I've been stressed lately.
My parents fight every day; I hear their shouts even behind closed doors. My mother says that she still loves my father, and wants us all to stay together. However, my father is trying to get a divorce and take me with him.
Countless times, I have begged my father to stay and live happily with us. He has beaten my mother many times, yet she refuses to contact the police. She says that she’s scared that he might get in trouble, and she is terrified at the thought of us being torn apart.
I used to try and
stop their fights, but they never listened so now I just try to sleep through them.
Often times,
they're
so loud that I
can't fall asleep.
But when I can...
I almost always experience
Sleep paralysis
I started experiencing this a few months ago, when my parents started fighting. I always wake up in the middle of the night, paralyzed, as I am greeted by a shadow. I read a lot about sleep paralysis on the internet. They say that stress is one of the factors that cause sleep paralysis. They also say that the shadow I see is called the "Night Hag". They say she paralyzes her victims and takes over their body. But I know that the figure I see is merely an afterimage of my dreams.
Tonight was a quiet night. My father was not home yet, so I was able to sleep easily.
But...
It's happening again...
It's her.
I try to move, but my body is paralyzed.
I try to close my eyes, but they're stuck wide open.
I try to scream, but I can't make any sounds.
I try to breathe normally, but there's no air.
I wiggle my toes with all the energy I could muster, and gain control of my body again. I turn away from her, eyes absolutely shut. I feel her coming closer as her muted giggles transformed into inaudible whispers in my left ear.
I can feel her warm breath at the back of my neck. Chills run down my spine as I close my eyes and pray to God that she disappears. I hear echoes of laughter fading away as I remind myself that she is not real.
After a few minutes of silence, I was able to fall asleep.
But that doesn't last for long. I am soon awakened by loud banging and shouting.
"Here we go again..."
But something's not right. I hear echoes of voices shouting at each other. I know one of the voices was my mother's. But I don't recognize the other person's.
Do I hear more than one man's voice? No, it can't be. It's probably just echoes in my head. I did just wake up from a nightmare, after all. I sit upright and stand up from my bed, and walk towards the door to see who it is.
As I peak in-between the gaps of my doorway, the man shouting at my mother points his gun at me.
It's the police.
Took a while for it to register in my brain as I had just woken up. Initially, I was thinking we were getting robbed. But by the time I realize that it really was the police, I had already surrendered myself. Why are they here? Did father finally give in and reported our situation to the police? I guess that doesn't matter now. I knew our family was over, and this was the last straw. I whimper silently by myself.
Another policeman comes in and escorts me outside. My mother, who is pinned down and handcuffed on the ground, is roughly dragged by the other policeman. I see blood on the floor as she is dragged away from her inital spot. They hurt her. My mother breaks down in tears as the policemen escort her outside with me. Unforgivable...
I see my father approaching us. As he leans in to hug me, I couldn't help but feel disgusted. He was the one who caused this, yet he dares act like nothing just happened? As he hugs me ever so tightly, I shout, "why did you do this?!" out of frustration.
"It was for your own sake.", he replies.
For some reason, his answer pisses me off. They had been fighting for months now. He beats my mother when they fight, and disappears from our house for a while every now and then. Now he tells me that it was for my own sake?
Enraged, I try to kick him with my leg. But I fall over on the ground by myself. I guess had just woken up, so I was still quite weak...
"My son, it happened again, didn't it?"
"What happened again...?", I ask weakly
"Your mother injected drugs into you again, didn't she?"
My heart sunk.
My father never beat my mother.
She did it to herself and told me it was him.
My mother never wanted to turn to the police.
It makes sense now... It was not because she was afraid it would take us apart.
But because she was afraid that she would get caught.
I started experiencing this a few months ago, when my parents started fighting.
Because she had been injecting this to me...
... and my father wanted to stop her.
I see... That's why he fought so hard to leave her, and be with me.
The Night Hag does exist.
And she was arrested on this day.
