3:33 a.m.

Silvia waited in Dr. Luther’s office. The waiting room was small and bright white, the furniture was white, and the walls were white and plain. Only a few seats in the room and she seemed to be the only patient today. The bright lights in the ceiling bothered her, she was blinking more than usual. Silvia has had no sleep in the past three days. The bright lights from the ceiling didn’t let her see properly. Her legs were shaken by the nervousness in her body, she bit her nails until her cuticles bled. She could hear whispers coming from inside the walls. Silvia was sure people listened to every conversation and watched her every move. She believed they were waiting to catch her, and they would as soon as she closed her eyes and fell asleep again. After those numbers on the clock were seen by her... 3:33 a.m. The first time this happened Silvia was twelve. She woke up when the pink heart shape clock on her bedroom wall marked 3:33 am. As a child, Silvia was always afraid to sleep by herself. She would often go back to her parent’s room in the middle of the night. Silvia’s parents had a greenhouse that connected to their house at the end of the hallway leading to the bedrooms. It was a beautiful house with an exceedingly rare design. Plants were in every corner. Walking around their house felt like walking in a rainforest. Silvia’s childhood house was beautiful, but after the horrific experience, she had that night. For her, the house was never the same. As she opened the door of her bedroom to step out. She looked to the left. There, at the end of the hallway, the greenhouse. It was dark but the lamps of some of her mother’s special plants gave some light at the end of the hallway. She noticed something on the floor, it was hard to see beyond just the shape of it. It was almost perfectly round and seemed to have fur. Her childish curious mind made her think it was a dog or some adorable animal she could pet. She kept her eyes on it and walked in its direction; as she got closer, the shape became clearer. It was a head. Mr. Bill’s head, her neighbor. Just his head and a trace of flesh coming down his chopped neck. As she got close to realizing what it was before she could even scream.

Mr. Bill opened his eyes. “They will eat your body, don’t fall back asleep! RUN!” He shouted.

Silvia slowly stepped back; her body frozen she couldn’t even scream. She ran just like Mr. Bill said. Running to her parent’s bedroom, looking back as she ran to the other end of the hallway. She kept running, Silvia felt as if the hallway was growing longer, and the bedroom door seemed farther away as she kept running towards it. She didn’t understand and broke down crying in desperation but never stopped running. She ran and her breathing became heavy, she wanted to reach the door, but the faster she ran, the farther away the door appeared. Suddenly she had finally reached the doorknob. The door was locked, and she started banging on it with her tiny fist, she was so scared and began to kick on the door with her feet, and her knees. She closed her eyes, crying in panic. Her father finally opened the door, and she quickly cleaves to him. “Mr. Billi’s head Mr. Billi’s head!!!” She said screaming at the top of her lungs.

He looked around the greenhouse, at first terrified of what he might find but after looking for a while he found…nothing. The next day Mr. Bill took his dog for a walk like he would any other day and Silvia watched him through her bedroom window. She didn’t understand. What she had seen was so real…so real it traumatized her so much she spent years crying herself to sleep terrified of the nighttime. An occurrence like the one on that night never happened again. Until this last Friday.

