CreepsMcPasta Creepypasta Radio - "I can't go to sleep and I'm running out of fingers" Creepypasta

Episode Date: July 22, 2021

CREEPYPASTA STORY►by absrdst: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comm...Creepypastas are the campfire tales of the internet. Horror stories spread through Reddit r/nosleep, forums and blogs, rather than word of mouth. Whether you believe these scary stories to be true or not is left to your own discretion and imagination. LISTEN TO CREEPYPASTAS ON THE GO-SPOTIFY► https://open.spotify.com/show/7l0iRPd...iTUNES► https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...CREEPY THUMBNAIL ART BY►huleeb: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/28...SUGGESTED CREEPYPASTA PLAYLISTS-►"Good Places to Start"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7YCb...►"Personal Favourites"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEa2R...►"Written by me"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX6RA...►"Long Stories"- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...FOLLOW ME ON-►Twitter: https://twitter.com/Creeps_McPasta►Instagram: https://instagram.com/creepsmcpasta/►Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/creepsmcpasta►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CreepsMcPastaCREEPYPASTA MUSIC/ SFX- ►http://bit.ly/Audionic ♪►http://bit.ly/Myuusic ♪►http://bit.ly/incompt ♪►http://bit.ly/EpidemicM ♪-This creepypasta is for entertainment purposes only-

I am a normal guy. I have a typical 9 to 5 job at a computer desk, a job which I earned with my straight-seas college career at the State University. I live alone and live a normal, uninteresting, but ultimately happy life. Many people want nice cars, a nice house, but I'm perfectly satisfied pushing the pencil every day and coming home and relaxing with a beer and a book or a TV show. My only real problem is sleep.

I have insomnia that can only be helped by being so exhausted at the end of the day that I literally can't stay awake anymore. I tried everything, from jogging to herbal tea to hypnotherapy. It wasn't always this way. I used to sleep like a baby, but ever since the pandemic, I've just been unable to sleep at night. What's worse is this made my once comfortable. life difficult. My boss started to notice my quality of work declining and some of my co-workers even started asking me things like, I are you all right when they see me in the break room?

That's a real confidence booster. My only salvation is the massive amount of coffee I drink every single day to keep from nodding off during work. One day I was fed up with feeling exhausted every day. I posted on Facebook. Anyone have any tips on sleeping? I seemed to have forgotten how to with a picture of Patrick from SpongeBob

with bloodshot eyes. As I hit post, I heard the microwave beep from the leftovers I was reheating. As I got to the kitchen, my phone buzzed. I looked at the screen and it was a message from a girl

I went to high school with. She was one of those people added, not because you were friends, but because everyone in your high school added each other the week before graduation so everyone could stay in touch. Hi Jason, I hear you've been having trouble sleeping, and I'd love to help you.

I was startled by how quickly this person I barely knew sent a response. Oh, hey, Becker, I replied, long time I see, how are you? Three dots appeared, indicating that she was typing a response. While I waited, I ate my supper of leftover Chinese food and every hot sauce in the fridge. but 30 minutes later the dots stayed I figured my app was glitching so I forced quit and restarted the dots was still there

I checked my laptop to see if it was a connection problem with my phone but the dots remained she must be typing the two fingers I thought to myself laughing it off though it did seem a little odd I laid down on the couch to re-watch a show that I was on the third season of checking the Facebook tab between episodes. The dots were still there.

I was puzzled and a little bit annoyed, but I watched TV until I was too exhausted to keep my eyes open, which was my cue to attempt sleeping, as usual, at 4 a.m. I brushed my teeth and got under the covers. I couldn't tell if I had maybe nodded off for a few minutes and was startled awake, but what I experienced was my phone going on, the moment I shut my eyes. It startled me really badly

because I always kept my phone's alarm and ringers at full volume since I've a creeping fear of sleeping in and missing work. I looked at my phone. It was a message from Becker. I roared my eyes, wondering what could have possibly taken

so long or made a response this late. I opened the message, expecting to see paragraphs of pseudoscience about essential oils or something. But all I saw was a single link, a link to a YouTube video, and it didn't even have a thumbnail. I was puzzled but curious, so I opened my laptop and navigated to a message, clicking the link. A new tab opened with a YouTube video called,

