3:22 a.m.

I haven't slept for days. I know my parents are worried, I've heard nothing but constant nag for a week.

"Eloise, are you hungry?"

"Eloise, dear, get some sleep,"

"You want me to run you a bath?"

No, I do not want any of these things nor will I ever. I told them what I wanted years ago, but my requests have been ignored and stepped on. I guess you could call this going on a strike. That's what I'd call it.

It started off with the night terrors. I'd wake up at midnight, cold sweat dripping down the middle of my back. My white t-shirt would be sticking to my skin and I'd always have an erratic heart beat. At first, I didn't think much of it. Then the dreams started to reoccur.

I would go to sleep and wake up in a red room, full of red things. Red sheets, red walls, red people. I don't know what scared me more, the hideous drapes or the red man standing at the foot of the bed. He looks at me with a raised brow, almost as if he was asking me a question. By that time, my upper lip would tremble, along with my hands and cheeks.

"W-who are you?" I asked the man.

He would never give me an answer, I don't even recall him breathing. He just stood there, toying with the hem of his leather jacket. If he had looked more normal, I would've taken him for a leather person. He just fit the part. Long, black hair, a fit body. Green eyes. Red skin.

I know he could hear me. He had to of, he flinched every time I screamed at him. And every time I stopped, he would smile and grab my foot. After that, I would wake back up in my own, yellow-walled room.

I had that same dream two days ago. I haven't been asleep since. Which brings me on the second phenomena, the red.

It was yesterday when the red started to appear when I was fully awake. I'd be brewing a cup of coffee and the white coffee mugs would turn completely red, some of the empty ones would have black liquid in them. I stumbled back onto the counter, my arms stinging from the sudden impact. My heart must've been beating three times the normal amount. I slowly got up, looking around the room and out the window for the red man. I didntdidn't see anything but the red cups.

"Eloise, you're imagining things. They're not red," I told myself.

Right as soon as I said that, they turned back to normal. And then a few hours after that, everything got weird again.