Shadow of Death (SOD)

Chapter 38

Asher could be seen lying on his back in his room.

In his hand was a small polythene bag. It was almost tiny, and inside were four pills, each one no bigger than a grain of rice.

The pills were blood red.

Staring at them, he recalled the events that had occurred at the dining table a few minutes ago.

His father had just pulled out two small bottles filled with these pills.

The bottles themselves were barely bigger than containers used to hold eye drops.

Each of these containers had ten pills in total.

So for the two bottles, it meant there were twenty pills in total.

His father had said they each cost him two thousand dollars.

That meant he had spent four thousand dollars to acquire these two bottles of anti-sleep pills.

An amount that would have seemed exorbitant under normal circumstances.

But considering their current situation, it didn’t seem like much anymore.

They had no choice but to take them.

Jack had split the pills among the family, with each member of the Reid family receiving four pills from the twenty.

Asher spun the plastic bag around his fingers for a few seconds while staring at the blood-red pills inside.

They looked so small.

So insignificant.

Yet each one could keep them awake for two days.

Heaving a tired sigh, he stood up and walked towards the corner of the room.

Pulling his drawer open, he placed the plastic bag inside before closing the drawer shut.

Then he crashed back onto his bed.

"Tomorrow, the curse activates, and we will have to do whatever we can to fight sleep," Asher muttered as he sank into his bed and dragged the duvet over his body.

His eyes remained fixed on the ceiling.

’There’s nothing I can do to stop this now. I just have to stop my family from sleeping... but for how long? Till when?!’

With that thought lingering heavily in his mind, the boy eventually drifted to sleep.

...

In their room, Jack and Clara could be seen still wide awake.

The time was already 9 p.m.

Yet neither of them could get a wink of sleep.

Their eyes stared blankly into the darkness as they lay beneath their respective duvets.

The lights were already out, with each one of them thinking the other was already asleep.

Yet they were both wide awake.

’Is this how it’s going to be? Will we all have to be sleep deprived? For how long, though?’ Clara thought, her grip tightening around her duvet.

Her fingers curled tightly around the fabric as she fought back the tears threatening to well up in her eyes.

She was almost being drawn to tears.

But for fear of waking her husband, she held them back.

’... The kids. Will they have to suffer? How much longer? What can I even do?’

’Sigh....’

Jack heaved inwardly.

His mind continued reeling with thoughts of what they could even do to save his family.

He was scared.

Scared of sleeping and experiencing those distorted dreams again.

What he had seen was too real.

He couldn’t even properly discern between reality and a dream anymore.

And he was afraid of experiencing it one more time.

Turning his head lightly to the side, he noticed his own small polythene bag containing his pills.

If they could resist sleep tomorrow and probably the day after, they would eventually have to resort to taking these pills to keep themselves awake.

But something else was going through the man’s mind the longer he stared at them.

’It’s all my fault, isn’t it? If I had refused the promotion to this city, we would have all been saved. We wouldn’t have to go through all this. Damn it all!’

Jack’s grip tightened around the pillow beneath his head.

The motion jolted Clara out of her thoughts.

"Babe? You still awake?"

Jack blinked for a few seconds before breathing out another sigh.

"Yeah. Couldn’t sleep. You?"

Clara shook her head.

Her face was turned the other way, so Jack didn’t get even a glimpse of her expression.

"I-I-I was just, uh... getting to sleep," she stuttered before closing her eyes.

Jack didn’t miss the stutter in her tone.

His chest tightened painfully at how helpless he felt at the moment.

There was seemingly nothing he could do anymore.

Unless...

With a heavy sigh, he closed his eyes.

This was the last day and time they would have anything resembling a good night’s sleep, because from tomorrow, the sleep deprivation would begin.

.....

The sky was drowned in darkness.

Only a few balls of light could be seen from the small number of streetlights that were still on.

All humans were indoors.

Whether they were working a night shift or staying inside their houses, they didn’t step a single foot outside.

Everybody was trying their hardest to avoid sleep.

They engaged in whatever activities could keep them awake.

Some exercised.

Others did yoga, engaged in various activities, or resorted to taking pills.

Anything was better than sleeping.

While outside, far beyond their line of sight, shadows crawled across the ground, moving from one spot to another.

Shadows walked around, performing several activities as if they were real humans.

As if they owned the streets.

Some even patrolled the streets like cops, searching for humans that could be used as scapegoats.

All the lights were turned off in the various houses.

Vespers had different towns scattered throughout the city.

But when the Nightmare plague descended upon the city years ago, all the towns, though never merged, came to be collectively known as Vespers.

There were no separate town names anymore.

It had just been like any other day for the people of Vespers—ten years ago.

Until the bright day and clear sky suddenly darkened and turned into night.

At such an odd hour, when the sun should still have been shining brightly, darkness covered the entire city.

Then, a voice spoke to all the humans, deep within their minds.

"Listen up, you weak humans. I’m the Shadow God, and here to use this city as a testing ground for my newest invention while in collaboration with... Never mind about that."

The unsettling voice, one that made it feel as though the humans wanted to claw their own minds out, chuckled before continuing.

"... The Nightmare curse will be beginning in a month. You all have time to prepare, as this will be my greatest invention yet. And if it’s successful, we will expand across the whole human realm.

"And for the record, there’s no escape. Before it spreads beyond this city, no information is getting out, or else I will rain my wrath upon you all. Bye now."

A month later, humans suddenly experienced horrors beyond their imagination.

Sleep had become a luxury and a thing of the past for the people of Vespers.

And with that, the Reids were soon going to share in that horror.

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