Three Days Without Sleep

After the last summer session, I gave up on everything, gave in, and started drinking. I started playing Lineage and World of Warcraft all day, but by the end of July, I was completely fed up with it all. I decided to stay awake—just to see how long a person could survive without sleep, more or less normally, while doing all sorts of household chores.

The first two days, I was angry and gloomy. I wanted to give up and go to bed, but I was held back by the fact that I had to overcome something—I don't exercise, I don't work, I'm sitting at home and hitting punching bags, and at least I have some kind of purpose...

On the third day, something interesting began. At first, I saw a very clear shadow of a person in the bathroom doorway. I got scared, but then I realized I was hallucinating. Okay, so I'm sitting down at the computer, playing a game, and suddenly I hear the phone ring (we have a Panasonic phone at home, and it plays some somber polyphonic melody by Bach or some other classical composer on the ringtone). I go over and see that the phone isn't ringing—there's no backlight, and the screen doesn't indicate a call. I stand there staring at the phone for a few minutes, and the melody keeps playing, repeating over and over again. Finally, I pick up the phone, press the button, and hear a whistling sound on the other end—I don't even know what it sounds like...

I hang up, and the music stops. It's already getting dark outside. And then, from behind the closed door, I hear a sound like a barber quickly snapping scissors, creating a distinctive high-pitched, steely screech. I shudder with terror, and the sound repeats from time to time. Naturally, I didn't bother to turn on any lights except my own room. I'd never been so afraid in my life—an all-consuming terror came over me. I was terrified to go to the bathroom because there was something in my house making a scissoring noise. I urinated in a Coke bottle, making a funnel out of a piece of paper. After filling the bottle, I started wondering what to do—I desperately needed to go, and the sound had been repeating for hours, now closer, now further away. I plucked up my courage, grabbed a knife, walked to the door, and yanked it open.

Perhaps it was all a combination of the nearly three days without sleep, the stress of all this hell that had kept me in fear all day—but suddenly, out of the darkness, right in front of my face, something nearly two meters tall leaped out. Its face was like iron—only slits for eyes, a mouth, and nostrils. Black hair hung to the floor, and instead of a body, it was a carcass of some kind, a huge pig. The most terrifying thing were the hands—thin, with scissors, knives, and blades instead of hands, all covered in blood, and countless hands...

I only saw it for a couple of seconds. I collapsed to the floor, the knife immediately fell from my hands, I think I burst into tears, and then passed out. I slept for over a day, catching up on the sleep I'd lost during my "experiment." When I woke up, naturally, there was no sign of the monster in my house. It was most likely just a hallucination, born of a tortured brain, but it was and remains the most terrifying experience of my life.