“Something Other-Worldly”
It was early Saturday morning and the start of a special weekend. Jessica and her husband, Rick, had the house all to themselves. With the kids at her parent’s house, Jessica could finally slow down, shake off the stress and relax. This was the kind of kid-free weekend that called for glasses of wine and an uninterrupted session of chicka-bow-wow. There would be no whiny kids to claw at her bedroom door in the middle of the night with sleepy squeals of, “Mommy, can I have some some waaaa-ter?”
Jessica wrapped up her morning workout and climbed the stairs to the master bathroom for a quick shower before she and Rick headed out to breakfast. There was a tasty food-splurge on her mind: pancakes with real maple syrup, a side of bacon and maybe even a warm blueberry muffin to wash it all down.
“It’s carbolicious,” she giggled to herself as she mapped out breakfast. There would be no Greek yogurt and berries for her today. No way.
Rick was hanging out on their bedroom balcony, taking in the warm sun as he sat with his cell phone to his ear. His best friend was on the other line in panic mode about a suspected case of gonorrhea from a chick he met a week prior.
“Dude. What the hell? Have you gone to the doctor yet?” Rick rolled his eyes as he spoke into the phone. Jessica stepped onto the balcony. She had a puzzled look on her face about Rick’s conversation, but shrugged it off to plant a kiss on his face.
Rick looked up and gave her a sexy wink, which quickly morphed into an ugly-faced gesture as a massive whiff of Jessica’s post-workout fitness funk hit his nostrils. She lifted her armpit to shoo the funk in his direction for good measure, then pranced off the balcony with an over-exaggerated, hip-shaking booty wag that changed Rick’s grimaced face into a smile.
Jessica showered, then tip-toed out the bathroom with the towel wrapped around her, feet and hair dripping. She approached the edge of her bed, then did a backwards free-fall onto its cushy-ness in the spirit of a happy little kid.
She lay there on her back in a mind-melty moment of relaxation, listening to the sounds of peace and quiet. The television was on mute. There was a dog barking outside somewhere far off. Birds were chirping in the tree near the balcony, and she could hear the faint sound of Rick’s voice as he offered crisis phone counseling to his STD-infected friend.
Her eyes began to get heavy and she drifted off to sleep. It was a very unintentional cat nap that lasted only 5 minutes or so.
Eyes closed. Now asleep. And then it happened…
Jessica woke abruptly by the heaviness of something invisible pressing down on her body. This invisible force, which she sensed as someone or something — had her pinned down with serious strength. She could only lift her head, nothing more. She couldn’t move her body. Not her legs or arms. Not even her shoulders. Only her head.
The bedroom. It was foggy. Or was is cloudy? The room and the items it contained appeared to be in a cloudy mist. It was smokey and hard to see clearly, but there was no physical smoke.
Was she dreaming?
She lay there paralyzed, restrained by this unseen force. Jessica opened her mouth to scream out to Rick, but she couldn’t move her lips let alone form any words. It’s as if her vocal chords were being held prisoner along with her body. She could hear herself scream inside her head, but no sound came out of her mouth.
This was no dream. Jessica was wide awake.
“Rick! Please help me….RICK! Please help!” Her pleas for rescue went unanswered.
Rick was only a few feet away on the balcony, but he could have been 1,000 miles away. It made no difference right now. Her screams for help were absorbed into a black hole of silence where no sound could escape or even be heard. Jessica would have no rescue.
The “thing” would not lift up off of her body. Tears began to fall from the corner of her eyes. She remained pinned as her heart raced with confusion and fear. All she could do now was to keep trying to sit up and off the bed. She wanted completely out of that room. She needed to break free from this invisible, menacing force.
Jessica was relentless, but couldn’t budge. More sound-less screams. More tears. Heart beating a million miles a minute. And then finally…she broke free. With one final push initiated not by physical exertion, but through sheer will from inside of her own mind, she was up off the bed.
The room immediately re-gained its appearance of clarity, no longer cloudy and morphed. Everything was normal again. Her screams were now audible to the hearing ear. Her previously silenced voice escaped her lungs as she ran onto the balcony for Rick.
“Didn’t you hear me yelling for you?” Her voice was trembling. She was visibly shaken.
“What? I didn’t hear anything, ” said Rick as he stared at her with a bewildered look of innocence.
“I was screaming for you. I couldn’t lift my body off the bed. Something heavy was pressing on me. I couldn’t move. I felt paralyzed!” Jessica gave Rick an account of her entire ordeal, but he didn’t know what to make of it.
Was it an alien encounter? A demonic force? A state of limbo between awake and asleep? Perhaps a slipping of sorts into another dimension?
There are no concrete answers and no physical proof to confirm Jessica’s suspicions, yet she knows deep down in her gut it had been something other-worldly. Something evil and menacing had come into her midst. Yet having experienced this invisible evil, she found comfort in knowing there was also an invisible Good.
