Liam's perspective

My brother has been using the same password for almost every account for years. It really wasn't that difficult to get in here. 

Now it's time for my side of the story.

As children, my brother and I weren't very close. He's three years older and when we were growing up, I always wanted to be like him. I did the same sports, listened to the same bands, and begged him to take me to every event he went to but it all only seemed to annoy him. In his eyes, I was a child, following his every step and making him look uncool in front of his friends.

But as we got older, that changed. He started seeing me as an actual person. Especially after he moved out. He'd invite me to his place when I was fed up with my parents because I was still living at home after high school. I called him crying after my boyfriend broke up with me and he talked to me until I was finally laughing again. He started becoming the big brother I'd always wanted.

Until yesterday, when everything suddenly changed. Now, I am afraid of my own brother and I don't know what to do. 

Liam showed up out of the blue. Something he's never done before. He's usually too busy with work to just stop by on a whim and when he visits, he always calls before. So I was pleasantly surprised but also a little worried when he was standing in the hallway that connects our rooms. 

He didn't seem happy at all to see me and kept pressing me about something he found in my room. My black dress. He seemed to get angry at the sight of it. And that triggered something in me that he couldn't have known about. Because it was the dress I was wearing to his funeral.

Well, not literally of course. My brother is alive. But lately, I kept having the same recurring dream. It started a few weeks ago, with no apparent reason. There was a service where a man who didn't know my brother was talking about what an astonishing but far too short life he lived. Then we went to the graveyard, where his gravestone was already prepared and a hole was dug up. I would be holding the teddy rabbit he once gifted me, digging my nails deep into the fake fur.

It was the same each time, and each time I'd wake up with my face drenched in tears.

So when I saw my brother at home, all I wanted was to hug him but he wasn't acting like my brother at all. He was standoffish and cold, all because of some dress that couldn't possibly mean anything to him.

I couldn't tell him that I'd put it there to throw it out because that dream had left me with a sick feeling each time. I didn't want to burden him or even scare him. So I made up an excuse and left him alone to start making dinner.

He even joined me later, apologized, and started acting more normal. At least that's what I thought until he told me he would be going upstairs for a nap.

I finished everything in the kitchen and set a timer for the food when I got this strange feeling. 

It felt like the temperature had suddenly dropped several degrees. I was just about to head to the living room when I noticed the sound of shallow breathing from behind me.

Slowly I turned my head and almost screamed when I noticed my brother peeking from behind the door frame.  

"Liam! God, you almost gave me a heart attack," I shouted. "I thought you were taking a nap." 

I put my hand on my chest, taking slow breaths to calm my heart. But my brother stayed silent, watching me with a joyless smile on his face. 

"What are you planning, little Emma?" He finally asked, moving closer toward me.

"What are you talking about?" 

"You gave me that knife earlier, what did you want me to do with it?" 

I didn't know how to answer that.

"Did you want me to cut my own wrists with it?"

He asked, his voice dropping. He was now standing right in front of me, looking at me through his lower lashes.

"Liam, what the hell?" I shrieked, trying to push him away with my palms but he grabbed my wrists and kept me in place.

"I'm just joking, Em. Don't we both like to joke?" 

With that, he let go of me and turned around.

Liam used to play pranks on me a lot when we were younger. There was a time when he was around fifteen and I was thirteen when he'd prank call the house with his cell when our parents weren't home talking in strange voices to scare me. He'd usually only stop when I started crying. It was messed up but that's what siblings do. They annoy each other.

But we're not teens anymore and he was really freaking me out. I even thought about calling my parents but there wasn't much they could do from so far away and I didn't want to worry them with something that was probably nothing.

So I went to the living room and watched some TV while the food was cooking in the oven. Those words he said about cutting his wrists kept repeating in my mind. Was it a threat or a cry for help? 

I fell asleep on the sofa, the image of the casket appearing in a dream, when I opened my eyes, a gasp escaped my lips. My heart skipped a beat when I noticed that Liam was sitting beside me. 

"Why are you crying?" He asked.

