Ebrugh Report 21: The Terror in the Night

In this Ebrugh Report, a girl starts having terrible night terrors after her boyfriend tells her about something stalking him in the evenings...
==Summary==
TBA
== Report 21 ==
===Rumoured Origin===
I found this post on reddit, though am sure that whatever happened to these people might be linked to the Ebrugh and the events surrounding them...
===Report===
Hi there, I got this message from a friend of mine. She lives in France and I have not seen her for four years, as I am studying abroad, but it sounds quite urgent. Does anyone know what might be going on? I have not heard of something like this… Please, if you know what could help her, tell me. I am creeped out:
Mary, you… you are the last person I can think of that might be able to help me! I am so terribly afraid! Please, read what happened and help me! I do not know who else would know about something like this, other than you… 
I know you are into horror stuff…
I know that even this plea alone might cause damage, might make everything worse, but I just have had enough.
I am terribly afraid.
I do not want to die…
The things… Everything… it started with Gabriel.
The day I noticed something being wrong with him had been sunnier than it deserved, considering the terrors it had set in motion. I have been together with Gabriel for almost three years and immediately knew that something was different from before. I had just returned from a family vacation in Tuscany and had been tanned by the sun, but he… did not seem more relaxed or healthier than when I had left. 
During our first hug, his hands were shaking as he placed them on my back, pressing me against him. Back then, I thought that he was just so glad to have me back, but now I know that something else was clouding his mind.
We spent that evening on the porch of his parents’ house, had a great barbecue and finally got to his room. After entering, Gabriel immediately headed for the bed, sat down, and fell silent. Something really seemed to have upset him, and he finally summoned the courage to talk about it.
“You… you did have several nightmares when you were little, am I right? Did you not tell me something like that? Some time ago?” he carefully asked.
“Well, I did have night terrors. Those are quite similar to nightmares”, I answered.
“Similar? How so?”
“You do not really remember them. I only know about them because my parents told me. I apparently screamed in my sleep for several days and was restless. But when I got older, they disappeared. Why?”
„So… so it is not that…” he answered, more to himself. 
He had started to sweat.
“It is not… what?”
“Well… I… about two weeks ago, I started having troubles in my sleep. I wake up and can’t move. And it feels as if something is getting closer. Like a predator. In the end, I always sleep away. But it is quite unsettling, and the fear is not disappearing anymore, not even during the day. As if something is stalking me. Again and again, I turn around and look, just to make sure that there is nothing there. It is draining me…” he told me, his voice sounding depressed.
“Well… That does sound a lot like sleep paralysis” I said, lost in thoughts.
“What is that?”
“Sleep paralysis is a sleeping disorder, as far as I know. You wake up, but not really. You cannot move and sometimes… sometimes you see… things. And you go into full panic mode. That is how it supposedly is” I thought aloud.
“What kinds of things?” Gabriel wanted to know.
“Oh, that could be all sorts of stuff. I think it is different for everybody.”
“If you don’t want to talk about it, fine by me! I did not want to make you feel uneasy” Gabriel hastily added.
I must have looked more worried than I had felt.
“No, no, that is no problem! I don’t know much about it, anyway. But what you are describing sounds a lot like sleep paralysis. Just be glad that you do not see anything during those episodes. I have heard of some quite nasty hallucinations. Feeling pursued is, by all I know, the most harmless thing to happen. I did have sleep paralysis myself, once. I can tell you one thing: it was not funny. Probably caused by stress” I told him.
It had been my intention to calm him down, but he had turned even more pale.
“Do you think that I will see something as well? In the future?”
“Perhaps. I do not know a lot about this. I just know that it might be possible.”
He got lost in thought for a while, then seemed to want to ask something else.
“What… what did you see? Back then?”
A shiver ran down my spine as I thought back to that horrible night.
“I don’t remember” I lied.
“Probably have repressed those memories.”
“I understand. I am sorry for asking. But it just feels so horrible to wake up and being unable to move. And to imagine something closing in on you from the hallway, something you cannot defend against.”
“From the hallway? No, I think it was different in my case. But let us please change the subject” I hurriedly said.
