A Deep Sleep

I could see nothing. Had I gone blind? There wasn’t a light in sight and I couldn’t even see myself, despite having a clear understanding that I was there, existing. I look down and my whole body was...missing. It was as if reality itself was malfunctioning and the whole screen of life shut down, power off. Then, I heard a frail, soft voice....

“Jonathan, Jonathan snap out of it! Over here!” The voice was inconsistent, whispering one minute and fully yelling at me the next. I turned to its direction.

I was greeted with the sight of my wife. She was deathly pail and looked as if she had finished a marathon, trembling and panting.

“Jonathan please, please honey” she said. I was worried for her. I had no idea what she needed or wanted but I needed to get to her.

“Julia, whats wrong?” I asked in a concerning tone.

“Please...please...we need you, stop please...” she pleaded

“What? Stop what?”

She broke down, sobbing.

“Just let them go...don’t let the monster consume you...”

I sat with her, cradling her while she lay in the fetal position, still sobbing. What monster? Consume me? I turned to look behind me out of suspicion and pure fear. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I look back to my wife, she was gone. Then, a shriek. Her shriek.

I jumped up and prepared to protect her, where were the kids? I turned in every direction and, yet again, nothing but darkness.

I must have stared at the darkness for hours, trying to figure out everything.

“JOHN!” A British woman screamed. “JOHN! JOHN GET OUT!”

She appeared right in front of me, relieving me from the hassle of aimlessly searching for the source of the voice in darkness. I had never seen her before, she was a beautiful rose. A light skinned black haired beauty. A candle flair in despicable darkness. Why was she yelling? Why was she so distraught?

“May I help you ma’am?” I concerned, was I in her house? No, as I looked around I still found familiar darkness.

The rose blossomed and turned into flame. A lustful desire for more blaze led me to dipping each petal of the flaming flower into a lit candle. Petal by petal, flame by flame, the rose was no more. She turned purple, the color of love. A mixed candle lit dinner of formal and sloppiness, an amazing experience. I remembered the familiar thorns in her beautiful stem that I seemed to take extra care of before, then picked off one by one. As the rose proceeded to burn, no protection on it now, I laid and watched, delighted, until the rose turned to ash. The ash blew away.

I was in some kind of trance I didn’t want to break out of. It was a brilliant foolhardy mixed with escapism. I desired more.

My direction was switched however, to my young daughter, Fern. Fern’s bright blond hair glimmered as the fire, along with the ashes, blew away. Fern was accompanied by her brother, Nick. Fern, who was older than Nick by only 1 year, had come up to me, innocently holding her favorite stuffed bunny.

“Daddy,” she uttered, “where is mommy?” I froze, how was I supposed to answer if I don’t know?

“She...er...” I stammered, looking for the right words. “She’s taking a shower, a long one.”

“Why is the shower not on?” She questioned, dropping her bunny to the immense darkness. Crap, why does my 4 year old have to be so observant? Why can’t she just believe what I say and not question everything I do?

“Because...she...” I struggled for an answer. Fern looked at me with her deep brown eyes that anyone could fall into. Then, the horrifying happened.

“Turn the shower off daddy.” She ordered, seeming like a Drill Sargent than my young daughter. Before I had time to decipher her demand, her face morphed. Morphed into a...demon like figure. Eyes missing and blood pouring out. She wasn’t screaming, yet her mouth had drawn all the way back to her ears and fell to her chest. Her hair was a deep white now, her face too. I focused my attention on Nick now, absolutely terrified.

Nick was just standing there, as if not even there, disconnected perhaps. He was staring at the ground, well actually downwards considering the endless darkness surrounding us.

Nick’s neck turned inhumanly, head harshly tilted to the left. The top of his head touched his arm, ears touching his collarbone. The most terrifying thing though, was his wide grin. Sure Fern also had gained a drawn out mouth too, but Nick’s was different. He had sharp teeth, sharp as knives. Much like Fern’s, his mouth was drawn to his ears, but still stayed on his face. The most terrifying thing however, were the maggots crawling out of his mouth and ears.

I felt sick. I fell to the ground, crawling away from my kids in utter shock. I closed my eyes and began bawling. Sobs I had not released since I was a toddler, sobs that I had never really heard myself cry, sobs that not even my kids in the baby years could vocalize.

I laid, laid on the darkness as I fell into a great dose of fear and terror, something I had never really experienced before.

It felt like days. Still laying in that same position, scared. Feeling their presence I had a sudden urge to submit myself to them. They had not made any advances to me since they had morphed. Until then.

They had walked over to me, still in that horrific state of being. Fern was the first to enter. She simply entered me, like a ghost or a spirit. Then Nick followed, doing the exact same. I cried as they stood me up and propped me for my awakening. This was it. It would all be over. Or so they made me believe.

“The nightmare will be over now, we had a great time possessing you, goodbye.” The said in unison, their voices had a unfamiliar unnatural style, almost as if they really were subhuman...

I woke. Panting, crying, sweating and trembling, I awoke. I looked around. I was in my house, in the bathroom, not the darkness. Frantically I looked for my wife. Before I could begin searching for her, I had noticed my body, doused in blood. I felt fine however, not a scratch was on me as I could see. As I realized in horror, it was not my blood, it was someone else’s.

After that thought, broke. I broke as I looked down and saw my wife, Julia. I broke as I saw her blood draining from her slit neck. I broke as I saw the love of my life, motionless on the bathroom floor, hand in hand with another woman. I broke as I remembered her beautiful face that night, their beautiful faces. I broke as I saw them both, unable to have them again. I broke as I saw the rose’s midnight hair, on fire, her body lit in hell’s blaze. I broke as I realized I never had had kids. I broke as I saw both lives leave their souls.

I broke as I awakened from a deep, deep sleep.

[CI]Epilogue: this story has no exact meaning or underlying theme. It is simply what you make of it. It is up for interpretations and I would love to hear your theories and feedback. Constructive criticism needed. Thank you for reading my first horror story.