Sleep Abduction

6:30PM

“OK, I’ve got to get going. Bye Honey, see you in the morning. Hope you sleep well.”

"Thanks Honey, maybe you'll get lucky and have another slow night at the hospital. See you in the morning. I'll get the dogs out first thing so they won't bother you tomorrow while you try to sleep."

9:00PM

Abducted in the quiet blackness of night, drugged and catapulted violently into another dimension by a force as jarring as a rock tumbler.

3:00 AM

I awoke this morning, bruised in mind and body, totally displaced, feeling like shit, trying to normalize my world in a house that only looks like mine on the surface. Everything and nothing had changed. Remnants of a dream haunted me, a colorless netherworld where I had no choice but to battle for everything I cared about. Fight or submit. My knives were sharp, laid out at the ready. Only moments before I’d be forced to face the chaos though, I discovered that somehow my weapons had had all disappeared, leaving me defenseless to face the fangs of a thousand ravenous nightmares, waiting for me below.

My body jerked involuntarily, senses on full alert now, wary and only partially awake. I tried to focus, shuffling toward an alien kitchen, cleverly recreated to look just like mine did last night before I went to sleep.

Leery of another abduction tonight, only 14 hours away, I resolved that this time I wouldn’t be fooled into complacency.

I need a plan.

Right now though, maybe a cup of charcoal jet fuel will help.

7:30AM

"Hi Honey, I'm glad you're home. How was last night?' 

“It was fine, busy at first but then it slacked off. I’m tired. Fitbit says 14,000 steps. Did you sleep well?”

"Yes, like a newborn. Go lie down and get some sleep yourself. I'll see you tonight when I get home. Maybe we'll go to Ned's for dinner."