When I Can't Sleep, I Look at my Phone (Part 2)

Part 1

When I woke up after that bizarre out of body experience, I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. My body was still aching like it needed more sleep, but I suppose that’s what it feels like after staying up for so long beforehand. I lied in bed for a while, just blinking up at the ceiling. I checked my watch to make sure I had the date correct. I hadn’t gone back a day, like I was worried I would have, but time travel isn’t real so I knew better as soon as I saw it. I heard the muffled meow of a chubby cat trying to shove his face under the crack of the door and figured it was time to get up.

I checked my phone. I had missed a text from Sam saying she was in a rush to leave so she never got to feed the cats. No problem, I could handle that. I opened the bedroom door and there was a blur of fuzz and noise beyond it. I think that when the cats get hungry they just fight each other until they get fed. I don’t know why. I stopped trying to understand cats a long time ago. I walked to the kitchen to grab their bowls. I scooped the smaller cat, Pablo, under my arm and grabbed Silver’s food bowl. I put down Silver’s food and closed Pablo in the bedroom while I got his food ready.

I thought back to the time we found out that Pablo had what we believed to be a lower urinary infection that turned out to be a lower urinary tract disease instead. It’s the same concept, but he has it for life. It’s also the same time I found out that there’s such a thing as prescription cat food, which Pablo now needed forever. I carefully measured out his portion and carried it to the bedroom. When I opened the door, I kept the fat cat (who enjoys eating this expensive food more than his regular food) at bay with a leg and stepped in quickly.

Normally Pablo comes running up right away to rub on my leg, but he sat on the bed staring the opposite direction, at the room darkening curtains. He gave no notice of my entrance, and wasn’t the least bit bothered by Silver’s cries at the door. I set Pablo’s bowl on the floor and called his name. There was a slight ear twitch in my direction, so I know he heard me, but he didn’t change positions. I picked up a piece of his food intending to throw it at him, when I saw the curtains move slightly. Maybe Sam cracked open the window before she left. I stepped forward and checked behind it.

Nothing. The window was closed, and nothing was behind it except for the view of the parking lot. I stuck my head back out and saw Pablo looking right at me from the same spot.

“What’s wrong with you?”

All I got was a meow.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

Another meow.

“Use your words!” He starred at me and purred. “Okay, time to eat, dummy.” I grabbed him and set him on the floor next to his food where he began eating happily. I went for the door to let him eat in peace when Silver tried to shove his head through. I shooed him away with my foot. “Back you beast!” I cried while trying to stay the 18 pound hungry hippo. “You’ll be throwing up on the living room carpet one foot away from the kitchen tile, ya asshole!”

Eventually Silver gave up and went back to his food. I plopped down on the couch and sighed. I checked my phone and knew since work didn’t start until 3pm and it was only 9am that I could squeeze in a nice little two or three hour nap with no issue. I definitely needed it. I sent Sam a text back letting her know the little hell-raisers were fed, and I lied down on the couch. Silver decided he would join me, and he curled up next to my feet.

I was standing in the bedroom again. Everything was dark, but not like it was night time. Those curtains are incredible. But why was I in the bedroom? Didn’t I just lie down on the couch? I went to step forward when I noticed a dark figure on the bed. It was Pablo. He was staring right at me and not making a sound. His tail was unusually still. I could hear cat food being filled in to bowls from the other side of the door.

Pablo must have been staring at me when I went to feed him earlier. It made about as much sense as it sounded like it did, but that must have been the case. I could hear myself coming up to the door and I panicked. I looked left and I looked right, but ultimately I decided to hide behind the curtains. I don’t know why I thought that would work since they only went as low as my waist, but I don’t remember seeing myself in here earlier so it must have been a great idea.

It was much brighter on the other side of the curtains. Not blinding, but uncomfortably so. This other version of me must have had terrible day-vision. I heard myself open the door. I could just feel Pablo staring at me, living this moment again from the other side. What the hell was happening?

I woke up on the couch, feeling like I had been hit square in the face. My head was pounding and Silver was long gone, leaving me for a higher perch up in the cat tower. I could hear Pablo meowing to get out of the bedroom. A part of me thought that dream me or ghost me or whatever the hell might still be in there. I yawned as I checked my watch. 2:25pm. Shit.

I had half an hour drive ahead of me so that gave me five minutes to get ready. Trying to get ready with sleep-brain is not exactly the easiest thing to do. I’m pretty sure I put on two different socks, but at least I covered both pits with deodorant. The cats were fighting after three minutes, and I was out the door in seven.

I may have done a small amount of speeding to get to work on time, but that was where my speed ended. I just know I was dragging ass that day and everyone could tell. My go-to response was that the lady was keeping me up all night, when really I was reading stories about a cow and a horse being best friends or some shit. They didn’t need to know that. I put in my time and I made it back home for some much needed rest.

Sam was asleep when I got home. I thought I would be right behind her. How wrong I was. I lied in bed, tossing and turning in a silent rage. I was pooped. How the hell could I not fall asleep? So I grabbed my phone, hoping to bore myself into a coma. I mindlessly clicked on picture after picture. Meme, some recipe that looks cool that I’ll never try, maybe a self-proclaimed life hack that’s more trouble than it saves. I was sure sure I wouldn’t remember half the crap anyways. But sleep never came. Maybe I was scared I would have another dream where I’m watching myself. Nothing bad happened, but it felt so real that it was unnerving.

