Arms

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  I had a fear of the creature that stood in the corner of my room ever since I was a child. It still continues to sit there and stare at me from the corner, even though I am now married. My wife has never seemed to notice it, so I guess I am the only one who can actually see it. I've seen it my entire life, however, it still manages to fill my entire body with fear each time I glance at it.
  The creature had two long arms that stretched out even further then it's legs. It often reacted up to the ceiling and left its arms there, or it would leave them stretched out on the ground like two long snakes.
  The creature's appearance would literally paralyze me in fear. I would just lay there staring at the creature helplessly as its arms slowly crept and slithered. Its movements were extremely unnatural, of course, mostly in its arms. It would move its arms in grotesque positions that were impossible for a person to do unless their bones were broken and bent several times. It was almost like the creature didn't have bones in its body, but it clearly did based on the bones that could be seen on the creature's thin skin.
  This creature did not want to give up on me until I was dead. It constantly haunted me and it made sleeping nearly impossible. I dreaded going to bed every night because I knew that it would be sitting there waiting for me without me being able to do anything about it.
My fear quickly turned into anger once I began to notice that creature started paying attention to my wife. It was bad enough that I had to deal with this thing, but I was use to it in a way. My wife had no reason to be haunted by this thing. She didn't deserve to be dragged into it.
One night I saw it slowly inching towards my wife as she slept next to me. It extended its arms out and began to reach towards her neck. I wanted to scream, but nothing came out of my throat. I had to get rid of it. I wasn't going to let it control my life anymore.
I fought back as hard as I could against my body paralyzed in fear and began to feel my body move. Once I realized that I could move, I launched myself towards the creature that stood over my wife. I wrestled it to the ground and wrapped my hands tightly around its neck. I was going to kill this thing in the same way that it attempted to kill my wife. I was tired of being haunted for all of these years. This thing deserved to pay.
I clutched tighter and tighter against its neck. I was surprised that it was barley struggling and didn't seem to be fighting back much, but I didn't care. All I was focused on was this thing to stop breathing.
Eventually that did happen and it stopped moving. I let out a big sigh and lifted my head into the air, looking at the ceiling in relief. It was over. It was finally over.
Once I put my head back down again however, I made the worst discovery of my life. I was on top of my wife with my hands around her neck. She was dead. I didn't kill the creature like I thought I had, I had killed my own innocent sleeping wife.
I guess all of this time I was the monster. I had always been scared of my anger and what might happen. I swear I had always seen the creature. What I'll never find out is if the creature made me do this, or if I was actually that monster this entire time.

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