It was the worst I had woken up in a long time. My body ached all over. My vision was blurry. My face, body, and clothes were soaked in sweat. Playing sports takes a toll on the body and mind. It was a fact that’s easy to take for granted from the outside, but one I was forced to confront when I hacked Ben. But the most crucial detail was that the melatonin had worked. He was extremely groggy.
“Focus up Ben! You got this!”
The voice came from Lawrence, who was trying his best to sound optimistic as the team captain. But despite that, I could tell that something was off. It was near the end of the first half, and the score was 32-28 in our favor. Although we were winning, the score was far too close for such a gap in divisions. I could only guess that Ben wasn’t hitting his shots the way he normally did in games.
“I’m trying, man!”
Ben and the rest of the team retreated to their side of the court to defend against the Otters and their offense. He was marking the opponent’s main offensive player, who was dribbling the ball just outside of the 3-point line. He was a small player who seemed to be good at driving the ball past everyone else using his speed. Ben was having trouble focusing, but he intently eyed his opponent with as much derisiveness as he could muster.
That player made a quick step forward to Ben’s left that took all of his concentration to perceive, much less respond to. But Ben seemed ready for it. He jolted from his defensive stance to react. His body jerked forward with every intention of stopping the advance in time. However, the advance was only a feint. The player pulled his stance back, leaning back outside of the 3-point line and launching the ball upward cleanly toward the basket. Ben’s body, unable to react to the pullback due to his muddled mind, lost his balance and fell forward onto the court. He turned back to the net and found that the shot had landed cleanly. The score became 32-31 with thirty seconds left in the first half.
“Shit!”
“You’re fine, we’ll get the point back!” Lawrence reassured Ben that things would be okay. But before anything else could happen, the whistle was blown. It seemed that the coach had called for a time out. The players all filed out to the benches. Warren jogged up to Ben.
“Give him space. He’s short, but he’s still fast. You need to create more distance so that you can react to him better with your reach.”
“Shut up, I know.”
He hadn’t taken too kindly to his friend’s advice, but he seemed to be internalizing it at least. Unfortunately for him, the real issue at that moment wasn’t Warren, but the coach. He was wearing a disgruntled expression that Ben was doing his best to avoid meeting.
“What the hell are you doing out there? Are you trying to throw the game?”
Ben’s body flinched at the question. He didn’t even have to look the aggressor in the face to know that he was the one being spoken to.
“I don’t know, coach. I feel kinda off right now. Like, I’m having trouble focusing on the game.”
“Well, if that’s how it’s gonna be then we’ll sit you out for the rest of the half. Jack, you’re in.”
“No! I mean, no sir. It’s just 30 more seconds. Let me score and I’ll rest during half time.”
“You sure about that? I’m gonna bench your ass for the rest of the season if you mess up this time. Losing to other teams is fine, but these division 2 ass-clowns don’t deserve even a 15 point gap with our team. You hear me?!”
“Coach, yes coach!”
Ben sat down on the bench and took a swig of his energy drink. He had been overwhelmed with shame ever since the opponent’s feint a while ago. It was only exacerbated by the timeout call and the verbal public execution the coach had just put him through. But more than the shame was a sense of frustration that his body and mind wouldn’t function the way he wanted them to. He turned to Zoey, who was sitting behind her camera and tripod with a neutral expression. She had met his gaze with an apathy that only fueled that frustration.
I couldn’t read his thoughts, but just by following his gaze and allowing his feelings to flow through me, it wasn’t difficult to ascertain where his thoughts were heading. But at that moment, I could tell that he wasn’t thinking much at all. Any calculations he might have been making when the game had started were all gone. The combination of the melatonin and his flustered mental state had completely destroyed him.
“Fuck…”
Ben uttered the word in frustration, then felt a hand pat him on the back.
“You got this, right?”
Lawrence’s smile greeted Ben when he turned around. He was focused, but he still tried to ease the pressure Ben was feeling by keeping a cheery demeanor.
“You’re damn right I do. Pass me the ball. I’ll drive it in.”
“Atta boy.”
He stood up and wiped the sweat off his face with a towel, then headed back to the court. The opposing team took a defensive formation on their side of the court as the whistle blew to signal the resuming of the game. Lawrence passed the ball to Ben from outside the paint, and he ran it up to the other side of the court.
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The small player locked eyes with him as the two faced off. I don’t know much about basketball, but I assumed that Ben would simply use his size to power through the shorter player and drive the ball into the basket. And judging by the frustration he had been feeling, I didn’t think he had it in him for a more complicated play.
Ben rushed to the left of his opponent and easily broke past his defenses, then jumped up to release the ball into the air. The shot was on a clear path for the hoop, but it was a little too low and ended up bouncing off the side.
“Fuck!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine! Rebound!”
Lawrence called for a rebound, but the opposing team managed to grab the ball before his own center could even run to grab it.
“Defense!”
He made the call to run back to the other side of the court. The ball was passed once again to the short player, who faced off with Ben on the other side of the court. The two of them stared off, but with more distance between them this time. It appeared that he had taken Warren’s advice. They faced each other for a few seconds, before he made the move to push to the right like before. However, with more distance between them now, Ben had more time to carefully react. He recognized that this move wasn’t a feint like the last one, and plunged forward to steal the ball from his opponent.