cozy room on a stormy night with thunderstorm sounds and rain sounds, in brackets 10 hours, 4K, 60 fps. There was nothing remarkable by the video, just some kind of, noises with a still shot inside of a room with a fireplace. There was almost no movement, except for the lightning outside, rain running down the glass and the subtle flicker of the fireplace. The room had to be a digital collage or a 3D render or something. No space was that clean and perfect. All of the walls were white and smooth,

with no details indicating that the space had ever been inhabited. I also noticed the Siberian Husky curled up in front of the wall. one of the windows, staring directly at the camera. Unlike the rest of the objects in the room, he seemed to be from a real video, rather than just the still image. The channel's name was cozy sleep for dreamlike sounds and restful nights. I laughed a little. It really took her four hours to find this YouTube link. I decided to play along though, and tapped out.

Okay, I'll give it a shot. Thanks. And hit send. The red receipt showed up as soon as I sent my response, but she didn't seem to have anything to say. Out of the back of the video, I noticed that it said, Live in the bottom left corner, with ten people watching. Chat was disabled.

I figured that made sense, since everyone would probably just be sleeping anyway. I put my laptop on a small table that I kept next to my bed and started watching. What struck me first was, how soothing the sounds were. It was almost as if they were too good to be coming out of my tiny laptop speakers. Despite how off-putting the aesthetics were, there was something kind of nice about it. I was surprised when I started to feel drowsy and a deep sleep overtook me. I opened my eyes feeling refreshed and invigorated. The sun beamed into my room through the curtains,

looking brighter and pretty than ever. I looked at my phone. I'd only been asleep for four hours. I was surprised, but I guess four hours of deep, dreamless sleep amounted to more than what I usually get, which is 8 to 10 hours of naps interrupted by anxiety attacks. I checked my laptop to see if the video was still playing, but it had run out of batteries at some point while I was sleeping. I only have one USBC charger, so often when I go to bed, I'll choose one device over the other to get charged. Last night, it was my phone's turn.

I figured I'd head to work early to try earn some points with my boss On the train people were friendlier than usual As if seeing me made the days a little bit better It was subtle but I noticed it That day at work was different too People noticed my restedness and said things like Jason, you're so perky today I didn't even end up drinking coffee

Halfway through the work day I decided to thank Beck for the video recommendation. Hi, Becker. I don't know how, but I think your video cured my insomnia. Thank you so much. When I had sent, an error appeared. You can't respond to this message. Did Becker block me? I thought.

Just then, my co-worker, Seth, tapped me on the shoulder. Hey, uh, me and the guys are going to grab lunch. Want to join? He asked. I gladly said yes. Seth was a good-looking guy and the little rainbow flag that he kept at his desk was a signal that maybe I had a chance with him

I let Becker's strange messages slip into the back of my mind as we boarded the elevator lunch was good and the rest of my workday was more normal than I could have anticipated Noah getting yelled at by my boss I finished all of my tasks and I was even able to leave on time rather than usual one extra hour I needed to make up for my tiredness

When I got home I quickly made myself some dinner and then started to get ready for bed I figured I'd try again tonight to get even more sleep so I brushed my teeth and got under my covers then I plugged the laptop

which was still sitting on the table next to my bed I was greeted with the YouTube page that said this premiere has ended which made sense I figured I just refreshed the page and started from the beginning But when I did, the page said,

This creator has deleted this video. Although that was weird, usually people leave videos up after they've premiered them, but I figured there must be other channels like this one. I put into the search bar, Cozy House with Rain Amience, and was greeted with literally thousands of videos, nearly identical in content,

with slight variations, from hundreds of different channels with names like Cozy Ambience, sleepful, cozy spaces, comfy rain channel and so on. My first thought, as usual, when I discover a massive niche that I was unaware of was who the hell is making these videos? I clicked on the first result and watched it for a few minutes. I was again greeted by a barely realistic room with a few props, a looping fire and a window overlooking some impressive scenery.

