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Why I don't take Mid-day naps anymore
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Don't tell the reader about the dreams, put him into one. Cause the reader to feel the terror of a dream. Cut all the chit chat about everything else. Experience the dream and drag the reader into it with you. Nothing else is necessary about the character who is dreaming. What will grab a reader and hold him is you fighting yourself out of the dream.
Penelope Kahler Swan
The following suggestion may be applied to writing, speeches, debate, and even casual conversation.Say what you have to say as succinctly as possible, then stop. Once you have made your point, anything that comes after is superfluous and weakens the primary intent of the message.
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This entry must be as brief as possible. I don’t tell many people this story, and writing it sends shivers down my spine. I know he isn’t real…..but just because he’s not real doesn’t mean he isn’t watching me as I type this.
For the most part, I live a pretty happy life. I have a wonderful husband, and a chihuahua named Pearl. She likes my husband more than she likes me, but I don’t blame her. I would pick him over me as well. Due to a physical disability, I don’t work, so being an introvert, having the house to myself for eight hours a day feels like a vacation.
My days alone at home would be filled with various house chores. Loading and unloading the dishwasher, doing the laundry, grocery shopping, and the typical “stay at home dog parent” stuff. My husband is a hard worker, so I like to have as much done as possible during the day, so he can just relax when he gets home.
As you can imagine, while having the house to myself was fun and enjoyable, it also had its rather boring parts. When all of my housework for the day was done, and after losing many brain cells exploring the Internet, I would lay down with Pearl for about an hour and fall asleep. Some of these naps were just your run-of-the-mill power naps, but the majority of these naps sent me into a world of terror that you would only see in a horror movie. I can feel him (or it) breathing. He (or it) knows I’m writing this. I must be brief.
On more than one occasion, I was visited by a demonic black mass of a creature. During these “visits” I would experience sleep paralysis. I would be laying there, and I could hear footsteps, or it breathing its deep demonic breath. I’ve heard him whisper things to me, felt him touch and scratch me, and I would hear the sounds of things breaking in the house. I have been able to partially open my eyes a few times to see my dog laying next to me looking like a rotten corpse, in an advanced stage of rigor mortis, or morphed into some mutant rabid creature. I’ve heard a voice speak to me during sleep paralysis that sounds like it *would* be Pearls voice if she could speak.
During a couple of these “naps” I would wake up in a room completely different than the one that I fell asleep in. Sometimes it would be on the couch in the basement of the house I grew up in, and sometimes it would be a room that I had never seen before in my life. Whenever I find myself “awake” in one of these rooms, the first thing I do is find a mirror. For some reason, I can just barely open my eyes. But what I see in the mirror a a deformed grotesque version of my face. If I wake up in my childhood home, the first thing I do is look for my Grandparents. As always, Grandma is watching some Game Show on The Game Show Network in her bedroom, and her husband would be in The Living Room watching either Baseball or Wrestling. I’ve never been able to see their faces in the dream, which is probably a good thing…..because I’ve heard their voices, but….they weren’t THEIR voices.
There have also been times where I would wake up, and everything would seem normal, from the texture and feel of the floor on my bare feet, to the random smells, to the colors of the walls. But the second I notice something different or out of place, I realize I’m dreaming, and I freeze. Everything around me slowly turns white, and the surrounding area melts away. This usually ended within of few minutes, and I wake up in my real bed, in my real room, next to my very real, not deformed dog.
The most frightening dream I’ve had, actually involved my husband. It was around 10:30 or 11:00 am, and as usual, I laid down with Pearl. As I was dozing off, I heard him come in the room and casually lay down next to me. I slowly started waking up, and as I was doing so, I said “You’re home early” to which he replied “Yeah. Something bad happened”. I was very concerned, and I wanted to give him attention, love, reassurance, whatever he needed. When I finally was able to open my eyes to look at him and give him my attention…..I was alone. He was never there. It was a dream. I looked at the clock, and it was his lunch hour, so I texted him and told him what happened. He confirmed that he had been at work the entire morning, and I was just dreaming.
For a while, I would record myself napping with Pearl on Facebook live. I know that sounds weird, but I wanted to see if I could capture my “visitor” on camera. I remember during the first “recording”, I woke up in a room that looked like my own, and the room was flooded in a light that resembled a photograph developing lab. When I looked over to where I set up the phone on the Iphone charging dock….It was gone. When I woke up, and I watched the footage, all I could see was myself, asleep on my stomach, with Pearl curled up next to me, and no sounds or words ever came out of my mouth, and nothing showed up. It must have all been my imagination after all.
I have to go now. I just looked at the clock and its showing 4 Backwards “R” symbols resembling the Russian letter “Ya.” Everything around me is melting, and I can hear heavy boots, and breathing….getting closer…..and closer……I…..can’t…..move.