Last Friday night Silvia woke up and the clock on her bedside table marked 3:33 a.m. This at once gave her a vivid flashback from that night, but she stayed calm. She turned to the opposite side of the bed and gently closed her eyes. Thirteen years had passed since that horrific sighting in her parents’ greenhouse. Silvia was twenty-five years old now. As she became older, she forced herself to detach this fear from her mind. When she sees the number 3:33a.m on the clock rarely, she still feels her heart slowly increasing its rate and a shiver coming down her spine. Usually, she would close her eyes, take a few deep breaths and try to fall asleep again and this worked for years. Nothing had ever happened. No one ever ate her body, but the uncomfortable fear was always there. After her freshman year of high school, her sleep improved. This Friday night something was different… Silvia had an unsettling feeling. She never left her bed at this time of the night, it terrified her. She had a rule, just for herself to stay in bed strictly until the sun came up, but she was having trouble falling asleep. Silvia looked back at the clock on her bedside table, and it still marked 3:33 a.m. She was sure it had been at least 30 minutes since she turned to the other side of the bed. She brought her two hands to her face firmly pressing, she dragged her hands down her face and her fingers stretched the bottom of her eyelids and she exhaled, frustrated. Her mouth started to feel dry, and Silvia was so uncomfortable, she decided to break the rule for the first time in thirteen years. It made her feel pathetic, she was an adult, and even though she doesn’t fall asleep crying in her childhood home bedroom anymore. She is an adult now in her apartment, soon to be a mother. Still terrified of something her imagination created; she had been unhappy all her life because of this irrational paranoia. She could never make her child feel safe if she didn’t feel safe. Silvia decided she would not let her fear overtake her anymore. Nothing happened after that night in years, and nothing will happen tonight, she thought. Her legs were shaking as she tried to sit up and place both feet on the ground. Her hands held onto the edge of the mattress, and she stood up almost falling. Her legs appeared to be weak. The terror of how vivid Mr. Bill’s head seemed on the floor of the greenhouse that night, stuck forever in her mind…it was so real. She took a deep breath and found balance. She paused, took a deep breath once again, and gently touched her baby bump. Soon to be a mother all by herself… she needed to get over this fear and this constant paranoia had to be over.

Dr. Luther’s door opened. The sound of the wooden door made Silvia jump as if it could’ve stopped her heart. She stood up and walked in. She looked back more than one time on her way in. The Doctor remained silent and closed the door behind them. No bright ceiling lights in his office, just two lamps with very soft lighting. It certainly felt calmer. She sat down on a long black leather couch.

“How are you, Silvia?” Dr. Luther asked.

“They are back…” She murmured while her eyes nervously looked through the room.

“Explain to me. Who are they?”

“It happened again… doctor I saw him… I saw his head!”

“Mr. Bill’s?” He asked.

“The other night I tried… I – I must for the baby. I went to the kitchen, and it was there his flesh all over my kitchen table I –

She snapped.

“I’m scared Luther! he said it again! I- I’m fucking scared. I can’t go to sleep!”

 “I can’t! I can’t!” She repeated.

“Breath Silvia… this is the first step to healing from this. You need to breathe… this is not good for your child.” Dr. Luther assured.

“NO! you don’t understand! I hear them inside the walls waiting for me to go to sleep! They’re going to eat me! I can hear them right now! Whispering waiting for me… and my baby! OH, my baby!”  She cried.

Dr. Luther took off his reading glasses. Looked at Silvia and asked.

“How do you know you’re not asleep?”

Silvia heard this and stopped her cries. She looked up and locked eyes with Dr. Luther. Not sure if what she heard was real, confused she asked him. “What?”

The doctor stared at her in silence, not blinking …and then he asked again. “How do you know you’re not sleeping right now...?”.

Tears were falling down her face, but she was in silence, and she did not move from the couch. She stared at Dr. Luther not knowing what to say, her body in a frozen state. She did not know what was real and what was not anymore. In Dr. Luther’s face, a soft sinister smile began to appear.

“What time is it?” He asked. “Look at the clock above me, Silvia.”

“No…no, no!” Silvia begged as she slowly looked up at the round clock that marked 3:33 am. She looked back at Dr. Luther he still stared at her in silence…no blinking. The whispers she had heard every day since Friday night. Increased and became louder. “She’s here! She arrived!”  They murmured.

Silvia stood up quickly and approached the door. She opened it to find a different room. The bright waiting room was not on the other side of the door anymore. There was a long wooden dining table; people were sitting around it. The table was so long it sat about thirty people. They all looked at her. Two men came up behind her and grabbed her by the arms. They seized her tightly, she screamed and tried to let go but they were too tall, too strong. The room turned pitch black. Nothing could be seen, only heard. Silvia’s uncontrollable screams and the sound of her feet kicking the wooden floor. Her cries and desperate screams became louder and suddenly…dead silence. The lights came back on, blood dripped down the table like spilled red wine. In the center of it lay Silvia’s naked body. Sliced open from her chest to her belly, headless. The people sitting at the table stared at her dead body with excitement. They seemed thirsty…hungry for her. They couldn’t resist it anymore and feasted on her insides like animals.