I first saw it while I was doing the dishes. I was scraping an untouched plate of stir-fry into the garbage. Theo had called with an apology and an excuse. Last-minute emergency. No one else available to cover. Coming home late. See you in the morning. The usual.
After dropping the clean plates into the sink I found myself just staring out the kitchen window. It looked out into the backyard, a 900-square-foot rectangle of crabgrass and twigs presided over by a poorly-pruned oak tree.
My eyes were caught by the sad face staring back at me, my translucent reflection in the glass. I was wearing mascara and lipstick, hoping to surprise Theo with a sexy night after dinner. I closed my eyes with a sigh. We had gotten married only three years ago, just out of college, but Theo already felt more like a roommate than a husband.
When I opened my eyes I saw it in the reflection, a dim shape silhouetted against the light from the hallway. I spun, assuming there was an intruder, grabbing a knife from the sink to defend myself.
The hallway was empty.
Just to be safe I searched the entire house, checking every door and window to make sure they were all locked. There was no sign of anyone and I quickly convinced myself that it was just a trick of the light. I finished cleaning up, putting the dishes away before sitting down to drown the rest of the evening in Netflix and a bottle of wine.
But that was when the night terrors began.
I woke up with my body completely paralyzed. I’d experienced sleep paralysis once or twice before so I didn’t panic. It was never pleasant but it usually only lasted for a few minutes. I lay in bed, trying to stay relaxed and waiting for my muscles to obey me once again.
But tonight the paralysis wouldn’t lift. I could only sweep my eyes around the darkened room, trying my best to keep myself calm. I slept in the nude and my sheets had slid off at some point during the night, baring my breasts and stomach. It was a chilly night and I could feel goosebumps rising on my arms and the tightness of my nipples.
That’s when I saw the shape by the window. It was a cloudy night and the only light was the reflection of street lights outside. Outlined against the faint light was a person, standing just a few feet from the bed.
Naturally, I assumed it was Theo. He must have just come home and was getting ready to get into bed.
...except...he wasn’t moving.
He was just standing there. Head slightly tilted.
I wanted to call out, to ask him what he was doing. But I couldn’t move. Every muscle in my body was limp like all my nerves were disconnected.
He still wasn’t moving. I could faintly hear the sound of raspy breathing.
If I weren’t completely paralyzed I would have screamed when I heard the sound of the toilet flush in the hallway bathroom. My heart began jackhammering in my chest as the implications of what I was hearing began to sink in. The figure continued to stand wordlessly at the window. I shrieked internally at my body to obey but I still couldn’t move a single finger.
When the bathroom opened, soft light filtered through the half-open bedroom door. It was faint but it picked out a few details on the figure at the window, shining wetly on dark, eel-like skin and glinting off of two large, white eyes.
A second later, the light shut off, taking my night-vision with it. As I was plunged into what seemed like pitch darkness my paralysis finally lifted and I thrashed wildly in the blankets, screaming Theo’s name and reaching desperately for the bedside lamp.
“Honey!?”
Theo came through the door just as I found the lamp’s switch and the room filled with light. He was in a bathrobe and had a panicked, confused look on his face. I could barely say anything, simply pointing at the window and letting out an incoherent, panting yell.
There was no one else in the room.
“There...was…” I gasped, blinking tears from my eyes. “I saw…”
“It’s okay.” Theo sat on the bed and put an arm around my shoulders. “Did you have a bad dream?”
I shook my head, “I thought there was someone there...someone at the window.”
Theo tried to comfort me, reassuring me that no one else was in the house and telling me that everything was fine. After a while I allowed him to turn off the light and lay back down. We spooned and he stroked my arm, kissing my shoulders and mumbling something soothing into my hair.
I could feel his chest pressed against my back, warm and alive. My breathing had steadied but my heart was still pounding. It was then that I noticed a different reaction...a soft, tingling warmth was spreading over my face and chest. I rubbed my legs together and I could feel a hint of moisture on the lips of my pussy. Theo’s warm hand was resting on my ribs and I could feel the soft tickle of his pubic hair against my butt.
I wanted him.
I pressed against him more firmly, feeling his dick twitch as I ground gently against his waist. Reaching down, I moved his hand to my left breast. My breasts were modest and Theo’s hand fit perfectly over it. He gave it a gentle squeeze and I felt my body respond eagerly after so many weeks without intimacy, my pussy tingling with need. I ground against his crotch more insistently, trying to get a rise from his dick.
Theo nuzzled my neck through my hair and planted a couple of kisses in the general vicinity of my ear. He gave my breast another perfunctory squeeze and rolled over, his back to me, muttering something about seeing me in the morning.
Within moments Theo was snoring and I was alone beside him.
Sighing, I reached between my legs, running my fingers through the trimmed hair around my pussy. I shivered as I found my clit and gently pressed it with my fingers. Closing my eyes, I tried to think back to the last time Theo and I were together, his hands on my body and his hard dick inside my pussy. But my fantasy kept being interrupted by the memory of that shape in the darkness,
The thought was like a drop of ice-cold water on my skin, tightening my stomach and sending a shiver up my spine. But instead of ruining the experience, the fear seemed to heighten the sensation as I flicked my fingers side-to-side over my clit. I bit my lip and slid two fingers inside, feeling the walls of my pussy tighten around them.
I spent almost an hour rubbing myself next to my sleeping husband, thinking about a silent shape in the darkness.
I saw him again a week later.
I was taking a mid-afternoon shower and had just finished drying myself off. The bathroom mirror was fogged so I wiped it down with a hand towel. I froze when I saw it in the damp mirror.
