Aghh, no, no, not again; I've got an early start tomorrow! Zach had awoken in cold sweats, aching muscles and a pounding headache for the fourth time this week, each accompanied by a dreadful ringing in his brain that seemed more painful than the last. He cursed his insomnia and then his manager for inducing it, but another string of curses was primarily aimed at the strange dream he had been having lately.
He shook his head, trying to shake the headache and ringing away, but it had made it even worse. He groaned out loud, frustrated at being awoken so soon. He estimated he had only been asleep for about twenty minutes.
Zach knew that he would not be able to sleep again, so he might as well work on the report for the upcoming quarter. He stretched his arms, strangely sore and heavy, and reached for his bedside table to turn the lamp lights on, but as he did so, he found his hand had contacted nothing.
His brows furrowed, and he reached further by leaning his torso to the side, still nothing. But Zach was determined, and unfortunately, he fell onto the floor because of his lazy method of trying to reach for things. His body made a loud thud, knocking the breath out of his lungs.
"Ugh fuck!" He groaned once he could breathe once again; the sides of his head and right knee had hit the ground, making a loud sound. Bruises, he'll be covered in them by the morning. Great!
"Trust my luck!" he couldn't help himself from adding out into the dark as he cradled his knee like a child.
Zach lay on his side for a few minutes while massaging his temple and knee. He thought bitterly that it would look like he was in a brawl in his sorry state. He was unhappy about it since he had a group meeting at work and did not look forward to the questions he would be subjected to.
He rolled and turned to push himself up with his arms but was surprised to find himself trembling at his weight.
Still, he managed to stand to his feet but was surprised by his weakness since he frequently works out at the gym lifting heavy sets of weights, so doing one push-up shouldn't have taxed him so. Bewildered, he shook himself to awaken, chaulking it all up to being half asleep.
While standing in the middle of the room, he stretched his arms above his head, letting out a massive yawn, and felt his muscles awaken. After he twisted his head from side to side, hearing the satisfying cracking and crunching of his neck.
His stomach grumbled. Zach reached down to give it a cursory rub but noticed he was wearing a top. He found his brows furrowing once more at the confusion, for he usually slept in only his boxers; this job is doing a number on me, he thought absentmindedly. A strong shiver racked through his body; with that, the thought was gone, and another replaced it. There was a chill in the air that he had now detected. Strange...
He had found the coldness strange because it was the middle of summer, and although it was generally cooler during the nights, it wasn't freezing cold! It was as if his room had turned into a frigid refrigerator overnight.
Another three months! Then I'm really quitting and getting a remote job or something! Zach promised himself the same promise he told himself after the first month of working at his company. He only needed to at least finish the year to show on his resume that he had some experience, regardless of how little a year really was in the job market.
Now up and about, he tried to walk towards the wall where his light switch was, and after three steps, he ended up walking straight into a wall with a loud bang.
"Agh! What the fuck was that?!" he exclaimed in both pain and surprise. Taking at least a couple steps back. His room had become a death trap, taking him down tonight.
It was dark, but this had been his apartment for over two years, and when he wasn't working, he was home. So it was safe to say that he knew his apartment as well as the back of his hands, so he was well surprised when he walked into a wall that shouldn't have been there.
Afraid of hitting another thing, he reached out both his hands as he walked back towards where he was first headed, ensuring there were no more obstacles to stumble to or trip over.
As he slowly approached onwards, he had a begrudging feeling of dread, and when his hands felt the walls, a chill ran down his back, and the hairs of his arms stood to alert. Where the fuck am I?!
"You", a deep man's voice sounded from behind Zach.
He felt his eyes bulge open, trying to see in the dark with all his might. Though it proved useless since it was so bloody dark, still facing the wall that shouldn't exist, he slowly turned, glad to have the wall to press his body to it. Hoping that he could dissolve into it.
This time, the question on his mind was, who the fuck was that!
He lived alone, so he was definitely in panic mode. He didn't say anything. He didn't want to confirm it either, so he didn't know whether it was an intruder, ghost, fatigue or worse, he had gone insane, and it was an amalgamation of all those things. He was crazy, and he had hallucinated an intruder ghost to haunt him; either way, he didn't want to acknowledge it.
When fully turned, his back on the wall, he searched for where the sound came from. He noticed another strange feature that wasn't in his room before he fell asleep: the three small squares of windows covered by a tattered curtain that let a small stream of streetlight replace his sliding door to the balcony.
"God, I must still be asleep, having that shitty same dream", he whispered to himself to calm himself down. This must be what lucid dreaming was! He thought to himself, nodding profusely, trying to convince himself, but damn this feels waaaay too real.
Maybe he had conjured up that voice and- "four nights now", the voice spoke again in that same even monotone devoid of expression.
Okaay... time to conjure it out of this dream! Zach told himself, not knowing the rules of lucid sleeping.
"Four nights-"Nope, it didn't work, Zack thought in full panic mode now, "I have endured four nights of you!" the last word spat out.
Zach heard rustling, which sounded like sheets.
His face scrunched up. Wait, was he? No, was he sleeping on my bed? Fucking hell, I thought the purpose of lucid dreaming was that the dreamer had control of their dream!
He was perplexed at what his mind thought would be a fun dream.
After rustling, he heard the sound of feet hitting the ground. The man was getting up.
"Oh, hell no!" Zach almost shrieked. He couldn't even be embarrassed by the sound his throat had made.
This dream was slowly turning into a nightmare, and he was ready to wake up. If not, he would be forced to fight some man or monster in this weird dream, not knowing which one was making it worse, though Zach wasn't quite sure how he would prepare himself to fight a monster. He was sure about something; whether it was a lucid dream or not, the odds were never in the dreamer's favour.