I stared at the window, feeling the strangest thought that someone was watching me through the screen. I didn't feel the sleepiness that the video Becker sent me cause though The sounds weren't hitting the same as the video from last night I went back to the previous page and clicked on the next link Once again, I was unimpressed I didn't feel the drowsiness or the comfortable hypnosis of the previous video I knocked to the table with frustration Maybe if I just tried to sleep it'll work I said to myself

After all, I'd been almost asleep already when I got the link from Becker. Maybe in my tiredness, I remember the video being better than it actually was. I left the tab open and I shut my eyes, trying to let the sounds of raining wind carry me away like they had the night before. But it just didn't do the trick. After hours of tossing and turning in frustration, I got out of bed to get a glass of water from the kitchen. Looking at my YouTube history. I found the video from the previous night. It was still deleted.

I went to the channel. Cozy sleep for dreamlike sounds and restful nights. This channel doesn't have any content. I was weirdly upset about this, probably because the night before was the best sleep I'd had since, well, becoming an adult. I hit the subscribe button and the bell button just in case they decided to re-upload it.

Before I could even put my phone back in my pocket, I got a notification from YouTube. Cozy Sleep for Dreamlike Sounds and Restful Nights will be live in 10 minutes. Ah, so it's like a nightly stream thing, I thought aloud. I wondered where it was based, starting at 4 a.m. like it did. Back in my room, I sat down and directed my laptop to the Cozy Sleep for Dreamlike Sounds and Restful Night's YouTube page for the stream. It said there were nine people waiting. I wondered, why a stream? I've seen things like that all the time.

Creepy past the channels or Chill Beach running on a live stream, hundreds watching, none of them talking. Maybe it brought people a sense of togetherness, knowing that some stranger out there was experiencing the same thing as you. I decided then that the nine others watching were my new friends. I wondered how they'd stumble upon this particular channel and be able to be. awake to listen with me that night. In a few short minutes, the countdown was over, and the show started. Comfortable, funny rain with candlelight and ocean sounds, 10 hours 4K, 60 FPS, nice serene. A room appeared, much like the one from the previous night, but with different stuff.

There were two windows in the center, a fireplace flickering, and a doorway on the left side of the room. Through the window I could see the ocean, but not in a way that made sense. Video of the ocean playing behind the windows as though no consideration for realism had been made. Everything had a strange blurriness, a dirty quality reminiscent of all PlayStation games, and the walls were tinted blue from some light I couldn't see the source of. The noises swept in through my speakers. I could hear ocean sounds and a gentle breeze, and if I focused hard enough, fire crackling and a clock in another room. It was so vivid that it actually sounded like it was coming from my kitchen.

I was impressed with the spatial technology that had clearly been used to make the illusion so believable. Part of me wished I could go inside the strange room and maybe through the door, explore this surreal little house a little. I laughed to myself, knowing how preposterous that was. Before my thoughts got too carried away, I noticed a bundle of fur sitting in front of the right window. He was the husky from the previous night, only this time he was spacing the wall away from me. I had no idea how I'd managed to miss it for almost a full minute. He looked almost completely out of place in the scenery. Everything else looked sea-ch-eye-generated.

The dog, on the other hand, was filthy and emaciated, like an old. dirty rug draped over a pile of disguided bones, and was clearly either from a stock video or something the creators shot themselves. The more I stared at the lump of fur, the more I began to notice that he was breathing. He inflated and deflated with haggard breaths, and I could hear it, ever so slightly. It didn't sound like a dog breathing. It was like the pain breaths of a diseased man. I suddenly felt that deep tiredness from the pretext.

previous night. I forwarded a bit, trying to get a closer look at the animal, but I felt so overcome with exhaustion at that moment. I remember as my eyes were shutting, I could have sworn I heard someone running, and the dog was starting to stand. As if I just blinked, it was suddenly the next day, and it was bright in my room. Really bright, actually. I looked at the screen on my laptop. Thanks for tuning in. Stream ended five seconds ago. The clock in the lower right said, 2pm. I had two missed calls and four mistakes for my boss.

