Night Terror

Lost, dazed, confused, terrified. The night air seemed to attack my skin with frosty fingers. As I ran branches and thorns struck and punctured my skin, a trail of blood. There's no way I can get out of this alive. I thought to myself, but I kept running. A cabin, with a light on. I keep running towards it but the forest stretches before me. I run faster, only to have the cabin go farther and farther away. The trees bend into my direction, instead of branches cutting me, they begin grabbing for me. Hands formed out of the thin and stalky branches that once sat motionless. The clouds grew faces, and were laughing, a deep and throaty laugh was all I could hear. All sound drowned out, and then the light was too. I stopped running. There's no way I can get out of this alive. But then there is a light, a small, faint one. Growing and growing, coming nearer and nearer. I close my eyes. This isn't happening, this isn't happening. But I can't fool myself, I know this is happening

. But what was before this? I couldn't remember, all I remember is the forest, the cabin, and the trees. As the light drew nearer it formed a shape. A human, perhaps? As it began getting into fuller view I could see what it was. My sister, running towards me. I screamed out to her but no noise came out of my mouth. Just the laughing, oh how I loathed the laughing. Once it came it took days to leave. Or how long have I been here for? Then I remembered something, my sister is dead. Five years ago she had passed away, drowned in a river. Abruptly, all my memories came back, my whole life rushing back into my once empty head. Then I knew what was indeed happening. I was dreaming. I pinched myself, punched myself, even cut myself with one of the branches; but I wouldn't wake up. The pain from my wound echoed throughout my body as I slowly walked backward, away from my once dead sister. I fell to the ground, mortified.

She hovered closer, and now she floated before me. Her skin was as blue as the water she'd drowned in. Her bloodshot eyes seemed to pierce through my skin as she raised her arms upward. She raised them until they were above her head. Then, her skin began to crack. Water poured out of the cracks and soon out of her mouth, eyes, nose, ears, everything. A sharp ringing noise blocked out the laughing as my sister fell apart. Her whole body reminded me of half melted wax, the way it fell apart. I closed my eyes, my ears felt like they were about to explode due to the ringing. But then silence, I opened my eyes, and found myself in a small cube like place. The puddle of water . . . my sister, still lay on the floor as if nothing had just happened. I turned around to find myself staring at my family through a glass window. I ran over to it and banged on it. The sound echoed and wherever I hit the glass what looked like television fuzz would shoot out like sparks. I lay my head on the glass, turned around, and fell to the ground. They can't see me. I'm in the god damn television.

I gazed over at the puddle that was once my sister, and noticed something. The puddle looked as if it was boiling. I got up and took a closer look, and as soon as I got up the puddle got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Soon my feet were underwater as the liquid frothed up from nowhere and into this small space. Soon it was up to my knees, my waist, my shoulders. I began to float and soon was pushing with my arms against the ceiling. Then the glass cracked, it got covered in the television fuzz as more cracks formed and soon holes began to show in the glass. My family didn't get up, didn't move as the glass shattered, and out came me and my liquified sister. The water pushed everything out of its way. My family, fell apart, limb by limb and head by head. Mannequins. I got up and took a closer look at them. They looked exactly like my family in every way. I called out my parents names but nothing happened.

I stood there, wondering what to do when I heard a short, small yelp coming from the other side of the house. I began to walk over there. As I walked I looked out of the windows, only to see a world I had never seen before. The sun and moon spun around as if put on fast forward. But every time the sun would shine the trees would light on fire, and every time the moon came out everything froze. I walked by the windows and into the kitchen, my first instinct was to look at the clocks; the clocks said “3.14159”. I continued to walk over to the mysterious noise, but the floor kept getting more and more squishy and foamy. I began to run towards the sound, and as I did the floor began to tear apart like sheets of paper did. I made it to the door of the room the noise was coming from. I gabbed the handle but it turned into ash; and soon the whole house was burning. The floor broke underneath me and I began to fall into a deep dark, abyss. Burning shrapnel flew by me as I plummeted down into the nothingness. The roof collapsed and I could see the sun and moon zooming by as fast as lightning. A mirror floated up beside me, I looked in it to see me, but an older me. As I fell I gazed at myself and soon wrinkles began to show on my skin, my hair was turning white as snow and receding at a quickening pace. My skin got saggy, and began falling off in small chunks and strips. My teeth, began to rot and soon were falling out out of my mouth. I looked into the mirror to see my eyes melting out of my face, yet I could still see. As I fell I could hear the words “wake up! Wake up!” Over and over again. The world began to fade away and, abruptly, I was staring at the roof of my bedroom, drenched in sweat with my mother shaking my shoulder. I looked at my alarm clock, 3:14 AM, and my dog, was yelping from the room beside mine. It was over.