☆ Visions ☆

Appearances - Chapter 6 -

I opened my eyes and found myself surrounded by a blanket of darkness, the moon casting a faint glow through the window.

"W-What time is it?" I whispered, my voice barely audible in the silent night.

With a weary sigh, I rubbed my eyes, feeling the weight of exhaustion settling upon me like a suffocating blanket. Inch by inch, I navigated my arm across the bed, fingers grazing over the cool sheets until finally, I found it. The bright light of the phone screen shon in my eyes, blinding me.
As I squinted at the screen, the time displayed in bold digits:

3:27 AM.

My heart skipped a beat. How could I have slept for so long? Anxiety crept into me. But wait, something was wrong.

I double checked my phone just in case, and that's when I realised the date.

19th April 2024

Finally, it came to me what the issue was.
I had been sleeping for more than a day

My heart lurched in my chest. It seemed unreal. Anxiety coiled in the pit of my stomach, a silent reminder of the passing hours. Usually, my sleep schedule consisted of sleep that only lasted 6 hours. I'm not that type of person to sleep for more than a day. I'm surprised my mother didn't even wake me up for school, I must've missed it.

I wanted to go back to sleep. I was so tired. It didn't really make sense. I felt tired, but I wasn't sick or anything. This was not mere exhaustion; this was something far more unsettling. My mind raced, grappling with the inconceivable notion of losing an entire day to sleep.

I tried to close my eyes but it was like my body wasn't letting me. My mind kept pushing me to get out of bed, and then that's when I realised something else.

As soon as I stood up, my legs started trembling beneath me. They started shaking intensely, even. It was not the chill of the night that caused them to quake, I thought it must have been something else. To be honest, I wished that I could just fall to the ground. It felt like there was a string at my neck. It was uncomfortable, dark, scary and painful.

All of a sudden, I heard a noise. At first, I couldn't discern its origin, but then my eyes fell upon the closet door, swinging open of its own accord. I figured it was just faulty because it did this all the time (or so I had convinced myself).
With hesitant steps, I approached the closet. I had to squint my eyes to see in the dark. Some night vision would be useful right now. I reached out and gently closed the door, careful not to disturb my parents. Who knows what would've happened if they woke up.

Just as I settled back into bed, the dreaded sound echoed once more, the closet door had opened by itself again, and this time it was even wider than before.

It was a bit annoying to retreat back, but I did. Once again, I stepped towards the closet door,. This time, I exerted more force, slamming the door shut with a thud. I wrapped myself in the covers and I tried to fall asleep again, but then I felt a force demanding me to get out of bed once again.

Frustration welled within me. I wanted to sleep longer. But I did what any teenager my age would do, and I managed to get out of bed.

With a trembling hand, I reached for my phone, its feeble glow offering me a semblance of comfort in the oppressive darkness. I stretched my back and looked at the back wall of my room.

My legs then started to hurt.

A lot.

A shiver ran down my spine, and then I heard someone whisper something behind me.

I hastily turned around and shon my Phone flashlight. I held it there for about 5-10 seconds, examining the area in front of me.

Okay, now I was definitely being paranoid.

I turned behind me and I started to walk around my room, like any other person would when they're having a panic attack. I haven't had one of these panic attacks ever since my name got called out in class to answer a question in mathematics.

I suddenly heard the voice again. It was a ghostly whisper, but I couldn't really make out what it said.

"H-Hello?"
I trembled.

I felt a breeze of terror wash me away. Every hair on my body stood up, and I was sure something was there with me.

Then I heard the ghostly voice behind me again.

This time, I decided not to turn around. Instead, I decided to speak out.

"A-Are you going to kill me?"

I felt the wind blow in my face again, and I finally heard a reply from the invisible figure.

"What? No...."

My eyes widened with surprise. This thing didn't want to kill me?...

"W-Well then. Show yourself!"
I exclaimed. I started playing with the hairband on my arm, trying not to stress out.

And suddenly out of nowhere, I saw a figure appear in front of me.

This figure wasn't scary or anything. It didn't have hollow eyes or blood dripping from all of its joints. It didn't have a sinister smile on its face, and it most definitely wasn't a humanoid creature.
This figure looked normal, kind of like a normal human. It had medium length hair, part of it tied up. It wore a large, buttoned jacket which looked like it was very old. The only abnormal things about this creature was that its left eye was missing, leaving nothing but stitches and a large swollen area around where the eye used to be. Another strange feature it had was that it didn't have a bottom half. It was just floating off the ground, its legs replaced by a tail. This person wasn't fully solid either, I could see through them like slime.

I examined them for a few seconds, my breath shaky. I came to a conclusion that this was a ghost. But I didn't want to judge though, so I figured I should ask.

"A-Are you... a ghost?"
I quietly whispered, making sure not to awake my family.

It looked at me with a confused but graceful look. It took its hand and touched its chest, keeping their other arm straight by their side.

"Well, what you do think?"
It joyfully said, floating up and down.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to reply with. I was really overwhelmed, I just didn't know if this 'thing' was dangerous. It didn't seem dangerous, but there is so much you could assume about a ghost.

"I-I'm guessing... p-probably...?"
I trembled. My voice lowered its volume at the end, just in case the creature wouldn't hear what I said.

The so called ghost creature just stared into me. It felt like they were staring into my soul, which scared me a little. But then, it seemed like the creature switched its brain back to reality, cause it finally looked into my eyes and regained its lost emotions back.

"You'd be correct then! I'm a ghost!"
The ghost cheerfully exclaimed.

I think I nearly had a heart attack when I heard that sentence. A... ghost? How is that even possible? I thought ghosts were just myths or a fantasy idea of what happens to you when you die. I didn't know they were...

actually real.

The stress really got to me in that moment. I watched a lot of shows, and I knew what I should do in that situation. I whispered to myself,

"Okay... O-Okay... It's fine.. This is all just a bad dream.. I-If I just go back to sleep then I-I'll go back t-to the real world.. this is just a d-dream.."

The ghost was just in the same place, turning its head in my direction when I crawled back into bed. I constantly told myself, "this is just a dream... this is just a dream... just a very real dream..."

I was scared as hell. What would you expect me to do in that situation? It's pretty much the only solution. I was just hallucinating and the closet was just a bit broken. Everything odd that has happened in the past 20 minutes was just a coincidence.

So I shut my eyes and tried my best to get to sleep, despite the facts that I'd been sleeping for a day.

So I slowly drifted away to sleep, trying to forget everything that happened that night.