I called a cab and frantically texted her. I'm so sorry, I was sick this morning. I'm on my way to the office now. She just responded with an eye roll emoji. I'll work late, I promise. I'm on my way now. I needed this job. yet it kept me comfortable during the pandemic,

and honestly, I hadn't worked there long enough to have any real influence there. See you soon, Jason. As I left my apartment, I noticed a piece of paper taped to the door. Keep it down, signed Your Neighbor. I didn't have time to think about the message because my cab was outside. When I got in the office, my boss looked mad. I started apologising profusely, but she dropped the, react and laughed at me.

It's okay, Jason. We all have those days, she said, patting me in the shoulder. Anyway, it looks like you got some much-needed rest. A wave of relief hit me, and I started doing my daily rounds of QA and SEO. I actually felt really amazing, all things considered. I never slept for ten hours before. At around 5.30, my acute co-worker, who asked me to lunch the day before, asked me if I wanted to grab a drink with him and his mate after.

to work. I'm sorry, I can't. I'm working late tonight, I said. No, he isn't, my boss chined in, startling me. But I was so late, I said. Like I told you, we all have those days, she said, with the sincerity and compassion I wasn't used to. Enjoy the afternoon, guys, she said, leaving with a purse and popping on her sunglasses.

Boss's orders. I guess people treat you differently when you don't have dark circles under your eyes. The evening was great. I got to know Seth and his friends a little better, and I even made the whole group laugh a handful of times. That's a successful night out in my book. As Seth was ordering the third round of beers, I got a notification from my phone.

Cozy sleep for dreamlike sounds and restful nights will be live in two hours. Had it really gotten that late? I apologised, saying I had to duck out early and called an Uber, wishing my new friends a good weekend. Seth yelled something about making it a weekly thing, and I hid the fact that I blushed as I got into the car. As we pulled away from the bar, I opened YouTube on my phone to check on the stream.

It said nine people were waiting. I quietly closed the app and locked my phone nervously. It felt like those people were staring at me, even though I had no reason to believe that. I even debated whether to tune in or not, because it felt so off? The strangeness of the situation had been in the back of my mind, but I've been so distracted that I really hadn't processed it yet.

Had I really looked at my computer exactly five seconds after the stream ended? That seemed really strange. And how did I sleep through my alarm? Two calls and four texts. I kept my volume all the way up, never had my phone on vibrate, because I was terrified of this happening. When I got back home, I made a beeline from a laptop. The screen was on.

This is pretty normal, considering notifications can wait the screen if they're high enough priority. But it felt weird seeing the previous, this stream has ended, message staring back at me. I clicked on the channel and saw the thumbnail again. Nine waiting. For some reason, that really bothered me. Were these the people from the previous two nights? Why were they tuning into this? Two hours before it starts, with the chat disabled.

I started to feel very unsettled. Then something clicked and I felt really silly. Obviously, this account used bots to generate its initial views and some kind of algorithmic AI to generate the videos themselves. This whole thing must have been a content farm which explained the odd appearance of the videos, the weird dog and the offbeat titles. snapping back into reality

I made myself a quick snack and settled in for the night laughing and my own imagination getting the best of me Cozy sleep for dreamlike sounds and restful nights will be live in 30 minutes I decided to watch an episode of my show

before bed looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow without fear of getting in trouble at work cozy sleep for dream like sounds and restful nights will be live in 10 minutes time seemed to be moving fast to that evening. I clicked into the YouTube tab and brushed my teeth,

made my bed, and got in it. As the stream began, I got under my covers. I watched the video populate with more of the odd scenery I had come to expect. This time, something was off. It was a completely empty room with a window on the right and an unlit doorway at the back. The walls were grey and looked like they had been made

by stretching out images of walls in Photoshop. The window was so deep that you couldn't see the outside. It was more like a small hallway that sat halfway up the wall than a window. The doorway in the back was dark, darker than I thought my screen could be. It was almost like there was a complete black rectangle cut out of my screen. I was so confused by the visuals and it took me a moment and noticed that this seemed to be no sound. I turned up the volume on my laptop and listened closely. All I could hear was a distant, cold wind.