“Woah!”
After the ball was stolen from him, the short player fell backwards from the force of the ball being slapped out of his hand. And in response, the referee blew the whistle to call a foul. It was a call that caused Ben’s body to violently jerk up in response.
“What?! How?!”
Ben held both hands out in frustration and looked around to gather a consensus on whether the call from the referee was justified. However, there wasn’t much that he could gather from his teammates. Everyone just appeared to be down over their team’s lack of scoring ability in the game rather than the foul call. There were now 8 seconds left. There was a chance that they could make a quick play after the penalty shots, but they were unlikely to make anything happen with Ben in the state that he was in. Ben knew this, and his frustration with the state of the game had reached a boiling point.
“Hey ref! That wasn’t a foul!” He stormed towards the ref, who still had the whistle in his mouth.
“Stand back or I’m going to have to give you another one.”
“Another one?! I didn’t deserve the first one in the first place!”
“Woah!” Lawrence ran up to Ben and held him back.
“It’s fine, we can still win. We just need to rest during the first half.”
“No way, fuck that! The whole school’s gonna be depressed if we fall behind during the break!”
“It’s a foul, I’m not changing my decision.”
His frustration was at its boiling point. The pressure of the bet, the crowd’s murmurs, and his coach’s threats were mounting up over him. He didn’t want the game to go like this, that much was obvious. And those feelings were all pushing him over the edge. If there were any time for me to take advantage of the situation, it would be now.
“You fucker!” I seized control of his body and pushed Lawrence out of the way.
“Hey!”
My (his) fist was pulled back before I realized it. The emotions were all doing my bidding for me. Yes, Dream Paralysis is all about commanding what’s already inside of the person. As much as Ben had wanted to do this, his better judgment was still holding him back from pulling the trigger. That’s why his body needed a new commander. One that allowed him to release those pent-up emotions.
Like a rocket launching into orbit, I thrusted my (his) fist into the referee’s face. The feeling of bone meeting bone seared itself into my mind.
---
The pain followed me back into my own body. I gasped for air and shook my wrist in shock. The sweet sound of the crowd erupting into chaos numbed out the temporary pain in my knuckles. There was a distinct rumbling sound among the crowd that almost felt like the sound of metal being crushed filling the room, possibly from the stampeding of everyone’s feet. Ben was being held back by the rest of the basketball team, and the referee, who was still on the ground, called for him to be suspended from the rest of the game.
With this move, the team lost their main scorer. If Gwen was right, then it should have been enough to give the opposing team the edge. No, what happened just then was bigger than that. Our school morale was completely depleted at this point. The match was basically over.
“Dude, did you see that? Aw, man! Homecoming’s gonna suck!”
Ollie leaned back in frustration and complained to me after noticing that I was awake. I could barely hear him over the rumbling, so I decided to ignore him and stand up to leave. But before I could, the feeling of my phone vibrating in my pocket held me in place. I picked it out of my pocket and saw a familiar number, then answered it.
“Zoey? Did you see that? I did it.”
“Tristan. There’s something behind you.”
Rather than offering me any sort of congratulations, she offered me cryptic words in a tense voice that didn’t suit Zoey at all.
“What? What are you talking about? Is this some kind of joke?”
“Don’t… don’t make any sudden moves. There’s something… like a large creature. It might be ten feet tall. I-I don’t know what it looks like, it’s too dark to see. But whatever it is, it’s right behind you. I asked Jaz and she doesn’t see it, and no one else is looking at it either. Only I see it.”
A large creature that only she sees. That was the explanation she offered me. Once again, I heard the rumbling sound. Only this time, it was painfully obvious that it wasn’t the sound of anyone’s feet. And more importantly…
The sound…
Was right…
Behind me…
I froze in place, unable to muster up the courage to turn around.
“Hey… Zoey… That thing... What’s it doing?”
“It’s not doing anything. It’s just staring down at you.”
The sound of crunching metal continued to relentlessly assail my ears. I had no knowledge of a creature that made such an unsettling sound.
“What should I do?”
“Just look at it. Tell me if you can see it too.”
“I... I don’t want to aggravate it.”
“If it wanted to hurt you, then you would already be dead by now.”
“Jesus Christ…”
Her words were cold, but she probably had a point.
“But Tristan. Whatever you do, don’t react to it. Other people can’t see it. And more importantly, we don’t know how it’ll react.”
Everyone was still distracted by what was going on down by the court, so I doubted that they’d pay me any mind even if I did react. However, I decided to internalize what she had said. I took a deep breath, steeling myself to withstand the shock of whatever it was behind me… and I turned around.
I remember the terror of coming face to face with that massive creature. The way it towered over me made Ben and his threats seem so small in comparison. Its entire body was pitch black. I couldn’t make out what it was, but even if I could, I don’t think my mind was in any state to put any pieces together. It wore what appeared to be a deer or moose-shaped skull on its head, which was the only bit of contrast against that pitch black tone.
But more than the terror, more than the great fear that such an inexplicably horrifying creature had been patiently perched behind me, something in my mind had clicked. Between Dream Paralysis and the nightmares I had been having since I entered high school, I suddenly began drawing a connection between it all, and it finally started making sense.
“I remember you.”