Eden's Gate

Chapter 11: The First Nightmare

Kaitlyn couldn't believe that she was never going to see her best friend again. Her brain was having trouble processing it. She wasn't dead, Eliza wouldn't lie to them about that, but something about it seemed weird. She was too exhausted and stressed to put her finger on it though.

All she knew was that her room felt very, very empty without her friend. She didn't bother reading this night, she simply curled up in bed and closed her eyes, drifting very quickly into sleep.

Her eyes flickered open. Somehow, Kaitlyn knew she was dreaming, but it felt different. It felt like she had left her own dream and gone...somewhere she shouldn't have. The world spun around her and faded quickly. She was in the middle of a fog? There was nothing anywhere in this void. She was standing on some sort of blue cracked ground that stretched off into the distance. At the end of the pathway was...something. Something glowing in the distance, through the fog. She approached it, as there was nothing else to do and nowhere else to go.

As she approached it, it became more visible. It was a vortex of pure, horrible black energy. The sound of the winds being shredded through the vortex came out like human screams. Five prongs came out from the edges of this swirling vortex. The further towards the center she looked, the more and more she felt like she was gazing into literal nothingness. Even from the edges she wasn't sure the black could get darker, but then her eyes would drift towards the center and sure enough, it was darker.

It hurt her head to look at. There was something on the other side of that gate. Something terrible. It wanted to come out. She took a step back, finding the ground she walked to it on was now gone. She could only move forward.

As she turned back, she saw an eye tear itself open from the very form of reality itself. It violently looked around in every direction, like it was in pain. The eye was an ever shifting mass of red, yellow and orange. The pupils alone were the only thing that didn't change from their sharp, piercing red. Another one opened up - she realized now that they were making horrible squishing noises as they opened and low, eerie buzzing noises as their panicked gaze zoomed from place to place. Another one opened. And another. A great tear suddenly split the sky, and teeth showed within it.

No, they were part of it. This strange tear in the sky was a mouth. The teeth themselves were jagged, yellow, and endless. Rows upon rows, stretching out into the infinity that was the blackness of its maw.

The mouth screamed. More eyes joined it, before another mouth screamed itself into existence. Kaitlyn went pale. The vortex of the portal started to pull her towards it. The void suddenly began to take form - Kaitlyn had no idea how to comprehend what she was seeing. It looked a bit like space, with splashes of color here and there, even whites. But wherever she looked, it felt like the entirety of infinity was trying to fit inside her head, as more tears opened with more eyes and mouths and...was that a claw? When had that gotten there? How was it that simultaneously everything and nothing could be in the same place at once?

Kaitlyn could only apply one word to this: vast.

Suddenly, it all went back to normal. The world was a white fog again, and she was on the blue ground. She sat up, and looking at her was Edelweiss, her face appearing as it had after the accident. She was mouthing something, but no words came.

Kaitlyn snapped awake. Her heart was shaking in her chest, her head dripping with sweat, and her whole body cold from terror. She needed a drink. Or something. She needed time to process what she had just seen. She silently crept out of her room, moving the door fast to keep the creak short and sweet, before tip toeing to the common bathroom.

The common bathroom was a long, public bathroom with 7 stolls and 7 sinks under mirrors. There were also cabinets that held their personal toiletries. Kaitlyn pulled out her bright purple basket, and pulled out her cup. It was a pure black mug, with two yellow cat eyes and the handle curled up like a cat's tail.

She filled the cup with water and took a sip, looking at herself in the mirror. She was expecting to see herself, looking tired and haggard, but instead she saw...

Well, it looked like her. Exactly like her, with the exception of glowing purple eyes. It had a smug smile on its face as it watched her spit the water out.

"Well then. Feeling better?" It asked.

"What are you?" Kaitlyn immediately asked.

"I'm you. That's why I know what you're thinking," it said, "and you and I both know that she's dead. She's dead because of you."

Kaitlyn paled. "You're lying. You are absolutely lying. Whatever you are."

It shrugged. "Better hurry. It followed you."

Kaitlyn tilted her head in confusion, before the reflection pointed to the far wall. A tear was ripping open to the Vast, and out of it reached a horrible black arm with four razor claws made entirely of blackness. It reached out, and clawed at the floor, tearing open another hole into the Vast with those sharp, creepy nails. The tear it made got wider, and the blackness shifted. She knew instinctively whatever this was, it wasn't the Shadow Creeper. It was too solid to be it. Then, eyes erupted open and closed on the blackness, as did mouths and she realized that the mirror hadn't lied - the thing in the dream had followed her. It writhed, forming shapes of itself until it managed to make another claw.

And then it spoke in a terrifying and incomprehensible gibberish. It was screaming - it was roaring? One of the black pseudopods finally managed to writhe over the tear, and it began to wriggle into the bathroom. More tears opened, from which more claws emerged and more mouths and eyes screamed and blinked in and out of existence. It was, somehow, getting closer to her without ever truly moving anything besides its shape.

Kaitlyn fell backwards and scurried to the door. She could see the thing in the mirror watching her from it, smiling, before it vanished. She reached for the door and got to her feet, and ran. The floors were slashed open to the Vast, and more hands sprouted and tried to grab her. No matter how fast she ran it knew where she was and trying to catch her.

She wasn't sure how long she had run, but she had reached the hallway that lead to the school proper. She started tugging at the door.

It wouldn't open. It was locked. She could go no further.

She let out a scream and fell down, closing her eyes and holding up Mr. Lepus to the thing coming at her. Mom had always told her that Mr. Lepus could protect her. It was her last hope. She begged him to do something, anything, to save her. She squeezed her eyes tight and breathed frantically, her whole body trembling.

Sweat dripped off her face. It was so thick now it was dripping past her eyebrows. The wind blew, and filled the empty halls.

She realized the horrible noise was gone. Slowly, she peaked with a single eye. It was gone. All the rips and tears were gone. The hallway was as dark and empty as it would always be at 3:14 in the morning. It had worked. Somehow, Mr. Lepus had saved her.

She let out a breath, and with it all the tension, as she collapsed against the door. She'd get up in a moment and go back to sleep...but she needed a moment.

"Thank you, Mr. Lepus," she said. "Thank you."