By: Yuleidys Marmol Gonzalez

Nighttime Demons

She never fell asleep early. If she was not finishing a task for the university,

she was reading a book or watching a series on her cellphone. Anyway, she never

fell asleep before 2 a.m. and frequently, when she was doing something really

interesting, she even did not sleep at all during the night. She got used to it

since she was a teenager and she began to read novels. As the stories were

really catching, she could not help spending the whole night reading even when

she had to go to school early in the morning.

That night was not the exception. It was almost 3 a.m. and she was reading the

last novel of her favorite writer. She was so immersed in reading that she had

forgotten she had classes in the morning “I have to sleep now otherwise I won’t

be able to get up early to go to university” she told off herself. Reluctantly, she

decided to put her cellphone away and sleep. It was a cold night due to the

strong breezes of that time of year. Because of that, she turned off the fan

and covered herself with a thick sheet. Unfortunately, she could not fall asleep.

She kept tossing and turning, her mind wandered about many worries making

impossible for her to relax and enter the wonderful world of dreams. She did

not know how long it had been like this but when she was finally falling asleep

she felt it. Suddenly something was stuck on her back. Something big and alive
was moving along it. The scariest thing about it was that she could not move her

body. She tried and tried to shake out the thing on her back but it was

impossible. Her voice seemed to have suffered the same fate. She could not

make any sound no matter how hard she tried. She was totally scared as the

thing on her back went up to her neck. She felt how a clawed nail hand wrapped

around her neck and began to squeeze. She was breathless and her lungs hurt.

The hand around her throat squeezed harder and harder. She wanted to fight

but her body and vocal chords were immobilized. She thought she was going to

die and she was so hopeless but suddenly everything faded away. The pressure

on her neck vanished and she was able to move her body and make sounds. She

immediately got up and turned on the lights. There was nothing strange in her

room. Everything was as normal as always. It seemed like she just woke up from

a nightmare. But that was not a nightmare; she was sure. She had had many

dreadful nightmares in the past but this was different. She was awake and

conscious of what was happening around her. It was a very lifelike experience.

She had a vague idea of what might be going on. She had heard her grandmother

talking about it; nighttime demons. Demons who steal your soul while sleeping;

she shuddered. It is not necessary to say that she could not sleep really well

that night. And the following days she was afraid of this happening again but

since nothing occurred she considered it an isolated event.

Unfortunately, a week later a new episode took place. This time, she was on her

back while someone was walking around her. Like the last time, she could not

move any part of her body or scream. She was trapped in her motionless body

while a shadow-shrouded presence was in the room. Feelings of fear and despair

at not being able to yell for help almost drown her. And then, as everything

appeared it also vanished. And now she was alone again in her room. At this

point, she was really worried about demons taking her soul away so she decided

to look up ways of protecting herself from them.

And then she realized.

What was happening to her was not as strange as she thought.

And the most shocking thing; there was nothing frightening in her room but in

her mind.