I woke up drenched in a cold sweat and coughing uncontrollably. My throat was dried and my heart was pounding so hard. I rubbed my neck. There was no wound, no blood. Then I looked around. I was in my bedroom lying on the bed, alone. I let out a sigh. It was just a dream. The same fucking dream!


The time showed 3:33 in the morning. It had always been like that until now. I woke up at the same time from the same dream. I think the clock might be broken. I grabbed it and examined it thoroughly. There was nothing with it - still working perfectly and the time was matched with my phone. Or it could be just…, a coincidence.


Now I’m too afraid to sleep, but I’m so fucking exhausted. I should seek a doctor in the morning and ask them to prescribe me some sleeping pills.


I squished my eyes before I jumped out of bed and went to the kitchen. I felt more at ease after gulping a glass of cold water. I let myself slumped onto the countertop and buried my face in my arm. The house felt so quiet until I heard the phone ringing. I lifted my head slowly and glanced at my back.


“I’m not inside my dream. I'm already awake and this is real. It must be real,” I kept muttering the same word while pinching my body to convince myself that this was not a dream. It could be my husband who’s calling me because he can’t sleep as well or just a time difference.


I walked to the living room where the sound came from. I stared at the phone and muttered the same word again. My legs were shaking, and I clenched my teeth. God, I don’t want to answer the phone.


It stopped ringing. I breathed a sigh of relief and unclenched my teeth. My legs were still shaking. I grabbed the wall to give me some support for my body. My mind running wild with so many questions. Who's calling me at this hour? What if it was an important call from my parents or my husband? Do I even have a phone?


Before I cleared up my doubt, the phone rang again. This time, I didn’t wait. I grabbed the phone immediately. But, someone caught my hand in mid-air, stopping me from answering the phone. I turned my head. It was a child. Her eyes glared into mine. She put her finger in front of her mouth, telling me to be quiet. “Don’t answer the phone,” she whispered and released my hand before disappearing into the house.


I fell to the floor while still holding the phone. What was that? I looked at the phone in my hand, then I assessed the room, making sure that I was still inside my house. “It was just a hallucination. It wasn’t real,” I repeated that word like a mantra.


BANG, BANG, BANG!


A loud noise came from the outside of my house. I saw a man banging on my window in my living room. It was the same man in my dream. The faceless man with disheveled hair, wearing dirty white clothes and ripped jeans. This time, he didn’t have a knife, but he could get one if he entered my house. I should call the police.


I dialed the police number quickly, but there was no sound coming at all from the phone. I checked on it and saw that the cable was cut poorly. “Fuck! How did this happen? It was working a moment ago”. While I was busy with the phone, the man was trying to break my window by throwing his whole body.