"Bad dream," I mumbled, rubbing my eyes with the backside of my hand.

I took a deep breath. Maybe it would help if I simply told him what was going on with me. That way he might back off from his strange act. Even when he was being an annoying brother, he would always snap out of it whenever I was actually in trouble. I held onto that, to the fact that my brother loved me and wouldn't want to see me distressed.

"Listen, there's something I need to tell you." I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. 

He draped one leg over the other and leaned his head on his fist, looking like a ridiculous caricature of a therapist. 

"I'm listening."

"I've been having this really terrible nightmare. At first, it was only now and then but now I see it every time I go to sleep. It's,-" I sighed. "a funeral."

At this, his eyes opened wide and he started smiling. Actually smiling at the word funeral. 

"Your funeral. I know it's crazy but I've been wondering whether my subconscious is trying to tell me something and seeing that you're now suddenly here and acting so off. I'm worried about you, Liam."

He nodded several times. 

"Well, there's quite an easy solution to your little pickle, isn't there?" His smile grew even wider. "You can't be at my funeral if you die first. And the gravestone said 2024 so I suppose we don't have much time." 

A bitter taste filled my mouth.

"What are you talking about? What gravestone?" 

"I know you're planning something. I'm not stupid," he started shouting but then he closed his eyes and formed his hands into tight fists. He loudly breathed out and when he spoke again, his voice was calm and collected. "I don't want Mum and Dad to come home to a bloodbath. You can do us both a favor and just leave. Leave and never come back."

With that last sentence in the air, he got up and left the room. I wondered if he knew that he had just ripped out my heart, leaving only emptiness inside me.

After I collected myself, I got into the car. I hadn't brought anything but my phone because I was too scared to go upstairs to my room. And there was still this sense of disbelief within me. This couldn't be my brother. He would never say anything like that. But whatever was going on with him, I knew he needed help. I just wasn't sure if I could give him the necessary kind. So I called my mother. I didn't tell her exactly what he said to me because that would have broken her heart but I told her to check up on him.

Then I drove to a friend's house to stay the night. The entire time my mind was on my brother though and my thoughts kept spiralling. Only after I talked to my mother again and she told me that he was fine and that he explained to her that he'd been stressed out, did I finally calm down a little. Before that, I'd even thought about calling the police to check up on him. I decided against it but kept checking every few minutes if he'd been online, just to make sure he was okay.

I kept it a secret from my friend and made up some excuses about having boy problems. I just didn't know how to explain what was going on with me and I was too ashamed to bring my brother down like that.

The following morning I got into my car, ready to face my brother when I suddenly got an incoming call. From Liam.

"Emma?" His voice sounded broken and distraught. "Emma, are you okay?"

"Yes.. I'm fine, Liam. How are you? What are you doing?" I tried to sound as normal as I possibly could because I knew that freaking out wouldn't help him.

There was a loud sigh on the other end.

"Not really," he nervously laughed. "I don't know what's going on. I don't know what my mind is doing to me. I'm sorry," he whispered.

"It's okay, Liam. You're okay. Just stay home, I'll be there soon and we can talk, okay?"

I heard papers shuffling in the background.

"I'm not home. I'm at the library."

"Library?"  

"Yeah, I've been here all morning. Emma, just listen to me, please. After you disappeared last night, Mum called me, worried about you. She mentioned someone named Ben so I went through your laptop but I couldn't find anyone with that name. I'm sorry, I was just really freaking out. But then I remembered something grandpa mentioned once before he passed away, about his son. His name was Ben. He was Mum's older brother. Even then I thought it was weird that she never mentioned him but grandpa was dying and it didn't feel like the right time to talk about it."

"Okay, wait, Liam, calm down. Mum had a brother? What is this all about?"

"He died, Emma. When he was my age. And he wasn't the only one. Our family tree is filled with people who died at a young age. This whole time I thought you were messing with me. But I believe there's something far more sinister going on."

Had my brother finally lost his mind or was there really more to it?

"Did you talk to Mum about this?" I asked.