The shower was right behind me, covered with a plain, white shower curtain. Pressed against the curtain was the clear outline of a hand and behind it was the faintest suggestion of a dark shape through the frosted plastic.
I stared at that hand. Its fingers were long and spindly but it only had four fingers instead of the usual five. As I watched, it pressed harder against the curtain and I could hear the sound of crinkling plastic and the curtain rings sliding against the rod.
With a surge of adrenaline, my stupor was broken and I snatched up the toothbrush glass by the sink and spun, hurling the glass at the shape behind the shower curtain. The cup hit the curtain and fell into the enamel bathtub with the sound of breaking glass.
The shower was empty. I stood alone in the bathroom, panting from the explosive rush of adrenaline. As it faded I dropped to my knees, sinking into the soft floor mat, shaking with confused terror. I looked back at the mirror but there was no sign of the mysterious shape.
It was then that I realized my inner thighs were slick with spreading wetness and my pussy was throbbing in excitement. For a while I simply knelt there, feeling confused and slightly ashamed of myself. Did I actually see anything in the first place? Was I going insane? Why was this getting me so excited?
After the shower, I had planned to take care of some house cleaning that had been piling up over the last few weeks. Instead, I retrieved my waterproof vibrator from its drawer in the bedroom and turned the shower back on. I laid down in the bath, letting the hot water flow over me as I circled my clit with the vibrator, imagining a dark shape standing on the other side of the shower curtain.
I stayed in the shower until the water ran ice-cold.
I woke up paralyzed again that night.
Theo had come home on time that night and I could hear his soft breathing just a few feet to my left as I lay on my back next to him. I tried to open my mouth to call Theo’s name but again my body simply wouldn’t move, not even trembling as I struggled to raise my hand.
The only things I could control were my eyes and I slowly scanned the room while I lay completely helpless on the bed. The shape was standing next to the bed. It was so close that I could have reached out to touch it if I was able to move at all. Thin beams of moonlight streamed through the curtains and in the dim light I could see more details than I had the night before.
The shape was roughly human but seemed to have no hair or clothing. The light shone off of smooth, black skin stretched over a bald head and wiry muscles. Its face was cast into shadow but I could just make out the suggestion of too-large pale eyes and features that seemed unnaturally long and angular. There was a faint odor, like the smell of burning autumn leaves.
My heart hammered in my chest as the thing next to the bed moved. One of its eerily long arms reached out towards me. I couldn’t move my head to follow it with my eyes but I could practically feel its hand hovering just inches above my helpless body. I wanted to scream when I felt the light pressure of its fingertips through the sheet covering my naked body, just above my navel.
With excruciating slowness, the blanket started to slide off my body. I could do nothing but stare at the shadowy face of the creature as I felt the soft fabric gliding against my skin. The terror gripping my mind seemed to make everything move in slow motion and heightened every physical sensation. My nipples tingled as the fabric dragged slowly over them and I could feel the stubble of my freshly shaved pussy prickle as the sheet was drawn across it.
It felt like hours before the sheet was finally pulled off, sliding to the ground with the soft thump of falling cloth. I was completely exposed and I could see the figure’s head slowly turning and I could feel its eyes on my naked body.
When its fingers touched my thigh my mind went white. My fear and arousal peaking until I could no longer think at all. The muscles of my legs and stomach trembled involuntarily as I teetered on the edge of orgasm, even as another part of my mind shrieked at me to get up and run. Fight. Curl up in the corner. Scream for Theo. Anything.
But there was nothing I could do but lay there as the figure’s cool fingers closed around my leg, just inches from my quivering pussy. Its touch felt strange like something was moving beneath its skin. Despite the crawling sensation against my leg, I could feel a tightness building inside, a pressure ready to explode at any second.
That was when Theo turned over, muttering something unintelligible and reaching over me to grab the blanket that had fallen to the floor. His chest bumping against my flank finally seemed to wake up my body and I was able to jerk upright. The hand was gone from my thigh and the figure was no longer by the bedside.
I got up and went to the bathroom as Theo wrapped himself in the blanket and curled back up on his side of the bed. I flicked the bathroom light on and stared into the mirror, my legs trembling as the aftershocks faded. Theo had cut the climax short but I couldn’t deny what had just happened.
Nor could I deny the handprint on my thigh, the spot where it had touched me was paler than the surrounding skin. A three-fingered hand with unnaturally long fingers.
Five days later I saw him again.
The mark on my thigh had faded by the morning but the memories of that night continued to haunt me. This was not some dream or hallucination...the shape that had touched me that night was just as real as my husband.
The question was, what to do about it? I could tell Theo but obviously it’d be dismissed as a nightmare or, even worse, as a manifestation of mental illness. I could try and talk Theo into moving but would that even help? They’d lived here for years with no sign of this...thing. Would it follow them?
And what was worse, part of me wanted to see if the figure would appear to me again. Part of me wondered what would happen the next time I encountered it.
In the end, I did...nothing. I cooked, I cleaned, I worked. Theo and I had a night of mediocre lovemaking and then I finished myself off in the shower while I tried to remember the scent of burning autumn leaves.
That night Theo and I were watching a movie. It was a bizarre, arty horror piece...a black and white movie from some foreign country. I was half-dozing while leaning against Theo, his arm around my shoulders, barely paying attention to the subtitles.
During one particularly dark scene, I spotted the figure’s silhouette reflected in the black surface of the LCD screen. It was standing in the living room, right behind the couch where Theo and I were lounging. I could detect the faintest whiff of its scent, like someone torching a leaf-pile a few blocks away.