nosleep
r/nosleep
I'll cut out all pleasantries and provide as much context as possible or required, as little as there is.
Yesterday started off slower than normal, I got out of bed incredibly groggy and with very little motivation. I fed my cat, ate breakfast, then started my commute to the shitty retail store I worked at. My shift couldn't have gone worse, three angry customers blaming ME for their retail hardship and demanding to see my manager and when said manager finally showed, seemingly just as tired as I was, they simply took me to the back and told me to leave for the next week or so while "administration" sorted this matter out.
Naturally I went home in a really depressed state, I barely made rent but luckily my landlord was fairly lenient, I didn't want to push my luck though and it wasn't due anytime soon but if I were fired I wasn't sure how long my savings would hold up. I fed my cat and decided to go an shower, sometimes that helped. Getting in and feeling the cold water on my back, I distinctly remember something feeling off. You know that feeling of being watched? I can't explain why, but I felt it coming from the bathroom mirror. I finished up and dried off in front of the mirror, my discomfort growing and as the towel slid down my face I could swear my reflection was grinning at me. I shook my head and it was normal again but I felt strange for the rest of the night, almost like I didn't belong here, wherever "here" is supposed to be. The rest of the night played out like any other, I ate dinner, doom-scrolled on my phone for a few hours, then passed out.
I awoke to a text from my manager today telling me to come in for my normal shift so I continued my morning routine like clockwork and before I knew it, I was at the store. My manager walked right up to me, telling me good morning with a huge grin on their face. I noticed two things here; one, my manager was apathetic towards all employees and never even spoke to us outside of "official" matters" much less greeted us at the door, and two, the way they walked up to me just seemed off. They seemed to sway a little more than normal and it almost looked like they had a limp. I shook it off at the time as just one of those weird "once in a blue moon" things and went about my day.
As my shift went on however I began to notice almost everyone in the store seemed off. People with limps or creepy grins on their faces walked up and down the aisles, never looking at any of the products. Some of them looked right at me. It was at the end of the day that things got really bad. I was filling out my timecard when a customer walked right into the breakroom and just stared at me. I asked if I could help them and mid sentence they pointed at me and screamed. At least that's all I can describe it as, it sounded almost mechanical. As they continued to scream, their mouth opened wider and wider. It was open wider than their head was big.
I ran. All through the parking lot there were people pointing at me and screaming. Every one of them had distorted facial features. I drove away in a blur and soon found myself crashed into a fire hydrant only a mile or so from my neighborhood. Something told me I needed to get inside so I picked a house that looked empty and snuck in. It had a for sale sign out front and was indeed empty. After the shock started to wear off a little I began looking around through the windows. I really shouldn't have done that.
UPDATE
In 2017 Me and a couple of friends went to an old bell tower looking for an adventure, I could never have even imagined what horror lay in wait for us.
We barely made it out alive, and one of our dearest friends went missing.
5 years later we returned to look for him, there had been recent sightings near the tower. We assembled a small crew and against our best judgement, we went back.
What happened there has scarred me physically and mentally for life.
We managed to escape again, only just! But then people started going missing around town, everybody is keeping it all hushed up, nobody talks about what's going on, and now it seems to be spreading like wildfire.
I really hoped this was all over, in the week after we got out there was a night they didn't show up outside my window and I felt the biggest weight off my shoulders.... but now things seem to be getting worse.
My Dad, who works in a distillery, has a shift rotation every four weeks, day shift, 7am to 3pm, twilight shift, 2.30 PM to 10.30pm and night shift, 10pm to 7.30am.
After Ash, Dennis and Shawn started showing up at my window, I had to tell him about it, his twilight shift started the next day, on Monday.
I begged him to believe me but he assumed I was just talking about 'suspicious people' hanging around after dark and that's what he told the police, I can't say I blame him for not believing me but it still annoyed me.
I hadn't seen my friend Joseph in over 4 years. The last time I saw him was in 2018, when I was dropping him off at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. He was taking an airplane straight to Japan. After years of trying Joseph had finally managed to get a work visa, and would be teaching English in Tokyo. Going to Japan had always been Joseph's life long dream. When I saw him walking toward the airport, he was bouncing on his feet. He was so happy he almost looked like was floating. Floating like a cartoon character who had just smelled a delicious pie sitting on an open window sill, and was now hovering towards it. Before walking through the sliding doors Joseph turned towards me and gave me a wave. Bright wet tears glinted around the edges of his eyes. But they were tears of pure joy. He looked like a man who was finally about to start the rest of his life.
I waved back at my friend and watched him walk away.
The man who returned 4 years later resembled a tattered scarecrow more than he resembled my friend.
