(Spooky old modeling shot added for extra eeriness. Shot in 2009 by Josh Bowers)
The first time it happened was 1993. I was only three years old. I slept with low lit light on my dresser. My bed faced the door to my room, which was always left open. I woke up to see two skeletal figures of children in my doorway. I quickly threw my blanket over my head and screamed as loudly as I could until my mother and her boyfriend were sitting in a panic on my bed with me.
My entire childhood was filled with thoughts of the supernatural after this. I still don't really know how much of anything that I saw during nighttime was real. Things like this happened, scattered throughout the years. During my late teens, I had someone close to me diagnosed with schizophrenia. Mental illness, one of the truly scariest things of all. I began thinking I was a candidate for this.
One night, when I was 22, I woke up to a dark figure on top of me, a man, holding me down. I couldn't move, I was terrified. It wasn't until I screamed that I realized I hadn't really been awake. My real-life scream woke me up. I began sleeping with a light or the blue glow from my television. It wasn't until later that year that I had even heard of sleep paralysis. I had previously chocked up a lot of stuff to being constantly half awake from insomnia, mixed with a vivid imagination. It's been comforting to finally have a term to use for this. Though knowing what it is, doesn't make each time it happens any less frightening.
-------
On a lighter and sexier note, one of my sets from our Cabo Shootfest earlier this year has finally gone live! I had the most fun ever during the shootfest, you can read about it here. Make sure to check out "Lady in the Water" shot by @thelabrat when it goes up! It was my first time shooting in a pool. I loved it! Happy #WetWednesday