Creepypasta Attempts

I Can No Longer Sleep

My…my name is Rusty.

I can’t sleep. I haven’t been able to sleep for quite some time. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t.

It…it never used to be like this. Sure, I would stay up late at times, but I used to sleep comfortably and dream peacefully. I would wake up nice and rested, head to the kitchen for breakfast that my wife, Mindy, lovingly made for me, and wish her a good day before driving to work. I was a scientist. I had a logical explanation for everything. Now, I'm not so sure. I’d give anything just to have my old life, my old self, back.

I don’t remember when this started, but it feels like an agonizing eternity. I remember what happened that first night, still fresh in my memory to this day.

I was performing my nightly ritual. I would change into suitable night clothes, brush my teeth, and join my wife for bed. Sometimes, she would fall asleep before me if it was a long night. I would find it adorable to find her resting so peacefully. This was one of those nights. I looked over to her, and smiled before climbing into bed with her.

I had only slept for possibly two hours before I heard strange sounds. At first, they weren’t anything too out of the ordinary, just some light taps on our window. At first, I shrugged them off, finding the taps to be a tad bothersome, but nothing to be concerned about. Perhaps it’s just some of the bigger insects hitting the window, I thought sleepily. It was around that time for bugs to be more active anyways, so without a second thought, I let myself relax and go back to sleep.

The tapping soon turned to a grating, like someone was dragging something across the window. It might be a branch from a tree or plant scrapping the window. Only, there was one problem with that.

There was not a single plant near our window.

I quickly became more wary of the sounds. The grating, scratching sounds grew much louder, and I was surprised to not see Mindy awake. Sure, she could sleep through a decent amount of noise, but this… this terrible sound… it was so unbearably loud. Loud… and unreal.

Since Mindy was still asleep, however, I tried to ignore the sounds. They were not the sounds of someone trying to break in. No, those were distinct. It must just be my imagination. A nightmare perhaps? I tried to reassure myself and tried to go back to sleep.

The sounds stopped, but a feeling of unease lingered still. While I did see my wife still sleeping, I never did look over to the window. I barely opened my eyes even. Now… something compelled me to look over. I rolled over and slowly opened my eyes.

I wish I never did.

What I saw… was something unreal. It had no form, no physical body parts that I could touch. It was just a swirling, black mist. My mind searched for something to make this seem logical. You’re tired, you had a rough day, you’re dreaming. My thoughts were cut off when I saw a single facial feature; a smile on this thing’s face. No, a smirk. It looked amused. There were no eyes, just a smirk.

It was then that I screamed out in terror. There was nothing else I could do. Mindy promptly woke up to my screams. She asked me what was wrong, and I confessed to everything. I told her about the tapping, the scrapping, the mist… the smirk.

She blinked at me, then asked what I was talking about.

I… stared at where the mist was, only to see it missing. I reasoned that, maybe it was just a nightmare. I kissed my Mindy on her forehead, and urged her to go back to sleep, and that I would follow soon after. She did so, and I went to get a drink of water. I didn’t go back to sleep that night. I was terrified to even try. 

The next night, I tried to sleep once again, only to have the exact same thing happen. At the same time no less. The mist still just smirked at me. It…It never did anything more, just watch me with that same smirk for a moment, and I would scream.

It was like that for the first week. I tried to talk to people about it, but they think I’m going insane. Who wouldn’t though? Even my darling Mindy thinks I’m losing it. But bless her, she’s still with me.

Soon, I just gave up on sleeping. Or rather, intentionally sleeping. My body does give out and make me sleep. That’s… that’s the only time the sounds and the mist visits me anymore. When I’m awake, they don’t come.

But the mark has still been made. It’s a rare moment for me to close my eyes and not see that smirk. I never did grow used to it, and probably never will.

I…used to have a grip on reality. I used to have a sound, logical reason for everything. Now… now I’m beginning to question myself. I question everything around me now.

My name is Rusty…right?

It’s been about six months now.

And I still cannot sleep.