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Eternal Sleep
By: Sleep Date: July 1, 2025, 7:38 pm
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Knock Knock
The sound pulls you out of an unintended sleep on your couch,
passed out after a glass of bourbon and scrolling on TikTok. The
daze still had its hold on you when you heard the knocking
again, soft yet desperate. Rubbing your eyes, you head to your
front door to investigate the sound. Looking out the window, you
see nothing but the pouring rain and flashes of lightning that
illuminate the dark streets. Knock knock. You jump as the sound
catches you off guard; this time sounding from the back door.
The rapping was more frantic and louder, echoing through the
house even more than before. Your heart felt like it was going
to leap through your throat or break through your rib cage. Your
hands are shaking, your vision blurry. You grab your glasses to
fix your vision as you approach the back door. “Hello?” You call
out, not sure who would be knocking upon your door at this hour
during this storm. Why didn’t they just wait until you answered
the front door?
You look through the window of the back door to see who was
there, yet again; the source of the sound was nowhere to be
seen. Sighing, you shrug and try to justify to yourself that it
was just the wind or the trees, until the knocking appears
again. This time louder, shaking the glasses in your house. The
sound emanating from both the front and back doors and even
shaking the windows near the doors. “What the hell?!” You cry
out as you retreat to your couch and curl up into a ball as the
pounding grows louder and louder and nearly breaks the door from
its hinges. You cover your ears with your hands, just hoping for
the noise to cease. “Please!” You cry out loudly, the tears
streaming from your eyes.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The pounding only seems to grow louder, surrounding you and
closing in as if you were its prey. Only for it to stop
abruptly. The silence is palpable, making your ears ring due to
the suddenness of it all. The only sound was the torrent of rain
beating down upon your house and the thudding of your heart
through your ears.
You sat there for what felt like hours, waiting for the pounding
to resume or some semblance of normalcy to return to your life.
You finally release the air from your lungs that you didn’t know
you were holding hostage, within the cage that is your chest.
Slowly, you unfurl your body from your self-imposed coil like a
snake that had evaded their threat. You listen carefully, trying
to find any remnant of the audio assault from earlier; the
hammering of blood through your ears calming slightly. High on
adrenaline and fear, you make your way to your front door;
fingers slowly wrapping around the golden knob. Curiosity took
over, overriding every survival instinct that was screaming for
you to do otherwise. On the other hand, turning the lock, the
audible click causes you to jump. You inhale deeply to compose
yourself and slowly open the door. The darkness was thick and
oppressive. The rain was cold and needle-sharp, falling
sideways as it beat down upon the pavement. Lightning
illuminates the dark street for a second before you’re again
bathed in the choking darkness. Your heart nearly jumps out of
your chest as the lightning shows the oddest visitor: a little
girl.
About twelve years old from the looks of it. Pale skin as if she
had been denied sunlight all of her life. Her eyes, though heard
to see through the cover of darkness, seemed to be as dark as
the streets around them. Her raven hair, soaked through from the
torrential rain, hung around her face like a living frame and
stretched down to the middle of her back. She was wearing a red
shirt with a black skirt, clinging to her body due to being
soaked through. Her bare feet shifting uncomfortably as she
turned her dark eyes up at you, pleading. “Poor thing..” You say
as you meet the girl’s gaze. “May I come in. I’m lost..” The
girl said between cold shivers and a trembling lower lip. “Of
course!” You offered, opening your door to the little girl. Her
feet were tracking an oddly black liquid across your floor. You
offer her a place to sit and wrap a towel around her shivering
body. You go to your kitchen to make a mug of hot chocolate as
you decide what to do about this situation. So many things
running through your mind, like how could this girl knock so
hard? Where did she come from? And where are her parents?
“What’s your name?” You ask, finally gaining some form of
cognitive agency. The girl looked up toward you and smiled a
dark and brooding smile as she replied. “Alma”
“Alma,” You repeat as you allow the name to digest. You take a
seat next to the girl as you ruminate on your next action. It
was too late, and you were too stressed to deal with the police
at the present moment. Maybe you and the girl will rest for the
night and get the authorities involved in the morning. You were
pretty sure that the little girl was tired and stressed out as
well. As you decided that was the proper course of action, you
stand to your feet and reach out to the guest with an open hand.
