Saturday, January 8th, 11:42 PM
I felt as if I were in some sort of a haze. My eyes glossy, as if I'd been crying; fog lay all around me, thick enough to asphyxiate someone. My sight was nearly gone, I could see vaguely ahead of me, but nothing out of my peripheral. I heard footsteps, but my senses were so traumatized in the moment, I had no clue where they were coming from. Fear had me paralyzed. My breathing was shaky, and breaths were short. But, I wasn't paying much attention to that. I slowly inched my way forwards, cautiously making sure I didn't stumble over anything, since the ground was not visible. I heard a hissing sound; that of some sort of snake or lizard. My conscience told me otherwise once I began to feel a consistent burn all over my body. I didn't know what was happening. Gradually, I felt my skin bubbling, burning, sizzling. Trying to stay silent I bit my hand in pain, writhing at the sensation radiating in and out of my body. I squeezed my eyes shut as hard as as I could, wishing the pain would cease. It was too much- I had to scream. Whatever, or whoever was in this unknown place, would soon find out of my being. Attempting to scream, I opened my mouth, which was more difficult than ever before. My tight skin on my face made opening my mouth like trying to rip open leather. When I tried to get the sound to come out, it wouldn't. I opened my eyes, first the left, than the right, to see some shadowy figure lurking behind the fog. Yet again paralyzed, I stood still, waiting for my brain to stop stalling. The creature slid towards me, with no indication of moving limbs. My head twitched and sent a shiver down my spine, branching out into each of my arms; my whole body shook. Closer and closer it grew. I saw what one couldn't refer to as a mouth: a disgusting, black hole on the face of this creature, with black strings hanging within and fangs in a sporadic order. Strangely enough, it let out a cry that was familiar. I then realized, it was my voice. My scream that I was trying to let out. Quickly, this creature ran into me, disappearing but knocking me down, and leaving me half awake. Having trouble standing up, I got on my hands and knees. I crawled and felt my way around the sticky and ambiguous floor, until I felt the entrance to a room. I felt along the wall and found a light switch, and made the mistake of turning it on. When I did so, I was in a bloody bathroom. I became aware of the smell of dead carcasses, and trying to shield my eyes from the bloody and gruesome scene around me, I looked in front of me. My eyes looked straight into a cracked and smudged mirror, but I didn't see myself. Through the peculiar handprints left on it, I saw a blackened, wrinkled and withered face, with bloodshot eyes, decaying lips and emaciated skin, revealing bones near my cheeks and chin. My heart stopped in this moment. I was so caught off guard, I stumbled backwards and seemed to fall through some sort of hole in the ground. My legs jolted, locking my knees, and my body squirmed. My eyes shot open and I sat up. Perspiring and regaining my breath, I realized what a crazy nightmare I had just witnessed.
Tuesday, January 11th, 6:30 AM
Walking through the mundane, dusty hallways of my high school, I almost forgot about my nightmare. I'd been focusing on school, but certain things around me just started to spark my attention. For some reason, I felt more vulnerable today. Arbitrary things, things I passed in the hallways everyday, posed as a threat to me when I was not expecting to see them. I flinched and I hid, I ran and I stopped, just trying to get to my first period class.
Getting through the doors of my first class was a relief. I sat in my seat towards the back of the class. My breathing slowed and my fearsome thoughts drifted away. The deep, monotone voice of my teacher put me in a state of weariness. I was awake, but calm and sleepy. Listening to his lecture, I watched his mouth create the words and let them fly out, and his eyes move from side to side, scanning the classroom. When I took my gaze off of these mannerisms, something caught the corner of my eye. I looked out of the classroom window to my left, and saw a shadowy figure. My heart stopped at the thought of an apparition in my presence. This shadowy creature, looked as if it had just come out of the ocean. Its entire body looked drenched, although no water was dripping. It had not revealed its face so far, allowing its long, black, gnarly hair to hang down over its features. Then it hit me, I've seen this creature before. But when? Without taking my gaze off the figure, I traced my memory, I shuffled through a mental organizer in my brain and then I knew. I'd seen this vicious creature in a dream. All of a sudden, this figure disappeared, and a weird sensation trickled through my body. Involuntary, I raised my hand and asked my teacher to go to the bathroom. I wasn't making myself talk, and I wasn't making myself move. With no ability to fight it, something carried my body from my class, down the hall and to the bathroom. Something in my body opened the creaky, wooden door to the bathroom, and propped my body in front of the mirror. I couldn't move, and then I saw it. In the mirror,  the stall directly behind me slowly started to open, revealing the hovering figure. The lights went out, and that was the last thing I remember.
Later that day:
Flickering, open and shut, my eyes attempt to open, being scorched by the bright sunlight shining in through the windows of the school bathroom. I was surrounded by people; teachers, students, Emergency responders. I had no clue what was happening.  I was covered in blood, scars, scratches, and engravings on my very own body. I couldn't speak. My mother rushed into the room, out of breath and bug eyed, after being alerted by the school of my incident. After being hospitalized for two hours, all my tests came out negative. There was nothing wrong with me, but no one knew how the scratches got all over my body, and neither did I.

