I decided to spare the 14-year-old and use my veteran for the next step: fractured realignment. I needed to witness the effects of a fractured patient that has submitted to one of its embattled umbral manifestations; Nightmare by Numbers had officially entered phase 3. I decided it best for this entire session to be conducted remotely, as to avoid further unnecessary maiming in the event of a repeat of whatever happened to me. I was allowed use of a containment site that was specifically built to conduct potentially hazardous experiments. The subject room was constructed with the densest material unknown to the public, and the outlying observation room had been outfitted with every fathomable toy a scientist like me could dream of. The basement assigned a quick reaction force (QRF) to my floor; we’re talking two 13-man squads of “professionals” in full tactical gear. I’m nowhere near being a gun enthusiast but was admittedly impressed by their grim looking weapons and stoic demeanor. I now understand why I always see DOD personnel in the cafeteria.
My veteran was restrained atop a standard infirmary table; I no longer needed to witness shadow displacement from an erect subject. I had four assistants for this session (two of which were charged with sketching what they saw), and the QRF team was on standby in a ready-room adjacent to the observation booth. There was a small red button encased in a clear protective guard on my command console that, when pressed, would fill the containment cell with weaponized botulinum toxin as a termination measure. I began the first phase of my program at 1900hrs, the subject’s paralytic episode beginning at 1936hrs. The first umbra materialized almost immediately, followed by the same nauseating mixture of carbon and diesel exhaust. The prostrate instance scraped along the floor for several minutes, emitting an agonizing moan that could only be detected by our EMF recorder. The second umbral manifestations appeared in the same impish fashion, hopping out of intentionally placed cupboards and cabinets. There were four of them, interacting with the first umbra in the same antagonistic manner they had during the previous session.
The subject and all present umbral entities began screaming at 1955hrs. Knowing that the session was about to progress into new territory and anticipating a sudden volatile change to the atmosphere, I lifted the plastic safeguard on my console and hovered my hand over the little red button. The screaming reached its pinnacle at 90 seconds and abruptly stopped, all manifestations gathered on opposite sides of the subject, looming over him and motionless. I chastised my medical assistant with a firm wave as she motioned towards the vital monitors, indicating a drop into what should’ve been sub-functionary levels, yet the subject remained serenely indisposed. We all watched as his facial muscles slackened from their anxious distortion into emotionless placation. Then he reached out towards the cluster of black bipedal deformities, causing the first umbral to shatter and disappear. The undulating group of stunted creatures leapt onto the subject and dissolved. I should’ve hit the red button right then and there.
The subject tore through the restraints and sat up from the table, slowly looking around the room with closed eyes. His vitals climbed to levels indicative of consciousness, but the neural activity monitor showed waves synonymous with REM sleep. He stared at the observation window for a few moments, before pointing at me and screaming in a vast array of octaves; I called for the QRF team to restrain the subject. Upon the first team entering the room, the subject stood and faced them while screaming. At this moment, several dozen of the bipedal umbral manifestations materialized from the subject. They tore around the room as the QRF force engaged them, but bullets seemed to have no effect on the subject or his manifestations.
All 26-armed men were violently dispatched within 30 seconds of the conflict commencing.
I pressed the red button just as the subject directed the little creatures towards the observation window. They slammed their bodies into the glass with surprising force but immediately dissipated once the toxins expired the subject. The debriefing from this experiment was immensely comprehensive, as well as the documented evidence to support my mission statement. As regrettable as the QRF team’s deaths were, my superiors were beyond ecstatic with the current results. I have just witnessed fractured realignment and decided there was only one way to capture a specimen for upstairs: I needed to fracture and realign myself.
This would be my final mistake.
