Heart of a Dreamer

Downfall

Rowan wouldn't sleep for the rest of the night. It was 1:34 in the morning, but she had had experiences like this before. She did everything she could to pass the time, and to keep her mind off of the rotting teeth of the Nightmare. Her scream had woken up her brother, Kyle, but she had screamed like this so many times before. Every time she did, she would get a simple "Shut up!" from him. Her parents simply said that she had night terrors, and her brother just called her a big cry-baby. Though Rowan's bad "images" were technically night terrors, she always thought of them as "terrors on steroids".

She passed the long hours by reading, playing on her phone, watching Netflix with the volume down to almost zero, and sketched. Rowan loved to sketch, especially her good "images". She had drawn them out for as long as she could hold a pencil, and every time she would look through all of them she felt a warm comfort inside her. She never drew her bad "images", and she wasn't ever going to start. She thought she was quite good at drawing, especially peculiar things, mostly mythical creatures or strange places that she imagined. Sketching always calmed her down after a terrifying "image". They made it hard to focus however. Once she remembered trying to draw a fox, and suddenly the fangs of the Nightmare attacked her mind. She ended up with a slight crevice in her desk caused by the pencil.

When dawn finally came, she took a quick shower, popped on jeans and a t-shirt, ate a quick breakfast, and headed out the door for school. She tried to push the image of the Nightmare out of her head, but she always failed. The day was gray and drab, but it wasn't bad enough to cause a bad "image". She didn't bother to recreate her meadow, she just imagined one of her old "images" before she went to sleep.

This was her favorite "image" so far. She was at a beach, surrounded by three waterfalls. Behind all of the waterfalls were treasures of all sorts. Not golden treasures, Rowan's lost treasures and her wishes. Her old cats, Mouse, Ollie, and Timba, were behind the first waterfall, and they had a whole posh room to themselves and Rowan. Whenever she missed them as a young girl, she would summon this "image" so that they could comfort her in her mind. Behind the second waterfall was an enormous cave with a whole jungle inside of it. In the trees, she imagined a huge treehouse filled with pastel colored butterflies. Finally behind the last waterfall, was her own treasure room. As I said, not golden treasure. Just old, unique trinkets that Rowan had loved. There was her stuffed animals, her old drawings that had been thrown away, her special "princess" hand mirror that was emerald green with roses on the back, and her old little rocking chair. These things were all very special to her, and she called this special "image" the "Memory Falls".

She wanted to spruce this "image" up though. She had wanted to try this for such a long time, but had never been able to do it. She focused, steadied her breathing, closed her eyes, and pictured an image of what she desired. When she could see it very clearly, she pointed to an island in the middle of the triangle of the three waterfalls. With her eyes still closed. When she opened them, she gasped with delight. She had summoned in a castle on the little island! She waded towards it, and went to the great front doors. She touched the door handle, but then jerked back her hand. The handle had shocked her! She reached for it again, thinking little of the powerful shock, but the handle started to slowly blow away as a mist. The door started to dissolve, then the whole castle! The mist of her castle drifted away. No, she thought. I tried so hard. She tried again. in the middle of her thoughts, she heard a frighteningly familiar noise. The noise of the storm.

She quickly opened her eyes, and saw once again the sky turning dark. Something was wrong though, the lightning brighter, the thunder deafening, the wind stronger than it had ever been! She expected to see the outline of the Nightmare, and was prepared to run, but it wasn't the nightmare standing before her. This creature was no wolf. And it definitely wasn't the Nightmare. Rowan started to back up, and she turn around and started sprinting, but suddenly the earth cracked underneath her, causing her to have to stop. The crack went all around the island, leaving her at the mercy of this new beast. She couldn't see it, it seemed to be surrounded by black smog, but she could see the enormous, glowing, green eyes. It started to speak in a raspy voice, but Rowan couldn't understand it.
"Shur totl en curc shoil ra dorm!" It rasped. Rowan couldn't speak, it felt as if her lungs were being squeezed by an invisible hand.
"Rab yul ke turnou, ê tuum!"
It pointed a black, misty finger at Rowan, and shot a lightening bolt aimed right at her.

"No! Stop! What the-what are you?!" Rowan screamed herself awake once again. She gulped in short breaths, her eyes were wide, and ran to the bathroom to throw up. She rested her head on the floor, and tried everything to calm herself down. What she had seen, was something she had never seen before. What the heck was that?! She thought. What in the world was it even saying?! Why- what?! Rowan sat on the bathroom floor for what seemed like hours, pondering what terrifying monster she had seen.

She skipped school that day. She didn't want to face her teachers and Mya. Mya would ask me so many questions, I'll get irritated enough to have a terrible "image" right then and there, she thought. She told her mom she was sick, which her mom believed every time, and once she and Rowan's dad went to work, Rowan snuck out of the house and went into the woods behind her house. The only place beside her bedroom that she felt safe. Not the woods in general, she had built a small treehouse when she was younger.

She went down the worn path she had trampled herself, and went deeper and deeper into the forest. She wasn't that jumpy in the woods, every time she would hear a twig snap or a rustle in the leaves, she dismissed it as part of the wildlife. She temporarily forgot the strange creature in her "image", and strolled to her treehouse. Suddenly, she heard many twigs all snap at once, and when she turned around, she heard a loud shuffle. She tensed up, but kept walking. She heard twigs snapping again, swiftly turned around and screamed. A haunting, piercing, bloodcurdling scream.