I woke up with a pounding headache. Oh, great, another Monday. I got up, the sound of my alarm piercing through my skull. I quickly got ready and drove to work. Just as I thought I had managed to avoid the crazy conspiracy theorist, aka my coworker Shannon, she walked up to me, coffee in hand and eyes full of conviction, like she had figured out some long-searched-for truth about the universe. She started talking about the usual stuff, and by that I mean, what’s usual to her. That meant I was in for a never-ending monologue about aliens, lizard people controlling the government, big pharma, and some weird new theory that read like the plot of the movie Matrix. As I said, the usual stuff. After what seemed like an eternity, I saw Mark heading to the water cooler. I pleaded with my eyes for him to hijack the conversation and save me, and thankfully, he understood. ‘Hi guys. How was your weekend?’ he said with a smile as he approached us. ‘Listen, I’m so sorry to interrupt but… Steve, could you come down to my cubicle and help me with something? With me being new and all…’ Shannon nodded her head and let us go. Thank god. I could not deal with her and a headache at the same time.
The rest of the day was uneventful. I got home, cleaned up a bit, and lay on my couch to watch Netflix and relax. I also picked up a six pack, but that’s besides the point. I just about dozed off when I was jolted awake by the sound of TV static, the volume cranked up all the way. Amidst the visual snow emitted by the machine, there was text that read ‘WAKE UP. YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE.’ I rubbed my eyes – what does it mean, ‘wake up’? I’m already awake. I decided to go to the bathroom and basically brushed off the weird text. As I went through the house I noticed it just felt off. Like every last thing in it was replaced by a near identical copy of itself. I noticed shadows seemingly not produced by any object. I decided I was just half asleep and my mind was making things up. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched. I finally made it to the bathroom and as I looked in the mirror, in the dark hallway behind me I saw… me.
This…clone of me was standing there and watching me, eyes practically bulging out of its head. As we locked eyes it stepped back, turned a corner and disappeared. Making eye contact with that thing filled me with absolute dread. It felt like I had seen something I definitely wasn’t supposed to see. Naturally, as soon as I had collected myself, I searched the whole place trying to find that thing. But I came up with no results. It’s like whatever it was, was trying to observe me from the shadows and then dipped as soon as it was seen. It’s like it wasn’t supposed to be seen.
I lay down again. I realized something – this time the text on the TV read something different. ‘NOT SAFE HERE. CLOSE YOUR EYES. GO AWAY.’ I looked at the clock but the display was completely glitched out. It was still very dark outside so I figured I’d do what the TV said and close my eyes. I needed to try to get some rest for tomorrow anyway. And besides, it’s not like there was anything I could do about the situation. I decided I’d try to figure it all out the next day. Maybe it was some kind of hypnagogic hallucination, or so I tried to rationalize it. I managed to fall asleep, white noise still blaring from the TV. When I awoke the next day, everything seemed normal again. The TV displayed no strange text; there was no sense of dread filling my home. I laughed at myself for being scared last night.
I almost forgot about what happened until I woke up in the middle of the night again the next night. I decided to go for a midnight snack, ignoring the feeling in the pit of my stomach basically yelling DANGER. As I got close to the living room and kitchen I heard the white noise again. Now my heart was pounding harder than it ever had before. I took a deep breath and walked up to the TV. ‘GO BEFORE THEY FIND YOU’. That’s it. I won’t lie, I pissed my pants a little and ran straight for the bed. I closed my eyes and prayed it would work like it did the night before. One thing I noticed though, that seems really strange, is that when I caught a glimpse of my street through the bedroom window, there was no light coming from the lamp posts. I assume that’s why it was so dark last night as well. Anyway, the trick worked again and I woke up in my normal house to my normal life. I am hesitant to share this because I know people will say it’s all just bad dreams. But I have such a strong feeling that they’re not, as much as I would love to believe it’s all just a creation of my subconscious mind.
I plan to pull an all-nighter tonight, so I’m going to stock up on energy drinks, junk food, and watch a TV show to pass the time. I’ll try to keep my mind off of whatever the fuck this situation is, and the implications of it.