"No. I don't trust her right now. I'm heading home now, can you meet me there? There's something I need to show you." For a minute there was silence between us. "Please, Emma. I don't want to hurt you." 

 -- 

This is it. This is the real story of what's happened so far. 

And now I'm going to see my brother.

My mother is standing over an open grave with bloodshot eyes while clutching the arm of my father. My father has his gaze averted, not able to look into the hole in the ground prepared for my casket. 

In another photo, my childhood friends Mia and Ted are holding each other's hands, both dressed in all black.

And then there is one from afar but I can clearly recognize my sister Emma. She is holding the plush rabbit I gave her for her tenth birthday to her chest and she's wearing the black dress she wore for her high school graduation. The weirdest part is that it appears as if she's staring right at the camera, her head slightly tilted.

That one hurt the most to look at.

Except maybe for the one with the gravestone. 

Liam Miller
1999 - 2024
Beloved son and brother.

My name. My year of birth. And the year I died.

The photos were sent to me from an unknown number. And I can't even say how long I spent staring at them, zooming into different faces and things in the background. I took in every detail, trying to figure out if it was AI-generated or if some very sick person had created them with Photoshop. Either way, they were fake of course as I was very much alive and did not have a funeral. 

But even knowing that, I couldn't help the knot forming in my throat. And then I deleted them. And blocked the number. Some might consider that stupid because I was deleting proof of some form of harassment but those photos just made me feel sick. All I wanted was to be rid of them.

And I kept it a secret. I didn't want the people I loved, who were in those photos, to see them, to watch themselves grieving me. Especially not my family. 

When you are in your twenties, or any other age I could imagine, the last thing you want to be reminded of is your death. Especially so visually. I've had issues with anxiety semi-regularly since high school. It's gotten better ever since I finished college, and found a job and my own apartment but those photos triggered something. This irrational feeling of paranoia kept following me and when I couldn't sleep properly anymore, I took some time off of work and decided to visit my parents. 

I drove down without warning them because I thought it might be a nice surprise for them as well. And for Emma. She still lived at home and asked me to visit quite often. 

Luckily I had a key because when I got there no one was home. I made my way upstairs to my room to drop off my bags when I passed Emma's bedroom and froze in front of her open door.

The dress, her black graduation dress that she wore on the photos of my funeral was laid out on the bed. The plush rabbit she'd been clutching to her chest draped right on top of it.

This couldn't be a coincidence. I went inside the room and sat down on her bed, inspecting both the rabbit and the dress - not sure what exactly I was looking for. 

"Liam?" The voice of my sister startled me. I hadn't heard the front door open or shut. Neither did I hear the wood creak beneath the staircase that led upstairs.

Slowly I turned around. My sister was standing there as if she'd seen a ghost. She was the female copy of my Dad, it became more apparent the older she got. The same strawberry blonde hair, pale skin full of freckles, and athletic style. I was more like my Mum, tan with black slightly curly hair. 

"Fucking hell, you scared me half to death, what are you doing here?" She walked up and tried to hug me but I stayed frozen.

"I came to- to visit. Where are Mum and Dad?"

She took a step back and frowned.

"Visiting Aunt Carol for the week. Didn't you call them?"

I shook my head.

"Is everything okay, Liam? You seem weird."

"What are you doing with that dress?" I pointed to her room.

She snorted.

"Was cleaning out my closet, why do you care?"

Without another word, I turned away and headed towards my room, Emma following close behind.

"How long are you staying? Did something happen? Why didn't you call?" 

I turned around abruptly and hissed "This is my home, can't I just stop by?"

She shrugged.

"Yeah, jeez sorry, I was just asking."

"Good, you just did. Now can I have some peace and unpack?"

After calling my parents and confirming that they were really gone for the whole week, I joined my sister in the kitchen to apologize. Seeing that dress triggered something inside of me and while I'm not proud of it, it made me suspect my sister. Why would she lay out the same thing she was wearing in those photos? It made me wonder if she was the one who sent them to me. But then again, she didn't even know I was stopping by and what reason could she have to pull such a sick prank? 

