This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/NotJustSomeNumbers on 2024-07-02 17:20:56+00:00.
I’ve always had sleep paralysis. In the last few years, I’ve gone through treatments to lessen the episodes. I’d hoped I would stop having them at some point. Two months ago, it all started back up again.
The sensation of someone sitting on the side of my bed woke me up. I kept my eyes closed fearing what I would see. The old fear came back and my body refused to move. I knew this would only last a few minutes but that didn’t help my state of mind.
The person got closer and I did something I shouldn’t have been able to. My eyes opened and I turned my head to see what was getting closer.
Shock froze my body. For a long few seconds, I was starting at a completely dark humanoid shape. No, it was like it was a void with two glowing white eyes. It crept closer on all fours towards me and I finally screamed. I shot out of bed. A hand clawed at the back of my shirt as I fled. I frantically hit the light switch and turned around, my heart pounding.
Nothing.
This wasn’t like any kind of previous experience I’ve had. But it must have been just the same kind of sleep paralysis I’ve always dealt with. I refused to believe some sort of inhuman thing crawled onto my bed.
Until it happened again.
The second night I didn’t wake up until I felt a weight on my body. I was half asleep so I didn’t remember the night before at that moment. It all came rushing back when I saw the same void resting a head on my shoulder. I did what anyone would do in such a situation. I freaked out.
I go out of bed, legs shaking and screaming. The thing reached out a hand and tightly wrapped it around my wrist. I felt something pop. By some miracle, I got away and turned on the lights. The signs of a struggle and the marks left on my wrist were the only thing that proved what I saw had been real.
Over the next few hours, I didn’t sleep and a large bruise formed on my wrist. It hurt so much that I wasn’t able to move it for the rest of the day. I needed to figure something out. If I told people close to me, they would assume it was just the sleep paralysis or I wasn’t in my right mind.
I couldn’t find much online so I bought some sage from the local Wiccan store along with whatever they recommended. Normally I didn’t believe in crystals and things like that but I was desperate. I kept all the lights on in the house. A migraine from the sage smoke crept behind my eyes as the day wore on. I’d barely slept in the past two days, so I eventually passed out after midnight. Sleeping with the lights on should have solved my problem.
It did not.
Again, I felt someone crawling on the bed. I moved startling to that thing on all fours coming towards me. In a panic, I grabbed my blanket. Just before it landed on top of me with claws out, I wrapped the blanket around the dark shape and held it down tight against the bed.
I did not have any kind of plan beyond that. I just hoped the fabric would have kept the claws away from my face. It struggled hard and I needed to wrap my arms around the bundle to keep it from escaping. It sounded pissed off. If it got out then I was a goner. My arms became sore from the strain. When I thought it was all over the struggle started to lessen. Did I suffocate it? Did it even need to breathe? What even is this thing?
I had lots of time to think of questions with no answers. I didn’t dare let go fearing the monster would get free to eat my face off. I was still scared as hell but it also felt awkward holding the bundle for hours. My body gave out near dawn and I foolishly nodded off. When I woke up sun light poured through the open curtains. The blanket was empty. I opened the pile of fabric I saw rips and tears that should have been in my flesh.
Now what? I couldn’t live holding a monster every night. Who knows if I would be able to wrap it inside the blanket again? I packed a bag and fled to a hotel for a night hoping it solved the problem. If I was lucky my house was haunted. I couldn’t function on so few hours of sleep every night. I would get fired from work or run my car off the road if this kept up.
I waited until midnight in the cheap hotel room before I felt safe enough to drift off. The lights were still on and I brought an extra blanket just in case. My eyes opened around three AM. I was relieved I hadn’t seen any sign of that monster that night. Maybe my place really was the problem.
Then the pile of blankets beside me moved. My heart nearly stopped when a pair of glowing white eyes peeked out staring daggers into my soul. The message was clear without any words.
