I am lost, or at least I feel that way. I wish I could accurately describe where I am so I could be found, but I don’t know if where I am is discoverable. I can still hear the scratching. I thought it would stop after I disappeared, but it is still pervasive and haunting. I try to peer around and locate the noise but to no luck. It wasn’t always this way. Things used to be more normal; well, relatively normal, but now everything is clouded by shadows and fear.
It all started when I read that story online. The story was a first-person narrative that was apparently true, about a haunting in the girl’s house. The ghost would appear as dark shadows, scratching on the walls; that’s how they would announce their arrival. These ghosts didn’t show up during the day; they only showed up at night and in your dreams. Her dreams were always graphic and horrible. The ghosts would slowly tear you apart limb from limb, removing you from reality. She would wake up every morning with a new limb missing until she was completely separated and torn from the world around her. She could still interact with things, and at first, people could hear her talk, but then her voice left along with her body to be consumed by the shadows. I thought nothing of this story, just another silly story to try and scare people before they fell asleep; I believed this until I fell asleep that night and had my first dream. I can still feel the pain from those dreams. I kept hoping the pain would subside as my body began to disappear, but it lingers to this day, never letting the nightmare end.
I finished reading the story, not creeped out enough, and fell asleep; that’s when this nightmare truly began. I remember hearing a faint scratching at my door before I fell asleep, but I just attributed this to my cat wanting to get in; I wish that was all it was. I remember awakening in my nightmare, not realizing it was one. I was paralyzed and couldn’t move my body. I felt panicked and scared, thinking this was sleep paralysis. I had heard about it before but didn’t fully understand the symptoms or how it felt. I darted my eyes around the room and noticed that everything looked the same, but that was when I saw a mist of shadows seeping from the corner of the room. I was lucid and aware and kept repeating to myself that it was only a dream. I knew that story had crept into my mind and was causing this nightmare; I wasn’t entirely wrong. I expected the shadows from the story would be more human, looking something like a ringwraith, but these shadows were formless and empty. I could hear scratching as they descended upon me. Shadows engulfed my right arm, and I could feel them beginning to pull. It felt like hundreds of hands gripping my arm as they pulled harder and harder. I could hear bones breaking, muscles tearing, and flesh ripping. I tried to scream, I wanted to scream, but when I opened my mouth, no sound came out; I had to lay there and suffer in silence. I remember feeling a splash of warm blood spraying from my arm and hitting my face. I was still paralyzed, but I shifted my eyes to see the shadows departing and a mangled stump of meat where my arm used to be.
I jolted awake in my bed, the pain still lingering in my arm, but I could feel my arm like it was still there. The pain remained unrelenting and throbbing, so I sprang out of bed and quickly ran to my bathroom. I switched the light with my right arm, still throbbing, and looked into the mirror. There was no blood, no mangled flesh, there wasn’t anything there at all. I looked back at the light, wondering how I turned it on with this empty space where my arm used to be. I could still feel the pain in my arm, and even stranger, I could still feel my arm. I knew then that wasn’t any ordinary nightmare.
The next few days were fraught with tension and sleepless nights. I avoided everyone, calling out of work so no one could see my condition. I didn’t know how to explain it. I went back to the story I had read and tried to find the person who wrote it, but with no luck. I browsed and searched on my computer using both hands. I refused to look at the missing phantom limb; it caused an eerie and nightmarish feeling every time I did. I had become adjusted to the lingering pain, but I couldn’t normalize being able to use a limb that wasn’t there anymore. I could also hear the scratching at all times during the day and night. I tried to avoid the noise by listening to music and putting in my earbuds, but it didn’t matter. No matter what I did or how I tried to drown it out the scratching remained persistent and pervasive. I lived off coffee, multiple cups a day. I was afraid to go back to sleep. The story mentioned how each night a new limb would be taken, sometimes more than one at a time. I couldn’t sleep knowing that I would eventually be ripped away entirely, but you can only avoid sleep for so long before your body decides it’s time.
The next nightmare was much more intense; it happened the same as before. I lay there paralyzed as the shadowy mist emerged from the corners of my room, scratching its way along the surface of my floor. This time I felt the tendrils of shadow grip both of my legs in their tight grasp and begin pulling, but this time the pulling was accompanied by the feeling of teeth eating their way into my abdomen. The invisible teeth ripped into my stomach while the shadows pulled and tore my legs from my body. It didn’t just stop at my waist; I was ripped apart entirely up to my stomach where I could feel the gnawing. Even in my paralysis, I looked down and saw my guts spilling out onto the bed, staining my mattress and blankets with gore and viscera. I tried to scream, but no sound would emerge from my mouth. The pain was, and still is, unbearable. I felt torn and empty. I awoke screaming again as before to the sound of frantic scratching on my walls. The noise was horrible and grating. I screamed out, begging them to stop scratching but the more I pleaded and yelled, the louder the scratching became. I lept out of bed to run from my house, and when I looked down at where my legs and abdomen should be, I saw nothing. It looked as if I hovered in the air without any support whatsoever. I stood there for a moment before collapsing onto the floor. I knew I could stand because, like my arm before them, I could still feel my legs attached to my body, but my mind couldn’t comprehend what it was seeing, and I just gave out. I reentered my nightmare, and the shadows finished their task, pulling the rest of me apart. I can still feel the shadows smothering me as they engulfed my face and tore my head from my body.
I am now nothing, just lost in the shadows. I awoke from the last dream and found a mirror only to see nothing. At first, I could hear my voice as I screamed in terror and pain, but eventually, my voice disappeared along with my body. Now all I hear when I scream is the sound of scratching. I’m sorry that you have read this to the end. I don’t know why, but I was compelled to write it. This story, like the one I read, will burrow into your mind and take you over. Beware. If you hear the sound of scratching in your bedroom while you lay down to sleep try not to close your eyes and try staying awake as long as possible. They will come for you. They will rip you apart, and you will join me in the shadows.