——-
Looks like you are still in the dream, get over and go for running. It will make you fresh.
Yes, i’ve had something similar happen. It is very scary. In my case, it was only when i could pray that it resolved. There is more in this world than meets our physical senses, that is for certain.
That sounds like a waking dream to me. I had a roommate who had them occasionally when she was stressed out…she found them very spooky indeed. To everyone else it looked like she was lying on the bed with her eyes open, when she really was asleep, but with her eyes open, dreaming, but able to see the room. Very strange to see and hear about afterwards…it’s happened to my husband occasionally too…try not to let them give you the gibblies…
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Did you write this?
Unfortunately, I have had this many times, except in mine, there is the added dimension of taking labored smaller and less shallow breaths and the illusion (I HOPE it’s only an illusion!) of running out of oxygen. It’s beyond scary; it makes me not want to sleep. Oftentimes I “dream” that I wake up, get up and hit my own face or something to try to snap myself out of it; of course nothing works. Finally I sit up and wake up for real in a heart-pounding panic.
Not sleeping on the back is recommended to avoid this, but I’ve had it while on my side a few times. Unusual sleep schedules (like napping in the middle of the day or sleeping in too late in the morning) also make these more likely. I believe it’s called “sleep paralysis” or “lucid dreaming” or maybe some combination of the two.
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Twitter: YumYucky
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Ya. I wrote it. I’m no Jessica and I wasn’t married at the time (I was only 20 years old & had just a boyfriend) but the rest of the story is what happened to me. GAH!
I swear up and down I was awake, but the lucid dreaming thing has some validity to it now that you mention it. My only thing is, why do so many people have this same kind of experience? We’re under attack!!! hehe
Did you get this only once? You’re lucky, then. I get it fairly regularly, and I loathe and hate it for obvious reasons.
Do you ever write professionally? I used to write for the confession magazines. (Sorry to let out a trade secret but they’re really not “true” stories. At least as far as I know.) You can make a bit of pocket change doing that. (Not great money but not exactly peanuts, either – depending on how much time it takes you to write and if you don’t mind waiting a long time to be paid and maybe having to chase down your checks from incompetent editors and staff.)
444 recently posted..It’s getting worse !
If you want to know something truly funny, I used to write for the “black” magazines.
)
Your writing skill level is way above and beyond the minimum needed to make money writing professionally. You should go for it! You’re a great writer.
444 recently posted..It’s getting worse !
Twitter: YumYucky
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thank you for the boost of confidence. I’ve done some newspaper freelance work, but that’s it. No story-telling type of writing. You wrote for Black mags? I’m giggling, but that’s awesome.
True story?? Scary!
I love your writing style – very engaging – I just wanted to keep reading!!
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Yes yes. True story. My story. Just the names and beautiful house with balcony (how I wish!) is not real. This “attack” only happened once and I pray it never happens again. Ugh.
Thank you for your input on my writing. It’s very much needed. I was actually kinda nervous about posting this. Novel-ish type writing hasn’t been my area of expertise, but I enjoy it and plan on more stories for the blog. Maybe twice a month, so stay tuned! XO
I was certain it was going to be a fat cat that done it!
I did have a couple waking dreams when I was a teenager. The one time I was very sick so I figure the drugs caused it.
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I’m allergic to the fat cat. If he’d had been the culprit, I’d probably be the in the hospital with an epi-pen stuck up my nostril to induce normal breathing.
Twitter: truth2beingfit
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OK, I am creeped out!!! AND you do write really well!!!!
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Woah Josie, this completely flipped me out…! Brilliant writing but freaked me cos I have a recurring nightmare like this :-/ it’s weird cos I always realise it’s not real and that I have to just wake myself up but its gets scary cos sometimes have to shake myself quite violently to wake up, aah!
Hungry Jenny x
Was it the carbs????
KCLAnderson (Karen) recently posted..Choosing To Detach From Thoughts That Are Not True
It’s called sleep paralysis. It is a common sleep disorder that happens to a ton of people, including myself. Sonetimes I just wait until it passes instead of getting a headache from straining to wake up from it. But yeah, it’s just sleep paralysis. Look it up.
It takes one to know one: You are a great writer. More!!!
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This did happen to me once when I was a teen. Back in the 70′s, listening to Elton, I fell asleep, then awoke just like you discribed. I thought I was going to die. It was awful. It never happened again. It was like a force from outside of me.
WHOA hot damn!! I love that hair, you are beautiffullll!!
Twitter: YumYucky
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Thank you, Britt! xo
Yes, i agree, you’re a great writer. However…this really scary thing has happened to me a TON of times! It used to happen a lot in the old apt before this one (along with things moving that shouldn’t be, and it happened to a roommate too). It had happened before that, and since, but less. the last time was on the plane coming back from miami, and then that night when i was at home. It is SO SCARY!.
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