Nightmare Under the Nights
The scared little girl tossed and turned under her pink throw pillows, as she tried her best to not to scream. She had to know the monster would come for her. She had to know it would be dangerous since she was by herself… Then again neither of us knew the dangers the monster was capable of. Why didn’t we know? Why didn’t we listen? The entity of evil, slowly, prowled into the room from the shadows. He was coming.
I sat in the far corner, motionless, even though I knew the worst had yet to come. I so badly wanted to reach for Lilly, let her know it was going to be ok, and to be quiet. Sadly, I no longer lived in that reality. I’ve been living in this constant nightmare. Shapeless death lined the room with the presence of despair and hopelessness. There was no more hope left for anything. All I could do was watch Lilly dig herself into an early grave. I just watched. I lived with guilt everyday all because I just watched.
Baby girl, Baby girl, my mind cried for Lilly. Don’t scream, don’t scream. It’s only a dream; it’s only a trick!!
Lilly stopped tossing and turning, and just murmured a few words into the air, “Help me…” She said again but with a lighter tone, “Help me…”
I so badly wished I had the strength to reply to her plead. I flashed back to that night. There was blood all over the dock, and I was being plunged deep into the water. Redness surrounded me. Water engulfed my lungs and then I black out. I could hear Lilly screaming for help, but I couldn’t help her. I could never help my little sister.
I let out a cry, and that was my first mistake. He appeared and lunged for my throat with his hand. “There you are, thought I forget about you??” He tightened his grip around me. His face was hidden by the dark mass of blackness. Only his dark eyes were showing. “Thought you could play hero?? Thought you could to change something, and make up for what you had done??” He stopped, as his dark eyes stunned me. I gasped for words of a desperate prayer. I soon found him more amused than angry. He had all his evil attentions focused on me. That is…before Lilly sat up and gasped from shock.
At the same time, he and I looked back at her. Her eyes were wide open, bloodshot, and scorned with the look of fear. I knew what he was waiting for… And I prayed that Lilly would know better.
“Lil—,” the words struggled to come out of my mouth, “—don’t…”
Finally, she closed her eyes, counted backwards from ten, and then she laid back down in her bed…
Lilly woke up in her room again. The nightmare was finally over. That’s what she told herself every morning when she woke up. Her sister, Shannon, always told her told her they were only dreams. If only her sister was still with her. Shannon was dead. Shannon died three days ago. Lilly no longer had a big sister...there was only a corpse.
“Lilly, it’s time to go to the hospital!!” Lilly’s mother called her downstairs. Her face was clammy, and sweat drenched her hair. Lilly was still mourning the loss of her sister. Her mother seemed to be coping better for Shannon’s death than she did. Something wasn’t right. Everyone seemed to avoid the subject and the fact that Shannon drowned in the lake while Lilly laid on the ground bleeding.
It was a gruesome scene. Lilly’s forehead was busted open and Shannon was being drowned by this man. He didn’t have a name. Come to think of it, Lilly remembered, he didn’t even have a face.
“Ready to go kiddo?” Lilly’s mother, Terry, greeted her as she came down the stairs. She touched the bandaged front of Lilly’s forehead and sighed. “You’ll be better soon enough honey…I promise.”
“I’m fine mom, what are you talking about?”
Lilly’s mother didn’t say anything. She only motioned her to go outside and wait in the car. She followed her mother’s directions, but still carried the same thought of something not being right. Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong. Shannon was dead after all right?
Shannon was her only sister. Shannon was the big sister everyone wished for. She was smart, athletic, and she always there. Shannon protected Lilly no matter what. Shannon would never let anyone hurt Lilly.
“Mom why am I here again?” Lilly was confused by the sight of doctors crowding around her mother. They were having her sign papers and fill out forms. They completely ignored Lilly. It was like she wasn’t even there. Then one of the doctors began to mention Lilly…
“We have done all we could for the sake of Lilly…it’s up to you now. I know your still thinking about Shannon, but I think we should reconsider the other option. It would be a shame to continue to make Lilly suffer more. The child has been through enough.” The doctor consoled Terry as she cried. Why was she crying? Was she really crying over Lilly? She should have been crying over Shannon.
Lilly felt new warmth on her forehead. She took her forefinger and ran it over the bandages. Once she pulled away…crimson blood had stained the flesh of her hand. Dark pink pigments dripped onto the white tiled hospital floor. Lilly knew she was bleeding, but she didn’t feel any pain. At one point she didn’t even feel alive.
“Mom you have to save Lilly!”
Lilly turned to the voice. She was shocked to find someone unexpected. That someone was supposed to be dead. It was Shannon.
The man came back again with papers for my mother to sign. He remained to be the same villain I saw as in my nightmares and dreams of Lilly. There still remained a constant elephant in the room, and no one was willing to address it. I was suppose to be the big sister, and I was suppose to be the one in that coma—not Lilly!
“Mom, you can’t pull the plug on Lilly!” There were tears in my eyes as I desperately tried to plead to my mother. The monster wanted to kill my sister. I wouldn’t let him. I would die over and over again, before I would let him kill my only sister.
I shouldn’t have drove by the pier that night with Lilly. I should have kept her at home instead of having her ride in my convertible with no seatbelt. It was stupid. We were both thrown from the car. I landed in the water, and I nearly drowned in my own blood. Lilly was thrown and her skull was cushioned by solid brick! It was a miracle she was even still alive. They say she would never wake up. Even if she did…her mind was gone. They said Lilly was gone, but she couldn’t be. In my dreams the monster keeps going after her. I needed to save Lilly from the monster!
“Shannon, she—she’s gone. Keeping her hooked up like that would only make her suffer longer. Lilly doesn’t deserve to be in pain anymore. We have to let her go…”
“I can’t let her go…I can’t…she’s still there, Mom, she’s still there.” I cried and looked into the hospital room. Lilly was all hooked up, her forehead all bandaged up, and she wasn’t responding at all. They said there was no brain activity left…I didn’t believe it. Lilly had to still be in there.
Lilly watched her sister cry over her body. “I am here Shannon, I am still here.” The man came for Lilly again. This time he would not leave empty handed.
“It’s time to go Lilly. Death does not exclude anyone…including you.”
“But it had to exclude me,” Lilly cried. “I’m only ten years old.”
“Death has no age limit Lilly—you should know that and so should your sister.”
I looked at Lilly’s face as they began to unplug the equipment. My parents told me my entire life never to give up, yet here was my mother signing the papers the monster had given her. I couldn’t accept Lilly being gone. I never could.
The monster, doctor, came up to me with sorrowful look on his face. “I understand how you feel, but she’s going to a better place now. She won’t suffer any longer and you have to accept reality.”
You know what I did the moment he said that? I laughed.
“This isn’t even real,” I began laughing. “I am the one who is dead not Lilly. This is just a nightmare occurring over and over again. Lilly is alive.” I looked up at the doctor. He looked more human now, than he did before, and he seemed almost concerned.
“Your not dead, Shannon,” the doctor tried to explain.
“I want to believe you, but after all that has happened…I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