I looked at the name of the video. Throne room, 10 hour stream, 10 people watching. My unease from earlier came back, this time tinted with genuine fear. What would a stream that deletes all of his videos have bots? Just what the hell was this? I heard that strange breathing sound again, deep and soft. slow and sickly. My eyes darted around the screen, looking

for the source, that emaciated dog, but I couldn't find him. I don't know how, but I just knew he was beyond that doorway in the deep blackness. It felt like he was watching me. The tiredness overcame me with almost violent power.

I couldn't keep my head up. As my head hit the pillow, I saw the number in the bottom left update. nine people watching Before my eyes shut like bear traps I used the remaining bit of energy I had To yank the power cord from a laptop

In what felt like an instant My eyes shot open And I was screaming at the top of my lungs In a pitch black room I shook my head trying to snap out of it But I couldn't stop My throat was on fire As though I had been shouting for hours

There was a loud pounding at my wall Keep it down for Christ's sake It was my neighbour. I looked at my phone. It was 4.15 a.m., exactly three hours and 15 minutes after the stream had begun. I was still gripping the power cord on my laptop. I'd been unconscious exactly as long as my laptop had been on. I gripped my chest, hoping to calm my pounding heart.

My shirt and mattress was soaked in sweat. With a shaky hand, I plugged the power cord back into the computer. The screen came to life with exactly one frame of what had been playing on the screen before the computer died And My jaw dropped I couldn't be sure of what I saw and heard I thought the audio might have been glitched

But it sounded like a fraction of a second Of dozens of voices screaming in agony And on the screen for barely a moment I saw a bleached white face filling the entire frame twisting in agony eyes locked directly on where I'd been sleeping, then immediately an error message.

The image was so bright that it seared itself into my eyes, leaving an after image in the centre of my vision while I hyperventilated in my bed and backed into the corner of my room. Thinking quickly, I muted the speakers in case the stream came back again. I will never forget the face I saw in that one frame. I couldn't tell if my memory was deceiving me,

making me think it was worse than it actually was, but the after image that stayed in my vision said otherwise. The face was only barely human-looking. It was missing its nose, not like it had been severed, but as though it had been made of clay and flattened down with someone's thumb. Its enormous mouth was wide and horrific grin,

and his teeth were dull like a cartoons, and unevenly embedded in the cavernous walls of its flattened cheeks. His tongue writhed against the screen like a dream, drowning fish, and the more I thought about it, it was as if someone had flattened a human face between two panels of glass, like a slide under an enormous microscope. The image faded from the back of my eyelids, and with my shaking fingers, I refreshed the page. Cozy beach bungalow with wind sounds and rain, 10-hour stream 60 fbs HD, 9 people watching. The layers of the room was identical with the door in the middle of the window on the right

The style of the room was completely different though Cheesy, fake-looking bamboo textures covered the walls And there was a generic white couch against the left wall With that emaciated husky lying in front of it Staring at me At the window I could see a heavily compressed looping video Of a palm tree being assaulted by rain and wind The doorway in the back remained as dark as before

A pure black, darker than one I thought my laptop screen was capable of. Perhaps if I'd gotten the OLED model, it would make sense. But this was a work laptop, about as cheap as they get. I reluctantly took a screenshot and tried to brighten the image in Photoshop. I suddenly felt sick. The faint but unmistakable silhouette of a humanoid shape stood in the doorway. It stared like a lump of clay smushed beyond recognition, and his body so misshapen that I could have a good.

couldn't tell if I was seeing it from the front or the side. The worst part was the eyes, beady and uneven. I looked back at the video. I could see it now. The figure stood in the doorway, almost impossible to discern in the inky darkness. It was only visible because of the even darker black behind it and its subtle movements. It twitched and shivered unnaturally, and it was immediately clear that it was real, not a stock photo like the other things in the room. The speakers were turned off, but in my mind I could hear it, the awful breathing, pushing air in and out of that perversely misshapen head. I slammed my laptop shut. For the rest of the night, I laid in bed, too scared to move. My eyes were locked on the

cracked closet on the other side of the room, I kept imagining that grotesquely bent thing lurking in the shadows, and that horrible, diseased wheezing. When he was bright enough to see inside of that closet, I led out a deep sigh and shut my eyes hard, losing consciousness almost instantly. I found myself in a pitch black room, naked, with only my phone. The screen was cracked beyond usability. I shown it on the wall to try to figure out where I was. The walls were made of big, uneven stones, which were dripping wet. The ground was hard-packed dirt.

