It all started when I was just 12 years old. My parents had recently divorced and the divorce had a profound effect on me; so much that my mother decided to send me to a therapist.

My mother had been preparing dinner and she called us out as soon as she was done. I quickly ran out to her. My brother had locked himself in his room for days because he supposedly blamed my mother for the divorce so my mom asked me to call him out.

We ate dinner and silence had filled the room, everyone lost in their own thoughts. I could see what this was doing to my mother. The stress showed even by her physical features; she had lost a lot of weight, had grown grey hairs on her eyebrows and dark circles had formed around her eyes; a sign that she was sleep deprived. Her graceful posture was somewhat disappearing, her youthful looking skin had wrinkled and became paler by the day.

The stress had a much heavier effect on her health; she was always complaining of headaches, chest-pains and would sometimes complain of short breath. Her blood-pressure levels had risen unbelievably above average and she was always in and out of hospitals.

Everyone at the table didn’t finish their food. Everyone was fidgeting with their food, making irritating noises. Until my mother finally snapped, “Lindo, stop that! If you are not hungry, go to bed now.”

My brother reluctantly obeyed my mother’s order and we both went to our rooms leaving her to do the dishes.

I’d been dreading going to bed because over the past three consecutive nights, I’d get this horrific nightmare of being dragged to hell by what seemed to be demons. The dream felt so real! The demons would come humming what seemed to be some satanic chorus in their squeaky, evil voices and I would scream, cry and fight but they would effortlessly take me. And they were always laughing.

The atmosphere felt so evil and satanic and the strong feeling of its realness always left me waking drenched in sweat and crying.

I didn’t tell my mother about this because I did not want to add to her stress. I decided to just stay up at night. But drowsiness overpowered me and I fell fast asleep.

It hadn’t even been 30 minutes after I fell asleep, the dream came again but this time I managed to quickly wake up. But as I did, I heard a knock on my closet. At first, I thought I was just being paranoid but the knocks just would not stop. I slowly walked towards the closet and slowly opened it.

“Aahhh!” I screamed. Both my brother and mom rushed to my room and asked what had happened.

“Cr-Cr-Creature, a black eyed creature in my closet.”

My mother comforted me saying it was just a dream. I protested that it was not. My brother opened the closet and there was nothing, the creature had disappeared. I was still shaken up so my mother offered I sleep with her that night. I accepted.

Even though I was with my mother, the creatures face just would not escape my mind. It was a skinny human-like figure with dull, gold hair. The hair was scattered on its head; like that of a corpse. It had pale skin even though it had normal facial features. Except its eyes. It had very dark eyes; bright-dark eyes. Eyes that when looking your way, you feel like they’re piercing your soul.

My mother saw the seriousness of the situation and decided to send me to a therapist, Mrs Windlehurt, the following day. I told the therapist everything. From how I was before the divorce, during the divorce, and after the divorce. I also told her about the nightmares.

She came to the conclusion that I was subjecting my feelings of sadness to fear – whatever that meant. I protested that the dreams had nothing to do with the divorce but she came with a sarcastic response and looked at me like I was some kind of retard. She then suggested I participate in sports and community projects. She prescribed some medication for me and then had a brief discussion with my mother. After that we went home.

I tried all of Mrs Windlehurt’s suggestions. I joined the girls’ soccer team, I engaged in a project that helped feed the less fortunate. But nothing seemed to work. If anything, the nightmares seemed to be getting more intense. The creature would now appear to me in broad daylight; whilst I was awake.

The creature even appeared during school hours. I’d always be frightened and cause a scene when they appeared. Other students would always tease me saying I deserve to be locked in an asylum. Because of this, I dropped out of school.

Days turned to weeks and weeks to months. The situation was deteriorating day by day.

This did not only affect my mental health but my physical state too.

I’d always feel tired because of sleepless nights. My head was always aching, I’d lost my appetite, and because of this, I lost an enormous amount of weight. I was later diagnosed with Anorexia.

My life was literally crumbling right in front of me. I’d given up hope and had given in to the idea of death. I’d even considered taking my own life but every time I made an attempt, I’d see these demons again, and hear their squeaky whispers.

The demons never wanted me dead, they just wanted to torture me, suck every bit of life left inside of me; bit by bit.

They once came to me and whispered to me that their master is convinced that I possess a power that would be of great benefit to their kingdom and that soon I was going to turn into one of them.

What do you think happened next?