Growing up I was always told about when I was really young I used to sleepwalk. My parents told me from the age of three to seven I start screaming while in my sleep. My mother told me that I would scream like I was on fire. I never remembered anything the next morning which was good but it was still concerning behavior. Like many parents they sought out medical advice on what was causing my strange behavior. They were assured by the pediatrician that night terrors in children are quite normal and I should grow out of it. At eight years old I did just that and for the past 27 years I have been night terror free, that was until two nights ago.
My husband has been out of the state for the last few weeks due to work. I have the luxury of working from home so my day is spent mostly from the comfort of my couch or office. I had been noticing that I had been so groggy during the day like I had been getting no sleep. I thought being alone would give me the opportunity to do something weird and videotape how I slept. I figured maybe the dog was getting me up in the middle of the night and I would finally have the evidence to convince my husband to make the dog sleep on his own bed on the floor instead of with us.
I had a fairly simple setup. These days video recording equipment is relatively cheap so I got a night vision scope setup. I prepared for bed, plopped the dog in the bed with me, put on my nightmask, and went to sleep. This morning I was not prepared to see what I recorded.
I went to bed at around 10:30 PM. At approximately 11:13 PM my dog got up from the bed and ran to another room. At 11:15PM I sat straight up in bed. When I initially sat up my eyes were closed. I started to mumble to myself. I could not hear what I was saying so I turned the volume up on my computer and put my ear to the speaker. From what I could make out this is what I said in voice that is not my own:
“Yöllä tulen; päivänä minä juoksen. Sielusi on minun nousevaan aurinkoon saakka. Deattán on täällä sinua varten jälleen, lapsi.”
After speaking I arched back to the bed with great force. I started to claw at the sky like there was something on top of me. I was screaming. Oh god was I screaming. I was screaming with such force I would have thought I would be coughing up blood in the morning. I could hear my dog barking in the background, but he was greatly muffled by the movement and screaming in the bedroom. “Please stop,” was all I could make out from my screams between the sobs racking my body.
This went on for hours. Then, abruptly at 5:34 AM I sat back up in the video and started speaking in the voice that was not my own again.
“Päivä on tullut, joten jätän lomani. Oi, kuinka nautin vierailustamme. Sinun huutosi täyttävät vatsani ja kyynelesi sammuttavat janoni. Tulkoon yö nopeasti, kun kaipaan jo lisää.”
I sat in silence watching the static at the end of the video for some time. A steady stream of tears painted my cheeks as I thought about what I had just viewed.
At first I thought I was possessed by a demon. The language the other me was speaking was so foreign I thought it was some sort of speaking in tongues. Thanks to modern technology I was able to decipher the tape fairly quickly. Thank god this wasn’t a dead language. Apparently I was speaking in Finnish. I have never been to Finland, don’t speak Finnish, and I don’t know anyone who would have exposed me to the language. The closest connection I have is through my ancestry.
According to what I have found the first time I speak I say, “At night I come; by day I run. Your soul is mine until the rising sun. Deattán is here for you again, child.”
And the second time, “The day has come, so I leave my leave. Oh, how I enjoyed our visit. Your cries fill my stomach and your tears quench my thirst. May the night come quickly, as I already long for more.”
I have only had two days to research this. From what I can find Deattán is an evil Elf of the Sámi that sits on the chest of those sleeping and forces inescapable night terrors on his victims. Historians think that he is an allegory for night terrors and sleep paralysis. I don’t think he is at all. I think he is real and that he is coming for me again. I don’t know why and I don’t know how to stop him.
I am not sure how long I can stay awake but I fear that the longer I hold off the hungrier he will become. The sun has set and I am running out of time. I am so tired.