Sisyphean Attempts at Self-Improvement

Be Afraid

"Be afraid... be very afraid."

Dr. Kellner paused the video and turned to his patient. "Every time. You say the same thing in your sleep. Every single night for three weeks."

Marcus rubbed his eyes. "I don't remember any dreams."

"That's what concerns me." Dr. Kellner pulled up another video. "This was last Tuesday."

On the screen, Marcus lay perfectly still in the sleep lab bed. Then his mouth opened.

"Be afraid... be very afraid."

His lips barely moved. The voice didn't quite sound like his.

"Wednesday."

Another video. Same words. Same monotone delivery.

"Thursday."

Again.

Marcus shifted uncomfortably. "So I talk in my sleep. Lots of people do."

"Look at your eyes."

Dr. Kellner zoomed in on Thursday's recording. Marcus's eyelids were closed, but something moved beneath them. Not the typical rapid movement of REM sleep, but deliberate, synchronized patterns. Left. Right. Left. Right. Like he was watching something specific.

"What am I looking at?" Marcus asked.

"We don't know. But here's where it gets interesting." Dr. Kellner pulled up a map dotted with red pins.

"Seventeen other patients. Different cities. Same phrase. Same eye movements. Same time every night, at 3:33 AM."

Marcus felt his mouth go dry. "That's... that has to be coincidence."

"We thought so too. Until we found this."

Dr. Kellner showed him a photograph from 1952. A patient in a psychiatric hospital, eyes rolled back, mouth open mid-speech. The caption read: Patient exhibits recurring nocturnal vocalization - 'Be afraid, be very afraid.'

"We tracked it back through medical records. 1889. 1743. Even found a monk's journal from 1321 describing brothers who spoke these words in their sleep. Always in English, even when the speakers didn't know the language."

Marcus stood up. "This is insane."

"There's more. The patients who said it longest, the ones who went months without treatment, they started showing other symptoms."

"What symptoms?"

Dr. Kellner hesitated. "They stopped sleeping. Not insomnia per se; they literally no longer needed sleep. They'd lie down, close their eyes, and eight hours later, get up refreshed. But the videos showed them speaking continuously. Eight hours of warnings."

"Warnings about what?"

"We had one patient who stayed awake during an episode. Fought through it with stimulants. He managed sixty seconds of consciousness at 3:33 AM." Dr. Kellner's voice dropped. "He said he could see them. Standing around his bed. Watching. Waiting. He said they looked like us, but wrong. Like someone tried to rebuild a person from memory."

Marcus backed toward the door. "I want to leave."

"Mr. Chen, please—"

"Now."

That night, Marcus took every stimulant he could find. Coffee. Energy drinks. Pills from a friend. At 3:32 AM, he sat rigid in his chair, eyes wide, heart pounding.

3:33 AM.

His mouth opened against his will.

"Be afraid..."

He fought to stay conscious, to see what Dr. Kellner's patient had seen.

"...be very afraid."

His vision blurred, cleared, and he wished it hadn't.

They were already inside.


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492 words

PROMPT: “Be afraid... be very afraid.” — from The Fly (1986)

Written for ""13" - 2025 Edition"