I’m going to skip ahead to my current situation, as recounting the preparation process for each experiment has become tedious. I am sitting in the Site Control Corridor (SCC) of the Gateway, which is a long chamber that can monitor and subdue any experiment in the compound. The SCC is located ‘upstairs’, and none of the powers-that-be who call this floor home seem to be around. I awoke here after witnessing fractured realignment, the obnoxious siren and yellow strobe lights likely responsible for rousing me. We, as a collective species, have never been so wrong about anything as I was about sleep paralysis. Flat-earthers are absurd in their logic but only by a geometrical parameter. A flat earth is still a physical earth, just the wrong shape. Taking this into considerations means they still believe in most facts that spherical-earthers (traditional-earthers?) do. This is NOT the case with my somnological findings on sleep paralysis.
We believe the purpose of the human mind is as a simple biological processing unit, complex in design, but simple in purpose. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The human brain has capabilities far beyond anything we ever could’ve anticipated, and its purpose is nothing short of reality altering.
After what I encountered in my realignment, I am thoroughly convinced that each person exists in countless different dimensions at once. This is NOT to be confused with the “multiverse” theory. Evidence unearthed during my studies conclude that each person has ONE brain within ONE current instance of themselves, in a singular universe. But, within each brain is countless tiers of existential variations that are all competing for breathing room. Not just multiple personalities, but entirely rendered versions of ourselves that need only a portion of our focus to physically manifest. Everyone has heard the adage: humans only use 10% of their brains; well, that’s because the other 90% is a subconscious battleground. Each person’s current manifestations (your human body) is the proud owner/operator of the undisputed 10%, while the countless other instances (ie. umbral manifestations) are literally fighting each other for any portion of the disputed 90%. The perspective of these instances can be glimpsed during REM sleep as dreams. The unified intention of our synaptic minority makes our current manifestations the majority shareholder and shot caller on who gets to drive the bus.
By tapping into the fear induced semiconscious state associated with sleep paralysis, we could technically reassign some of our cognitive focus to an alternate self. This will likely give it enough juice to manifest. Your current body won’t dematerialize for as long its controls more intent than the newly rendered instance. The two (or more) instances would simply realign and conduct their intentions in unison.
Our minds have the unfathomable ability to alter our individual realities. Minuscule examples of such ability exist in every form of mental health practice throughout the world: meditation and goal-projection being two of the more popular ones, with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder being less so. We literally have the power to create anything we want, if we can align every intention in our subconscious state. This would require finding, subduing and realigning EVERY alternate instance of ourselves, giving our consciousness control of 100% of our mental output. This would give us supernatural omnipotence, or ‘godhood’. I believe there are those among us that have already achieved such a state (grab your nearest bible for a quick reference), but I would imagine the lifespan of such power is fleeting at best. To waiver in the slightest would be to relinquish control over any of your conflicting intentions, which would likely shatter your existence and effectively erase you.
What I saw in my fractured realignment was an infinite mindscape of my varying ‘selves’. I saw terrified children, rage-fueled monstrosities, lustful fanatics, every isolated emotional nuance in their most primal forms, created through intentions and experiences. Sleep paralysis is a state of wavering and conflicted focus, which gives one of your alternate selves a restricted glimpse of the world they yearn to exist in. These “shadow people” are just one of your caged personas looking for a way out. If what you see while restricted in your paralytic state scares you, it’s for good reason. There is an army of you at war in your brain, and your current self is the grand prize; which brings me to now.
I have determined that the entire Gateway has evacuated following what I can safely assume was my catastrophic realignment event. A Heavy Reaction Force (HRF) is likely en-route to my position, as will be what the higher ups like to call a “sanitation strike”, once they realize there’s no stopping what I’m about to do. I’ve condensed my entire Nightmare by Numbers program into a machine used to “re-calibrate” mental dissidents, such as captured enemies of the state or former employees that suddenly grow a conscience. I am about to bombard my mind with an absurdly accelerated version of my program that should ultimately leave me in the permanently fractured state, and essentially open the floodgates of my mind to every umbral instance of me that is clawing to be realized.
I can hear the HRF choppers now.
Enjoy my nightmares.