The topic had slowly gotten rather creepy, and my memories started to resurface. We talked bit about other things that had happened during my vacation. About the new ice cream shop, about the soccer game that had almost been lost, about the writing of his bachelor’s thesis. We spent a long, lovely time together, not interrupted by talk about nightly terrors. Finally, Gabriel slept away next to me.
But when I was lying there, in the semi-darkness, when almost no sounds got to my ears – save for the thumping of old pipes in the walls - when I finally looked at the closed door… 
I had to think back to that night.
If I recall correctly, it had been a night where a loud thunderstorm was raging outside. 
Perhaps it had been during autumn?
How old had I been, maybe thirteen?
Anyways, it was a long time ago. The rain had hit against the windows and thunder and lightning strikes made the night seem restless and malevolent. I had felt tense already; something had been stressing me out. Perhaps it had been a test in school, but I am not certain anymore. I was lying there and slowly slid into a dark world, filled with worries about the next day.
Then, suddenly, I was awake again, more awake than I had been all evening long. The whole room was visible from my lying position, lit up by the lightning strikes outside, but I had lost the ability to move, save for my eyes. Like a statue, I was lying on my back, my arms next to my upper body. I wanted to scream, wanted to get somebody to notice my peril, afraid that I might be paralyzed for the rest of my days. A panic started to rise within me, a panic that had no explanation, an ugly fear that made my skin crawl and drove a single thought into my mind: 
Flight.
But I could not move an inch.
Suddenly, I felt it. A presence had emerged inside my room, somewhere in the corner. Something… Someone was staring at me.
For a few seconds, no lightning lit up the room, no frantic light. And yet… I was certain, someone was standing there. A faint rattling reached my ears.
Someone was breathing – heavily and slightly excited.
Another lightning strike illuminated the corner of the room for a moment. 
If my mouth had not been petrified and my vocal cords had not turned to stone, I would have screamed.
There was a figure, a broadly built man, slowly stepping towards me.
I felt my heart beating, wanted to get up, run away, flee, but I couldn’t.
Was that an evil spirit?
He almost slid across the floor, like a singular shadow. Then, two red, circular eyes lit up, getting closer and closer to me. I almost went mad. What would he do, what did he want?
I had to get away, away, away…
Finally, he had reached me. His rattling had gotten irregular, and he occasionally started to cackle.
He got on top of my stomach, he was heavy, so heavy. I felt his hand touching me, slowly crawling towards my throat.
The eyes were gleaming through the dark, another lightning strike…
Then, he was gone.
I had been able to move again, had turned on the lights and started crying.
What had he intended to do to me? Suffocate me? Or… something worse?
On the next day, I had searched the internet for reports of similar experiences and found some cases. Apparently, it had been a sleeping disorder called ‘sleep paralysis’. It was harmless but could conjure up some lively hallucinations. 
Fortunately, that had been the only time it had happened to me. I hoped that Gabriel just had the paralysis in potential future attacks and nothing more.
But my memories of said night had been much more vivid than I had admitted to him and lying there in his room, looking into the dim light, was only bearable due to his calm breathing next to me.
Slowly, sleep must have washed me away, but suddenly I woke up again.
Deep inside me, I got the feeling that something was terribly wrong.
Then, I realized that I was unable to move, that my limbs and vocal cords were petrified like back then, and that I was defenseless against whatever would be after me.
This time, however, it was strangely different from before. More vivid, more real. 
More dangerous. 
As if some predatory animal was coming for me, not from the corner of the room but from the hallway. I couldn’t turn towards Gabriel but wanted nothing more than be in his arms or below the blankets.
There, from the hallway, it came. I was certain of that. 
The door was closed, but something was lurking behind. Sneaking towards us, carefully. Evil. My thoughts started to spin, imagined pictures of all kinds of creatures and people that were there, closing in on us, driven by lust for murder. Of nightly ghosts, returning from the beyond, of aliens, needing us for their horrid experiments, of the shadow man from long ago… wanting to take advantage of me...
To my absolute horror, the door opened a little bit, let the light from the hallway into the room, cut the darkness apart. My heart was beating so heavily that it hurt.
Then, slowly, against my will, I started to fade into sleep again and my panic turned into fear of death. 
No, I had to stay awake, what was coming towards me, what was coming...
