Situation.
Awake. Must be early morning. Hear closet door open. Sense something on the other side of the room. Near the door. The usual place. Try to move; know it’s no use. Same routine as always, though you’ve never quite grown accustomed. It’s the immediacy of the thing. The thing in the corner near the door. It isn’t really there, the apparition; a misfiring of a primitive part of the brain. You know that even though your senses are screaming otherwise.
Affirmation.
You’re fine. Don’t panic. Relax. There’s nothing there. It’s all in your mind. Soon your body will get with the program and you can return to sleep. You’ll barely think of it in the morning. There’s nothing there. Nothing by the door, nothing making its way to the foot of the bed. You don’t hear a thing. No footsteps. You’re perfectly fine. Relax. It’s all in your mind. Focus on how fine you are. Lucky, really, when you think about how worse off most people have it. Just don’t look. You don’t have to look. You used to look and that just made things worse. Where did your brain even come up with what you saw anyways? No more horror movies. Eyes closed. Relax. You are okay.
Breathe.
Deep breaths. Focus on the sound of your breathing. In through the nose. Hold. Exhale. Repeat. Just you, in bed, breathing deep breaths. Not the sound of lip smacking. That isn’t really there. No need to panic. This happens to lots of people. Deep breaths. Your breaths. Not the sound of breathing coming from the foot of the bed. There is no sound coming from there. No dark mass looming over you. It’s probably a good two feet taller than it was when it first appeared by the door. It would always grow when you looked. But you wouldn’t know because you aren’t going to look. Eyes closed. Deep steady breaths. Soon you’ll come to and you’ll see that there wasn’t anything there.
Move.
You are doing great. Perfectly safe. All alone. Fingers don’t work. Focus and they’ll soon respond. Such a simple thing. Just wiggle a finger. Raise a hand. You do it all the time, it’s effortless. Automatic. First the right then the left. Wiggle your fingers, raise your arms. Jazz-hands away the thing that isn’t there at the foot of the bed. Just you breathing, moving your fingers. Good thoughts. Summers at the beach. No looming terror. Nothing to be afraid of. Nothing placing its palms on either side of your feet. No weight compressing the foot of the mattress. No lip smacking. Just you. Alone. Safe in bed.
Count.
Five. Deep breath. Focus on moving fingers. Exhale. Pointer finger, right side. Focus and try to wiggle. Not happening. Try again. Inhale. Four. No palms walking their way up on either side. No weight on the bed. Just you. Exhale. Pointer finger left side. No connection. Wiggle toes. Dormant. Don’t look. Nothing to look at. Just you here. Wake up. Inhale. Three. Lip smacking isn’t getting louder. No unintelligible whispers. Tomorrow is going to be a good day. Take the day off if you want. You deserve it; been working hard lately. Twirl right thumb. Pinch yourself awake. Exhale. Two. No weight on chest. Breathe easily. Light as a feather. Can move fingers if you focus. Inhale. Concentrate. Not panicking. Nothing to be upset about. One. Fingers twitch. Raise hand. Exhale. Not feeling grasp of another hand. No cracked skin against your palm. No broken nails pressing against your wrist. No reason to get excited. Not being pulled from bed. Best not look. Not on ground. Still in bed. Not being pulled towards closet. Snug as a bug. Alone. Can take day off. Sleep in. No mouth noises. No unintelligible languages. Not being dragged across floor. Closet door definitely not open. You always double check. Still in bed. Best not to look. Eyes closed. Definitely not in closet. No foul odor. Closet door not closing. No sound of a blade scraping a whetstone. Safe and sound. You are doing great.
