Ghosts/haunting.
Thanks to @jerrybanfield for the opportunity to share my life experience.
This is my article in the contest the Supernatural Writing Contest(SWC) by @jerrybanfield.
After a very stressful day at work, I finally decide to perform my normal ritual of retiring to the comfort of my apartment. Getting to the door post, I pause for a moment driving through memory lane to recall all that I suffered the previous night. Standing still deep in thoughts with the strong hands of fear gripping me, my face looking pale as anxiety flows through my veins, theres only one thing on my mind, how will I survive another night in this room?
Courage builds up in me as I immediately snap out of the thoughts and dip my hand into my bag to pick up the bunch of keys to the apartment. I insert the key gently, unlocking the door lock as I make way in. Sitting on my couch and staring into thin air, the memories flash back, this time with a stronger momentum than before. It all started last night as I lay on my bed after a long days work. At first I thought I was hallucinating but later realized it was more than that, a mysterious nightmare had hit me.
Still pondering over last night, I fall asleep again and suddenly, the previous night replicates itself. There's something on top of me, I can feel it. It's warm and heavy and has a heartbeat.
My eyes are heavy as lead and as much as I try, they won't open. Something pushes open the window and a gentle breeze rustles the rickety window frame. Breeze, so gentle it freaks me out, moves over my face as if it has a hand and a mind and only then am I aware of how my brows hurt from squeezing them and the beads of perspiration that dot along my forehead.
My heart is pounding furiously like my body was a cage and it wanted to be let out. My eyes are closed but I can feel something move across the room, silently, gliding as if carried by the wind. I find myself struggling to move any part of my body but its unresponsive. My hands feel like they've been weighted with chains attached to wrecking balls. I feel like an anchored ship restricted by the resistive force pulling it back
Finally, he calls my name.
JOSEPH! JOSEPH!! JOSEPH!!!
I say it's a he because thats the closest guess to the sound I'm hearing. The voice is deep, like a rumble of thunder yet so faint it barely grazes my ear. I want to scream but my voice catches in my throat and then begins to choke me. It feels like it's something I can neither spit out nor swallow, firmly wedged in my throat, it suffocates me, depriving me of oxygen, Im about to be asphyxiated as I try endlessly to take in air. I try to move, no response from my body at all, my body feels numb like stockpiled logs of wood. I feel quadriplegic and I'm dying. My mouth is snapped shut and my nose seems to breathe out rather than breathe in air. My head feels heavy and I can feel my eyes bulging out of their sockets.
I'm dying.
I begin to feel like I'm falling down a long, dark tunnel, a bottomless pit with the wind howling as I shoot further and further downwards.
I'm dying.
I'm drifting into unconsciousness when suddenly, my eyes snap open.
There stands a tall black figure looking fierce and gruesome.
No! No!! I exclaim He's there; He's there, in the room. I don't want to see him. No! But my eyes won't close, they stay wide open and I'm forced to look at him. He calls my name again.
JOSEPH! JOSEPH!! JOSEPH!!!
My heart is pounding furiously; I can feel the blood running to my fingertips and toes. He looks at me and tries to smile, he has no mouth. His face is a white masked completely devoid of eyes, nose or any other facial features and it's completely hidden under a black cloak that looks like a fog. It in fact is fog. He treads around the room, the black fog rising from the underground and swallowing everything in its path. He paces about the room creeps up the bed and snakes towards me. I try to gasp. No response. My eyes are equally unresponsive. Sweat is trickling down my head now with cold chills running down my spine and he just stands there grinning facelessly.
JOSEPH! JOSEPH!! JOSEPH!!!
He calls out again and this time, dissolve into the fog that's making its way up the wall of my room. His white face has melted partly into the smoke, leaving only black holes where eyes should have been. The fog goes all the way across the ceiling and begins to come down at the head of my bed. I try to turn, to arch my head up to see where he's going but I'm immobilized. I can only wait with my eyes wide open for what's going to come.
I don't want to die. I'm thinking to myself. The black fog is at my ear now and it's like a hot flame licking at my skin.
JOSEPH! JOSEPH!!
Finally, my mouth bursts open and the first sentence comes out in a whimper, "Leave me alone, please." I feel hot tears escape from the corner of my eyes.
JOSEPH! JOE!!
His words are not completed this time but are instead drowned in a furious howl that blows the window open forcefully. The black fog recoils from my bed and shoots back along the ceiling down to the other part of the room.
Finally, my hand frees up and as I move my finger, he howls as if in pain before the black cloud rolls up and shoots out of the window.
I jerk up in my bed, perspiring and panting heavily. I curse silently as I feel the warm, sticky liquid between my legs. This is why I never want to fall asleep.
He has performed the intent of his heart. The incubus has taken something away from me again.
.
.
.
.
He always comes back…
Your writing is nicely done I actually got scared. Kudos to you!