----When I woke up in the next morning, I was still sweating. I felt sick and almost vomited all over the floor. My body was shivering, but slowly I calmed down. 
Took a deep breath. 
Thought of something beautiful. 
Gabriel was still sleeping; he was sweaty as well. Quickly, I hurried to get up to take a shower.
When I got to the door, I let out a relieved sigh. It was closed.
It was closed!
I almost cried out of happiness.
After the shower, I started preparing breakfast to lighten up the mood of Gabriel as well. Cooking wasn’t my thing, but some pancakes I could always manage. We were home alone as all the others had to go to work and I was glad for the semester breaks. Finally, Gabriel entered the room, his hair disheveled, and sat down at the table. 
“How are you? You look like a piece of crap” I teased him lovingly.
“That is how I feel, yeah. I had another…. experience, last night. Paralyzed. Couldn’t move. And I imagined something coming towards us from beyond the door. Something… well, I don’t know. How did you sleep?”
“The same. I had a similar episode. I think yesterday really shook me. I remembered the last time I had sleep paralysis.”
He stabbed his pancakes.
“By the way, was the door locked? The door to my room?” he suddenly wanted to know.
The blood inside my veins seemed to freeze.
What?
“Yes, why?” I asked, trying to suppress the trembling of my voice.
“Oh, I just… I just dreamt that I had heard it opening. It was horrible.”
“I dreamt that as well. But additionally, I saw it happen…”
I stopped and felt even worse than after waking up.
How could that be?
“But the door was closed, so…” he remarked.
“Yes. Realistically speaking, a stupid coincidence” I agreed.
But the feeling stayed.
We spent the remainder of the morning together, trying to distract ourselves with a long walk in the neighboring forest, but even those flourishing trees could not raise our mood. We talked about the past weeks to at least have some positivity around. I raved about the idyllic landscapes of Tuscany, about the long walks and the pool, built like an ancient oasis. Oh, how I had loved its clear waters! 
Gabriel talked about visiting the library and some new places he had discovered, a small diner, a junk shop, and a comfy bar where he had spent some nights together with his friends.
Finally, we ate lunch at his parent’s house. I was a bit afraid of the afternoon, as Gabriel would go hunting over the weekend with his dad and spend the nights in a rented little cabin, far away from me. Therefore, I was alone in the afternoon, trying to pass the time with menial things. In the evening, I finally was able to contact Gabriel. He still seemed shaken but hearing his voice over the phone line gave me at least some comfort.
“How are you?” he wanted to know.
“Well, I could ask you the same thing!” I retorted.
“Hideous. Terrible. It is the event from last night. I just can’t forget it. Why did our hallucinations match? That is not possible! Or is it, Eloise?”
“Not sure, but it must have been coincidence. Your door was closed in the morning, wasn’t it? There was nothing! I have read up on everything today. There are apparently three types of sleep paralysis. One makes you feel stalked, makes you even see creatures hunting you down. One makes you feel as if something is lying on top of you, weighing you down. And one makes you feel floaty, as if you were leaving your body, levitating above the bed.”
“And how is that supposed to explain anything?”
“Well, if there are only three kinds of sleep paralysis, roughly speaking, it is not that strange that we have experienced similar things. And it was not the same for both of us, correct? You only heard it. Perhaps our cases were just very alike. That has to be it!”
He was quiet for a while and then said:
“That is probably my fault. I told you about this feeling of mine, the feeling of being stalked. That must have stressed you out too much. And that is why we experienced similar things, things like the events I have told you about. Making both of us believe that something is coming for us from the hallway… I am so sorry, I did not want to ruin your night! I just do not know what is up with me!”
“Don’t worry about that. Try to relax.”
“Whilst going hunting? This is kind of the worst-case scenario in my situation. And I was looking forward to it, too…”
I let out a sigh. I would never become friends with his hobby. Nonetheless, I had to cheer him up.
“Where you successful in... you know?”
“No, we only arrived today. Drove around, moved into our rooms. Tomorrow we will get some things we are missing and then the hunt will start, in the evening. This cabin is huge, almost a small mansion. Well, save for the lack of hot water.”
“Alright, but do you at least have your own room?”
