I Can't Sleep

I lay in my bed exhausted, I didn't get much sleep last night. I kept having the intense feeling of being watched all night. Every time I close my eyes the only thing I can see was that thing. What was that thing?

"Honey! It's time for school!" My mom yells from downstairs "Hurry and get ready, come get breakfast!"

I groan and groggily make my way out of bed. I walk over to the mirror in the corner of the room and look at myself. I can see the dark circles and bags under my eyes. My head hurts from the exhaustion I feel from now sleeping all night. I grab my school uniform from the pile of laundry I was too lazy to put away in front of my closet. I get dressed and walk over to the bathroom across the hall.

"Damn, I look horrible," I look at my messy brown hair in the mirror and throw water on it to attempt to keep it down.

I grab my toothbrush to the left of me and looked back in the mirror. After I brush I throw some cold water on my face, when I pick my head up I see the figure standing behind me. I quickly turn around eyes widened, my hands knocking over everything on the counter behind me to find nothing behind me. My heart is racing and I'm standing there breathing rapidly looking around the bathroom. I hear a knock on the door.

"Are you okay in there? Come down your food is getting cold." My mom starts to turn the doorknob to come inside.

"I'm fine mom, I'll be down now" I look back in the mirror and hold my head down "I got this, I got this," I tell myself to try to psych myself up to get through the day. I walk downstairs and see my parents sitting at the table.

"Hey mom and dad" I sit down at the table "I'm going to be late tonight coming home, I'm going to Brittany's after school to do some homework." I look down at the pancakes my mom made sitting in front of me. I take a few bites and look at the time

"Shit, the bus" I stand up and kiss my mom on the cheek and run to get my bag by the door. "Watch your mouth, we don't use that language here," my mom says to me sipping her coffee. My dad gets up and walks toward me.

"Are you okay? You look like you will pass out at any time." My dad looks at me as I nod my head yes and he grabs my head "If you need anything just call." My dad was always the type to put me and my mother before himself.

I run outside as the bus is coming down the street. I stand at the end of my driveway as the bus comes to a stop and opens the door. I walk inside and look down the aisle to the end of the bus where Brittany is waving her arms like a mad woman.

"Over here loser!" She yells out towards me. I smile and make my way down the aisle. "It's way too early to be this uppity you know," she grabs my shirt and pulls me into the seat. She shuffles in her bookbag and pulls out a stack of paper.

"Look! After you told me about everything I decided to look up this astral projection thing myself and I found some interesting things." She hands me the papers and I start to take a look at them.

"What made you want to look this up? I thought you didn't believe in this?"

I look at her as I give her back the papers. She grabs them and stuffs them back in her backpack.

"After you told me your story and I saw your face as you were telling the story, I decided that maybe it might be something and I started to look at stuff."

We finally make it to the school and we start to get off the bus. As I'm talking to Brittany I see behind her the shadow figure standing off in the distance. My face starts to fill with fear as I look behind her. She stops and looks behind her trying to see what I'm looking at. She doesn't see anything and turns back to me and asks if I'm okay. I can't take my eyes from behind as this thing is still there staring at me.

"It's nothing, I just thought I saw something" I smiled as she looked at me awkwardly as we made our way into the school.

"You look like you haven't got much sleep, are you sure you're okay?" She sounds worried as we walk over to her locker.

I nod my head and smile at her. We stand at her locker filling in random answers to last night's math homework. I took my phone to check the time. The bell rings as we both sigh.

"I guess I'll see you during math class." Brittany waves bye to me as she walks towards her homeroom.

I turn the opposite way and walk down the hall. I walk to the end of the hall and turn the corner as dread pours over me followed by fear and confusion. I look down the hall and notice the figure standing there. I freeze with fear as it starts walking towards me, slowly taking steps towards me. With every step I can see its mouth opening wider and wider, I can see its eyes starting to open. I turn around to run and I'm met with a dead end. I look back towards the shadow figure and it's gone. My heart is racing and I can feel sweat trickling down my face.

I try to find a way to run but all corners of the hall are now a dead end. My body starts to shake as I'm filled with fear. I look around and see the shadow figure in all four dead ends. My breathing gets faster, my hands get sweatier, and my vision starts to pulse as the figure disappears but not before I hear a scream so loud it's deafening to my ears. I crouch down covering my ear and keeping my head in between my knees. I start rocking back and forth when I suddenly touched my shoulder.

"Jason, are you okay?" A feminine voice speaks from behind me.

I look over and see the guidance counselor Mrs. Tate standing behind me. She grabs my arms to help me stand up. "Come on, let's get you to the nurse." We walk down the hall to the nurse  I sit down on the chair by the door. The nurse then calls my dad to come and get me from school.

After about 15 minutes my dad comes into the school to pick me up. I grab my stuff and walk over to the main office to meet my dad. He grabs my bookbag off my back and we both walk outside to the car. My phone starts to ring, I look at it and see Brittany is calling me.

"Are you okay!" her voice rings through the phone. "I heard what happened and I left class to call you."

My dad opens the door for me as I get into his car. "Yeah, I'm good. It's been a long night. I'll tell you about it later." I say yes and hang up the phone as me and my dad drive home in silence. We pull up in the driveway and before I get out he grabs my arm.

"Are you okay?" He looks at me with a worried look. "If you need anything let me know, I'm here for a reason." I thank him and tell him that I'm just exhausted and I get out of the car.

"I think I'm going to go to bed" I look back at my dead before heading upstairs. He nods in agreement and walks into the living room. I go into my room and take off my uniform, I throw myself in bed and shove my face into my pillow. I turn over on my back and stare into the ceiling fan spinning. From downstairs, I can hear the weather channel my dad was watching on tv. My eyes start to get heavy as I try to fight to stay awake. My eyes get heavier and heavier as I suddenly fade into sleep.

My body starts to wake up and I open my eyes. I lay there, unable to move. I try to move my arms and legs and I can't move a muscle. I can't even move my fingers. I start to struggle and panic as my breathing gets rapid. I try to move more and more but I can do anything. I can feel my eyes starting to water and I can hear whispering in my room. I move my eyes looking around the room as I lay there panicking. I look above me and see the shadow figure leaning over me. The whispers get louder as its mouth opens wider above me.