He was sitting on the end of his bed unable to move. His hands felt like lead weights lying against the mattress, his back stiff and legs numb resting on the floor. He couldn’t turn his head but could hear the soft breathing of his girlfriend behind him. This wasn’t uncommon, Mark would get sleep paralysis a couple times a year though it was always frightening he’d learned that it would soon pass but what was different this time was that he was sitting up and looking out over the bedroom.
His eyes caught a movement off to the side. ‘Someone is here.’ Unable to see far enough into his peripheral vision, there was definitely something moving, getting closer. It stopped. He could feel a chill. The chill of something watching him – eyeing him up. He tried to look away, take his mind off what was surely a nightmare, he could see his bare flesh, the hairs on his arm and chest standing up he felt exposed.