Just Say, Yes.

No, no, no! Panic set when Josie realised she was having another sleep paralysis episode. 

It had all the usual hallmarks; leaden limbs, eyes glued shut, shallow breathes. 

And worst of all; the unsettling feeling that something is in the room with her. 

This was impossible, of course. She was home alone; her mum having left for a shift at the hospital hours earlier. As Josie was only thirteen, this wasn’t ideal. But her mum said Josie was too old for a babysitter, and Josie was old enough to know this meant her mum didn’t want to pay for one. 

Desperately, Josie tried to wiggle her toes. 

Nothing. 

Next, she focussed all her efforts on the fingers on her right hand. 

Still nothing. 

Full paralysis.

Josie squeezed her eyes tight and felt a tear trickle down her temple. 

Then, to her astonishment, she blinked and opened her eyes. 

This was new. 

Normally, she couldn’t see during a paralysis episode. It was one of the things that made it so scary. Unable to turn her head, she looked around the ceiling of her small bedroom, head frozen in place. 

Meagre light from the streetlight outside their social housing building came through her thin, brown curtains into her bedroom in their third floor flat, faintly illuminating her small but cosy room.  

As she scanned the ceiling, her eyes were drawn to the dark space above her wardrobe in the corner. 

She stared, trying to be sure. 

Yes. The space between the top of the wardrobe and the ceiling was noticeably darker than the rest of the room. 

It was a velvety, rich dark. Not at all like the dun-coloured dark that bathed the rest of the room. 

As she stared, the darkness shifted. 

Josie jolted inwardly. What on earth? 

It was a serpentine, writhing movement, barely perceptible. But it was moving. 

Moments passed as Josie strained with all her might to focus on the dark, heart pounding so hard it hurt her chest. 

The darkness shifted and seemed to move in a circle. 

Then, to her horror, the darkness blinked, and two yellow eyes looked back at Josie.  

Oh my God! 

What the hell was that?!

Her heart continued to pound in her chest as the dark writhed and coiled, leaving the space above the wardrobe to move slowly, impossibly along the ceiling towards her. 

Tears flowed freely now, as Josie strained with an effort she didn’t know she could muster, trying with all her might to move her limbs. 

But her body failed her, remaining stubbornly stiff and immobile. 

In desperation, Josie squeezed her eyes shut and begged any God who would listen that the yellow eyes and the dark shape would be gone when she opened them. 

When she opened her eyes, blinking to clear the tears, the dark with the eyes was directly above her, looking down from the ceiling. 

Blind terror threatened to overcome her completely. Frantic now, Josie tried to be rational, to assess the threat. 

The dark had a shape now. A sort of head was at the top, then broad shoulders, then the rest tapered away. 

Wraith…

That was the word that came to mind. It looked like a wraith. 

Josie and the wraith stared at each other, both unmoving. 

Then, an unexpected noise broke the silence. 

Softly, a key turned in the lock of the flat’s front door. 

Josie’s eyes darted to her closed bedroom door. 

Mum? 

No. 

Her mum her wasn’t due back for hours yet. And her mum couldn’t be quiet if her life depended on it. 

Swoosh…

The door opened slowly, making a barely perceptible swishing sound as the draft excluder skimmed the carpet. 

As if someone was trying to enter without attracting attention. 

More alarmed than ever Josie looked back to the ceiling. 

The wraith had moved across the ceiling to the wall where her bedroom door was located. 

Its shape had changed again. More human-like at the top, it had defined arms now. 

The arms reached out as it moved in that creepy serpentine way to ease itself down from the ceiling onto the door. 

It moved like a cockroach, or a millipede Josie thought. 

The face pressed to the top of the door and Josie could hear it sniff deeply. 

Once, twice, three times. 

Then, it turned to her. 

The head like shape was more defined now, a wrinkled, grotesque face was visible, and the yellow eyes were brighter than ever. 

A beat passed as Josie stared at the wraith on her door, and the wraith on the door stared back. 

The swooshing sound came again, followed by a light click. 

Whoever had entered her flat had closed the door behind them. 

The wraith tilted its head at her. Then it slowly slithered down the door and disappeared from Josie’s view. 

Josie didn’t think it was possible to be more scared than she already was. 

But she was wrong. 

Josie was absolutely petrified. 