By this time, the hot chocolate was finished, and her shivering
seemed to have fully ceased. “You are not a good person,” She
whispered, her voice even more childish than before. “Excuse
me?” She said, shocked at the words that left her lips. With a
speed that was inhuman and a strength that was unbecoming of her
age and size, the girl grabbed your wrist. You could feel your
bones compressing due to the force applied to them. “Ow, you’re
hurting me,” You say, trying to remain as calm as you could to
not provoke the girl any further. “YOU ARE NOT A GOOD PERSON!!”
The girl said menacingly as she turned her gaze toward you. Her
face was nearly covered by her jet black hair. All except for
her eyes, which were as dark as a nightmare, so horrific that
light refused to come near them. She smiled, her teeth blackened
blades of needles. You tried to scream….
…..You jumped awake; your heart jackhammering against your
chest, causing you to clutch at it, hoping that it didn’t give
up just yet. You took a few seconds to collect yourself while
looking around and assessing your location. The mall. You must
have fallen asleep while on the massage chair and had a bad
dream. You chuckle to yourself as the relief washes over you.
That was a very strange dream. Why would you dream about
something like that? You always felt that you were a good
person, and you felt you had nothing to feel guilty about. Your
conscious was clean. Now that your rest was over, you thought it
was a good time to finish doing what you came there to do. As
you looked up, you noticed the people who were passing by looked
off, out of focus. It was as if their features were smeared with
a thin layer of Vaseline, especially their faces. You rub your
eyes, thinking that the stressful dream and just waking up had
some effect on your vision. As you turned to the right, your
heart almost leaped out of your chest. The girl was there
wearing the same red clothes, bare feet, long inky black hair
that draped over her face like an eerie frame. She was staring
directly at you as if she was beckoning you toward her. Maybe
you imagined her while you were dreaming because she was near
you. Maybe she tapped you while you were dozing off, and you had
this conversation with her while being tired and out of it, and
don’t remember it? That HAD to be it, right? No reason for her
to be here and in your dream.
“Okay,” You said as you prepared yourself. That had to have
happened. Maybe you did something rude, and the girl got mad.
You laugh to yourself as your lucid thoughts start to make sense
and nod as you stand to your feet and approach the little girl
in an effort to make amends for how you must have acted during
your time while you were out of it. Again, you fight against
every instinct of self-preservation in doing so. As you
approach, the girl turns to walk away from you, causing you to
huff out a heavy sigh. You didn’t think you’d find yourself
following a little girl in a mall, but here you are. “Where are
you going!?” You ask out loud, trying to get the girl to turn
around. The least you could do is help her find her parents; you
didn’t like the idea of her walking around this place alone. As
you pass closer by the distorted faces of the people around you,
you notice their heads vibrating at an unnatural speed, and the
dark void where their mouths should be is open wide in an
eternal silent scream.
Your heart is pounding as the eerie sight boggles your mind; you
walk faster in an attempt to catch up with the girl. She walks
through corridors and around corners before disappearing through
the maintenance door of the mall, where civilians are not
allowed. “Oh, great . . .” You complain as you follow the girl
around the corners and into the forbidding door. As you push it
open, you notice that it is far too heavy for the girl to be
able to open as quickly as she did or at all. As you enter, you
notice that the corridor was hot a muggy as if there was no air
flow at all except for the furnaces. You hear the skittering of
the girl’s feet against the concrete floors of the inner sanctum
of the mall, and you follow. The girl’s giggles echo around you,
seemingly emanating from everywhere and nowhere all at once.
“Come and find meeeee!” The girl said in a singsong way as if
taunting you. You shake your head and laugh to yourself,
wondering what the heck is happening here.
The area seems to get darker and darker as you pass through
numerous hallways, each one seemingly a copy of the other. You
walked for what seemed like miles through repeating hallways;
same signage, same cracks in the walls, same pipes that ran
across the walls and ceiling like the building’s metal veins.
The only difference is that the light was slowly going out and
bathing you in darkness, and a smell that gnaws at your senses;
rot and sulfur. The further you moved, the stronger the smell
got, the darker it got, and the hotter it got. Soon, your
footfalls stopped echoing due to the hard concrete and started
to slightly sink into the floors, creating a squelching sound
with each step. You wonder to yourself if there was a flood back
in this area, which could be the reason for this standing water,
but in the back of your mind, this didn’t feel like just water.
Each passing step seems like you were stepping deeper into muck,
thick and sloppy, making each foot step harder to maneuver in.
“Almost therrrerere. . “ The voice was brimming with excitement
as you were drenched in sweat. The stench of rotting meat and
sulfur was now mingling with burning flesh.