------
It was Joseph who really introduced me to fighting games. This was back in 2003, when Joseph and I were 12 years old. At the time I was only really aware of a few fighting games. Mortal Kombat, which I had only played briefly when I was very young, but I loved the movie. And the Nintendo games Super Smash Bros and Super Smash Bros Melee; which I had dabbled in.
"Smash isn't really a fighting game," Joseph said to me one day. "Although Melee isn't bad."
Joseph introduced me to fighting game like Tekken, Street Fighter, Marvel vs Capcom, The King of Fighters, Dead or Alive, Virtua Fighter etc...Even at such a young age Joseph was already a connoisseur of fighting games, and talked about them the way a pretentious film student might talk about french films. When he found a fighting game he really liked, he obsessed over it, made it apart of his personality. Joseph adored fighting games. Knew them front to back. He didn't even play them with a controller. He played them with a fight stick, which was essentially a portable arcade set up. I had tried it once, but it hurt my fingers using it. But Joseph played that fight stick like a maestro pianist playing some grand concert. Sometimes I would just listen as he played. Listen to the soft clackity-clack of the buttons. It really was like music.
It was Joseph who taught me that fighting games weren't just games where you mindlessly mashed buttons on your controller until either you or your opponent's health was depleted. No, Joseph showed me that fighting games were more sophisticated than that.
"Fighting games are like chess," Joseph told me one day after trouncing me in Tekken 4. "It's all about anticipating your opponent's next three moves. Conditioning them to think you're gonna do one thing, and then you do the other. It's about patience and timing. Don't just attack. Don't just think about what you're doing. Think about what I'm doing."
"I want to do sick combos like you, Jo," I had said. "When are you going to teach me that?"
Once again I was floating weightlessly in the void, drifting like a feather through the silent blackness of oblivion, however, instead of falling downward for what seemed an eternity, now I was rising slowly upwards like a deep-sea diver ascending from the depths.
*****
The first sound I became aware of was a computerized Beep...beep...beep at a steady, regular pace.
The first physical sensation I became aware of was a throbbing pain in my head.
The first smell I became aware of was the sterile chemical smell of a hospital.
The first image I became aware of was a radiant bright whiteness that seemed to fill my vision like the light of Heaven. As my blurry vision gradually cleared it resolved into a fluorescent light fixture in the ceiling above me.
I looked groggily down the length of my body and saw I was lying in a hospital bed and wearing a hospital gown, my bottom half covered with a sheet, assorted wires attached to various parts of my body, an IV line taped to my inner arm.
I reached up and gingerly touched the top of my aching skull. My upper head was encased in thick bandages.
Beep-beep-beep...
I heard a familiar voice cry out in shock that quickly became frantic joy.
2
It's always there - watching me. I never get a moment of solace, a moment to myself. Wherever I go; it comes too. Sometimes it's farther away, other times it's close enough to touch; it all depends on where the nearest corner is.
For as long as I can remember; it has been with me. When I was young, I thought everyone had something just like it standing in their corners. Always staring without emotion. But when I brought it up to my parents; they condemned me and exclaimed their displeasure with what I was saying. I think they thought I was crazy.
Still, none of that changed a thing. It stood in the corner regardless. The tall, gangly figure with bright white eyes reminiscent of industrial light bulb's was always with me. Day or night, rain or shine.
I once trapped it in a closet when I was around six. I had opened the door to look for an old toy and the thing appeared inside with its back pressed into the nearest corner of the small space. Without even thinking, I closed the door and immediately noticed its absence.
I had actually trapped it.
But, I didn't understand (because I was so young) that if I opened the door again; it would no longer be trapped. Although, perhaps nobody could have guessed that outcome. With what I know now - it's clear my experience was exclusive.
So, when I opened the door; it escaped and resumed its position in the corner next to my bed (its favorite spot.) I remember trying to do it again, but it wouldn't enter the closet after that. I also remember trying to talk to it, but there was never a response. It would watch me do EVERYTHING without so much as a twitch or reaction. I soon found that the only place I could be free of it was outside, but even then; it would be somewhere - in some corner far out of my view but not any less present.
I grew up with this thing throughout the years and became accustomed to it always being there. As I started to learn more about myself and the world, I began to wonder if I had something wrong with me. It is NOT normal to have a seven foot tall - lanky black figure lurking in every close corner.
That's when the drugs started.
I won't go into too many details, but let's just say I wanted to do all I could to make this thing go away. The problem was, nothing made it go away. No amount of oblivion separated me from that abysmal nightmare. Believe me, I tried things I'm not proud of and NOTHING worked.
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