“Yes” Gabriel said, not sounding pleased.
“What?”
“You know… What, if it happens again. I mean, here, in the forest. All the noises in the dark are already making me afraid. And I can’t help to think back. To last night. And the nights before. Do you know what the most unsettling thing about this is?”
“No.”
“That it is getting worse. It ramps up. In the beginning it was just the paralysis and a light sickness. Then, slowly, this paranoia. Each night it gets more horrid, more intense. Each night I feel that… it… is getting closer.”
“Why did you never tell me about this during our conversations? When I was in Italy? We could have talked about that!”
“No. You were on vacation, and I did not want to unsettle you.”
“That is cute. But you must take care of yourself, too. What about your thesis? Perhaps all the stress is caused by that…”
“Almost done.”
“See? Soon, it will be over, and you can relax for a while!”
We did not say anything for a while.
“Eloise… I am terribly afraid to go to bed” he admitted.
“I know. All will be well. We can talk as long as you like” I offered.
“Thank you, I love you” he said, sounding somewhat at ease.
“I love you too.”
I think our call went on for another three hours, until Gabriel went to sleep.
----In the next morning, I immediately wondered how Gabriel was doing. I woke up early, had not had sleep paralysis that night… fortunately. I hoped that it had been the same for him as well. I was not sure whether I should call him, but at that time he was surely still sleeping. When I decided to read some books that were needed for an assignment I was writing, I noticed that I had left them at Gabriel’s house the day before. Therefore, I set out to get them. Luckily, Gabriel’s mother had to go to work early and so she could open the door. I hurriedly fetched my stuff, but on my way out she stopped me and invited me to eat some breakfast. At first, we sat there in silence and just looked at the plates in front of us.
“Eloise… Did you manage to cool Gabriel down a bit yesterday? He has been a strange, lately. Seems more stressed out than usual” she finally asked.
“I tried. But he seems to have a hard time sleeping” I said, feeling a bit powerless.
“Oh, my. Poor Gabriel…”
She let out a sigh. We both chewed on our bread, lost in thought. 
Then, she said something that let me almost lose my mind.
“So, you even had to sleep with your door open? It has been long since he needed that to calm down…”
“The door… open?” I interrupted, shocked.
“Yes, yesterday. It was open just a bit. I closed it in the morning…”
I did not hear the rest of her talk.
The world was distant, and panic was close.
What the devil was happening?
Completely aghast, I took my phone and dialed his number.
He did not answer.
Just fatal beeping reached my ear.
“Eloise, what has gotten into you?” I heard his mother, shouting at me, confused.
But what was I supposed to tell her? That both of us had had a nightmare that was real?
I had to calm down.
Perhaps… perhaps Gabriel had been sleepwalking and opened the door? 
That certainly must be the solution!
Yes.
Yes, that was it.
“Nothing, don’t worry!“ I told Gabriel’s mother, took my things and headed home.
After arriving there, I took a bath, tried to relax. Gabriel still did not answer my calls. But it would surely be alright. He was probably already hunting. 
But I was mistaken.
Not half an hour later, his mother called.
Gabriel was dead.
He had had a heart attack during the night… 
Or so the doctor said.
I think… 
I think… I know better…
----The last days have been the worst ones in my life. Everything about the world seemed to be wrong, bleak, and unjust. Nothing was important anymore, nothing mattered. Repeatedly, I looked for thoughts to take my mind off the happenings, for something that could ease my pain, but my soul is ruptured and is falling into darkness. It has been like a dream - almost everything in the past days - as if nothing was real, as if I am just about to wake up. But then the realization dawns again:
Gabriel is dead.
Whenever I start to think about it, I am ripped apart from within and I start to look for other things to do. For comfort. But there was none. Nothing helps.
And again, those other thoughts emerged repeatedly:
Had something caused his heart attack? His fear? What about the burns?
Together with his parents, I tried to calm down, but we failed. It was too bad; we were too damaged. I almost did not notice the funeral passing by. Almost did not notice the flowers, the coffin, the hymns they sang. 
For my Gabriel.
Why had this happened? Had he been that stressed out? Had it been my fault? Was there something I could have done to calm him down, make him relax?
