Chapter 7 - Sleep Paralysis

'Huh where am I?' Yvonne looked around and found everything was a big ball of nothing.

She turned around but found that her surroundings were just empty.

She looked down and could see her bare feet but she could not see what she was standing on. There was no ground beneath her feet.

'Is this a dream?' She pinched her arms and did not feel any pain. 

'Huh? Is my brain's cortex this weak that I can't even dream of something nice? Just a big blank!' She criticized her own brain and made a tsk tsk noise.

To confirm that she really was dreaming, she lifted her hand and slapped her cheek with all the might that she could conjure.

'Maybe this way I can get up from my bland dream.'

As her palm came in contact with her cheek, a loud smack echoed in the void.

'Fuck that hurt!' She held her stinging cheek and slowly rubbed it.

"Pfffftttt…..! You deserved it!" She heard a faint voice of someone's chortle and vigilantly looked around.

'The first time did not hurt but the second time hurt like a bitch. But why? This is a dream right?' She wondered while nursing her swelling cheek.

"That's because this isn't a dream." She heard the same voice once again.

"Who's there?" Alarmed by the voice, Yvonne looked here and there but still, she couldn't find anyone else over there.

'Am I imagining things? How can someone be here? It's just me.' She assured herself and nodded.

"Puny human, can't you see that I am here as well?" She heard a booming voice right beside her ear and quickly scurried away from there.

Moving at least 10 feet away from her previous spot, she rubbed her ear which felt like there were tiny worms crawling all over it.

'This would be a great time to wake up! Vonny get up!' She slapped her face once again in a futile attempt to wake herself from this disturbing dream.

"Will you stop that! It's no longer fun watching you hit yourself." The voice spoke and Yvonne found that she could no longer move her body.

"Who are you? What do you want from me?" She turned her head around and cried out. 

Her hands and feet were frozen but only her head was free from whatever force that was acting on her.

'This must be sleep paralysis, I've read about it before. But shouldn't it be like someone is watching over me while I sleep? Why is it different with me?' She tried moving her hands but no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't move an inch.

"Sleep paralysis is a trick that those perverts use, how dare you compare me to those guys!" The voice sounded offended by what she thought.

"Those guys? Why would I compare you to someone when I don't even know who you are!" She yelled in frustration.

"And stop reading my thoughts!" She commanded and heard a low laugh.

"You still have guts to speak to me in this tone, Human! Don't you know who I am!?" The voice once again spoke and it sounded more vicious than before.

"That is exactly my point! I DO NOT KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!" Yvonne rolled her eyes hard and yelled.

"Oh. That's my bad." The voice sheepishly said.

Immediately she felt the force on her body disappear and she could move once again.

"Now can you tell me who you are?" She sat on the nothingness because her feet were now tired.

'My feet are tired, this means that this is most definitely not a dream.' She rubbed her ankles as she nodded.

"Are all humans' brains this slow? I've already told you that this is not a dream." The voice mocked her and Yvonne frowned.

She did not know where to look while talking because she was literally talking to thin air.

"You keep saying 'Human this and human that' as if you aren't a human yourself. Maybe you aren't, after all, you are just a figment of my imagination." Yvonne tried to explain the weird things happening to her.

"Huh? Your brain isn't complex enough for me to be just a figment that your puny brain can make up." The disdain was clearly evident in the words that mocked her.

"Well, then 'Mister too complex for my brain', who exactly are you?" Yvonne raised her brows and questioned the voice.

"Why do you keep looking that way? I am over here." She heard the voice to her right when all this while she was talking staring straight ahead.

"How am I supposed to know that when you aren't even visible!" She pulled her raven hair and said in exasperation.

"Tsk, such unevolved species. It was my fault to expect too much from you. Wait a second." After it spoke, the place was still and eerily silent.

"Now can you see me?" Within seconds, she heard the voice again.

Yvonne turned back and saw the man standing behind her.

"Butler Powell?" Yvonne was shocked to see her grandpa's butler standing there.

"Don't tell me you started watching voodoo movies and tried something that backfired?" Yvonne stood up and spoke in a stern voice with her hands on her hips.

Butler Powell would watch movies and then try to imitate and learn the things that fascinated him. His most recent obsession was Ninja movies and he wanted to master the art of stealth.

He kept popping up out of nowhere, scaring the people in their house.

"Whatever you've done, just reverse it. I need to go back to sleep!" She stomped her foot and Butler Powell just raised his eyebrows at her.

"Watch your tone, brat! I'm just borrowing this geezer's body. You can't withstand seeing my majestic form with those beady little eyes of yours." He harrumphed and stood tall with his chest puffed up.

'Butler Powell would never talk to me in this way, who is this man? Did an evil spirit possess his body?' Yvonne slowly took tiny steps away from whatever it was that invaded  Butler Powell's body.

"Evil spirit? I'll show you what evil is!" He smiled in a sinister way and snapped his fingers.

*Boom!*