Sheila's Night Terror

Sheila's eyes fluttered open, her head pounding. The relentless sound of "Tick-tock, tick-tock" reverberated through her mind. "What time is it?", she wondered aloud, her irritation palpable. It was still dark. Sheila rolled over and silenced the offending clock. She cursed under her breath, her headache intensifying. She reached for her iPhone, the screen illuminating the time: 1:30 am. She groaned. The one day she could sleep in, of course, disrupted by this infernal noise. Frustrated, she rolled onto her right side, tucking her hand under the pillow, willing herself back to sleep. Nothing was going to get in the way of a good night's sleep.

Almost drifting into a deep sleep, she heard the sound again: "Tick-tock, tick-tock." At first, she thought she was dreaming and ignored it. As she slipped deeper into the slumber, a sudden, loud "Tick-tock, tick-tock", jolted her awake. Her heart now raced along -side her headache. What was going on? She sat up, fully awake. The room was eerily quiet, the silence breaking through the previous dissonance. Sweat gathering on her forehead, Sheila told herself, "I need to calm down before I have a heart attack!" She listened intently. The quietness persisted and she calmed thinking it must have been a dream. She rolled over seeking solace in her pillow when the noise resumed: "Tick-tock, tick-tock". This time the noise was louder and more persistent. Sheila sat up in bed, surveying the room and saw nothing.

"That's it!" Sheila shouted, her patience ending. "I've had enough of this!" She shrieked, "Stop!" The ticking only grew louder, mocking her. In a fit of rage, she grabbed the clock and hurled it against the wall; watching it shatter into countless pieces. "There," she muttered, "now you can't drive me insane in the middle of the night. Enough." All this turmoil had made her thirsty.

Feeling unsettled, Shiela got up and headed to the kitchen for a glass of ice water. Her body felt overheated from all the chaos. Pulling the freezer door open, she filled her glass halfway with ice cubes. She found a bottle of Perrier and poured the sparkling water into the glass over the ice and immediately took a huge gulp, savoring the cool relief. The ice-cold effervescence was refreshing – just what Sheila needed. "Now, if my heart would stop fluttering and my headache would just go away,” She thought to herself. “It is simply too early to be up.” Sheila decided to watch tv for a while to calm herself down and proceeded to watch a movie. That always worked when she could not sleep. Flipping through the applications she settled on Netflix. Romantic movies calmed her frazzled nerves, and she would often fall asleep on the sofa. When she woke up, she would drag herself into the bedroom. Well, it was certainly worth a try-nothing ventured nothing gained as her mother would remind her from time to time. Her mother, Sarah, was always right. Sure enough, Sheila fell asleep on the sofa and woke up with a crook in her neck.

Exhausted, she returned to her bedroom intending to sleep until late in the day. Unfortunately, the peace she was hoping for simply lent itself to an unnerving silence. Sheila's heart and head still throbbed, and as she nestled back into her pillow, she yearned for uninterrupted sleep, far away from the ticking torment. She tossed and turned for a while and sleep finally lent itself to her.

Once again, as Sheila slept relentlessly: the "Tick-tock, tick-tock" invaded her privacy. At first, she did not hear it. The "Tick-tock, tick-tock" was a far cry in the recesses of Sheila's mind. The repetition and gradual loudness brought Sheila out of her rest and brought her back into reality with a start. Sheila checked the time-it was 2:30 am. She desperately needed to sleep, but instead she heard the loud, "Tick-tock, tick-tock". Her hair stood on end, and she knew something was wrong. It was not the clock. Where was this noise coming from? She did not have any other clocks and the walls were thick, as well as soundproof. Was it the tv or her phone? She decided to investigate. Sheila climbed out of bed reproachfully. No, the tv was off and her phone was not set to the alarm function. “What in the world?” she asked herself. Then Sheila heard an abrupt, "Tick-tock, tick-tock,” very loudly and clearly behind her.

As she turned, Sheila saw something big and dark in the hallway. She felt terrified! “What is this?” she frantically thought. Sheila wished she had set up her will as her mother had suggested. Was it just a shadow or her mind playing tricks on her? Then Sheila saw the movement. Oh my God, please let this be a dream she whispered to herself as she grasped for the lamp beside her bed and fumbled with the knob trying to illuminate the room. She knocked the lamp over onto the table and as she managed to turn the lamp on, Sheila could feel something advancing on her. She turned to see gargantuan teeth, red flaring eyes, and long claws of a gross smelling, reptilian-looking creature.

Screaming, Sheila jumped back and tried to run from her bedroom into the office. There was another door in the office through which she might escape. Suddenly, she could not move. Her body felt paralyzed as the "Tick-tock; Tick-tock" grew louder. Her heart pounded fiercely in her chest, and she could hear her thudding heart beating so loudly in her ears she thought her eardrums would burst along with her heart. "Help!” Sheila was not sure if she got the words out or if it was simply a reverberation in her mind. Sheila was so terrified; she could not be certain.

“I cannot move,” she thought. “It must be a nightmare! It is not real; it is not real! I must fight back somehow. I need to run!” Sheila felt her body slow down and she could not breathe. Sheila could not run. As she closed her eyes the reptilian beast moved in as if it were a tiger taking down its’ prey. The beast continued to advance on her slowly and meticulously. "Tick-tock, tick-tock"...............time ran out.