Stolen Dreams

Carter: Day One

"How did I end up like this?" Thought Carter as he ran down the hall. It had started out as a simple Monday morning. But now he was running for his life.
*****
Carter's day had started out like any other. Wake up, get dressed, feed Jake, and make himself breakfast.
Though today, he also had to go to school. "See you later Jake." He said to his goldfish as he finished tying his shoes and headed downstairs. It was still August, so it was already warm even though it was only 7:30 a.m. . Within ten minutes, he arrived at his new school. He sighed. "Here goes nothing." he thought as he walked through the doors. The hallways were filled with all too familiar scenes; groups of friends clustered together chattering happily, young couples embracing, all of them oblivious to Carter. So he slunk through the halls quickly and quietly, minding his own buisness.

Noticing that his shoelace had come undone, he stepped aside into a less crowded hallway and tied his shoe. Unfortunately, a trio of seniors had noticed him and deided to make him their target. One snuck up behind him and opened a janitorial closet just past Carter. He held the door wide open. As Carter rise to his feet the other two pushed him and sent him flying into the closet and the door slammed shut. Before he could open it he heard the 'click' of the lock and laughter followed by the words "Stupid Freshie". The trio's voices faded down the hall and into the crowd that hadn't noticed at all.

Carter felt a bit hurt, but brushed it off. Not like he had really wanted to be a part of that first day assembly with hundreds of other students. He wasn't the most outgoing person, nor did he really think it would make any difference. So he resigned himself to a nap in the dark, cold, slightly crowded closet, using a mop he was able to find in the dark as a pillow.

He had a short dream, in which he battled some sort of dark creature. He was hitting it with an odd looking sword. It had a long blade, with a handle that looked like mop he was sleeping on. This dream was suddenly interrupted by a scratching noise at the door. There was a sudden pop and click, and the door swang open.

Instinctively, Carter grabbed the mop and swang it at the intruder. But the mop was no longer a mop. It had indeed changed into the very sword he had dreamed of not a moment earlier. The sword plunged into middle of the creature he was battling. The 'thing' looked like it had been born out of a nightmare. Tall but round, with glowing eyes that looked like fire, it's skin dark as night that had a smoky aura about it. It tried to lunge at Carter but having been impaled by the sword, could not move much. It wiggled a bit before it went 'poof' an disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

Carter quickly came to his senses and realized what had just happened. He dropped the sword and watched it fall. When it reached the floor it was a mop once again. Tentatively, he bent down and touched it again. Nothing.

"Maybe I'm going insane." He thought. Well either way, he didn't want to stay in there anymore. So he ran through that open door, down the halls, left, right, through some double doors, down stairs, anywhere to get away. He didn't realize how much time had passed during his little nap. It was now lunch time and he was coincidentally headed straight towards the cafeteria. He was running fast, clear down an empty hall. What he did not know was that another student was walking down the hall that intercepted the one he was running through. He was the girl too late to stop, he could only try to slow down a bit. The girl saw him too, but could not react in time. They both fell over and the girl was mid sentence in telling him to watch where he was going, she gasped. Carter got up from his faceplant on the floor to see a familiar, yet unfamiliar face.

"Have I met you before?" As he spoke those words, he remembered. Those odd dreams with the girl. This was that girl. What was her name again? Ah yes.

Delilah.