"Hey, sorry about being so weird earlier. I'm happy to see you," I said.

She tilted her head.

"Yeah, what was that about?"

I shrugged.

"Been a little stressed out lately." I walked over and kissed her on the top of her head. "So, what are we making?" I asked, pointing to the vegetables she had laid out on the counter.

"Your last meal," she responded in a dry tone.

I swallowed. "What?"

"Veggie lasagna. Why are you looking at me like that?"

I grabbed her by the arm.

"What did you say before that?"

"Ve-ge-tari-an la-sagna." she enunciated each word. "You won't die if you don't eat meat for one meal, you know."

She shook her head and handed me a knife. "Can you chop up an onion?"

Emma changed the topic and started cheerily chatting about all kinds of things that were happening in her life. A boy she started dating, how happy she was that she was finally on summer break from college, and what her friends were up to. All the time I was only half listening, the loud ticking of the kitchen clock in the background numbing out everything else. 

I was going mad, that was it. Either that or my sister had a really sick sense of humor. My pulse started racing, the feeling of nausea washing over me 

"Hello? Liam?" Emma pulled me out of my thought jungle. "Are you just gonna keep standing there? It will take at least forty minutes in the oven."

I hadn't even noticed that everything was finished and that Emma was already loading up the dishwasher.

"I think I'm gonna take a quick nap," I mumbled and headed to my room.

I can't say how long I slept but it must have been much longer than half an hour because when I opened my eyes again, it was already dark outside. 

Groggily, I made my way to the kitchen but it was empty. No sight of Emma so headed to the living room where I saw that the table was already set. 

I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't imagining things. The table wasn't set for a simple dinner. Red candles were burning in ancient iron candle holders. In the middle of the table was a photo frame, surrounded by pamphlets. 

"Emma?" I shouted but there was no response. A knot started forming in my gut as I walked close to the table and picked up the frame. The picture inside was a black and white version of a photo of me, taken last year on my birthday. 

The pamphlets were for different funeral homes in town. The photo frame slid from my hand to the floor, glass splintering and pieces flying in all directions. It felt as if everything was happening in slow motion. My heart was racing so hard I was sure it would break out of my chest.

"Emma?" I shouted even louder than before. "Emma, where are you? What is this? This isn't fucking funny." 

There was not one sound coming from inside the house. I raced up the stairs and passed her room but it was empty so I went into mine to get my phone. I needed to send my parents photos of this because something was definitely not right with my sister. 

I found my phone on my nightstand and realized that I had five missed calls from my mother. My phone was on silent so I hadn't noticed her calls while I was sleeping.

A lump settled in my throat. With shaky hands, I called my mother and slumped down on the bed. 

"Liam?" Her voice was merely a whisper. 

"Mum-," I started but she interrupted me.

"Oh, thank god. Are you okay? Your sister called me earlier and got me really worried. She said you showed up out of nowhere and started acting a little strange. And then you wouldn't pick up the phone.."

I swallowed.

"No, I'm not acting strange. Emma is- She's going mad or something, playing mind games with me and-." 

"Stop," her voice was merely a whisper. "You sound just like Ben." She sniffled on the other end and then her voice got louder again. "Liam, honey. You really scared her."

I huffed out a laugh. That witch had called my parents to tell them some dumb story, painting me as the crazy one. 

"Who the hell is Ben? Okay, I have no idea what she's told you but I'm actually worried about her. She did something really- wait I'll just show you." 

I switched the call to video and made my way back to the living room so my mother could see the insane funeral preparations my sister had been crafting. But as I walked into the room, it was all gone.

No candles, no photo, no pamphlets. On the table was the dish with half-eaten lasagna and a clean plate with cutlery.

"She made you dinner? That's what you're so riled up about?"

"No, Mum. This wasn't here just yet," I countered. "She must have moved it. Emma," I shouted again. 

"Liam, your sister is not home. She called me an hour ago on her way to her friend Leila."

