I AM STALKED, ASLEEP AND AWAKE
Mar 10, 2021
5 minutes
By C. J. Chivers
THE VISIONS OF VIOLENCE come without prompts I can anticipate or perceive, typically in moments of tranquility and rest. I’ll be dozing off near a woodstove on a chilly night, perhaps with my dog at my feet. Or I’ll be reclined in bed with a book under a summer moon, in the last moments before sleep, put to ease by the whir of a window fan.
Then it will happen – any of a trio of recurring visual phenomena that clinicians call hypnagogic hallucinations. In one, a hand holding a brick or a grapefruit-sized stone slams down on my face. I almost feel the crunch. In another, a sharp axe strikes the back of my neck. It passes clean through. In the third, I am pelted
You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
Start your free 30 days