Dream Eater

Chapter 1

This is just a dream! None of it is real!

A high-pitched scream covered the quiet dense forest. Her heart was beating loudly, her legs were shaking from running for what felt like forever. Nothing was making sense to her. One minute she was in her room, warm and tucked in, the next she found herself awake in the middle of a dark forest.

She tried pinching herself and hoping it was a dream, but the sharp pain is telling her it was real. Tears started to fall as her body started shaking all over either from fear or the harsh cold wind. Her thoughts were disrupted as an ominous howl echoed through the forest and thuds were seemingly coming towards her direction. Tamara's face turned pale and her mind shouted to her tiny body.

RUN

Every step that she took felt painful, but the fear numbed it all. Her legs taking large leaps, running because her life depended on it. Despite her efforts, the large thuds were coming faster towards her. Her hairs raised, for the first time in her life she knew what real fear felt like. Tamara's vision was blurry from crying but that didn't stop her, neither did she ever turn to look at what was chasing her. Cause if she did, she knew she was never going to escape.

As luck would have it, Tamara accidentally tripped on a branch and fell on all fours. It was painful but the only thing she felt was death looming over her. She tried getting up, but her body was already exhausted from all the stress, in a desperate attempt she crawled, mud covering her body. Then, a large shadow formed in front of her, the silhouette was enough to paralyze her. It was slowly walking towards her; she tried her best to keep her sobs hoping it was blind and dependent on the sound. She was wrong, as a cold hand grabbed her leg.

NOO!

Tamara bolted from her bed, she found herself gasping for air and seemingly reaching her hand out for someone to save her from danger but there was nothing, she was back in her bedroom. She scanned her room for the shadows, nothing. Her face was covered in sweat, and tears that didn't seem to stop from falling; her dream felt so real. She immediately reached for her leg; she could still feel the sensation of a person harshly grabbing it. Her palms and knees were also stinging from the harsh fall.

It happened again, those dreams that felt so real, the monster that was chasing her, all these things that was keeping her up all night. She shooked her head, "No, these aren't dreams.. these are nightmares."

She was tired, it has been happening consistently for the past week. She couldn't sleep a wink because the moment she closes her eyes, memories of what happened would just haunt her. The only hope for her to sleep was for her body to pass out on her.

Morning came and Tamara just felt worse, her eyes were burning, and her body felt heavy. These nightmares are slowly taking a toll on her, physically and mentally. As she stood up from her bed, she caught a glimpse of herself from the mirror. As expected, dark circles under her eyes were becoming visible. She sighed, "Of course it would."

Tamara then heads downstairs to get some breakfast but stops before entering the kitchen as she hears her parents arguing again. She leaned against the wall waiting for it to end, but it was taking a while.

This was normal in their household, another episode of "the woes of marriage" as she would call it. This been happening for so long now that even she couldn't remember what started it but every day it was the same nonsense, arguing and pointing of fingers. Sometimes she wondered where their happy family went wrong, she sighed.

Moments later, the shouting has died down. Large footsteps were walking towards Tamara, she looked down to the side to see who it was and a familiar dress shoes come out from the other room. Tamara and her father just stared at one another, Tamara, not knowing how to handle an awkward situation just lowered her head.