Silently I rolled over to carefully wrap an arm around the bundle. My chest was tight with fear but the thing didn’t make any threatening movements. It seems as if as long as I held this thing while it slept, I had bought myself some time. I don’t think this monster even knew being held was something it liked until it happened by pure chance.
Until I thought of a new plan, this needed to be good enough. Two weeks passed with the nightly visitor coming by at random times during the night. It appeared under the blanket and woke me up with either a scratch or a nip. At least I was sort of getting some sleep. This wouldn’t last forever and soon enough that fact became clear.
One night the creature woke me up in the normal way. A small nip on my arm to announce its arrival. It was enough to draw blood and I was getting tired of these minor injuries. The teeth came down again, harder the second time. I wasn’t able to get the blanket around the creature before it bit down even harder. For a painful minute, I struggled to get free. I tore its teeth away and I fled to the bathroom to look over the damage. The wound freely bled and I prayed I didn’t need stitches.
This couldn’t go on the way it had been. I was exhausted. Fear and short nights wore me down to the bone. I didn’t know just how much longer this creature would hold back from eating me. I couldn’t ditch it and I didn’t even know who to contact about something like this. A priest? Would one even listen to me?
I did something I wasn’t proud of. I decided to feed it.
Wouldn’t raw meat work? Not so much. Turns out this monster, this demon, was a picky eater. No matter what I brought into the bedroom trying to tempt it into a midnight snack my arm remained the target. I was wounded, running on little to no sleep, and desperate when I started my plan.
There is a small bar in town that serves cheap drinks. I rarely went to it because of the crowd that lingered there. But now I needed to go there for a gruesome purpose.
Years ago, when I was in high school, I added a bunch of friends to my Facebook account then I never thought to remove them. Even the people who I hadn’t spoken to in over five years were still on my friends list filling up my feed with updates no one but them cared about.
I knew that Kristen would be at the bar that Friday night. She often posted photos of her drinks begging people to drop by for a hook-up.
We dated for three months in school. At one point I’d been tall and well-built. I did track and some football. She thought I was a catch. Then, I broke my leg and put weight on. She dumped me shortly afterwards going to the next attractive guy. It hurt a little at the time but I hadn’t really dwelled on it.
I’ve changed a lot since school. Even though we dated I don’t think she would recognize me. The fact she was a little bit buzzed when I found her helped a little. I sat down next to her ordering us both a drink. She took the bait and within a few minutes, she was all over me. My skin crawled as I tried to play it cool. I needed to keep reminding myself why I was there. No matter how much I justified it, what I was about to do wasn’t right.
She changed a lot since school as well. Her hair was fried from too many bad dye jobs. Her skin hung loosely from her thin frame and her teeth were stained from years of smoking. If you squinted you could see the girl she had been at one point. With my stomach churning I asked her if she wanted to come home with me after I knew she had drank too much to refuse.
I hated myself every moment of the way back. We took a taxi because I didn’t want to risk driving home buzzed. The driver was a witness but aside from being the last one to see her, I doubted the police would have much else to pin me after tonight.
She still hung from me as we walked inside trying to act sexy as if I was going to dump her if she didn’t. I hadn’t told her my real name and she wouldn’t have remembered someone like me anyway. I was a minor blip in her high school years.
I led her to the bedroom and carefully tucked her in. I said I would be out in a few minutes. She slurred her words already starting to fall asleep from being in a comfortable bed. I almost picked her up and carried her away seeing her peaceful face. Then the reason why I was doing this forced its way through my thoughts.
I walked outside the bedroom and carefully shut the door behind me. Struggling to keep bile down, I listened.
The second guy Kristen dated was a popular guy. Everyone loved him so it came as a shock when she claimed he forced himself on her and she got pregnant because of it. Her family was religious so the claim was the only way they would support their daughter. Regardless of there being no evidence, almost everyone was on her side.
Her now ex-boyfriend gave up trying to prove his side of the story. He …
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1dtrcmm/the_thing_in_my_bed_is_not_a_sleep_paralysis_demon/