[Cussing Warning!]

"Oh you can't be serious..."

Struggling to move, my body refuses to budge an inch. Staring at the ceiling, I slowly calmed myself down with deep and controlled breaths. I've been through this before... yes, hundreds.... and hundreds of times. Yes... I can deal with them, they aren't real. They don't exist and will never exist... it's just sleep paralysis. It's sleep paralysis... nothing more.

Closing my eyes and desperately trying to put myself in my happy place, I wait for the nightmare to pass... of course, the constricted air flow isn't helping. Sleep paralysis wasn't fatal, yes... but it was pure torture for those who got them. Lying in bed and not being able to move... or even barely able to control their breathing for that matter... it was a nightmare that you remembered and you remembered thoroughly. People see things... things that aren't there; shadows in the dark corners of the room, or in the slightly ajar cabinet. They stare at you and as soon as you begin to panic...no... no... please stop!

Shutting my eyes tightly, I try to drown out the distorted and jumbled words. Some people saw creatures they feared most... me? Well... I see tiny people. Though blank and replaced with black silhouettes, they felt... very...very real. Their feet shuffling around the bed, a pair walking on my chest... and everytime... I hear their... voices. Gibberish and completely unknown to me, I never felt the need to understand them... they were hell-spawns for all I care!

And then... after the small and fleeting footsteps stopped to exist, I opened my eyes. Flexing my fingers, I sighed a breath of relief. It was over... for today. Getting out of bed, I wiped the sweat of my face while closing that damn gap between the cabinet... my friends called me a madman. It just wasn't so easy to explain to a bunch of young-adults who don't have insomnia. Sure, working as a grave keeper doesn't help the constant processions my 'company' takes on. And I was the digger, a person who dug graves for the deceased... for the loved ones people had lost.

If it were a battle of morals, I would've lost that battle years and years ago. I just KNOW this place is haunted. If only I could escape this... tarnation of a house near the cemetery I'd be a happy man... wait.

Checking my phone on the bed stand, I thanked the heavens- and told them- there was going to be a short break from the corpses. Changing to a cleaner set of clothes, I opened the bedroom door and walked ou- AGHH! Holy shit it smells! Dropping the clothes unto the floor, I gagged and coughed at the stench that emitted from... somewhere. The smell could only be described as a fucking rotten corpse... which I knew from the daily burials.

Something must've died in the walls... damn it! And today was my one day off! Sighing as I did so, I grabbed the dropped clothing and dumped it as quickly as I possibly could into the washing machine in this small and damned broken outhouse. Quickly grabbing a pair of gloves, I prepared myself to find this damn rodent rotting in the walls.

Sniffing the air, I tried to locate the source of distress and the problem with this was the big,fat, obvious fact that I- a human- was not made to locate by smelling but I tried it anyways. Crouching down to the creaky floorboards, I tried to get a better sample or way to smell the stinking corpse. And this was when it hit me, the most disgusting smell there could ever be in the world.

Gagging and retching, I shot up in a stance to get a little bit of fresh air from a higher altitude. Whatever died in there must've been huge! Taking a deep breath before I confront the mangled corpse inside the walls, I mentally prepared myself for the sight of an animal carcass. Putting the gloves on, I pried the already worn wood apart. It was just like tearing apart a piece of paper... holy shit.

My eyes narrowed before the sights set on me, glaring at the cadavers that had presented itself to me. Skeletons were scattered across the inner walls... but... it didn't look like some random rodents had died in here. These were human skeletons. Sure I may not be the smartest guy in biology but it takes one to know another... and this was no mistake.

The weirdest thing of it all? The stench had disappeared the moment I tore the wall apart. Gingerly reaching in and picking up the skeletons, I counted each and every hulk... 6 in total. 4 of them looked very small compared to the other two... were these two the parents? Were these...no... they living humans at some point? And as if a sudden gust of sadness hit, I felt the urge to give these poor souls a burial... wait a minute, it all makes sense!

Getting up from a crouch, I gingerly placed the skeletons unto a table while I searched to drawers for a specific something... ah... the 6 mini-caskets. Sent as a 'job souvenir' for the upper command, I had no idea what I could've used them for... was this perhaps fate? Praying to each individual with unknown respect, I carefully lowered each skeleton into a casket and carried them out into the cemetery.

"Well... it ain't much, but it's honest work..." I said to myself as I searched for a suitable burial site. Looking around the many occupied spaces, I tried to find a spot that fitted these unfortunate humans best. Finally resting my eyes on a tree, I crouched down as I dug up 6 small depressions into the soil.

Lowering the caskets into the depressions, I covered it back up while I tried to understand the puzzle I had put together... were they perhaps the shadows in my 'paralysis'? It would make so much sense... their souls might've been at unrest. Maybe... maybe they were just trying to tell me to bury them. Slapping myself on the cheeks, I looked at the little moulds bulging out of the ground and mentally slapped myself again... how could I forget the markers...

Gathering 6 small but elongated stones from the ground, I made sure they stuck nice and well into the dirt with the six tiny little skeletons... it wasn't much... but at least they can rest now... chuckling a little; I wondered if they were going to thank me in my next nightmare... I should really quit this job too... staying with the shadows doesn't help the living. "Whoever and whatever you are... I hope you can have a better reincarnated life..." Getting up from the ground, I dusted off the dirt that had stuck to my pants, before walking away.

To answer the many confused questions that might be floating around with your heads, this was from a very... very livid dream I had last night. Anyways, hope you liked the randomness! See u peps next week... hopefully.