The open door…
What had happened in that night? What had we experienced? Had we seen something after all? To hell…! Why had this happened?
Some of Gabriel’s friends tried to help me, as did my parents. They gifted me a photo album, made from pictures of him.
So that I would not forget him. 
I could not even turn the pages. Every photo made the world fade behind tears. Photos of how he learned to ride a bike. Of how we danced during our first weeks of university. Of him holding up the trophy they got with the soccer team. In all the pictures, he smiled his smile, the smile he would never smile again…
It was horrible, but it also helped me a bit. I probably sat there for a long time, until it got dark, lost in the past.
But when I started to sleep away, it happened again. Sleep paralysis. 
That was two nights ago.
My eyes were open, my limbs paralyzed, my voice silenced. I lay there and panic came.
Slowly it flew into my heart, through the sadness, and threatened to drown me. The room was not completely dark, the summer did not let it. I must admit, I was a bit glad to still be able to somewhat see.
But what would happen? Would the dark man with the terrible eyes return? Would he sit on top of me and…
I sensed it, something, closing in on me, from the hallway. It was not a heavy feeling, not like during my night with Gabriel.
During our last night…
But I sensed the danger, my sixth sense was alerted, a deep instinct, telling me that it was approaching. That I was just prey, prey of a foreign animal I could not escape from. The closed door of my room seemed threatening and deathly and beyond…
I slept away and only woke up in the morning.
Again, I was sweaty and disturbed and sadness joined in as well, mixing with the terror to create something more horrifying than anything else.
Pure dread.
And confusion.
Why had there been such a dream again? Such a strange episode? Why had it been so much like back then? When we were in Gabriel’s bed together and the door slowly opened a bit?
I could not eat anything for breakfast. My parents noticed, but did know what to do. I could not fault them for that. Perhaps I was just going mad because everything had been too much for my mind? After somehow managing to swallow down half a croissant, I decided to take a walk to get away from my bedroom. 
When I stepped into the hallway, I saw the door to my room at the end of the corridor. I stopped, could not turn away. 
Had… it… had it been sitting there during the past night? Peered at the door, hungry, lurking, knowing that it would soon get me? It did not have to hurry. Every room had a door. Every room could be entered. Even Gabriel had not escaped, despite sleeping someplace else. 
If… it… was real.
If… it… did not just emerge from deep within my mad fantasies. 
My knees got weak, and I had to lean onto the sideboard standing next to the kitchen door. I closed my eyes, tried to not let any thoughts in. Slowly, my heartrate decreased. When I felt better, I looked through the hallway. My eyes finally stopped at the old palm tree that was standing next to the front door.
It had rotten and gathered dust.
I hesitated.
Had I not just yesterday looked at its green leaves to get my mind off my sadness? Smelled the freshness? When getting closer, there was no smell anymore. As if I had entered an area of the world where there was no smell at all. What had happened? I did not want to think about it and quickly left the house.
The wind was loud and carried a biting coldness. Summer had left a bit during the past day, almost as if it had been linked with my happiness. Grey clouds covered the sky and did not lighten the mood. Thoughts inside my mind emerged, starting to make me panic before I was able to silence them.
Finally, the neighborhood was behind me. It had almost gotten noon and I looked for a place to eat. There was a small fast-food restaurant which I entered and ordered a burger. There were not many people inside, only two young girls, probably skipping school. They looked at me dismissively and I could hear them making fun of me. I didn’t care, and I probably looked like shit anyways. When those two had finally left as well, I finished eating and continued my journey to the suburbs. Houses and streets flew by. It had gotten late when I spotted a small shop specialized on occult stuff and antiques, advertising its contents with big ugly letters on the windows. 
I hesitated and decided to enter. 
Perhaps… perhaps I could find help inside?
The smell of incense got into my nose and made my eyes teary. The air smelled spent and a bit too warm. The walls were covered with strange objects and crystals and weird books. I could see many clocks on the walls as well, looking ancient and sublime. Not many things seemed to sell, and dust was everywhere to be found. Only a small, clean spot on a cupboard and an empty frame that must have once held a painting told me that business had been done here at all. I think the surroundings caught my mind too much, as I only noticed the bald man behind the heavy wooden counter only when he awkwardly coughed.
