Lingering

Diagnosis: Complex Nocturnal Visual Hallucinations. It’s kinda like sleep paralysis, just minus the paralysis part. I’ve had them since before I can I remember. Doc describes it as my brain is still dreaming even though I’m up and moving around. Usually happens when I wake up at fuck-all at night, but sometimes it happens as I’m falling asleep, too. A bright light usually wakes the brain back up enough to shoo off the hallucinations so a lamp at the bedside has always been a must. 

They’ve always been harmless, more or less. Sometimes even amusing like the little yellow man that did popular internet dances on my desk! I liked the gnome-like creatures that would open the stairs to my attic and climb in... I should mention I don’t have an attic. Of course, they weren’t all that way. There were the scary ones, too. I didn’t like to think ‘bout them much, didn’t like to dwell. 

Eventually, though, I had to cave and get a prescription for some sorta medicine. Damn hallucinations started affecting my sleep, and work didn’t take too well to me bein’ groggy on the job. Doc said the meds were basically melatonin but with some other crap added in to train my brain to know the difference between bein’ awake and bein’ asleep. 

It’s been a little over a month. 

The woman with no face and too many arms sits, watching me from the corner of my room. Every night she gets ever so slightly closer. And every night she lingers in the light.