It was then I noticed my face was wet and I could taste an odd familiar metallic copper type taste. Blood? I reached up to wipe my lip. Yep, that was blood. I sat up in bed and felt it pouring from my nose. I plugged it with my hand, but there was too much to stop it all. I grabbed a shirt from the floor and held it to my face while I ran for the main bathroom. Why I didn’t use the one attached to the bedroom is beyond me, but sometimes when you’re bleeding, you aren’t thinking straight. I was at the sink and washing my face when I heard Sam screaming dark and guttural as if being woken from a bad dream by something even worse. I bolted upright and ran from the bathroom, putting the bloody shirt back to my face. She screamed loudly again, more out of frustration. The door was cracked slightly so I pushed it open and quickly flipped on the light switch. Sam grabbed a pillow and threw it violent towards me.

I stepped aside once it registered that she was throwing the pillow at the cats instead of me. They must have gotten in when I ran out. Sam put her head in to her hands to shield her eyes from the light and groaned deeply. “The fat one jumped on me.” She looked up at me and gave me a horrified look.

“What?” I asked nasally, forgetting I had a bloody shirt pushed up to my face. “Oh…nosebleed. I don’t know why… Love you!”

Neither of us could sleep for the rest of the night. She told me that she was having a bad dream before she woke up. I told her that I had been having some weird dreams as well, but when I asked what hers was about, she wouldn’t say. She didn’t bother to ask about mine, so I didn’t offer to tell her. I gave her my sympathies and some extra covers, but we talked about happy things the rest of the night.

The following day was rough for both of us. She had the day off so she napped intermittently throughout, but Pablo had gotten sick in a few different spots throughout the apartment. I had another day of too much coffee and trying not to fall asleep at my desk. By the time I got home I knew I would be taking another sleeping pill to fall asleep, whether it gave me weird dreams or not. I had just begun to wonder if maybe that nap I took was the reason I couldn’t sleep the night before when I finally dozed off.

I found myself standing in the bedroom again. I saw myself tossing and turning with a frustrated look on my face. This had to be the night before again. I paced the bedroom trying not to overthink my situation. I walked over to the curtains and tried to slip behind them again to just watch what was happening outside. Maybe the parking lot would be entertaining. I remember having a much harder time hiding behind them than the previous day. I tried to push them out of the way, but they would barely sway.

I decided instead to take the opportunity to test myself. I started to think that in the movies when someone discovers they have some sort of power or ability, there’s a montage of them testing their capabilities. I wouldn’t exactly call what was happening a power, but if it was going to be a reoccurring thing, then it might be a good idea to have some sort of grasp on what I’m able to do. Clearly I was able to move the curtains before, but what was different this time? Maybe it was the speed. I was in a rush last time, and I was panicked. I turned my attention to the door. What if I was a ghost in this dream?

I realize now that it was a stupid decision, but I ran full force towards the bedroom door, thinking that I would be able to pass right through it. I closed my eyes just before I hit, but when I opened them, I was still in the bedroom, and my face was smushed against the wooden barrier. It didn’t hurt, but I didn’t feel the weight of myself being stopped either. I just knew that it hadn’t worked. I sighed and looked back towards myself in the bed. That’s when I saw me with a face full of blood, grasping for an old shirt off the floor. Apparently I could hurt the other me.

I stepped aside as bleeding me ran for the door and flung it open. I watched the cats run in to the room shortly after. My eyes followed little Pablo chase Silver under and around the bed. They both stopped and arched their backs towards the bed as if something caught their attention. Since I was watching them, I didn’t see the third thing enter the room. A dark, cloudy figure was perched on the bed where bleeding me had been. It looked almost human in for, but it carried with it a sinister aura. I was frozen in place. I saw the cloudly creature turn and face me. There was no visible outline that I could tell from head or body, but it had eyes. The eyes were a dark and sickly yellow like that of a person with liver failure. It almost made me sick to look in to. A dark appendage emerged from the creature. It didn’t raise up like an arm, but rather it grew out of the central mass of the entity. Silver, being the braver of the two cats, had jumped on to the bed to investigate closer. The dark creature’s arm came down slowly above Sam. I wanted to scream out, but I couldn’t move. I could only watch it lower and lower towards my girlfriend. Just as it was about to touch her, it paused. Then, as if there were a fly on her stomach, it slapped down on to Sam quickly, waking her with a guttural scream.

Sam sat up quickly and locked eyes with the dark cloud. Silver must have sensed her hostility and leapt from the bed. She yelled again and was reaching for a pillow, but the dark thing glided quickly towards the window, disappearing against the darkness of the curtains. I could see myself enter the room, dripping water and holding a bloody shirt. I could finally move once again, but the light turning on was the last thing I remember.

I woke up after that. The sun had somehow managed to peep through a crack between the blinds to land directly in my eyes. Sam was gone already, so I stayed in bed. I replayed the events of the dream over and over in my mind, and I still had no idea what to believe. I was pretty sure I should have asked her about her dreams some more, but I would have sounded like a crazy person out of context.

I’ll have to stop there for now, since I’m typing this out at work and I’m running out of time. If you all are still interested, I can keep updating with what happened next. Sorry for the delay since the last one, but my best chance to write this all out is when I’m here at work.

Edit: I mentioned I would include a picture of Pablo and Silver so you all have a better mental picture of the jerks I'm dealing with. Here you go

Part 3 is now up.

Part 4 has been submitted.

The finale