When I tried to look at the ceiling, I realized that there wasn't one, or that it was so high up I couldn't see it. When I tried to find adjacent walls, I couldn't. It was as if I was standing next to a stone wall that went in either direction forever. first thought was that maybe I was outside somewhere, but that was impossible. The air was too stiff to be outdoors, and there wasn't a single sound except for a deep droning noise coming from somewhere very far away. Perhaps a cave, but what cave has perfectly smooth flat walls? Before I could finish my thought, a light appeared in the distance, some height of the floor.

I followed it, not knowing what else to do. As I approached, I saw that the light was coming from the attic window of an entire house that was somehow inside this enormous enclosed space. I will never forget the feeling I got when I looked at that house. It was like a normal suburban house, but it was out of place, surrounded by hard-packed dirt floor with no natural light whatsoever. When I approached it, I noticed something odd about it. It was built from an ancient.

show white marble-like material. No, not built. Carved. Every detail, from the cladding to the bits of dirt to the wood grain on the door, were all intimately carved out of a white, hard material. I couldn't tell if it was stone or plastic.

I reached for the knob, expecting it to be inoperable, and to my surprise, it twisted. With a clack, The door opened. I examined the hinge of the door and found that it too was made of the stone-like material, as was the latch, the lock, all of it. It seemed impossible to imagine that such an intricate mechanism could be made from such a material.

My dim phone screen barely illuminated the white hallway, which glinted mysteriously in the dark. The inside, including the furniture, was all carved from the same white material. the art and photographs were recreated in painstaking detail in hard white. I picked a photo frame of the counter and a chill across the back of my neck told me that I knew these people. Seeing the photograph embossed in the material was so strange. It was a family, a mother, father and daughter. I tried to imagine what kind of tool could carve every hair on someone's head and this surface. The more I looked, the more I thought

that it almost seemed like something a 3D printer would produce but much more detailed. A disquieting scan of a real-life object reproduced in a soulless white plastic harder than any metal or stone. I put the strange object down, accidentally brushing against a piece of mail and it left a clean slice on the back of my hand.

At this hardness, something as harmless as a sheet of paper was like a giant razor blade. It was so sharp that I didn't feel any pain, just the warm blood dribbling out of it. I show my phone on the stairs. I didn't want to, but it felt like I had no choice. I started making my way up the stairs, noticing the white rug, glistening in hard white,

down to the individual fibers. My footsteps echoed in the hollow white stairway, and as I entered the second floor, it occurred to me that my ears were ringing. At the landing, around the corner, and suddenly the walls of the stone house felt more like a deep, ancient cave. A fear set into my chest as I teased one of the doors open. More of the same white, this time in the shape of a kid's bedroom, glistened before me.

The twin-sized bed, toys, bears, a half-finished puzzle, all of it was pure and white and hard. It was as if someone had made a 3D model of a bedroom but had disabled all the textures and lights. The closet in the corner of the room was ajar and its darkness menaced at me. For no reason other than a feeling in the pit of my stomach, I knew that someone was watching me from the darkness. I slowly shut the door and continued down the hall and as around the corner I was met with

a light that had brought me here, shining through the doorframe. at the top of the attic stairs. I heard a rhythmic noise coming from the attic. Thump, thump, thump, my heart was beating hard and my throat was dry. The light drew me slowly of the stairs.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the door to the kid's room crack open. I didn't dare pay any attention to it. I knew that something was watching me, and it wanted me to notice. Thump, thump, thump. As I got closer to the door, it started sounding wet, like someone pounding on a plastic bag of vegetables with a large rock.

