Before your eyes are open, before you’re even sure if you are awake, you hit the alarm. You don’t have to be conscious to hate that cacophony. Today was not going to be fun. Mostly because it felt like you hadn’t gotten much sleep at all, even though you swore you were trying to get to bed earlier.
You started to wake up, first by moving your toes around, then your arms, and finally after about a minute of internal debate over the necessity of waking up at all, you sit up in bed and rub the sleep out of your eyes.
Standing up, after stretching out your arms you open your eyes. And then you looked at the bedside table and realized something.
2:47
The alarm clock read 2:47
What?
You rubbed your eyes. It probably said 6:47. Your eyes were still half closed, and the sleep was probably blurring your vision. But when you looked at it again you saw it clear as ever.
2:47
The alarm clock read 2:47.
This wasn’t making any sense at all. You’d been woken up at the same time by this clock for the past six months. Why would it wake you at 2:47? You thought back to the events that had happened so far. You were asleep. You heard it and pressed the alarm clock off. You woke up. And now it was 2:47.
But that couldn’t really be true. Could you remember the sound your alarm made? Yes, of course I do, it’s horrible. I’d much rather forget it and sleep in. But do you remember the sound your alarm made today?
It took a moment of stunned silence in my brain, but you realized you didn’t remember. You didn’t remember what sound the alarm clock had made tod-
2:48
A small clicking sound at that same instant. But not from the clock. From behind you. You turn around to look at the closet door. It was about halfway open. Another clicking sound came from it. This one was louder. Or was it louder? Maybe you had heard it louder because you were focusing on it.
But after a third click you knew for sure. It was definitely getting louder.
You expected a fourth slightly louder than that, still probably at a whisper, but noticeably more than the last, but it never came. Instead the door slammed open and the cacophony started again.
You hit the alarm and nearly jumped out of bed.
6:00
It took a second for your eyes to fully realize it, but the thin strands of light coming in through the blinds satisfied you enough. It was finally morning.
You had heard the regular alarm beeping this time. You were sure of it. Letting out almost a small chuckle, you realize that it was probably all your imagination. Just a nightmare. That’s all it could’ve been. Who hasn’t had that one dream about waking up before right?
But then you swore you had closed your closet door before going to bed last night. It was still open.