“What may I help you with, young lady?” he asked, his voice sounding coarse.
His eyes were small, and his skin looked rough. The few hairs he had left were unkempt and grey as ashes and I could see a scar across his right eye, looking uncomfortably distorted.
I gulped.
I did not like that he was thinly and falsely smiling, despite his almost dead eyes. He did not feel… entirely human, but I decided to ignore those thoughts. I had to find help and could not lose myself in fantasies.
“I do not know, what exactly…” I started after some hesitation.
He still stared at me, but didn’t answer, so I continued:
“I probably am looking for…”
“No.”
What? What did he mean? I looked at him more intensely, confused. The man did not move, his eyes still glass, his lips slightly curled. Even whilst speaking, he did not move much, almost as if he was paralyzed. 
I did not know what to do.
“I should leave…”
I turned towards the door. Why had I entered in the first place?
“Not long now. It is coming. It has almost reached you.”
“Excuse me?”
Disturbed, I turned around. The man had still not moved. His eyes stared into mine, trying to pierce them.
“Your fear. One can smell it. You reek of it. There is only one fear that stinks this badly. Only one!” he said.
I hesitated. 
Did I smell sweaty? Was I pale? Was I shaking? How did this guy know that this panic was inside me? I disliked his false smile more and more. He spoke without emotion, without warmth that might have been comforting.
“What are you talking about? I do not understand…”
“A lie. You do. Your fear reeks. I already smelled it when you stood in front of the shop, looking at my windows. Such fear can bait ugly things.”
“Things? What things?”
„Things lusting for this fear. That are nourished by it, that strive for it. Things that come closer when they smell it. You know what things I am talking about?”
“I think so…” I slowly admitted.
He continued staring, leaned forward a bit.
“Are you… afraid of me? Of what I could do to you? Inside this shop, where no one notices? That you entered without care? That has windows that could swallow your screams?”
His smile grew wider, and he touched the scar at his eye.
“No”, I lied, shaking.
I was terribly afraid. 
Of this man, of this shop I had entered in a fit of stupidity, looking for a way out of this madness. I hastily looked for the door, had the crazy fear of it having disappeared, trapping me inside with the terrible man…
“You can run away. Run and hide. You will not escape from the things. The fear of me and this shop is nothing compared to the ancient terror that burns inside you. That causes you to reek. If you know about them, it starts. The fear of the things. And if it grows rampant inside your heart, it will come. Closer and closer. At first, you do not feel it. At first, it is just a faint suspicion. A stupid tale. A crazy story. But then, with doubt, with terror… it comes… With those thoughts: 
What, if it is real after all?”
Whilst he was mumbling to himself, monotonously and horribly, I had made for the door, but his words seemed to tie me down and I stopped. I had gotten goosebumps and icy sweat ran down my back, whilst it had fallen silent. No sound could be heard, but the calm felt like a deep breath that would be followed by eternal horrors roaring at me. With pains in my stomach, I turned towards the old man. 
When I saw him, I screamed.
He suddenly sat on top of the counter, his grinning, unnaturally wide mouth open. He had gotten a lot younger. The once small eye had grown huge and stared at me. The other one had disappeared, and left was only a contorted, ugly scar that screwed itself much too deep into his skull.
“You want to know how to escape? How to get rid of this stinking fear? This deep terror, that freezes your guts right now? When you look at me? When thinking about the things to come? You can’t do anything. Nothing. Because you know about it and by that it knows about you. You are fearing it, a bit more with every passing moment. That is why it can smell you. And see: It is already here!”
From the corner of my eyes, I saw the door behind the man slowly opening. I could not see what was beyond, what sat behind, but I could… feel it.
There was an abyss behind the door, wanting to swallow everything, lusting for me. And the abyss was a thing, an indescribable thing that was coming for me.
I did not hesitate for a second and left the shop, ran away, away from that terrible location, before the door could completely open and make way for… it.
----Weak and confused, I sat on a park bench, my legs shaking, making me unable to take another step. Thoughts crossed my mind, mixing panic und dizziness. The picture of that grotesque man had burned itself into my brain, him sitting on that counter, the door behind him slowly opened by… something else.