I heard the door to the kitchen room open wider. I recognised the sickly breathing coming from behind me, and a bar to me knew that if I stopped pretending to not hear it, I would soon have long, sharp fingers ripping through my body. I continued up the stairs, and time stretched on while the thing watched me, and as I opened the door to peer inside the one lit room. My heart dropped. There was a woman inside. Her hair was in a neat bun at the back,

and she was sitting on the floor, repeatedly smashing a stone teddy bear against her skull. Several other fingers and toes were scattered around the floor in a circle around her. Her blood was the first bit of colour I'd seen in hours. Despite her face being mangled beyond recognition, and her eyeballs and teeth exposed in a horrified wide-eyed stare. I knew in my heart who it was. It was Becca. From behind me,

I had a disgusting, deep laugh and the patter of huge, misshapen feet ascending the stairs behind me. I leapt into the attic and merely caught a glimpse of the lumpy-headed entity bounding up the stairs. Its eyes white with sadistic hatred and joy, and its entire body moving in an unnaturally elastic manner before slamming the door shut and locking it. Immediately, the thing slammed into the door, chuckling like some kind of demented seal and pounding the door without mercy. I turned my head to Becca, who'd finally stopped slamming the stone toy into her head. In an almost calm trance, she noticed me and slowly picked up one of her severed fingers like a pen. She scribbled a message on the floor.

Not dream. As the door burst open and I was thrown to the floor. I caught one last horrible glimpse at the creature's bulbous head descending upon my body before awakening in my bed. My final screams and its laughter still echoing in my ears. My bed was soaked of the sweat and my leg muscles were brutally sore. My shaking hand grits my phone. I navigated the Becker's Facebook page. It had been deleted.

I felt an awful dread building in my stomach. A Google search of a name returned. news results of a young woman who'd been missing for several weeks. I clicked on one of the articles and the headline said, Horror scene in small town, a bloodbath with nobody. The photo under the headline was a three-story house in my hometown with caution tape surrounding the perimeter of the property. It was the house from my dream.

There was a video attached from the matching news broadcast. A woman's voice played over shots of the house being combed. to other police. A horror scene in a sleepy town of Peabody, Massachusetts. A murder without a body, straight out of a slasher flick. She spoke in that stereotypical

news reporter voice. The camera cut to a shot of the chief of police giving a press conference. We are shocked and saddened by this tragedy. It cut to a photo of Becker. The woman's voice came in again. The victim, Becca Sanderson, a 28-year-old woman and beloved mother and member of her community.

It cut back to the press conference when an older man was shakily reading from a prepared statement. We know you're out there, sweetie, and we will find you. The man said, his hands quivering. He took off his glasses for a moment to wipe the fog and tears from them. And to the sick, disgusting monster who took our baby away. Please, just let her go. Let my baby go.

He started breaking down in tears while another woman came up to the podium to help him down from the stage. The host's voice came on again. It's unclear if this was a murder or a kidnapping as the scene was a bloodbath with several of her severed fingers and toes being discovered in rooms throughout her help.

At that moment I locked my phone. I didn't need to hear any more. I knew. She wouldn't be found. I spent the entire day silently trying to pull. process the previous night. Every little sound startling me. I didn't shower or eat, and I couldn't even take off my shirt for fear of closing my eyes that long. I was on high alert and sleep deprived and terrified and terrified of something that I couldn't even comprehend. As the evening turned to night, I felt a dread set in. I tried so hard to stay awake, but as I passed out, I found myself again in that infinite dark room. When I shine my phone's flashlight, there were rows of plasticy houses as far as I could see. I knew he was out there,

watching me. I ran in a random direction as fast as my legs would carry me, and it could find a lit-up house. When I saw a marble house with a light in the window, I headed in through the front door, slammed it shut, and tipped a bookcase over to block it. Immediately I heard the thing slamming on the door and breathing loudly. I ran to the kitchen to try find something to defend myself with. A knife block, perfectly recreated in white, taunted me from the sterile counter. I grabbed the longest, sharpest knife I could find, and held it close to my chest, as I hid with my back to the fridge. Wake up, wake up, I whispered to myself, shaking wildly.

