It's when I turn out the lights. When I close the curtains and shut my eyes. When I leave behind the world that is known to me. The world that is safe. That's when all the dark thoughts come rushing, unbidden, to the front of my mind.

The images, flashing, quickly. One after the other after the other. Never stopping, never slowing. Ominous. Foreboding.

Conciousness will not leave me as the onslaught of painful visions has me shaking. The pounding in my head never ceasing, the absence of light weighing heavily on my eyelids.

I can't move, can barely think, as I feel myself being ingulfed in figurative flames. I'm burning up, somewhere half way between dead and alive.

There's an iron hammer, slamming away at my skull until it becomes pliable almost-liquid. A pale hand reaching into my mind, planting these unwanted things in my brain. I am helpless to stop it.

I think too much, I think of everything under every sun you can ever imagine. My thoughts just refuse to shut up, they won't leave me alone.

But more than that, I think it's the nightmares. The ones that haunt me every night, never faltering, playing over and over and over.

I can't sleep. Never sleep. When I do sleep, I dream, and dreaming is one of the worst possible things. To many sleep is an escape. To me it is a prison.

It's when I turn out the lights. When I close the curtains and shut my eyes. When I leave behind the world that is known to me. The world that is safe.

That is when I wait.

Prompt number 37 - Insomnia.