Jamie Thomas, 13 Jul '12

        Gordon didn't know what type of feeling had caused him to awake from his slumber, but he knew it wasn't a good one. A mixture of deafeningly dark thoughts had caused sleep to leave his body and he now lay there with his eyes open. He stared up into the blackness that was suspended an inch above his nose. Questions troubled him as he lay there, completely still. Why had he woken up, and more importantly, why was he so fully aware and awake, just moments after emerging from a state of deep sleep.
        The answers came in one quick moment of realisation, almost a moment of epiphany. Someone was watching him. Someone was watching him while he slept. Something was watching him while he lay helpless in bed. His brain ignited and a panicked fear coursed through him, bringing with it adrenaline. But Gordon couldn't move. His eyes fluttered madly, as if trying to adjust to the light, or block out tears, but his limbs and his whole body were rendered useless. He was paralysed.
        As his eyes adjusted, they widened in pure fear as shadows began to climb the walls and loom over him, reaching out with blackened tendrils. Something was weighing down on him, something heavier than darkness. It was stopping him from moving, it must be. What else could have paralysed him in this way? Nausea, mixed with feelings of dread and despair made Gordon feel like hell was pouring over him. He imagined the goblin creature that was sitting on him, pinning him down. It had green skin and blackened eyes that looked on maliciously as the shadows ate away at his skin. It was laughing, it must be laughing.
        Hours and hours could have passed, or it could have been seconds. Sweat poured from Gordon's body, as if the shadows fed on it. Gordon was screaming, screaming and screaming but no sound came out. The panic seemed to reach it's peak and a feeling of death washed over Gordon. He almost wished for it. The goblin creature could have been chewing on his stomach, laughing as he pulled apart Gordon's insides. Gordon continued screaming, succeeding only in making muffled squeaks. The feeling of sickness was overwhelming.
        Suddenly the Goblin creatures all began laughing as the shadows danced around him and the demons all watched on gleefully. The laughing grew louder and louder and then began to transform into a cacophonous screeching and whooping. Gordon's mouth was now open and he was screeching too. The Goblin army had gone and the shadows had receded to a safe distance, admiring their prey from afar. Feeling began seeping back into Gordon's limbs and he began to move them underneath the restricting quilt which was drenched in sweat.
        Soon the quilt was off Gordon and he sat bolt upright in bed. His reading light was now illuminating the room, giving him a sense of calm. However, the dread was still there, and he could feel the weight of the Goblins on his limbs. Paranoia and fear persisted, and Gordon climbed off the bed and stood in the middle of the room now drenched in light from his reading light, and from overhead. It was just a nightmare, he told himself. Just a nightmare. He stood there telling himself the same thing until the sun came up four hours later. He showered, changed, and drove to work, the whole time dreading what fresh horrors the next night would bring.