A Normal Life...?

What happened that night, you ask? Nothing. Nothing at all. In fact, so little happened that night that no one even cared to mention it the following morning. No words, no conversations, just grunts, coffee, breakfast, and Redbull. Such was the morning after a night of alcohol.

He woke up but he didn't open his eyes. His head was throbbing and pulsing, his legs were weak and tired. He couldn't even think, he just lay there and listened to the people around him shuffling along and grabbing their stuff. Most of the time they left without saying a word, and nobody blamed them. He heard cars turn over, bites being taken out of food, footsteps, the occasional chatter. It was getting boring. He really wished he could remember anything that happened last night, anything at all! But he couldn't.

He slowly opened his eyes and took a look at the floor. God, there was trash everywhere. All kinds of food and drink, wrappers, bags, bottles, you name it. Disgusted, he decided to sit up so he didn't have to look at it anymore.

"Hey, there's the birthday boy!" Talon had a few close friends who always stayed later than everybody else. They began to weakly cheer and clap for him. Oh yeah, he remembered, yesterday was my birthday. I forgot about that.

He weakly made a thumbs-up gesture and got to his feet. They were eating pizza on the kitchen counter that wasn't far away from the living room. There was another one, but it was near the game room. He looked over there and yeah, some people were still snoring away!

"Hey I want some," he said as he sat next to them.

"Dude, just take the box," Callum said. He and Callum had been friends for ages and they knew they could rely on each other until the day they died.

He laughed. "Cool, thanks dude." He started eating, and after swallowing a few bites, he started staring into space.

"Hey. Do you remember anything about last night?"

Talon turned to him and shook his head. "Naw. I don't remember anything. I guess it was good, right?"

"I don't know! I don't remember anything either!"

He laughed. "Bro I thought you stopped drinking that much. It's been forever since you last blacked out."

"Yeah, whatever." He sensed that Talon was trying to tease him so he let it go. They chuckled a bit and had quite the uneventful day.

When nighttime approached Talon always liked to build websites on his phone. No one knew why, not even him - he just liked doing it. Everyone was long gone by that point so he twiddled away on his phone, making everything as detailed as he possibly could. Now that he thought about it, he liked doing it because it felt good.

He heard a rustling outside but didn't think anything of it. Rabbits and deer were in the backyard all the time. But his good feeling turned into a creeping suspicion as he continued working on his phone. A suspicion that wouldn't go away.

He put it down and looked out the window. Nothing was there. He got up from his bed to check the other angle of the backyard, still nothing. He thought it was weird he'd feel like this for no reason, but he didn't question it - he just went back to his bed and opened his phone again.

Some time passed and the feeling went away. He was almost done with his latest project, and it was looking perfect! But that's when he heard a "thump" right outside of his room, right beneath his head. He didn't jump since he wasn't paranoid by nature, but the feeling certainly came back, so he went outside to check it out.

He walked out of the front door and made his way to where he heard the bump. Nothing was there, of course, but he didn't hear anything scampering away. He was definitely confused - why didn't he hear anything run away? Just a bump, and that's it? Something wasn't right here, but since he didn't see anything he turned around and -

Wait, there was something off in the distance! He squinted so he could get a better look, but all he could see where the two yellow, glowing eyes. Was it a cat, he thought to himself? We don't have any cats but maybe it's the neighbor's cat. He started walking in its direction, but it scampered away like wild cats do when someone comes closer. He didn't think anything of it and he went back to his bedroom. He decided to go to sleep early since he was tired from the night before.

---

He awoke, but it was still dark outside. Huh, I haven't woken up in the middle of the night in a long time, he thought to himself. He was very calm, and he wanted to go back to sleep until he noticed something was different - he couldn't move his arms or legs!

"Ohhh, I know what this is. It's sleep paralysis or something like that" he said in his head. He had heard about it before, but he never experienced it, this was his first time! He wasn't afraid, though, he had no plans of doing anything until sunrise anyway, so he figured he could just go back into "real" sleep very soon.

He closed his eyes, and not long after he felt the same paranoia take over him once again! He was beginning to feel angry at himself for feeling this way, especially since he didn't have a reason to, so he opened his eyes to see what was around him - and then he saw it.

It was standing in the corner of his room. It looked like a decrepit humanoid that hadn't eaten in years. It was moaning softly, almost as if it was in pain, and it had those same yellow eyes that he saw earlier. It was staring at the floor and swaying back and forth, almost as if it was intoxicated.

He opened his eyes wide with fear. He still couldn't move, but he was trying his hardest to escape. With each failed attempt to move his arms or legs, he became more and more panicked, and the room filled up with more and more black energy.

The being stopped swaying, took its eyes off of the floor, and slowly raised them to meet his own. This is when he went into full-blown terror, especially when it began walking towards him. He tried to scream, but the words wouldn't come out of his throat. When it got close enough it reached out its hand and shouted a bloody screech.

Everything went black, he couldn't see anything anymore, but he could hear voices happening all around him. Eventually, he woke up for real, and nothing was in his room anymore.

He was panting and sweating, anxious as can be. There's no way that was normal, he thought to himself. He opened his phone and typed, "sleep paralysis." After doing some research he concluded that this kind of thing happened all the time and that there was nothing to worry about. It took him a while to calm down, but after he did so he went to sleep and woke up in the morning.

---

He was making breakfast when he had to admit, last night was pretty terrifying. He was a casual and easygoing guy who wasn't afraid of anything, but this experience really spooked him, even if it was all in his head.

