I sat on the cool leather couch of my living room with my twin sister, Tabitha. Bowls of popcorn and pizza boxes scattered amongst the coffee table in front of us. It was 2AM and we still were waiting for our dad to come home. He said he would be late tonight because he had to grade all the papers for his college class, but 2AM?

As we sat, playing an old board game we heard a car door slam. He was home! We got up and walked to the front door. We walked outside to see no car in the driveway. Hmm. It must have been the neighbors. We walked back inside to find the TV on. An old cartoon was on the screen blaring loud, pounding against our ears. Tabitha ran over and quickly shut it off. She shrugged too tired to even care. Must have been a weird electricity malfunction, but something inside me felt strange. Something wasn’t right. Tabitha laid down on the couch and I joined her. My eyelids felt like giant weights lay upon them. I tried to stare at the clock, it seemed to move slower and slower but no matter how I tried to stay awake, I eventually started to doze off.

Just as I started to drift off I felt strange. Like something was lightly brushing in me. Just as I was about to sit up and ask Tabitha if she was okay, I couldn’t sit up. I couldn’t hear anything. A buzzing noise swarmed in my ears blocking everything else out. I could hear a faint voice in the background. Was Tabitha trying to talk to me? I tried to sit up again. I couldn’t, as if something was holding me down. I tried to look around but only could see what was straight in front of me, which was the clock. Not moving anymore, the second hand had stopped moving. Fear arose inside me. I tried to kick my leg, but I just couldn’t. No matter how hard I tried to move, I couldn’t. Panic overwhelmed me, filling my body. What happens if I could never move again? I tried to move. Tried and tried and tried but nothing.

Just in that moment Tabitha was right in my face hands on my shoulders trying to wake me up, and I was free. I shot up, breathing heavily, shaking violently.

“How long have you been trying to talk to me? I heard you faintly and I-“ She cut me off abruptly:

“I just tried to wake you up. I wasn’t talking before…” I knew my face was drained of color and my eyes wide. “Terri, are you okay? I woke you up because I heard a car door slam, dad’s home.”

“Oh…” I stood up barley able to stand on my two feet. My legs felt like jello and my body ached as if I just had run 3 miles. I slowly, shakily walked to the front door and to the front yard. There was no car.

“I swear, I heard it!” Tabitha said with anxiety in her voice.

“Tabitha, something strange is going on. Do you feel it?” My voice cracked as I talked.

“Were just tired,” she said walking back inside. We opened the front door, stepped inside, and gasped in unison. Every drawer, door, cupboard, window, and anything that could be opened was opened throughout the whole house. Tabitha’s shaky hand grabbed the bottom of my T-shirt and held on tightly. I looked down at her hand to see 2 perfectly parallel bloody cuts forming on the top of her hand. When I looked up from her hand I gasped and screamed with the most piercing pitch I have ever let out in my life.