I’ve always had sensitive eyes.
Squinting even on cloudy days, when the sun wasn’t shining because it was too bright. I was one of the few kids who noticed the floaters in my vision, or the moving static that plagued my sight every time I woke.
So it’s not a surprise that I’ve always been keen towards movement out of the corner of my eyes. Always seeing one reflection or another in the dark of the windows or mirrors. Anytime I thought I saw something, I panicked, quickly glancing at whatever surface I saw it in, only to realize it was my cat or something.
As I got older, I learned to ignore sudden movements that haunted my younger years. It wasn’t often that I got scared from the darting clear strings that stood out against the bright blue sky or the flowing movement of morning-static.
That was, until they became… weird, I guess. The strings made smiley faces in my vision, mocking me, or arrows directing my line of sight elsewhere. It was concerning, but nothing I couldn’t ignore.
But then the… coincidences… started happening. I say coincidences because, well, I don’t think things in your vision can… knock stuff over.
It would be quick squiggles that flew downward, and at the same time, my water bottle would get knocked down. Or I would be reading, and the pages would start flipping, but I had closed the window earlier, so there wouldn’t be a draft.
I was never one to really believe in the supernatural, but I occasionally enjoyed short stories or creepypastas. I won’t say the thought never crossed my mind, but I dismissed it fairly quickly. In hindsight, it’s not like I was wrong to dismiss the idea, but I could’ve entertained it a few moments longer.
It happened around 2 weeks ago. Well, 12 days to be exact. I was sleeping on my back, an uncommon position for my usual routine, when I just… opened my eyes. Not the groggy way, where you’re rubbing the sleep from your eyes and yawning, struggling to keep them open, but the kind where it feels like just a prolonged blink. I didn’t feel tired. I realized I couldn’t move when I tried sitting up.
For context, I didn’t have sleep paralysis before, but it’s really the only logical explanation I could come up with. I took a look around, my eyes darting around the room. It took a bit for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, pitch black fading into the colorless hues of night. I don’t know why. I was already in the dark, and my dreams beforehand, of which I don’t remember, weren’t light or colorful, I can assure you.
I saw… something. Which doesn’t make any sense. I know how floaters work. They’re caused by the gel-like substance in your eyes–vitreous–clumping together in strands, and casting a shadow onto your retinas. That’s normal. That’s not the weird part. It’s that floaters shouldn’t appear when there isn’t any light. If there’s no light, there shouldn’t be a shadow.
But there they were, squiggles and arrows floating across my vision.