He sat down and took a bite of his cereal when the phone rang. It was Callum.

"Hey bud," he said in between bites of food.

"Hey! Uh… So, I don't have any easy way to say this. But, umm… Kathy's dead."

He stopped eating his food in shock, and it took him a while to compose himself. "Like, uh, the one who came to the party?"

"Yeah, that Kathy. You didn't know her, but I know her pretty well. It's sad, man. But, there's something else I gotta tell you…"

That's when he looked up and noticed a mysterious black book on the kitchen counter, one that he had never seen before. He stared at it for a while before saying into the phone, "w-what is it?"

"Her… Her sister told the cops that you killed her."

He scrunched his forehead before bursting into laughter. "No she didn't! You're screwing with me aren't you?"

"Bro I wish I was," he said as a solemn expression overcame Talon's face. It took him a while before he thought about what to say.

"So, was she drunk? Drugs? Does she have a grudge against me? What's going on?"

"I dunno, but she actually believes you killed her sister. And look, I know you're not a murderer, Talon, I'm on your side. But I just wanna let you know what's going on."

He stayed silent for a moment. What did this mean? Would he have to go to trial? What would happen here in the next few months?

"Yeah… I know. Thanks man. I gotta go, ok?"

"Yeah yeah, no problem. If I have any updates I'll text you."

Both of them hung up and Talon sat on the couch with his hands in his lap. First last night, then this? What was going on? He felt sick, and sure enough, he went into the bathroom and puked his guts out. His breakfast was still sitting there, waiting to be eaten.

Since it was Sunday he didn't have to do anything, so he spent the day in a daze, wandering about and processing what had just happened. Even if he didn't like someone he would never kill them, never! Could it be that he killed her while sleep-walking? No, that was impossible. But was it?

He put his head in his hands as he tried to think about what could have possibly happened. Was there a murderer in his little town that looked just like him? That was possible, he thought to himself.

In fact, it was more than possible. He happened to look out the window and he saw someone walking in the distance who looked just like him. A spike of fear shot up his spine. What? He knew everyone in this town, how had he never seen him before? He would have definitely remembered the guy who could pass as his twin, and even himself. And even more importantly, what was he doing on his property?

However, as soon as he saw him through the window the guy stopped dead in his tracks. He stood there for a moment before slowly turning his head to look at Talon, revealing an all-too-familiar pair of yellow eyes. Talon's eyes widened with shock as he realized the impossible just happened - it wasn't all in his head. The thud, the sleep paralysis, the thing touching him… It had actually happened, and somehow it was able to morph into someone that looked just like him.

"Holy…" he said aloud as his "twin" smiled an evil smile. It took its eyes off of Talon and walked away into the bushes, presumably to kill somebody else.

What could he do? If he told anyone they'd think he was crazy! What could he actually do? His mind was racing for solutions, but none of them actually seemed viable… Until he thought of something.

"I have to kill it myself. I have to kill it and show it to everyone so they know I'm innocent. That's my only hope," he said, and luckily he owned a pistol. He could kill it, if he could find it...

---

Nighttime came, and he was fully armed and ready for action. That is, he had some water bottles, a couple of protein bars, and his pistol. Completely ready for combat!

His first problem was he didn't know where it would strike next. Where should he look? He decided to play the eagle since it was a small town, chances were he'd be able to see it.

He took his position behind a rock formation that overlooked the majority of the town. Until tonight it was only a good place to hang out and have some fun. He just sat there and watched, waited, hoping it would be as predictable as he needed it to be.

As he was looking he noticed a piece of paper hidden in a crevice between two rocks. He pulled it out and it was a check for $20,001! It was worn but it looked fairly new, so he put it in his pocket and decided he would worry about it later.

An hour passed, but he was still going strong. Once he put his mind to something he always followed through. He was starting to get bored, though, so he checked his phone to see what was happening. No service… Darn.

But he saw something out of the corner of his eye. No one was out right now except this one person who he vaguely knew but didn't spend a lot of time with. He snapped his head up and decided to watch them, just in case something happened. They went from the store to their home with no issues, but he saw a bush rustling on the other side of the town, and he immediately suspected danger. Sure enough, it poked its head out for a split second, then went back into hiding. It didn't seem him, but it was hiding just the same as he was!

Okay, he thought, I have some options. I could try and shoot it from here, I could wait until it tries to go for somebody, or I could try to flank it. I'm not a very good shot, and I think it would hear me coming if I tried to flank it, so I'm gonna wait here for a little while longer.

He kept his eyes stuck to the bush, and somehow, it didn't notice he was up there. No one else wanted to come out, though, so maybe he'd have to shoot it from where he was.

Wait, now it was crawling away! It was crawling behind a hill where Talon couldn't keep his eyes on it. Crap, he thought, what do I do now? He couldn't chase it since it was too fast.

He decided that was the moment. If he didn't act right then and there all would be lost forever. So he took out his pistol, aimed very carefully, and fired a shot. Then two. Then three.

Thankfully, he hit it in the arm, and that gave him enough time to run down the rock formation and finish it off.

---

He explained what happened to the police, and they were baffled, but since the evidence was right in front of him they couldn't deny it. No charges were pressed against him. He didn't go to trial. In fact, they considered him a hero, and they thanked him for saving the town! Kathy's sister even came up to him and thanked him, even though she was still grieving… Although the color of her eyes seemed a bit more tinted than usual...