Lilith hadn't been sleeping well. Between a full course load and her aberrant work schedule, she found very little time to eat, much less sleep. For the past week and a half, she had been living off of two-hour naps whenever she found the time, but it had been taking its toll on her. Her eyes struggled to stay focused, and her mind struggled to tell dreams from reality in its fleeting moments of cognition.
But that all came to an end tonight.
Her work and class schedules had come to a rare moment of harmony where she had the whole next day to herself. She planned to use it to catch up on that sweet sleep she had so desperately been missing and wasn't going to let anything get in her way. She silenced her phone, disabled any alarms, and told everyone she knew not to bother her. She would have complete and utter isolation for the next 24 hours.
But of course, you can't have a slumber party without refreshments. She had gotten some sleeping pills from a friend at her college. The good shit. The kind of stuff you need to do a sleep study to even get prescribed. And then there was the wine. A beautiful bottle of pinot noir she was just a year short of being able to legally drink.
Lilith didn't waste any time once she got home. She popped the cork off her bottle of wine and got straight to pouring. The first glass, she downed in celebration, immediately feeling the warmth of the alcohol spreading through her, enveloping her like a fruit-scented quilt. God that was good stuff. The next glass, however, was all business. She took three of the sleeping pills in her hand, then washed them down her throat with a swig of wine, making sure to finish the glass afterward. Now all she had to do was wait.
She carried the bottle to her bedroom, her footing a little awkward as the effects of her first glass began to kick in. She placed the wine on her nightstand, there to keep her company in case she needed some extra assistance falling asleep.
"I've missed you, love," she said to her bed, before promptly tucking herself under the covers, and staring at the ceiling until her eyelids grew heavy.
The next thing she could remember was feeling heavy. How long had she been asleep? Minutes? Hours? She didn't feel particularly well-rested. It almost felt like there was a weight on her chest holding her down. She tried getting up, but couldn't manage to will her limbs into locomotion. And so, Lilith did the one thing she could. She opened her eyes.
The creature before her was unlike anything she had ever seen, and she was quite certain she must have been having a nightmare. It was humanoid, but far from human. Grayish red skin was pulled tight over a gaunt frame, which lacked even a single hair. Its shoulders were placed at awkward angles and its frail neck struggled to support an oversized head. It had four eyes- two on each side- and a jawless mouth with a long tongue that lolled out uncontained under several rows of sharp teeth.
Lilith opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. She could feel her heart pounding under the creature as it sat on her chest, watching her, contemplating.
"You've been imagining weird shit for a while, Lillith," she thought to herself. "Remember that time you heard Amy talking to you when she wasn't? It's the sleep deprivation fucking with you. Just close your eyes and it'll go away."
She closed her eyes tight and took a deep breath. "Okay. Three, two, one."
Her eyes opened to see the creature staring at her, now leaned a little closer to her face. She could feel its hot breath against her cheek as its bony body dug into her chest painfully. She tried to scream again, to no avail.