Anxiously, desperately, she looked to her left, towards the door, the wraith in her room and the unknown intruder in the hall. 

Silence. 

Moments passed. 

Time seemed to stand still. 

Josie couldn’t stop crying. 

Then, she heard two sounds together. 

Footsteps in the hallway.

And soft thumps on her bedroom carpet. 

Both coming closer to her. 

Josie silently cried for her mother.  

The mattress beside her left hand depressed slightly. 

The footsteps in the hall stopped. 

A coldness touched her left hand. 

Suddenly, the wraith shimmied into view on her left side, obscuring her view of the door.

Resigned to her fate, a strange calmness came over Josie. 

Maybe this was how Anne Boleyn felt, before her beheading, she mused. Josie hadn’t been able to stop thinking of Anne Boleyn from the moment she’d learned about her in History class.

With a bravery she didn’t know she had; she looked the wraith in the face. 

It was even more human-like now. Its face was impossibly old, wrinkled and twisted. 

Almost, but not quite, human. 

Eyes were too yellow. 

Skull too long. 

A calloused, twisted hand reached to her head and gently caressed her face. 

The touch disgusted Josie. 

The footsteps started in the hall again. 

Now they were closer, she could discern that they were heavy. 

Likely a large person wearing boots. 

Josie closed her eyes and swallowed hard, as realisation hit her. This couldn’t be happening.

She opened her eyes again and would have screamed if she could. 

The wraith was on top of her now. 

She couldn’t feel it’s weight through her duvet, but it hovered over her tiny body, its face inches from hers. 

Just say yes.

She felt the words rather than heard them. 

Say yes, and you’ll be safe. 

Cold fingers stroked her cheek. 

This couldn’t be real, she thought.

Josie tore her gaze from the hideous face above her and looked left. 

She could see her bedroom door again, now the wraith had moved above her. 

The hall light was on. 

Two boots could just be seen beneath her bedroom door. 

His boots. 

She looked back to the wraith above her. 

The wraith’s face was closer than ever, noses almost touching. 

Say yes to what? Josie thought. 

The face before her smiled, looking scarier than ever. 

It’s mouth open and its fetid breath filled Josie’s nostrils. 

She retched slightly. 

Just a year. 

One year. 

That’s not too much to ask. 

Is it?

What do you mean? Josie replied without speaking. 

The face shifted in front of her. 

Just one year of your life. 

You’ll not miss it. 

I swear it. 

Just. 

Say. 

Yes.

The doorhandle rattled. 

Josie’s mind raced. 

So, she’d die at eighty-one, not eighty-two? 

That didn’t seem so bad. She wasn’t keen to end up in an old people’s home anyway. 

The wraith tapped her head, urgently. 

SAY YES!!

NOW!

Yes. Josie acquiesced, silently. Yes. 

The wraith grinned wider than ever and placed of its large, bony both hands on Josie’s head.

At once, all sounds muffled and a strange, peaceful feeling came over Josie. 

Before, she could hear the traffic on their busy street. Now, it was like hearing her neighbours TV through the wall.

Then, with an almost bored expression, the wraith lowered itself on top of her small frame. It was light, barely perceptible.  

The fear in Josie started to abate. 

Looking left, peeking through the space in the wraith’s skinny arms, she could see her bedroom door open but didn’t hear the usual squeak of the hinges. 

Her sight was strange too. 

It was like looking at the world through a rounded glass. 

And there he was. 

Neil. 

Her mum’s new boyfriend. 

Neil who spoke so charmingly to her mother, but so disgustingly to her. 

Neil who brought her mum flowers and chocolates, then sent Josie lewd and graphic snap chat messages. 

Josie’s mother didn’t believe her when she complained about him. 

Neil had told her mum that jealousy and lies were to be expected, especially as it had only been the two of them since Josie’s dad died. 

But he’d soon win her over, Neil promised her mum. She just needed to give him time. 

But Neil didn’t have a key. 

And Neil wasn’t her babysitter. 

Without doubt, Neil wasn’t supposed to be here, at what must be one or two in the morning. 

Josie could guess why he was here, though. 

She hadn’t forgotten what she learned in biology class, or the cringey talks about consent. 

Josie braced herself, as Neil walked into her bedroom and stood beside her bed. 

