Yesterday I Woke Up At 2:47 AM
written by me (durph), completed 6/26/2022
I was having a terrible dream. It was one of the most vivid nightmares I had ever had, and when I woke up, I laid awake in my bed for what felt like several minutes waiting for something to jump out at me and shove me back into my terrible dream. But, fortunately, that did not happen.
When I woke up, I found myself in need of a drink of water. A common occurrence, at least for me. I was still shaken up from the dream, but I tried my best to overcome the fear. I took one foot out of my blanket, then the other. Slowly but surely, I got up out of bed. The noise coming from the fan in my room was loud enough to drown out any creaks in the floor that might alert someone in the house. Then, the realization of what I was doing instantly hit me.
I live alone. I don't believe in the paranormal. But, for some reason, I was acting as if the dream I just had was still happening. I immediately straightened up, facing the large mirror on top of my drawer, then walked out of my room with semi-fake confidence. I admit, I was still a little bit nervous that something would jump out at me, but by the time I had reached the kitchen, that feeling was gone.
The moonlight coming through the window was just enough light for me to see my immediate surroundings, so I felt no need to turn on a light. I grabbed a glass, took one long stride over to the kitchen sink, and turned the faucet on. Once the glass was full, I turned off the faucet. Then, as my ears adjusted, I was struck with a fear I hadn't felt in a long time.
At this point in my life, this was a routine for me. I had a habit of waking up in the middle of the night, and I would always go into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Every time, the thing that stood out the most to me every single time was the noise of the fan coming from my bedroom. The kitchen was close enough to my bedroom that I could faintly hear that familiar white noise.
Not this time.
The only thing I heard was the faint chirp of crickets from outside. I was slightly panicked, as I had no idea what could have caused it. It couldn't have been a power surge, because I could still see the clock displayed on the microwave. 2:47 AM. Was there someone in my room? I settled on the theory that the plug was just loose and it fell out on its own. After all, I hadn't touched the plug in a long time. I shook the possibility that an intruder was present out of my mind, and I quickly realized that there was another problem.
It was still 2:47 AM. The time hadn't changed. My mind was yet again filled with questions. Was I really that fast? Perhaps my mind was running a bit slow, and I had perceived time as slower than it really was. I set my glass of water down on the counter, sat down on the floor and stared intently at the clock on the microwave to see if it would change...
...nothing. I had to have sat there for at least 2 full minutes. The clock still read 2:47 AM after so much time had passed. Maybe it was just a huge coincidence, and the display happened to freeze at that specific time. I don't know how it could have happened, but I accepted it anyway. I got back up, stretched my legs, and began to make my way back to my room. When I turned to the hallway, I spotted something from my room. It was a shape that looked too much like the silhouette of a human. It looked like it had a head, arms, and legs. Admittedly, it was rather blurry and I couldn't make out any details, but it was still there, and something about it felt wrong to me.
My next action was to take a sheet of paper and draw it. I don't know what compelled me to do this. Maybe it was a primal feeling, or something of that sort. Without regard of what could have happened if I looked away from this thing, I quickly grabbed a notepad and pencil from a junk drawer in the dining room. I returned to the spot on the floor where I first saw it, and it was still there. The tension in the air started to ease a little bit, but I was definitely not going any closer until I had a firm grasp of what this thing looked like.
Since my eyes were well adjusted to the moonlight, I could easily see what I was doing with the pencil in my hand. As quickly as I started, I finished drawing the outline. I had drawn a skinny humanoid creature with a large oblong head, and it was slumped over as if it had a hunch back. It was as close to realism as I could get, since again, I couldn't see the shape that well.
When I looked up from the paper to look at the shape again, I was struck with the same fear I felt before. All of a sudden, there was something completely solid standing there. At that very moment, I had not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that this thing I was seeing was real. I was convinced that I had manifested it into existence. I was frozen in place for a solid minute. I didn't know whether or not to run away or to just stand there and wait until it simply disappeared. With no other option, I backed away from the hall, not taking my eyes off of the thing. And then, I collapsed to the ground. The last thing I saw was the same digital display on the microwave, reading 2:47 AM.
I woke up standing in my kitchen. I was seemingly in the exact spot where I fainted, but for some reason I was on my feet. It didn't feel like anything was wrong with me. Uneasy, I looked at the microwave clock again. 12:03 PM. I breathed a sigh of relief as I thought to myself that I had broken free of this time curse. I walked over and peeped my head into my room, and there was no sign of a humanoid creature. The fan was plugged in, and everything seemed to be fine.
I walked in and looked at myself in the mirror. It took me a while to realize, but there looked to be something scrawled in the corner with a permanent marker. Just as I thought, there were tiny, lowercase letters spelling out a question.
"don't you remember?"
concept inspired by the story at the beginning of this video
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