The Novella Life of Illuscia Nester Himawari

When I was little, my dad would ask his friend to babysit me sometimes. My mom wasn't there growing up so my dad had to rely on other people to look after me when he couldn't be at home. One of my dad's friends, I'll call him John, told me a story one night that still sends shivers up my spine. It went like this: I used to be a truck driver and I was driving a rig out in the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, Oregon. I had to make a delivery the next morning so I decided to just drive through the night. It was maybe one in the morning, so no one was on the roads. I hadn't seen another car in probably a hundred miles. After a while of driving in solitude the whole sky lit up like it was daylight. I instantly slammed on the breaks, having no clue what the fuck was going on. I could see everything, from the surrounding pine forest and mountains to the two lane road ahead of me. It stayed like this for a good ten seconds. Whatever was happening definitely wasn't lightning o...

Due to the personal nature of this post, I am changing the names of the people in the story to respect their privacy. That being said, I don't know where to turn for help and I am concerned deeply for my friend. I am all too familiar with night terrors and sleep paralysis. I had them when I was a child and experienced others second hand while I was in military basic training. Several men in the barracks could not handle the stress of military training coupled with regular berating from the drill instructors. My friend, Ryan, was a military man as well. He went Marine and I went Air Force after graduating high school. He did well in boot camp and enjoyed gaining the discipline we had lacked as teenagers. We both had finished are service terms and have been civilians for quite some time. About two months ago, my friends and I (including Ryan) went bar hopping to celebrate one of our close friends from high school moving back east from California. Normally, Ryan was the life of the pa...