Louna's Garden

nct horror night entry (loucat)

It's non-fiction <33 I entered under the name loucat so--

published: aug 11, 2021

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Have you ever thought you were safe from the monsters in your nightmares just because you're awake? 

 Ever since I was young, I usually experience sleep paralysis and reoccurring nightmares. There were times where I genuinely feared my life because I felt that there was someone else lurking around me—someone I couldn't see. I do wish he stayed in my nightmares because seeing him in broad daylight whilst awake is the most terrifying thing for me. 

 As a child, I recognized that I had a nightmare monster. A sleep paralysis demon as they call it. Not everyone had one and I remember having mine since I could remember. I never saw him clearly because he would always be hiding in the shadows, but I knew he was there whenever I woke up and couldn't move. 

It always adjusted to what I was afraid of and fed off the fear it gave me. They say that believing it and feeding it energy could manifest it and make it real. What if it was true? 

 The first incident occurred back in 2014 when I first moved to the Philippines. I was in a video call with a friend of mine. I was supposed to be alone in my bed, but there was someone next to me when I checked the camera. The face of a man stared at me through the camera with wide eyes. The smell of candles and fire couldn't distract me from the fact that it was just a head leaning on my shoulder. His skin was decaying and almost like it was burnt at some parts. I screamed for it to leave me alone as I threw my phone at my pillow. I thought it left, but the smell of candles and fire never left. He was waiting. 

 Some time passed since the incident. I was taking a shower when the lights suddenly went out. I didn't mind it because I clearly remember the storm from the day before damaging some of the powerlines. I used my phone as a temporary source of light. I called for my younger sister to bring soap and an emergency light for me and I heard her answer. 

A minute goes by and the bathroom door opens, but it was quiet. I thought it was my sister playing a prank on me so I told her to knock it off. Another moment of silence passes and I finally hear it—heavy breathing. Whoever was there was breathing heavily and it was getting louder.I was terrified at this point, so I shone my phone's flashlight at the curtains and saw something. I want to say someone, but it clearly didn't look like a person. 

There was a silhouette of something really tall with limbs too long for its body. It almost resembled a spider's limbs, only human sized. The smell of candles and fire filled the bathroom and I knew immediately it was the thing from before. The power turned on and I immediately finished washing up. 

All I wanted was to be out of that closed space. I hurried downstairs only to find out I was home alone. This thing continued to terrorize me both day and night. It would use my family's voices to call for me and would hide things like my brush or notebooks and would only give it back if I offer it something else. It still continued to watch me from afar in my nightmares, sometimes even playing the villain. On my last night before moving to our new house, I dreamt of it. 

 That whole nightmare I was running from that thing. It was the first time I saw it up close, and I can never get the image of it out of my head. Its eight legs were long and thin like a spider's as it seemed to struggle to hold its heavy body up. Each time it walked there was clicking sound that came from what I think was its joints. His torso had multiple heads of both male and female crying and screaming in pain. Although it had many heads hanging from its torso, the monster itself didn't have a head. Instead, the neck was just endless rows of teeth waiting to take my head. I don't know how, but I could also remember smelling candles and fire.

 I woke up before it could catch me. I woke up exhausted as if I actually ran. Once we moved, the incidents almost came to a stop. Almost. After two years of it just staying in my dreams, it finally came back. 

I was 'sleeping' and woke up because there was something knocking on the window above my head. The room I sleep in is on the second floor. After the third knock, whatever was out there banged against my window. I muster the courage to look at my window. There was a head just like the first time. A disfigured head with no eyes, but I could feel it looking straight at me. I 'woke up' from that nightmare and thought I was safe. 

The room smelled like candles and fire and I knew instantly it wasn't done. I saw a shadow at the bottom of my door and knew somebody or something was there. There were three knocks, followed by a long silence. The shadow began moving as whatever was out there started scratching on my door. Long, slow, desperate scratches as if an animal wanted to come into my room. I kept quiet and waited for the scratching to stop before going to sleep again. 

I've had this dream for more than a week, and each time the scratching grew louder and closer. The last one, however, seemed like the scratching came from my closet. I've been locking my closet at night, but I recently woke up with the closet and room door open.