nightmares

“Hunny, what’s the matter?”
I jumped at the sound of her voice coming from the unknown depths of the dark. As my eyes began to readjust to the darkness, I could just barely make out the silhouette of her body lying next to me.
“Im fine, Im fine.” I choked. “Go back to bed.”
My mouth was oddly dry and I could feel each individual ridge on my cracked lips. As I shakily got out of bed, every pound of my body began to put a great deal of pressure on my feet. Unsure of how I was going to find the strength to lift my weighted legs, I started to the door. I made my way into the bathroom, and couldn’t believe my eyes when forced to look at the image staring back at me. I had dark circles under my eyes that had started to accumulate when the dreams had first started coming. It was deadly obvious how little sleep I had gotten in the past month. My hair was beginning to turn gray, and even though most people would believe it came with age, I knew it was from the stress that pounded me every night. My once muscular physique had become deathly thin and skeletal. My shirt clung to my body with pounds of sweat to hold it there. I couldn’t bare to look into my own sunken eyes any longer, so I forced myself back into bed with my beautiful wife.
         Sitting in the dark, I thought about the past few weeks. The horror, the nightmares, the insomnia. With more nightmares came more horror and yet even more insomnia. The body needs sleep. Without sleep, strange things begin to happen to your body. Your eyes are forced into your head, and the farther they get, the more sleep you lose. I think this was the plan all along. They want me to lose sleep. They know that if I lose enough sleep, I will eventually be sucked into my own eye sockets. They watch my every move, and they know my every thought. They’re always around the corner, and always in every nightmare. When I close my eyes I can see them, and when I sleep they know how helpless I become. They always follow close by and influence my every decision. I know they want me dead, and they know I know.
         Before I knew it, light was seeping in through the cracks in the curtains, slowly filling the room. I haven’t moved an inch, and I haven’t blinked once. Slowly but surely, they drain my body of life. I have become nothing but a body. A body without a life, a body without a soul. As I let my sockets slide over my dried out eyes, they flood my mind with visual thoughts.
BLOOD! BLOOD! MURDER! BLOOD!
My wife’s body is hanging lifeless from hooks attached to the walls. Her blood is slowing its steady drip as the pool underneath her begins to grow larger.
I force myself away from the horror picture show running through my mind just in time to stop myself from grabbing the shotgun from underneath the bed.
No!! I wont kill her!! Fighting with them is like fighting against the forces of gravity. I could feel all the muscles of my brain telling my arm to stop moving, all the while my eyes are simply watching as I keep reaching for the gun.
“Jackie! Jackie get out of here!”
         As Jackie sat bolt upright in bed, her eyes became fixated on the gun and I could see the color drain from her face. As she quickly untangled herself from the blanket, I noticed the gun was in my hand and they were telling me to shoot her now. With the one ounce of strength against them I had left, I did the only thing I could think of.
“I love you Jackie.”
         Before they could fully take over, I turned the gun upon myself, and in a moment, it was done.