The Nights Shadows

Chapter 1

Sometimes the light casts shadows we can't see, but not knowing they are their isn't as scary as knowing, because after you've seen every hidden shadow, everything that makes those little bumps in the night, you can never see the world in a different light.
At first it starts out calm and then gradually the darkness comes and sucks you in. I've never seen the other side of it, I always wake up just before.

I wake up swimming in my own sweat, it was the nightmare again. The same one, never different and never fails to come each night. I look at the alarm clock on my bedside table, 6:15am. I probably won't get back to sleep even if I try, so I'm gonna just get up and  go get my morning cup of coffee and wait for mum to come down and ask how well I slept. She's been all paranoid since the accident when I was 10, that's when the nightmare started. I don't even know what a nice dream is like, I haven't for the past 8 years. When I turned 11 I thought it was the right time to tell my mum about the nightmare considering I'd been having it for almost a year back then.

All that got me was a trip to the doctor to see if my brain was working properly, which it obviously was but the dream freaked my mum out just as much as it freaked me out realising that was the only thing I'd been dreaming about for the past year. Now that I'm older I've got my own theories as to why I've been having the same dream over and over again for the past 8 years but of course I didn't tell my mum this, I stopped telling mum about the dream when I was 12, she had gotten too paranoid and at the end of doctor appointments she would end up screaming at the doctor asking for an explanation as to why I was having the same dream again and again.

After that I thought that It might be best if I just told her that my dreams were normal and not dark and repetitive, it seemed to help her, she stopped taking me to the doctors and she stopped sleeping on a chair in my room just incase I woke up and needed her there to comfort me.

I've gone through theories in my head but the same one just keeps coming back to me and it seems reasonable, well at least it does in my mind.
When I was 10 I was in someone's car, I don't know whose car all I can remember is that I was in a car, and as soon as that car got on to the North River bridge it ran right over the edge. I don't remember much but I do remember the pain in my chest, the fear of death, that still scares me to this day. After that I passed out or I thought I passed out, the next thing I knew was that I woke up in the hospital with my mum by my side. I remember the tears running down her face and calling out to her, she immediately got a doctor and they told me about the accident.

"Vivian honey, this is doctor Patrick's he's gonna talk to you about what happened" mum said
"Hello Vivian, you're probably wondering why you're in a cold hospital room. Well the answer is you were in a car accident, we checked you out and as far as we can see there is no damage to your brain. We were quite worried there would be. Now Vivian I don't want you to worry but when an ambulance finally arrived at the scene of the accident and got you out of the water you were dead. For how long? We're not certain yet but everything should be fine from now on but I think it's best if you just rest at home for now, okay?. I'll just go and leave you to talk with your mother" and then he left, my mother tried to talk to me but all I could do was cry and I did for many days after that.

My theory is that maybe being dead for a short period of time did something, maybe I saw something on the other side that's caused me to have the same continuous nightmare every night. Maybe I saw something I shouldn't have.