Terror

Unable to breathe.I feel that burning need for oxygen.All I need to do is inhale.Something that happens so easily every second.But when it doesn't,you realize it's significance.My muscles are frozen.I put in every ounce of my will into concentrating on getting that breath in.It doesn't work.Panic overwhelms me.I know that I need that breath--desperately.

I force my sluggish mind to think.I reason that if I can open my eyes,the rest will somehow follow.Like the rest of my body,my eyes too refuse to cooperate.They feel like they're glued shut.I can't get them to open,not even a little.My voice too is frozen.

The only thing I can do is think.I know this isn't a dream.It's too vivid to be unreal and too bizarre to be real.The only possibility is that I'm stuck between wakefulness and sleep.I don't know whether what's happening is real or imaginary.The agony is getting too much now,any moment it's going to be over.

I ponder over this weird way to die--knowing what's happening and not being able to stop it.The courageous counterpart of my terrorized mind swears to google this--If I survive it,that is.

I make one last attempt to breathe,knowing that if I don't succeed,I won't make it.All of a sudden,my eyes open.My temples throb, my pulse is sky high.I know it wasn't a dream,it was too real.I still feel that bone deep terror.

I now know what people go through when they drown/suffocate.

P.S. As promised,I looked it up on the net.

"Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon in which an individual, either during falling asleep or awakening, temporarily experiences an inability to move, speak, or react.It is a transitional state between wakefulness and sleep, characterized by an inability to move muscles. It is often accompanied by terrifying hallucinations to which one is unable to react due to paralysis, and physical experiences"

If you haven't been through this,thank your stars! :) It feels absolutely terrifying.And very different from a dream.