My bed is warm and comfortable, and I snuggle deeper into the welcoming embraces of my pillows.

“Just go to sleep” I whisper into the darkness. I close my eyes hoping it will make me feel better. Letting out a groan of dismay I open them and sit up in bed, looking around my room making out just shapes of objects, the darkness manipulating the shadows into looking like a figure.

Tensing up I scramble out of bed and switch on my light within the next second. Quickly looking back to where the man shaped figure was, my fear filled eyes turn into a glare and my tense shoulders slump forward as my eyes rest on my guitar case in the corner of my room with a hat laying atop it.

Letting out a long sigh and turning off the light I get back into my now cold blankets and stare up at the ceiling counting the panels. My eyes slowly start to get heavy, but I keep counting. Refusing to stop till I know I’m out. 50, 51, 52, 53…. And finally, sleep envelopes me.





********

Keep running. Don’t let it get you. I keep telling myself in my mind, but it doesn’t seem to be improving my speed any. The ravenous screeches and growls continue to crescendo as the demon gets closer to its victim. Me. The bitter cold air bites at my bare arms causing violent shivers to ripple through me. The forest around me is dark, but somewhere there’s an illuminating light that enables me to see the shapes of things, not necessarily the textures or details but one wasn’t entirely worried about that when something was coming to kill them.

I let out a small scream of pain, my bare foot tripping over something sharp. The cold, muddy ground greets my face with an unwanted “hello!” and the brief smell on dirt and years of decaying earth wafts into my nose. Mentally I give it a “good-bye” and stumble back up, branches racking against my face.

An ear piercing shriek breaks against my ear drums, but I don’t stop to look back, I have to keep running. Suddenly, I’m aware of not only the cold but of how my legs burn with numbness, spreading up them like a disease. Tears bite at my eyes, threatening to blur my vision. Quickly I blink them away. I can’t give in. I won’t. My mind desperately searches for an escape but there is nothing. And worse of all, there is no one… no one to save me or to tell me to keep fighting against the pain.


I am alone.

I give another cry as the numbness finally overwhelms me and I fall into the ground into a heap. I roll onto my back ready to face my end. The demon covers my body, it was a massive form designed for the kill. It pins me down its razor sharp claws digging into my flesh, the agony makes my tears fall faster.


Why wouldn’t the earth just open up a hole and swallow me? It could save me from this horrifying creature. I keep pushing myself away from it imagining myself shrinking into nothing, but even that doesn’t happen. The demon screeches into my ear, its teeth right above my neck and I shiver as its warm saliva trickles down my neck collecting in a warm pool down my shirt. The thing was hungry for me. It craved the fear that was seeping from my pours.

I look at the inhuman face; its red piercing eyes were fixed on me and slowly small features start to shift its cheeks sinking in slightly, its chin becoming smoother, and forehead smaller. I was beginning to recognize the features.

“NO!” I shout in utter panic struggling as the new face stares at me, mocking laughter on his face, his brown eyes reveals that he knows how terrified I truly am…and he finds it amusing.

“Go away!” my voice cracks from the high pitch of it. I shake my head back and forth violently as the face disappears only to reveal another one of the people I fear and another, each one laughing at my fear.

My tormentor…All of them together sends more fear through my very soul than I have ever felt. This can’t be happening. Not like this. I desperately fight to tear my arm away hopelessly. Looking back up at the demon, I meet his eyes, their back to their red glare. There was no mercy reflected there, not even pity, just the satisfied smirk saying it like tormenting me. This made it happy.

“Go to he-” my words being cut off as the demon of my fears tares into my throat causing me to choke on my own blood.





********

“NO!” I scream, lurching upright in bed trembling with fear. Breathing hard I look around at my familiar room and relaxes a little when I convince myself that there is no demon trying to kill me. Trying to calm my nerves I take deep breaths until the fear that still lingered slowly fades away.

Sighing, I let myself fall back into my pillows, letting my hand brush over the warm, and… wet? Material.
EW...”

Sweat. My pillow was damp with it. Slowly I flip it over and rest my head back down glancing at the clock.

3:43 am

I turn over onto my back and just lay there for a couple minutes just thinking into the silence, remembering the nightmare I had just had and going over it in my mind. I remember the faces clear as day, the ones the monster had morphed into; after all they are my demons in real life. Their mocking faces will always be etched into the wrinkles of my brain.

Do we not have the choice on what we dream? Or how those dreams turn out? And if you compare that to life you can’t really control those people in reality, their actions. The ones who taunt and teas you the only thing you can control is how you react to it. Do you let them sink your teeth into you and have them forever haunting your life? Or do you stand up against them? Do you fight for those peaceful dreams that life has to offer you? You are not stuck in your situations forever; you control how your life is just like you have the power to control those dreams.

And with that in my mind I slowly drifted into a peaceful sleep.