Sleep Paralysis

"Stand up," you shouted at me.

I could feel your fear.

I could hear it, crystal clear

in your frantic voice,

stained with anxiousness

I was asleep, but my eyelids were open,

frozen.

I couldn't move and

my limbs were dead.

Too heavy to lift.

:

You stood at the corner of my bedroom,

tall and impossibly thin,

your face hidden in

the smoke, like a demon

:

"Stand up," you shouted. "Please stand up."

But I couldn't move, I was locked in,

stuck in

this prison I called my dream.

My nightmares tossed and turned as the

fire blazed and danced across the bedroom,

sending sparks drifting into the air,

like drowning fireflies.

:

"Stand up," you begged me.

Your voice was so dim and small.

You shook me with those long, thin hands,

but it was no use.

I laid there, frozen in time,

motionless, like a mannequin

and that was when

you grabbed my wrist

pulling me off the bed.

Smoke swirled around us, intoxicating, suffocating

the lungs of the air.

The world rushed past us in a blur of red and orange

as you heaved,

dragging my body across the burning room,

towards safety.

:

Now that you were close,

I could see your face clearly.

My eyes widened,

frightened

by the sight of you.

Your coal-black curly hair and

your skin as dark as cocoa.

Your hooded eyes.

You were a perfect carbon copy of me.

I was staring at my own reflection.

I blinked and when my eyes opened again

you were gone.

And I was alone.

:

"Stand up," I whispered to myself.

The familiar voice echoed through my bones,

every syllable etching itself into my soul

like a tattoo.

Suddenly, I could feel the life returning

to my limbs.

I stumbled through the burning room,

I felt the cold breeze kissing my face as I pushed the window open,

Fight or flight

I stepped out on to the ledge and jumped, escaping the fire

I was falling, falling, falling

from 70 feet in the air,

suspended in that space between heaven and earth,

between life and death.

I woke up before I reached the solid, unforgiving ground.