You begin to hear echoes of screams and wails, the likes of
which you’ve never heard before. They were erratic and
desperate, cursing, praying, and begging. “What is this?” You
ask yourself as your pursuit of the girl turns into something
entirely different. “Yoou deserve this. You deserve it all. All
the pain, all the suffering, all the hatred..” The girl’s voice
calls out to you as the area grows hotter and hotter, the floors
grow even murkier as if you were walking through thick mud. “I
don’t know what you’re talking about!” You scream as the
darkness and stench consume you. The smell becomes so
overwhelming that the contents of your stomach force their way
up and out of your mouth in retreat. The spattering of the bile
against the wet floor stirred up the rotten smell even more,
making it harder for you to continue, but there was no turning
back, only forward for you now. Leaning against the walls, you
feel the same wetness that you were stepping in. As if the walls
were made of meat. That realization made your breath hitch and
your heart skip a beat. With little light you have, you pull
your hand away from the wall; its gooey substance reluctant to
allow your hand to abandon it. Your hand trembles as you notice
the particles of flesh and bone and the thick redness of the
blood that drips all around you. “Oh God. Oh God. OH GOD!!” You
breathe out, hardly able to form even those words while falling
to your knees. The girl laughs and says in a shrill, taunting
voice. “God? God doesn’t see you, but I DO!!”
The walls and floors writhe and spasm like living tissue as the
complete darkness sets in. The dark is so absolute, so pure that
it has weight and viscosity; literally choking darkness. You
find out that this place is a catacomb, made of human remains.
The walls and floors are decaying flesh and bone. You can’t help
but cry loudly as the hopelessness sinks in, kicking yourself
for falling for such an obvious trap. Even through the darkness,
you could see the visage of the girl approaching, but in the
form of a woman around twenty years old and fully bare. Her eyes
were glowing like windswept embers fresh from a fire. You could
do nothing but whimper as she approaches. “You..” The woman
started as she stopped a few short feet from you and reached her
right hand toward you, extending her index finger at you. Her
flesh began to decay from her arm, exposing muscle and then
bone. Staring at this grotesque visage forced a scream to
finally free itself from your lips as you behold this
blasphemous impossibility of the scene before you.
“You treated people as if they were blips in your life,
stepping stones to walk over. You’re a liar, manipulator, thief,
and murderer. You ruin people’s lives, relationships, and
health. Used them until nothing was left and discarded them like
they were trash. Hearts were broken, lives were lost, and
futures were destroyed because of your selfishness. Now you are
to be judged. I am your reckoning. Your judge. Your executioner.
All for the pain, loss, death, and turmoil you’ve wrought will
be brought upon you one hundredfold for all of eternity. There
is no redemption, no mercy, no respite, and no hope. Just like
you abandoned others, leaving them to perish, hope has abandoned
you. You will not know peace. This is what you deserve.”
You sob loudly, your voice joining the cacophony of other voices
that are facing torment as rotted bony hands reach from the
walls and floors take hold of your body. You struggled to no
avail to free yourself, but the strength of the hands was
overwhelming. The pain is excrutiating as your flesh began to
sear from your bone, popping and bubbling as the heat, unlike
any heat you’ve ever imagined, envelopes you fires that cast no
light. Your blood boils, your muscles rip and tear, your bones
snap and reform only to snap again. You choke up maggots as you
body began to rot. You could feel the agony of your flesh
melting and rotting with no reprieve in sight. Puss and maggot
filled boils burst from your charred flesh. You claw at your
skin, looking for some form of relief, but find none, only more
agony as the flesh is torn off even more. There was no literal
lake of fire, no lava pit. Just choking darkness, unbearable
heat that devours your very soul, and loneliness the likes never
before felt. The truest feeling of abandonment. No more love. No
more light. No more peace. Just the feeling and knowledge of
agony that could not be described while dwelling in a pit of
dark despair of your creation. Time doesn't exist anymore and
pain is the only constant. The torment is immeasurable. Eternal.
Deserved.
You are severed from the grace and mercy of God.
Jolting awake in a cold sweat, you bring your trembling hands to
your chest to try and calm your thudding heart before rubbing
them over your arms in an attempt to put out the flames that you
swore you could feel. It was another dream! The feeling of
relief washes over you while you regain your composure. You
never had a dream as intense as that before, and you took this
moment to consider slowing down drinking. Something you should
have done after the accident that only you walked away from. You
reach for your glass of water on your bedside table and are
taken aback by how hot the liquid is. You shrug and are ready to
return to sleep, but an intense feeling of dread consumes you as
the unmistakable scent of sulfur and rot looms thickly in the
air. . . .
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