When Larry blinked it was an effort to lift his eyelids back up. His head was heavy and he knew all he had to do was close his eyes. Let his breathing even out and his mind empty.
But his mind wasn’t empty. It wasn’t necessarily completely full of coherent thoughts but it felt busy none the less. He didn’t know why he was doing this to himself, he was frozen. Stuck awake, but he was so tired. His phone felt heavy in his hand and his fingers were starting to ache as he scrolled the screen but barely looked at what was on it.
His eyes flicked to the time.
04:47
He had to get up in just over two hours.
He hadn’t slept.
He didn’t know why he hadn’t slept but something didn’t let him, not that he’d attempted to sleep. Anyway, if he slept now he’d sleep through work, he justified.
He sighed. Caught in this limbo.
His mouth was dry. He should move. Just. Move.
Fucking.
Move.
He sighed through his nose and stared at his reflection in the black screen of his phone.
When did the screen turn off?
He unlocked his phone and looked at the time but it was still before 5, every second felt like it lasted forever and yet the night went by so fast. He’d kept telling himself every hour that this was the hour he’d turn off the light and go to sleep, and yet each hour passed and he was stuck awake.
He scrolled through social media but he didn’t even read the words on the screen, he just had to keep his hands busy. He had to keep busy.
His mind felt busy, yet blank.
He felt like something else had control of him, like something was pulling at his strings, or perhaps not pulling at his strings. Perhaps his puppeteer had abandoned him.
He just had to move. It was easy.
He looked at the glass of water on his bedside table. All he had to do was reach over.
He willed himself to move. Begged himself.
He dropped his phone onto his mattress.
He reached his arm over and took ahold of the glass, brought it to his lips and took a sip, then placed it back down.
Was that so hard?
He sunk into his bed, throwing his arm over his face.
He was so tired. He was tempted to sleep. His body was so, so heavy. He picked up his phone again: 05:02. Maybe two hours wouldn’t hurt. He could force himself awake after two hours.
He didn’t want to force himself awake for two hours. He wanted to sleep as long as his body would let him.











