Demon in the Green

By Jonah O

Disclaimer: The following short is based on a nightmare that my friend Natalia, who also goes by Nati, experienced. This story covers topics that I have never experienced, such as being high and experiencing psychosis, so I apologize if I am not accurate in my writing about these experiences. Her nightmare also featured a topic that I would rather not discuss so it will be omitted from this short story. She also wished to be the main character… So, she is.

Nati and her friend are lounging in the main room of Nati’s apartment. They sat themselves on the green sofa situated close to the center of the room. A TV sits in front of the sofa but Nati and the friend aren’t going to be watching an episode of Better Call Saul for entertainment this evening. They wanted to be high.

Outside, it was still. It was a dark evening in Helsinki like it usually is this late in the year. A near-silent wind blew through the streets. It seemed as though there was no life within the streets. The only life that can be found is within blocky apartment buildings that dot the city. And the life within is anything but still.

Nati rolled the weed into a joint with some rolling paper she had on hand. A filter was placed at one end and the other end was tapered for lighting. They sparked the joint and took their drags one after another.

It wasn’t long before the weed did its job. The friend took a drag but coughed from pulling too much. Nati laughed her ass at this and so did the friend. They were silly high. Any little thing was causing outbursts of laughter. The TV silently played a random channel that the two didn’t care about. Until a man with the ugliest haircut appeared. They looked at each other after seeing the man for a second and both began cackling in unison. It felt like the man was stuck in the early 2000s with his hair. It spiked up with gel and the ends had been highlighted to such a degree that it was nearing white. The man wanted to be in a boy band so badly.

Nati’s laughter ended abruptly. Nati had gone nonverbal. She couldn’t move. The friend continued laughing, they hadn’t noticed Nati yet. Something was off. With just barely enough mobility, Nati could turn her head to view the window adjacent to the sofa. It was still dark, only… It was darker than normal. So dark that it felt oppressive to even look at it. It was wrong.

As she turned her head back toward the TV, it had turned static, and yet the laughter from the friend continued. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that the friend wasn’t laughing at the TV. They were laughing at her. The laugh was guttural, something her friend could never produce. A comparison can be made to the bellowing an alligator makes. A deep, almost harmonic, roar that causes water to vibrate. The thing sitting next to Nati is no longer her friend.

The bellowing ended and the friend stared at Nati. A piercing glare that would burn a hole through Nati’s head. Nati was still unable to speak or move, she could only lay still as something she could not comprehend towered over her.

A thick, black, gas began emanating from the thing’s mouth. It slowly began to engulf Nati’s head. Panic finally set in. The gas filled her nose and obscured her vision. Her mouth remained closed as she tried to scream. She couldn’t make a noise and still couldn’t move. She had to accept that she couldn’t do anything. Memories of her life began to flash in front of her eyes. Memories of simpler times. Her vision came back, only it seemed that she was ten feet away from her eyes. She felt an immense weight on her chest like she was pressed down. She saw herself moving but she wasn’t wanting to move. She was no longer in control. Whoever was in control turned toward the friend, who looked to be them again. The guttural bellowing began again; however, it was coming from Nati this time. The friend looked at Nati with horrified eyes as they looked into the same piercing glare. Nati lunged at her friend.

Nati jumped out of bed as if continuing the lunge into reality. It was another nightmare. That immense weight she felt in the nightmare was still present. She stumbled over to the window to see if Helsinki was still in oppressive darkness. To her horror, it was. Nothing could be seen outside the window.