillows, refusing to get out of bed.

"Well while you be a grump, I'm going to go change into something more I hate school with a burning passion and all of you that are here, type of look." I received a muffled chuckle from my pillows.

My room is pretty much the entire attic, I have a bathroom to the back and while my room is only about seven feet at the widest, it's almost 30 feet long and I personally love the angled roof. I also have a pretty decent sized closet and a nice bathroom in the far back taking up about 10 feet of the 30. As I rummage through my closet, I find a black tee shirt, some grey denim jeans, and a dark purple hoodie. "Sam, find some actual clothes to wear today," because he never put back on a shirt after going to sleep last night, "I'm not leaving the hose with you if you don't." A pair of warm hands slide around me before grabbing a random shirt from his section of my closet. His sides are covered in scars. "MAybe I just won't put this shirt on," he says walking into my bathroom, "Then I don't have to go and take that Calc test. God why did I ever let you sign me up for that class." I glared at him playfully and then proceed to shove him away from my sink so I can brush my teeth.

We quickly leave the house after finishing getting ready, being very careful to avoid my mother. She's never been to fond of Sam. Hopping into his car he looks to me, "You sure you won't ditch with me today?" His eyes saddened, he really didn't like school but he would never leave me there alone. I would love to ditch with him, but if the school called my mom then I would never be allowed to see anything but my room and the school until I graduate.

"I'm sure," I say glumly, "Let's get to school."