All of this was crazy…
Things like this did not exist…
What was after me? What had been after Gabriel? Had he woken up before it reached him in that dark room? Had his heart stopped, stopped because of that bottomless panic I had heard in his words the day before?
If you know about them, it starts. The fear of the things. And if it grows rampant inside your heart, it will come. 
His raw voice echoed in my mind, and I realized the meaning of his words. I still doubted that the… man… had told the truth, but it would explain a dooming amount of the happenings that had taken place.
Had we created it, in our thoughts? By talking about the night terrors? Had Gabriel thought the story up or had he… heard it somewhere else? The story of the terrors in the night? 
The sun started to set. I did not know what to do. I did not know if it was lurking in dark alleys as well. I did not know if I should head home or run away.
But run away? To where?
If… it was all true, I would never escape. It would find me everywhere.
I decided to head home. I wanted to be with my parents. Even if that would be the end of my road. I stood up.
----My mother did not ask me where I had been. She probably had noticed my paleness, but I decided not to tell her. I did not want her to know everything. I did not want the fear to start growing inside her as well. So, I left the living room after hugging my parents.
“I love you” I said, tears in my eyes.
They hugged me back and said that they did too.
They must have thought that I was just sad.
Luckily, they did not know.
After having reached the hallway, I stared at the door to my room. A bleakness rang in my ears and my steps slowed down. Was it perhaps this room? That caused it? Whatever was behind that door felt alien, uncertain and distant. Like a grey video, memories started flooding my mind, memories of the events inside that room, from my childhood and… Gabriel.
Small comfort lit up inside me.
Would I see him again? Soon?
Quickly, those faint pictures faded, and darkness, silence and fear of death took over.
Finally, I reached the door, but hesitated to open it. Would I ever leave that room again? Would I ever see the light of a day again, after this night had come? Would the things reach me tonight?
I got goosebumps again and felt even more sick. 
Behind me was the hallway, the open hallway and the stairs leading down. I suddenly imagined it already coming, slowly down the stairs, quietly, lurking, slithering down, with infinite claws. One of the things I feared, one of the things that smelled that fear. I felt a cold breeze from beyond the floor, icy. Quickly, I slid into my room and closed the door. I knew it would not matter, that the door was not an obstacle for… those things… but I had to do something.
Something.
I lied down in my bed, covered myself with the blanket. 
I had to do something, something!
I was lying there, stiff but freezing inside. Time crept past. It turned eight, turned half past eight. Sweat started to cover me, but my guts seemed to freeze up completely, my thoughts, my feelings, everything shattered through bottomless terror, increasing moment by moment. My heart was beating so hard that it started to hurt, making breathing painful. I got dizzy. 
Then, I also got tired.
I did not want to sleep, did not want to end! But would it even reach me today? Would it be here tonight, passing through the door?
Slowly, sneaking, the sleep paralysis started. Like foul blood it washed into my body, through my veins, froze my muscles. The room around me grew more and more alien, even though I had spent almost every night of my life inside. All senses started to grow dull, and the only real thing was the door. The door that fended off the looming darkness, a wall between life and death.
Was I already… dreaming?
Was this real? The wood, the patterns on the door? The fine rectangles that had been worked into the surface as decorations? The twilight coming into the room through the windows? The heaviness paralyzing my every muscle?
Was all of this real?
Did I feel something from far away marching towards me, from some unknown hells?
I sensed it in my bones. I sensed it in my veins.
Behind the door, was there the hallway? The hallway, now drenched in darkness? Or had it been replaced? A cave, a gorge, bottomless chasms, creating a gateway to my room, to my flesh and blood?
My field of view got blurry, but it was not the darkness or the paralysis that made me teary. It was the terror creeping into my heart, threatening to drown me.
There, behind the door, one of those things was twisting around, one of the things that had killed Gabriel. It got closer and closer as infinite panic rose inside me. 
When would it reach the room? Did I not already hear it, its body, slithering, almost silent?
What was it?
What was that thing?
What was approaching?
More sweat.
Was this a dream? A nightmare I could wake up from? A vision of madness, not reflecting reality?
“It is coming. Those things, they are on their way.”
I got even more dizzy. The voice belonged to the man, the man from the shop with the contorted face. The words sounded clear, cutting through the panic like a knife through warm butter.
