THE WATCHER

Hello there. My name is Oliver Twitch. I am 25 years old, and I am not able to sleep on my own, due to a traumatic experience that I went through two years ago. I will pay you very well, and don't worry about other daytime jobs. It would be enough that you could do it full time. You just need to adhere to the rules of being a sleepwatcher, and guidelines can be found in the job description on their website. I hope to see you soon!

This was the message that I received when I signed up to be a sleepwatcher. My sister, Elena, thought that I was insane at the time: stay awake all night and get paid to watch someone sleep? She told me that I'd lost my mind. But we were young, only in our mid-twenties, (Around the same age as Oliver) and we needed some easy money. Elena had a part-time-job as a therapist, but it wasn't enough to support both of us. This opportunity was just too good to pass up. And who doesn't want a job where you get to stay awake all night and catch up on Netflix specials or YouTube videos in between checking up on a random person?

I'd found Sleep-Watchers.net like how anyone finds a job these days: through the internet. It had been the third or fourth icon that popped up when I typed "easy money job" into the search bar, so I'd clicked on it, hoping that it was what I was looking for. And boy, was it ever. I instantly signed up that very day, becoming a "Watcher," who, as mentioned earlier, was tasked with staying awake all night and watching your assigned "sleeper," under strict rules to not fall asleep or wake up the sleeper. The site did a VERY thorough background check on me; I had to fill out a document of information that I'd never posted on any website before, but this was a paying job. They couldn't have criminals logging on and stealing critical information about random insomniacs. I now had a small tab open on my computer screen that read: You are a Watcher, which I felt immensely proud of.

The job started promptly the next day, immediately after I had gotten the notice from my sleeper. I had agreed to start the video call with Oliver Twitch at about 8:30 that night, so I had plenty of time to get ready. Elena was still dubious of my decision, but still went out and bought me a six-pack of energy drinks to help me prepare. I slept hard throughout the day, and when I woke up around three in the afternoon, I was convinced that my first night would go well.

Time: 8:25 P.M.

By the time we were supposed to start the call, I had consumed enough caffeine to make a mouse go insane, but at least I wasn't sleepy in the least. Elena had told me that if the first night was a success, then she'd try to stay up with me as well, just to keep me company, which I appreciated. Oliver called me through the website, and suddenly, his face popped up on a webcam as I accepted the call. He smiled when he saw me, immediately introducing himself.

"Hi! I'm Oliver, but you can call me Olle. How was your day?" His sentence was rushed, forced, and his gray eyes were constantly moving, twitching left, right, left, right. I'd been around my sister long enough to know when someone was on an extreme caffeine high. I felt a pang of pity for this man, and I started to wonder what kind of terrible thing had happened to him that wouldn't allow him to sleep.

I tried to be as cheerful as possible in order to not make him uncomfortable, which wasn't hard. He was instantly trusting and seemed to perk up as soon as I spoke.

"Hello, Olle," I said nonchalantly. "My day was good, how was yours?"

"Great! I was so happy when I saw your application to be a Watcher, you know. I haven't gotten real sleep in months," Oliver told me, pupils flitting around like a nervous animal. He kept looking at the corner of his room, quickly turning around and checking behind him, as if out of suspicion. There was nothing to see, though. The only thing in his room was his unmade bed and a simple beige lamp on a nightstand.