Saturday, January 15th, 9:00 PM
I decided it was best for me to finish off the week at home. Staying away from school, I hoped the problem would ease away. But deep down, I had a feeling I knew what had happened. This ghostly creature had done this to me. Matter of fact, it had made me do this to myself.
Luckily, I didn't have any more problems that week. I rested, took care of my wounds so that they healed, and got my mind off of what had happened by watching movies and relaxing. Just as my worries faded away, I began blacking out spontaneously. I'd wake up and go unconscious repeatedly, and find myself in different places each time. From my living room couch, to the upstairs bathroom, down to the basement, and finally up into my mother's room. When I was conscious, I felt my body moving, but I was still confused. Slowly, my body was dragging itself up a spiral staircase, and there was no way I could stop. I heard a squeak with each step I took, and when I finally gathered the strength to rotate my neck, I saw the stairs covered in a trail of blood leading from me. A knife was in my hand. A big one too. It had serrated edges and a thick black handle. I was so afraid. Sobbing, I involuntarily hovered into my mother's room. She was sleeping, breathing slowly and rhythmically. My arm raised and the knife hovered feet away from my sleeping mother's body. Crying so hard, a heavy stream of tears dripped onto her face, and she woke. She let out a scream and grabbed my arm harshly, knocking me out of this state.

“What the hell do you think you're doing Haley?! Have you gone absolutely mental? Were you trying to kill me?” screamed my mother.

Sobbing, I said, “Mom..I'm so.. Sorry.” I took a deep breath and stepped backwards. “I swear on my life, on your life that I wasn't trying to do that. Something's taking over me, everyday I lose control of my body. Something makes me walk, talk, and act and talk irrationally; and quite frankly, someone or something made me to that to myself at school.”

Still in shock, my mom said “I don't know what to believe right now. I am absolutely speechless at the fact that I found my daughter, the one I birthed, the one I raised and took care of, holding a knife over me.”

“I'm telling you mom, I did not try to do this, something made me! I love you so much, I would never do something like that to you,” I exclaimed.

“Just go back downstairs. Think about this. We'll talk about this tomorrow morning. I honestly don’t have any words right now, you should be extremely abashed right now, and if you don’t feel any sense of shame or guilt, then there is something wrong here, something is wrong with you.”
Later that night, around 11:30 PM
The door slammed shut. My father had just got home from work, and went to sit on the couch to unwind like he usually does. I heard him eating a snack, something crunchy. And I heard the wheel of fortune playing, his favorite late-night show. Soon after, the noise of the TV faded away, and I heard him shout, “what the hell,” followed by stomping feet up the stairs. The TV must've stopped working. I wanted to go see my father, since I didn't get to see him very often due to his busy work schedule. When he was at home, I was at school; when I was at home, he was at work. Then it hit me again, that strange feeling. I was shaking, it was an intense shake however, almost as if I were seizing. But it stopped, and as it stopped, I felt like I was looking into my body. I felt like I were a second brain, a minor brain that has no control with its body's decision making process. Powerless, I was aware, but unable to stop my body from moving uncontrollably. I went to see my father, or it went to see my father.
“Hey sweetheart!”

“Hi daddy,” exclaimed a voice like mine, but was not truly mine.
“Come lay down, I miss you.”

As I moved towards my father, I wanted to cry. I didn't know what lay in my future, but I felt as if something terrible was about to occur. Whatever it was that moved me, positioned me next to my father on his bed. I knew he was tired, but I didn't want him to fall asleep. What would happen when he fell asleep? I thought to myself. His eyes began to close and flicker, his breathing grew heavier and slower, his chest rising like a puff of smoke from a smokestack, and crashing down shakily. My hands began to move, slowly moving from my sides up to my father’s neck. I felt a sense of anger run through me and it then faded away, but that anger did not fade from my hands. They grasped his neck firmly before putting all strength into strangling him, cutting off his oxygen intake. His eyes shot open, his bluish face struck with a look of bewilderment and concern. He tried to fight, and I was rooting for him to fight. I couldn't even feel emotion anymore. I wasn't sad, I wasn't scared, but I still felt this inner conscious hoping my dad would fight it. But he didn't, he gave up. His breathing slowed, and his eyes carelessly rolled to the back of his head. Lifeless, my dad lay next to me. The man who took care of me, tied my shoes, brought me to my first day of school, held my hand across the street, and studded my childhood and teenage years with pure joy and fun. I gained control again, and the tears streamed from my eyes, more than ever before. Bawling, shaking, hating myself for allowing a force to take over again. I slowly leaned over, kissing my father’s forehead, and streaking his face with my salty tears.
I knew had to leave, I had no other choice; I couldn't hurt anyone else, and I couldn't let anyone know I had just killed my own father, and attempted to murder my mother previously. Packing my bags, I filled a suitcase with only essentials: warm clothes, toiletries, food, and water. Searching through my closet, I found my sturdiest pair of boots and put them on. I dressed in layers, and mentally prepared myself for life alone. The last sound I remember was the creaking of the mahogany stairs I exited my house from, and the soft closing of the white and grey door.

Sunday, January 16th, 10 AM

“Haley! Haley! Where the hell are you? Honey, do you see Haley anywhere? Honey? Oh..oh my..god.”