The Forest

Nightmare Log 3

"Fuck. Jesus fucking Christ.

"I thought I'd be done with this. I know I'm awake this time. I know it because there was nothing, nothing normal about that. That was completely and utterly fucked. Jesus. My heart's gonna burst from my fucking chest.

"Okay, I'm trying hard not to cry because I thought yesterday was the end of all this. Like, what more am I supposed to do? I went, I did. . . Something. There's a hole in my fucking mind leaking poison, I swear.

"It doesn't matter if I can't remember past jumping the gate to get into Central Park, because I did it. I was scared out of my fucking mind, and I went. I found what I'd been looking for. What more does it want?

"Shit. My heart's fucked. It's going to break my damn ribs. I just- I can't-" I take a big shuddering breath, trying in vain desperation to calm myself. "I was underwater. I don't know where, it was too dark to see anything around me.

"Like I couldn't see the sides of a bathtub or a pool, and I couldn't see plants or fish or anything that might've tipped me off to a river, or lake, or even the godforsaken ocean. All I knew is that I was underwater, and I was freezing. It was so fucking cold. Everything felt like ice, frozen cold and heavy and dead. I was shaking as if being electrocuted.

"I tried to scream, but I knew that if I opened my mouth to do so, I would've swallowed water, I knew I'd drown, and I was afraid. I had this fear, this absolute fucking terror, that if I drown in the dream, I'd die in real life. I'd never wake up, and my mom would come in my room in the morning and find me either dead or brain-dead like a fucking vegetable. Part of my brain wondered which would be worse, while the rest screamed in panic.

"The surface was just above me, and I could see light. I could see bubbles breaking the surface. I thrashed and kicked, but I couldn't move. Something was holding me under the water. I could feel things wrapped around my arms and legs, things that moved and pulsed like snakes. They felt like fucking snakes.

"One was around my neck, flexing like it was breathing and moving, loosening and tightening itself, in case even for a second I thought it'd let me go. They felt like snakes. Like fucking tentacles.

"It felt like my chest would explode at any moment while I tried to get these things – these tentacles – off me, but then I stopped moving, realizing something was watching me. I looked up through the water, and I could see it. Him.

"This shape, thin and black, with a blank white oval for a face. It hovered just above the water, inches from me, yet I still couldn't quite see it. The water was swirling and full of bubbles, not to mention it was getting darker. Right in front of my eyes, just getting darker, just hanging above me, not moving, just staring at me.

"That's when I realized just to whom those tentacles belonged. He was holding me underwater, and he was going to watch me drown. It felt like I was looking through a keyhole, and he was the only thing I could see, the only thing in the universe, was all there was.

"I couldn't keep my mouth closed any longer. I tried so hard, but I could not. So I open my mouth, immediately breathing in with false hopes of getting fresh air. Instead, dark water poured down my throat and filled my lungs, therefore disabling my scream.

"Then I woke up and turned the light on, grabbing my phone from the nightstand. Jesus. I thought this was over. I did. But it isn't. I'm not in my room. I don't know where I am. It isn't even a house.

"This isn't over, I know that now. I have a feeling it has only just begun."