Category : Stories

Sub Category : Suspense/Mystery

Just starring at Josh’s little sister, lying stiff underneath the covers of her bed, as her eyes shot wide open staring blankly at the ceiling, sent the coldest chill throughout my body. This was all too familiar. I've seen this look just days ago from when it all had started. The random murders being reported. Murders being committed by the people who were least expected. The most kind-hearted and generous people of the town, killing their spouses, friends, slaughtering their families. And more specifically, the most horrifying night of them all. The night I watched my mother rise up out of bed with that same blank stare within her eyes. I called her name repeatedly, but she was unresponsive. It was like she wasn’t even there. I watched her drag her bare feet and slowly walk onto the other side of the room, and reach inside of her and my father’s dresser drawer. He eventually woke up after hearing me yell my mother’s name an excessive amount of times and waltzed over to her. 

“Babe, are you ok?” he asked in calm matter. but she didn’t respond at all.

“Baby what's going on? You're scaring Michael. And honestly you're starting to scare me a bit too.” He said while he placed his hand upon her left shoulder and her body instantly spun around. 

That was the first time I ever heard a man scream so loud as my mother plunged his old fishing knife directly into the center of his stomach. Holding his wound and falling down to the ground, She turned her blank cold stare towards me, walking slowly with the bloody knife clutched within her palm. I was next.
My little brother Mavis ran towards the room to see what was all the yelling about. Quickly I covered his eyes and pushed him towards the entrance of the house, and we ran. We ran until we couldn't run any longer. This happened about four days ago. And yes, I haven’t slept since. None of us have. Whether it was sleepwalking or not, I knew that wasn’t my mother, and staring at this little girl in bed, unfortunately, I knew that this wasn’t Josh’s Sister.

"Emmie, Emmie can you hear me? He asked a couple of times. But I knew no matter how many times he called her, little Emily was gone.

“Josh, I think we should get out here.” I said. 

“No, not yet, I’m not leaving my sister.”
I turned to face him, looking straight into his eyes as I spoke. “Listen, that is not your sister. And if we don’t leave now, she will kill everyone in here, including you. I’m Sorry, but we have to go.”

His head sank down as he shook it back in forth in denial. I understood his hesitation. She was all he had left after his father disappeared days ago. Just as Mavis was all I had too. Me, Josh, Mavis, Lindsey, my ex girlfriend. And Chris, he lived next door. We all stuck together. I just wish we could've made it back to Josh's parents house before it was too late.
  From the corner of my eye I caught a movement. Emily's stiff body began to rise. She sat up on the bed and then rose to her feet. The bottom of her long white nightgown dragged against the floor as she started a slow walk towards us with her eyes filled with pure emptiness. Emily turned into the kitchen and grabbed a large knife from the counter-top and her terrifying gaze was now focused on us. 

"Let's go!" Lindsey shouted as she ran to the entrance of the house and opened the door. But then, she quickly shut it.

"What's wrong? Why'd you shut the door? We have to get out of here.” Mavis yelled out.

"We can't. There's too many of them out there this time of night. Police are trying to keep them contained. But it's too dangerous."

  I watched Chris slide his hand behind his back and I already knew what he intended to do. He pulled his arm from behind him, and in his hands was a 9 millimeter pistol. We came across it a day ago on the body of a deceased police officer in the alley on one of the streets. We decided to keep it just in case we really needed it. But I never imagined that we would one day need it against each other. 
   Little Emily proceeded to get closer. And we didn't have too much space left or time. Chris lifted his hand and aimed the pistol at her chest. 

"No!" Josh shouted. 

He darted from across the room and ran in front of his sister, spreading his arms wide blocking the view of the shot. 

"Wait, we don't know if we can fix this. And I'm not gonna sit here and let you kill her. She's still my sister. And if you want to shoot her, your going to have to shoo–"

  Josh paused in the middle of his sentence and his eyes expanded wide while his mouth hung open. It was a look of shock, and also a look a pain. He collapsed down to the ground, and there was little Emily standing right behind him. She reached down beside her brother, and quickly snatched the long blood covered blade from out of his back as he flinched and laid there gasping for breath. We all shrieked in fear. With the knife in hand, she stepped over her brother's body to move closer towards us. 

"Shoot her!” Mavis screamed.“Do it now!"
But Chris just stood there, frozen in place. He was still in shock. 
  Instantly, I ran to up Chris and yanked the pistol out of his hands, faced Emily, and let off three shots at her chest. Three blood filled stains soaked through her silky white nightgown as her body thumped onto the floor, as she laid there, unconscious and lifeless along the hardwood floor. 

"Josh!" I cried out crouched down beside him. I didn't know what to do or say. The ambulance would never respond quick enough because of all the casualties. We've tried that before. So as of now I didn't know whether to comfort him, or to apologize for what I'd just done to his little sister. But either way, none of it mattered. There was too much blood loss. He laid there in a daze, trying to control his breathing while I placed my hand upon his shoulder. And within seconds his breath shortened. And soon after, his hands fell limp across the ground. And his once bright brown eyes had just closed shut for the very last time. He was gone.
  We cried so much that night. Separated in different corners of the room as his body sat in the middle of the living room floor. We were all mentally and physically drained. Our eyes were watery and bloodshot red, and the yawning was a non stop problem. But no matter what, we had to stay awake. I went inside the kitchen and made us all cups of coffee and even found a small bottle of caffeine pills inside the cabinet. 

