These aren't the stories your mother told you.

No, these are the other stories.

Today's episode of The Other Stories is The Businessman at the end of my bed reanimated, written and

narrated by Luke Condor.

The sound of the latch unclasping woke him. It came from somewhere at the bottom of his bed,

past his feet. Then, to his right, the sound of metal scratching against fine grains of wood.

A coin spinning and dancing in the shadows of the dark bedroom.

Losing momentum and dropping to its side, crashing against the bedside table like thunder.

As soon as Stephen opened his eyes, he already knew. He could not move. It wasn't the first

time he had trouble sleeping, something that people spend a third of their life doing, something that

Stephen couldn't seem to get right, even if all the practice. He experienced night terrors

in his youth, woke up regularly to find himself in soiled

Thunderbird PJs, tearfully howling for his parents.

It's okay, they told him. You were just dreaming.

And then the mild insomnia in his teens, and then the fitful nightmares.

And now in adulthood, it was sleep paralysis.

Every night waking with panic, hallucinating people in his bedroom, always paralyzed.

More dreams, Stephen, his dad had told him on the phone, just more of your silly dreams. Still, this night

it didn't seem like a dream. It never did, but this time more so than usual. Stephen laid in his

bed, pinned down by his fear and tied up by his dull panic. He didn't want to cry, he wanted to remain calm.

He reminded himself that sleep paralysis was a common occurrence.

Many people experienced it.

...