I heard the piece of furniture that I'd barricaded the door with slide mercilessly out of the way as the creature made its way inside. I was so scared I didn't even want to hear it breathing, let alone see that perverted smile. Without any thought, I took the knife and stabbed myself in the leg. I awoke immediately in my bed, with a pain searing through my leg. I ripped off the cover. A long gash ran through the length of my leg

and an equally long trail of red soaked into my sheet and mattress. I called an Uber and wrapped a towel tightly around my leg with packaging tape. The Uber gave me a board an impatient look as I lint into the back seat of a van, with extra towels to prevent any blood from getting onto the upholstery of a car.

At the hospital, the nurses struggled to get me to calm down, asking me how I'd managed to cut my leg open. I rattled unhysterically about cutting myself in my dream as they peeled the ruined towel from my wounded leg. We're just going to give you something to calm you down, I heard as the nurse's

struggled to keep me still. I saw a nurse flicking a needle and realized they intended to sedate me. I struggled and shouted that I couldn't go back to sleep. I felt a sharp prick and I was back in the endless, unnameable void, surrounded by perfect, lifeless houses. I quickly tried the nearest house, but his door was locked up tight. Peering through the window, I could see a man inside, tears staining his cheeks and blood covering his hands. I looked closer and realised most of his fingers were missing, as well as

one of his eyes, and the stubs were bleeding profusely. He held a knife in his mouth and attempted to cut off his thumb to no avail. I called out to him and he just looked at me with sad, insane eyes and went back to his work of fruitless self-harm. As I watched from the locked door, he tensed and started screaming. His voice muffled by the knife handle lodged in his his teeth. He tried to kick his way across the floor as a bulbous, fleshy thing emerged from the cellar door, mocking his struggles with his own deformed body. The creature lacked any arms and legs and shambled across the floor, gaining on him fast. Before I could register what was happening, it had latched onto his leg with its gaping mouth. Only a few thin black

hairs adorned his pale fleshy head, and it forcibly swallowed the man's foot and then his leg. I heard bones crunching, but its teeth didn't close around the man's leg. It was crushing his bone with just its throat and giggling like an overgrown toddler. At this point, the man dropped the knife and screamed in agony, trying to gnaw of his finger. I ran as fast as I could away from that horrible sight. The man screams hung in the air, as though I was still mere feet away from him. I needed to find a way to wake up. After checking ten doors, I finally found one that opened, and I immediately looked for a weapon in the kitchen. The first thing I found was a pair of white stone kitchen shears, and I stabbed myself in the leg with them.

I stab myself again and screamed out in agony, but I didn't wake up. As I wound up again for another strike, something wet caught my elbow and I dropped the scissors. They shattered on the floor. I looked behind me and saw it sucking in my bent arm, inching its way closer to my shoulder. Every agonizing inch brought with it impossible pressure. I was so scared that I grabbed the broken remains of the scissors and did the one thing I could think to do. I awoke to a room full of nurses, screaming and panicking. Warm paint filled my face and I couldn't see out of my left eye.

No, I didn't have a left eye. I destroyed it and fresh blood sprayed out over the blue garb of the medical personnel who surrounded me they screamed among themselves and at each other each of them swearing

they hadn't been anywhere near my eye they shuffled around wildly getting gauze out of the jaws trying to start the bleeding throwing away gloves they put on new ones pointing fingers as they went the only one who was calm was me

it was out of reach for the time being That was last week And I'm writing this to try stay awake I always hear them breathing And I feel them peeking at me From the corners of doors Every time I start falling asleep

I must injure myself more and more In order to wake up If I slip up and fall asleep And I can't find a weapon I'll use whatever I can Doors, gravity, a piece of paper Even my own teeth I can't go to the heart

hospital to have my injuries treated. They might put me under again, and I can't destroy my other eye, or I won't be able to run from it next time. The pain is the only thing that reminds me that I'm awake and away from it. It's become a kind of comfort. If you're wondering why I haven't asked myself, the reason is simple. Becker died before I ever entered that place, but I saw her Death isn't the end. That place is the end. I'm cutting this short because my eyelids are starting to feel heavy. And I'm running out of fingers.