The Effect

Clyde jolted awake. His body drenched in sweat and his heart hammering against his ribs.

His eyes snapped open, wild and unfocused, as he shot upright in bed.

Gasping for breath, he ran trembling hands over his face, feeling the slick dampness of sweat clinging to his skin.

He sat in bis bed and hunched over, fingers digging into his damp skin.

The air in the room felt stifling, too still and too quiet. As if the world itself had momentarily ceased to exist outside of his thoughts that now swirling.

His body trembled. But it definitely not from exhaustion but from something deeper. That eas fear.

The vision — no, the experience — still burned fresh in his mind, refusing to fade like a normal dream. It wasn't a dream and he knew it.

Every fiber of his being screamed that he had been somewhere else. A place drenched in darkness where the air itself pressed down like a suffocating weight.