She expected him to see the wraith and scream, but he just stood quietly next to her bed for a few moments. 

Confused, Josie looked back to the hideous face above her. The face looked back, a languid expression in its yellow eyes, a sardonic smile on its lips. 

It leaned forward and gently rubbed its nose on Josie’s. 

I’m losing my mind, Josie thought.

Josie and the wraith stayed nose to nose, as Neil turned and walked towards Josie’s wardrobe. 

Faintly, she heard him open and close the wardrobe doors. 

Then his soft footsteps moved to the other side of Josie’s bed, beside her window. 

Neil was a big man. His shadow was visible on the wall as he blocked out what little light there was. He made a huffing noise as he lowered himself to the floor. 

Josie could picture him in her mind’s eye, looking for her under her bed. 

She could just hear Neil swear in frustration. 

The wraith raised an eyebrow. 

She couldn’t be sure, but Josie got the impression it was enjoying itself. 

Showing off. 

Neil walked back to Josie’s bedroom door. 

She watched as scanned the room, an angry look on his face. He turned and left her room, his footsteps softly moving towards her mum’s room. 

The wraith lifted its hands from Josies head and rested its head on a hand. At once, all the sound rushed back, and Josie’s vision cleared. 

She took a minute to appreciate having her senses back. 

A loud, jazzy tune rent the air, scaring her. 

“Shit” She heard Neil swear in the hallway. “Uh, hi. What are you doing calling so late? All ok?” He asked, in what Josie could tell was a faux jovial tune. Too high pitched. 

“Well, your neighbour with the Ring Doorbell is mistaken. Maybe someone who looked like me walked down her hallway?”

A pause. 

“The police? Just because someone’s in her hallway? Jeez, you live in a big building. Don’t people walk down the corridors at night?”

A longer pause.  

“You know what? I don’t need these kinds of accusations. We’re finished! Find some other mug to take care of you and your brat, you fat bitch!”

“FUCK!” Neil swore loudly. 

Josie looked back up the wraith as she heard Neil sprint up the hall and out the door, no longer trying to be quiet. 

The wraith leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the forehead. 

Josie shuddered in revulsion. 

A police siren could just be heard in the distance, getting louder as it came closer. She heard the heavy building door being flung open and heavy footsteps running up the street. 

What happens now? She asked without speaking. 

One year. 

That’s all. 

You said yes. 

Josie nodded. 

Rap. Rap. Rap. 

“JOSIE! You OK Honey?” Came the raspy shout of her neighbour, and mum’s friend Marie. 

Josie snapped her head towards the sound and when she looked back, the wraith was gone, and she could move again. 

The counsellor looked at Josie with a bored, insolent expression. “You really expect me to believe this shit?” He asked, sarcastically. 

The counsellor was new, a recent transfer to Josie’s juvenile detention centre.  

“Hey, you asked me to tell you when the trouble started. Here’s me telling you. Believe what you want, mate.” Josie answered, hands stuffed in her hoody pockets. 

The counsellor leaned over the table, resting his head in his hands. Josie guessed he was in his late twenties. 

Good looking in a way that hadn’t been good for him. 

He was an arrogant, patronising prick. 

Full of self-importance and far too overconfident. 

Josie bet he waxed lyrical about the work he did with ‘troubled, but good-hearted kids’ to sweet talk girls into bed. 

Troubled kids like her. 

You have no fucking idea mate. 

“I read your file you know.” He said softly. 

“Wouldn’t have assumed you could lift your head from Pornhub long enough to read anything. I’m impressed.” Josie deadpanned. 

“Haha. You’re funny.” He said with a wide, fake smile. “Quite the little angel by all accounts, until you were identified as the Catfish Castrator and plastered over every tabloid in the county.” The counsellor’s eyes flashed. “That’s quite the title! Luring poor innocent men on dates. Offering blowjobs like a little harlot. Then stabbing them in the dick with a penknife while they were defenceless. Took the police a while to catch you. How many did you hurt before you were caught? Nine? Ten?” 

Did he want the known or unknown victim count? Josie mused. 

She leaned across the desk, bringing her head closer to his. “Did it say in my file why they took so long to catch me?” 

“Oh, I’m sure you’d like to tell me about how clever you were, not getting caught for almost a year.” He replied, with a challenging stare. 