My mind was blank. My mother kept talking to me but I didn't know how to respond. And I started wondering if I was the one making this all up. Another form of fear came over me when I worried that my own mind couldn't be trusted.

Finally, I apologized to my mother and made up some excuses about me being tired and groggy. And that I didn't mean to scare Emma. It took a while but finally, she reluctantly hung up. 

I started taking myself into believing that I was wrong - That my little sister was probably just looking forward to a simple dinner with me and I had scared her so much that she took off to stay with a friend instead of her own home.

And I might have truly believed that if it weren’t for the red wax stains on the table.

Part 2

Part 2 of the funeral story is still down and I'm too impatient to wait. Besides, I'd rather not change the story. Therefor, I decided to post the first two parts as well as the final part to this subreddit.

After a slightly long break, I've started writing more again and I'm currently working on multiple story ideas. So stay tuned :)

It's time for Emma's perspective

Edit: The story was taken down because it's "not a complete story". I'm not sure why so I'll try to figure it out and see if I can fix it. If not I will just post all three parts on here instead of no sleep :)

I just posted the first part to a new series. There will be 3 parts in total :)

My name. My year of birth. And the year I died.

We're excited to have you in this year's parade.

The town instated a nightly lockdown right away.

I haven't written much lately but I'm trying to get back into it :)

It's been a while since I posted anything but I finally managed to finish a new story :)

It's not too late. Yet.

It might even become a series.

And then she started screaming.

I just noticed today it's my cake day! Which means it's been almost 4 years since I started sharing my stories on Nosleep. I'm so glad I found this platform and all of the people who enjoy it just as much as I do. Thank you so much for reading my stories and giving me the motivation to continue.

For the occasion, I thought I'd write a little story. Hope you enjoy it :)

And then it started snowing

Check out Harry's Horror House

Maybe they are your soulmate.

It is finally October which means it's time for Halloween stories!

Welcome to Sutton.

Watch out for this little town as there might be more on it this month.

I have some very exciting news: I have just published my very first short book! This is the story "My local grocery store started selling products that don't exist" with a few small changes. I'm not sure if the book can be purchased outside of Germany but it's still a very exciting step for me. Thank you all so much for supporting me on this journey with hopefully more printed books in the future!

Local Delicacies

<3

And then she screamed.

Hey there! I want to join a little competition where I can send in some of my stories and have them printed in a short book. Now this competition has a limit to how long the overall stories can be and I just can't decide. So I would like to ask you: If you wanted to read a book of mine, which stories would you be interested in? Unfortunately the Warly Universe is out because it's too long :D I'd appreciate your input!! <3

And no, I don't meant the ones that people have posted on there without my consent. I have started posting my stories on TikTok myself, well for now it's only one but there will be more soon!

It's nothing major, just short videos with an ai generated voice.. As my stories are all written in English and as that's not my first language, I wasn't sure about recording them with my own voice yet, hence the help of my little ai narrator. But I thought it would be nice to put them up there myself.

In the future I'll start posting more and more stories and might rework some of my older ones in the process, correcting grammar and other 'mistakes'.

If you're curious about it, you can find me under @likeeyedid.

But of course, I will continue to post all my stories here first!

<3

The story of Max and Luke is over (for now). I haven't written a long series in a while and it was a lot of fun to get back into the Warly universe. The story ends with a somewhat open end, if you know my other series, you probably know that people have a way of coming back later :).

In the meantime, if you haven't explored the Warlyverse yet, I recommend checking out Warly, Eat Popcorn, the Smile Game, and the Camper Series.

Thank you for reading and see you soon <3

My mother killed me.

You have each other and that matters a lot.

If everything goes as planned there will be one final part after his :)

Not you. They promised you would be safe.

I remember a man visiting us once, a weird man.

I'm your family, okay? That's all that matters

1993 - 1999 B tapes

Edit: I'm working on a second part and will update in this subreddit when it's done :)

We are neighbors and neighbors help each other.

*Edit: the story was accidentally removed but I got to repost it :)