"Nobody fall asleep." I demanded, passing out the cups.

  "What's the point? We're all going to die anyway." Chris said. "I don't know what's going on, or why it's only affecting us here in this town. But whatever it is, We can't stop it. The police are here arresting and shooting everybody. And the next day, there will just be more of these sleepers, waking up and roaming the streets murdering people." Chris continued his rant. "It's like its getting worst. It started out with just a few people. Now almost everyone who falls asleep becomes one of them. And these pills and coffee or energy drinks won't work too much longer, we can hardly stay awake now. We're all going to d-."

"Shut up Chris! That's enough! you either sit there, drink your coffee and shut the hell, up or I'm gonna kill you myself." Lindsey snapped. 

"Relax relax, I know we're all tired and scared. But talking like that won't help anyone. There's gotta be something causing this, and some way to stop it. There has to be something we’re missing. The food? The water? I wish Ms. Maddy was here, I bet she'd be able to help figure this out." I said, 
Then went into the bedroom to get some time to think to myself alone after seeing Chris shake his head and let out a sigh at my last comment. Ms. Maddy was never a favorite of the town. She always was a little odd, but after an incident years ago where she received a call that her husband, a wealthy landowner who was notorious for extorting the towns folk, was pronounced dead after a tragic car accident, Ms.Maddy grew worst. She was basically known around here as 'the crazy lady.’ All she did now was stand in front of her book shop, holding her books and signs, preaching loudly to the people, sometimes screaming and laughing out loud to herself. She continuously went on and on with rambles about the light and the darkness, the beings and creatures of a shadowed world, and some weird chants about something called the slumber of retribution. We all thought she was nuts. But now as I thought back on it, she actually wasn't. It was clear that she must've known this would happen, and had been warning us all along. but then, as I thought harder, I started to think about the death of her husband. There were rumors spreading that some of the town's people may have been involved in her husband's car accident. That it was in fact, a homicide. After he was found dead, there was barely even any investigation. No one was found guilty and the whispers continued floating throughout the town. Ever since then, she was never what you would call, a ‘people's person.’ And that's when it hit me. Maybe her warnings weren't actually warnings at all, maybe they were threats. She blamed us all for her injustice. This wasn't about advisory, It was revenge. 
  I hopped out of my seat immediately to go tell the others the theory I’d just discovered, with hopes of figuring out some way that we can possibly end allof this. But something was wrong. My legs, they never budged, and my body was still stuck in place. A light mist of cloudy grey fog began to emerge out of nowhere, filling up the room's air. And suddenly My legs were able to move once again. Only I wasn't the one moving them. I rose up out of my seat and my legs began to strut forward. I tried to stop it. but I just couldn't. It was useless. My entire body was no longer functioning under my control. But strangely, I could still feel the anxiety and the racing heartbeat as the sensation of panic rushed through my system. While panicking, I couldn't really grasp what was happening to me at the moment. But then, thoughts of me sitting in that chair popped into my head. I finally realized it, and I was completely horrified. I must've... Fallen asleep.
My legs continued to move in a slow dragging motion as I cried out inside my mind begging to be released, and fighting to restrain myself. I was able to see everything as my body led me to what frightened me the most. The living room, where my brother and friends were all gathered together. Steady moving, I walked into an empty room. but I could hear voices coming from the Dining room next door. I strolled over to Emily's breathless body and abruptly paused. I felt my arm, reached down and pry the blood stained knife from out of her hand, and gradually make way to the kitchen. I saw Chris, sitting in the dining room chair with his back faced towards me, Lindsey had just walked out of the room, and my brother Mavis was sitting on the floor reading and sipping a cup of coffee. I could hear the bass of my heart pounding rapidly inside my chest as I sluggishly crept up behind Chris. I paused for a moment. And in the right corner of the room, lurking in the depths of the shadows I saw something that sent shivers straight through my spine and made my skin crawl. I could see it. Its creature like face, half covered by the darkness. Its tall bulked frame and three large horns that peaked just above the shade, was standing right there, with its gaze focused straight at me, watching me. Its clawed finger then appeared from out of the shadows, then gave a quick slight wave. And somehow, I knew exactly what that wave meant. My body instantly became tensed, as my right arm lifted up slowly into the air. The wooden handle of the knife wrapped tightly inside of my large palm. And the sharp tip of the blade pointed down directly at the top of Chris's head. There was no point of struggling now. I knew there was no way to resist, or any possible way to change this outcome. All I could do was watch in pure terror, while I screamed hysterically. Trapped inside of a conscience mind, and a body that was no longer my own. As I sleep.

"Wake me up! Somebody! Wake me up!"