Josie smirked at him. “It was ‘cause I pretended to be younger than I was. I looked young, which helped. Able to pass for eleven or twelve at fourteen. No tits you see. Not one of the men stabbed were under thirty-five. It’s not easy to ring 999 and report that the ‘eleven-year-old’ you groomed on snapchat stabbed you in the balls while you were enjoying a blowie in the back seat of your car. 

Oh! You should have heard the excuses they gave, once the detectives got hold of my phone and tracked some of the men down. 

I didn’t delete my snapchat messages, you see. 

I sat on a nail. 

A dog bit my privates. 

It was a cycling accident. 

My knife slipped when I was cutting an apple. 

Still, can’t have been easy for their wives and family hearing the truth in court. I almost felt bad for them.” 

“So, you do regret what you did? Well, that’s something at least.” The counsellor replied, ignoring her earlier comments. 

Josie looked over his shoulder to the space between a filing cabinet and the wall. 

The space was too dark. 

Josie’s heart leapt. 

She looked back to the counsellor “What can I say? It wasn’t me, mate. I learned all about what I did in court, same time as everyone else.” 

“Still peddling that line, eh? Tell me, did anyone believe you?” The counsellor snorted. “Anyway, you’ve got tits now I see, now you’re sixteen. A nice pair an all. How about we get this over with, so I can get one with, uh, ‘helping’ some other kids.”

Ah. 

There it was. 

The usual ask. 

Making Josie want to scream, tear her skin off and bang her head off the wall. 

But the dark was on the move now, climbing up the wall. 

Yellow eyes blinked over at Josie. 

She smiled at it.

The counsellor misinterpreted this. “Oh yeah, you know what to do. You wee whores are all the same. Got over here.” 

Josie stood. 

A feeling of calm washed over her. 

What difference would another year make? 

She hated this place anyway. 

Slowly, she made her way round to the counsellor’s side of the desk. 

There, she lowered her tracksuit bottoms and underwear. 

Leaned over the desk. 

“I gambled and lost. But I don’t regret it.” She explained, loudly.

“Gambled? What are you on about?” The counsellor asked in a strained tone, trying to get himself ready. 

Josie had wrongfooted him. He was expecting more resistance, which was what usually got him excited. 

Josie could feel the darkness move above them. 

She lifted her head to look at the ceiling. 

The wraith was more formed now. 

Yellow eyes in a wizened, twisted head looked down at her. 

Hello, old friend. 

“I assumed losing a year meant losing a year at the end. Dying younger, but still an old lady. I was only thirteen. It didn’t occur to me that it would take a year of its choice.” 

“Stop talking shit!” The counsellor snapped. But his earlier confidence was gone. 

He might not have been able to see the wraith above him, but every sense he had was now screaming that he was in danger. 

“Do you feel something?” He asked, worry creeping into his voice. 

“One day I was a normal thirteen-year-old trying to dodge my mums handsy boyfriend. Next, I woke up a year later in a police cell, labelled the Catfish Castrator and thrown into Juvie. 

It was quite the head fuck.”

“Shut up! Do you hear me? Just shut up.” He snapped in frustration.

Josie chuckled lightly and pulled up her underwear and tracksuit bottoms. 

The wizened, twisted face lowered in front of Josie’s. 

She leaned forward and gently rubbed her nose against its nose. 

I missed you. She said, without speaking. 

One more year? Just say yes. Her old friend asked.

Josie laughed again. Well. At least you ask.

“Do you think this is funny, you wee slut? Just you wait. There’s going to be big changes around here, now that I’m here.” 

“Oh, fuck up. You’re boring me.” Josie retorted.

The counsellor erupted in an indignant tirade.  

But Josie couldn’t hear him properly anymore. The room was blurred too, now that the wraith’s hands were on her head. 

Is that a, ‘yes’? It asked without speaking.

Josie leaned forward and kissed the wraith’s calloused forehead.

A year out of this shithole? 

No more entitled counsellors to contend with?

No more googling herself and reading the comments?

No more visits from her mum, having to watch her cry and ask ‘where did she go wrong’?

Not being called a liar and a whore?

Can the year start now? Josie asked silently. 

The wraith nodded slowly. Of course, my love.

They smiled at each other. 

Thank you. 

Yes.