Playmate

Written By: Aleksa Krkeljas

I’ve been a sleepwalker for years. 

I am deep in the woods. It’s cold and pitch-black. An owl stares at me from a branch, while its companion in the distance lets out a succession of hoots. The owl watches as I pass a tree onto a rocky path that crunches with every step uphill, while the foliage converges and makes it harder to see what is hiding up ahead. I hear crickets and toads. The stars are sleeping over me, dying and sparkling. I feel the breeze slap me across my nose. The air tickles my arms under my shirt. My precise and level breathing hums through me. My life plays out in opposites. I dream when I’m awake, and I’m awake when I’m asleep. 

I follow the path as a twig snaps behind me. I refuse to turn and keep going. Footsteps approach, but I keep walking, quickening my pace. Another snap of a twig. I glance at a dead and jagged tree, its branches twisting like bolts of lightning. The deepening effect of the woods is taking me places outside of my control, as if I am becoming one with its elements. The footsteps become louder. I’m not hearing things. There is someone else with me. It is not an animal. The footsteps belong to a human. They carry a shadowy rhythm that only humans are capable of making, as if the person is imitating me. 

I segue into a sprint, following the path with my elbows pumping. My breathing becomes intense. The cold air blasts against my face. The footsteps speed up, in sync with my legs. It starts to make a farrago of noises. It’s not human. I was wrong. It sounds like a demon, a ghost, a werewolf, a vampire, a zombie.  I want to stop sprinting, but my legs are against me, trapped as if my body is asleep and my mind is awake. I want to stop moving and face whatever is chasing me. Then, in a sudden flow of movements, I stop running, brace myself, and shut my eyes. 

The creature sprints towards me, getting closer, closer, closer. Then it stops. A moment goes by. I feel someone breathing down my neck. I hear the trees whispering in the breeze. The thing behind me is groaning, its warm breath heavy against my neck. I keep my eyes closed, waiting for it to pass, tensing my muscles as if I am riding a rollercoaster. I feel the creature’s breathing as it shifts from one of my ears to another, sniffing my hair, poking my cheek with its claws, tracing its fangs against my neck, licking my elbow, tickling my leg, oozing its slime or saliva down the inside of my shirt. It smells like a used toilet. 

I calm down, open my eyes, and turn around. The creature, standing in a green and glowing silhouette, is me. We look at each other for a moment. It’s as if I’m facing a mirror, the only difference is my double has red eyes and longer hair.

‘I am ready,’ the double says, pulling out a knife. ‘My time has come and I’m feeling slightly peckish. Do you mind if I chew your fingers?’

Blood gurgles out of my mouth. ‘Why are you doing this to me?’

My double giggles. ‘You are doing it to yourself.’

The blade penetrates through me, as the blood dripping from my mouth reverses into my body. My double opens its mouth as wide as a crocodile's and…

I wake up, slowly forgetting who I am and what I am becoming. 

Aleksa Krkeljas graduated Curtin University with a degree in creative writing. He lives in the southern suburbs of Brisbane, Australia, with his partner and their two playful Cavaliers. When he is not writing, he can likely be found playing soccer or listening to Daft Punk and Gorillaz.