I jolted awake, my heart pounding in my chest, only to find myself once again engulfed in oppressive stillness. The room was gone, replaced by only blackness. Panic seized me as I realized I couldn’t move, like so many times before. My body was weighed down by an unseen force, wrapping around me, rendering me a helpless captive in my own bed. I blinked, and then I saw him.
Lying on top of me was a man, his face above mine, his eyes wide and unblinking. He was clad in a bright white bunny costume. An unknown source cast a sickly light upon his face, contorting features that I couldn’t make out. His presence exuded a sinister malevolence that clawed at my sanity.
The man’s voice—oh, that voice—emerged, dripping with sugary twisted innocence.
“Apparently… I’m your sleep paralysis demon,” he cooed, his labored breath on my face. “I… have no idea how I got here. I was asleep in my bed… and now I’m here… stuck with you.”
I strained, desperate to escape his weight, but I struggled vainly. The bunny man, his floppy ears twitching, observed me with a curious tilt of his head. “Are you scared? I didn’t mean to frighten you. I’m just as surprised as you are… really.”
The voice was absolutely nightmarish. The stare was even worse.
“What… what are you?” I managed, shocked that I was able to speak at all. I had never done it before. My own voice sounded weird too… twisted and childish.
The bunny man’s eyes glimmered. Was that a blink of darkness that seeped through the cracks of his charade? “As I said… I’m your sleep paralysis demon. Or so it seems. I’m not quite sure. It’s all so… deliciously… confusing.”
“Please, just leave,” I pleaded, my voice growing stronger.
His neck cracked weirdly. It reminded me of that haunting video of owls in a nest. “It… won’t… let… me,” he giggled and flopped his ears.
I had seen many things through the years with this condition. Shadowy figures, things pulling at my legs. But the most terrifying of them all was the one that always attacked from the corner of my eyes. The one that sat in corners, on the edge of my sanity. I always screamed when that entity appeared.
“Who…?” I croaked with absolute terror.
I tried not to let my mind drift there… but it went there anyway. I tried to look, to anticipate it. But nothing came out of the shadows.
My eyes returned to the bunny man. He smiled widely, dark sticky blood pouring out of his mouth. There was warmth in my groin area as I felt my bladder go, and I wondered if my mind went with it.
The bunny man licked his lips. His jaw opened and closed a few times. His eyes were even madder than before. When he spoke, his breath was even more labored and wet.
“The… the… thing that lies on top of me. Crushing… I can’t feel my legs. I’m afraid it’s gone to my head,” he giggled.
At that moment, other things penetrated the darkness. Faint sounds of sirens. Smells of smoke. Maybe screams? Or shouts?
I remembered yesterday. The fear on the news. The talking heads shouting at each other. My parents’ worried faces. Would they do it? It would be the end of everything.
I remembered all this, while the bunny man stopped breathing.
edit: grammar