Was he present as well? That damned creature?
“It is fascinating. To see their doings. To see, what they do to you. So infinitely terrible.”
The voice had gotten closer, was next to me, next to my paralyzed, defenseless body. Was he really here? Would he get to me? Like that shadow man from back then?
Would he take my clothes and…
Again, a wave of new panic washed over me as I noticed that the things had reached the door and waited on the other side.
“Those terrible things. They are in front of the door, you feel that, don’t you? Ah, how marvelous! I ran so far, have hunted you and those who did wrong, dooming them to eternal torture, but when I saw them… those things… They gave me a new meaning. A new purpose. Made me see…”
His face had appeared above mine, grinning widely. Whilst talking, he pointed at his scar.
“My others are still wandering, but I have seen the true nature of the things. And you will see them soon as well. It will be here, any moment now. It smells you already…” 
He disappeared from my field of view. I knew that he was still there, with me, that he would lavish the arrival of the entity outside, feeding off my fear of death. I felt a roaring pain on my wrist, like a knife cutting me. Had he grabbed me?
But slowly, the man slipped my mind as I heard the door handle.
“See, they are here. But I think… You are in luck. They will not get to you today. But tomorrow? Yes, I think so…”
The door handle was pressed down, and my senses went mad. 
The door opened a little, like before.
The barrier had been breached; it could enter.
Darkness seemed to bleed into my room, mixing with the twilight already present.
Not long now.
My heart was aching.
I was shaking, despite the paralysis.
My eyes seemed to tense up.
The smell of sweat and the beastly stench of doom got into my nose.
The darkness in the hallway felt alive and evil.
My breathing got heavy.
The door swung open.
Only darkness.
Only panic.
And then, it entered.
----What… what did I see? What did I experience? What… the thoughts are missing. I… I saw it, one of the things. I believe… Perhaps? Or did I faint? Did I dream everything up?
Had it been a creature? Or a substance? A plant or an animal? An anomaly in the fabric of the world?
Had it crept? Sneaked? Floated? All of that and nothing?
It had smelled me. Swallowed up my panic and terror as if they were the sweetest nectar, with its antennae and tentacles. Its eyeless heads and headless eyes had lusted for me, its fangs and mouths had reached for me.
There have been many necks and arms, crawling towards me.
Had it reeked of death, of foul misery?
Or had it smelled like sweet honey, like carnivorous sundew?
It had come to my bed and sent me into unnamable fits of madness, drooling.
I am not even sure if these descriptions fit. Perhaps all of them are just spawns of my mind, a mind that had witnesses the indescribable, that had encountered something it could not fathom.
The union of nothingness and eternity.
I still remember the… man… standing there, laughing, shouting gleeful phrases into the world:
“Eslud, eslud esmad! You are true, you are eternal! You are complete!”
Or… had there been nothing at all?
Had I been mistaken and all of it was the result of my sleep paralysis? Had I dreamt all of it, hallucinated? Had Gabriel and I gotten ourselves into a vicious circle, increasing the night terrors, fallen into a whirlpool of madness? Had Gabriel just had a simple heart attack? Had my encounter with that man been a part of my fits… and not a messenger of doom?
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
But my wrist hurts. There is a strange wound. It is not burned; Gabriel was not right. It is more like the skin just disappeared into nothingness…
Please.
Help me.
What can I do?
What can I do against the terror in the night?
It was all a dream, right?
Something like this cannot exist, such things that start to close in on you when you know about them.
Such things that refresh themselves by eating fears, doubts… When you go to bed.
If you know how to stop this, please write back.
I need someone.
And you know about stories like this, don’t you?
I need someone.
I need hope.
I need a counter to this terrible panic.
I need someone who tells me that I just had not closed the door yesterday and that it had been wide open since the evening. 
Please, somebody.
Because otherwise…
Otherwise, only today is left for me...
==Characters==
*Gabriel
*Eloise
*
==Entities & Objects==
*Shopkeeper
*Eslud Esmad
*Painting in the Shop
==Possible Connections to the Ebrugh==
*Eslud Esmad is also mentioned by the Whispers in Russia.
==Trivia==
*