They were about him like a thick fog—they were the walls, the ceiling, and the floor.
This book contains moments of a sexual nature, religious associations and paranormal happenings. Don’t read it if you are easily offended. This work of fiction has very real persons’ lives entwined within it. Don’t expect spooky – Sleep paralysis isn’t in any way spooky. It’s frightening and sometimes, more often than not, terrifying. And I should know – I suffer from it.
Life is like a shard of glass tumbling in time.
Genre:
Psychological / Horror
Based on my personal experience of
Sleep Paralysis since the age of five.
THE SLEEPING have always come for The Unwanted…
James would fight for his life many times – always winning and yet always fearing that anytime soon, it might be his last.
THE SLEEPING are guardians of the underworld who feed from the tormented souls sent there. In our world, they haunt those whom they believe belong in Hell.
THE SLEEPING enter our realm to claim their victim, until the wrongly-given soul is taken.
When The Custodian of ‘The Room of Truth’ is asked to perform a ritual of worship, loyalty to God and The Messenger are in conflict. The lives of The Unwanted, The Protector, The Messenger and 2 Pretty Things are assembled by divine invitation.
You know when they’re here… you can feel them.
Remember; stay awake, because when they come for you and take you, there is no going back. If you give up fighting, then you might as well give up living…
Nothing is in the shadows. Unless you suffer like James.
In his shadows lurk THE SLEEPING.
They want his soul.
12:07 THE SLEEPING is a novel – it is also a story. Whether it is true or fictional has no bearing whatsoever. But what is true, is that things like THE SLEEPING are all too real, albeit to some people only. Some of you sceptical out there can pull from the story what you like. But whatever you draw or conclude, the fact remains, it is only a story – or is it?
The sensation in which some people, when either falling asleep or waking, briefly experience an inability to move, is commonly known as Sleep Paralysis. It’s described as a state of transition between wakefulness and rest, which has the effect of complete loss of muscle strength. It can happen at the onset of sleep or upon awakening, and it often has disturbing visions. For example: The feeling that someone has entered the room and is now sat upon you, to which you are unable to react due to paralysis.
Now if that sounds like a nightmare, then I suppose it is. But that’s only in the fact that it is a wakeful nightmare. I use the word ‘wakeful’ because to the recipient of such a nightmare, they feel they are awake.
Sleep paralysis – known also as hag’s syndrome – is real. It is now being described, by some, as a paranormal experience. To those who have this supernatural involvement: “Keep on fighting whoever it is that comes, because fighting may just keep you alive.”
This story plays on 6 characters, they are:
The Unwanted
The Protector
The Custodian
The Messenger/The Key
and 2 Pretty Things
The crux of the book is about The Unwanted and The Sleeping. Everything else is purely unconnected suggestion, or is it? Fate plays upon them all. In its simplicity: James is having nightmarish visits. Lance is struggling to understand who James is. Both love Katherine and lust over Imogen. A living-dead, 154 year-old-man, is on a mission for souls and a Nun is simply everybody’s heaven-and-earth answer.
The Unwanted – A person not created from want. Lance Lewisham is a gender psychologist who struggles to understand James Walker. The main reason for this is due to the death of his daughter. Another is because of James' continuous visits from The Sleeping.
The Protector – The shield made from love. Katherine is a lawyer and wife to Lance. Unfortunately they have no children. Her work sedates her pain. She is jealous of her husband’s desire for his secretary, Imogen Swan.
The Custodian – The keeper of sins inside the ‘Room of Truth’. Sister Miriam is a nun and the original Protector. She is also the Great-granddaughter of The Messenger. She studies in secret, far beneath the Sisters of Hope Convent and the church of St. Thomas. A passage from both leads to ‘The Room of Truth’, were sacrificial mass was offered to Satan, in which Pretty Things gave their souls, freely, to Him.
The Messenger/The Key – Is someone who is at the bidding of The Sleeping. A soul for a soul. Once The Sleeping have their chosen soul, The Messenger will receive his in return.
The Pretty Things – Beauties of either gender. Stephanie Duke is a fashion designer and lover of women. Sylvie Verlaine is a model and new lover to Stephanie Duke. Stephanie is truly in love with her flatmate, Imogen Swan.
Nixie displays - A proper generic term is cold cathode neon readout tube, though the phrase Nixie tube quickly entered the vernacular as a generic name - "NIX I", an abbreviation of "Numeric Indicator eXperimental No. 1"
Recipient’s eyes were clamped open. Electric filament burnt 12:07. The number had been given. Many have the number. But only one is for this Messenger.
The fight continues in the follow up book -
The Soul spooK