ADRIFT DREAMER: Inside of Nightmares

Chapter 1: A NEW PLACE, A NEW START

It was one late afternoon, "Hmm, nothing." Said Jack. He was at the top of the castle. He was guarding the entrance for that shift. It was getting late, he looked down, and some monsters were going straight to the castle. He prepares himself to go there to take them out.

To his surprise, he saw someone else as well, that person was screaming, "HELP! PLEASE, ANYONE! HELP ME!"

"It's her! That's the princess. She's running away from those monsters." Thought Jack. Jack was interested in her for some time now. You can say it was the girl of his dreams.

"I need to save her as fast as I can." Jack thought. He wondered how he was going to get there in time. Therefore, he did what he could think at that moment; he jumped off from the top of the castle and threw the grappling hook on the edge of the castle. However, he did not time it right, and he was falling straight to the ground and then, blank.

"I didn't make it, didn't I?" Said Jack. He could not tell because he woke up in an instant. He woke up shocked and jumped a little. Likewise, he looked around, it was late afternoon, and he was back in the car, ready to move to their new apartment. It had been 4 or 5 years since he last moved. The place they were moving was a whole upgrade from the old one. They were a family that didn't have a lot of money to just waste on everything, so when his parents found this apartment that was affordable for them, they were thrilled. He was very excited to move to the new apartment. He could feel everything from there disappear, all his feelings and the stuff that happened there was a closed book. The problems they had back then are all over; let us just say that he had a "stumbling block" back there. But this time was going to be better. That's what he was hoping, at least. Yet he is concerned.

They got to their new apartment and his mom called him, she said, "Come here Jack, help me with these boxes."

"I'm coming mom." Jack responded. He took the boxes that she was carrying, and before he headed inside, she saw him with a down face that read easily. She knew that he was worried.

She said to him, "Don't worry, honey, everything will be ok." While she was saying that, she placed her hand on his shin, moving his head up so that he could look at her. His dad was calling her mom, so she left to help him.

In his mind with little anticipation, he responded to himself, "Yeah, I hope so..." He headed inside and placed the boxes close to the door. He helped arrange their stuff around the apartment, in which they had the majority of things already in place. Jack stayed in the apartment doing his homework while his parents were bringing stuff from their old apartment into their new one. For 3 days, they finally had everything moved and arranged. Jack was about to graduate from elementary school. He had a few more days. One morning in school, waiting to hear the bell ring. He talked with a friend named Oscar about how his new apartment was much better. That it was much bigger than the old one and stuff like that. He was living in the same apartment that he used to, so they were close friends.

But Oscar didn't care and said, "Oh yeah, so cool, I guess." Jack looked at him and he looked upset. He felt like he was bragging about it. He decided to stop. The bell rang, and they began walking to their class.

[The next day]

Waiting and waiting and finally, it was graduation day! He was excited and nervous, but everything went well. When the ceremony ended, he went to his best friend.

"We did it!" Said his best friend Karl.

"We actually made it!" Jack responded. A few days before, they talked about which school they were going to, but almost everyone in their class was going to Georgia D. Middle School. Jack was not able to go to that school due to moving further from it. They had some good times and sometimes some bad times. But in the end, it was good while it lasted thought Jack. They had their last picture taken together with their diplomas. That was the last day they were ever going to see each other again. He was going to miss him a lot.

[Days later]

At that time, a few of Jack's family members were coming to visit, including his grandma. They were staying at the new apartment, so his parents had to improvise. They only had two beds. Therefore, his parents ended up sleeping on the living room floor, while Jack was sleeping on the sofa. The whole reason they were visiting is that his cousin's family was going to Dany's Land and his grandma tag along to have a chance to see his grandson. One night, he was somewhat uncomfortable, but he ended up falling asleep afterward. He started dreaming and he was flying. He looked around the city, and it was getting dark, so he started to look for his house, but he couldn't find it. Then the city started to get even darker that he couldn't see anything. He decided to slowly go down. When he touched the floor, he was able to see a figure, a figure of a person. There was nothing else, only him. Jack couldn't see his face, but the figure was really tall, and he was just standing there. Suddenly, the TV waked up Jack. His uncle was watching it.

He looked at him, "Oh, you're up, good morning." He said.

"Hey, good morning." Said Jack.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up with the TV." He said.

"Don't worry its fine." Jack responded. It was not the first time he saw that figure. He would appear constantly in his dreams. However, he doesn't show signs of movement. He would tell his mom occasionally, but his mom would just talk over it or just ignore it. Now that he's finished elementary school and it's on vacation. He got to rest the whole day and play video games. That day ended as fast as lighting, and it was time to get ready for bed.

His dad turned off the lights and said, "Good night, son."

"Good night dad." Jack responded. Jack closed his eyes. He woke up at 12:30 a.m. He kept trying to fall asleep, but He felt uncomfortable on the sofa and the temperature was going down.

"Great, it's cold, and I can't sleep." Jack said. He tried moving side to side, but he couldn't find the right spot.

Jack got desperate, "They could have rented their own rooms at a hotel somewhere, and I would be sleeping in my precious bed right about now." Jack said. He noticed something else. Not only, he couldn't sleep, but his stomach was also starting to hurt badly.

He tried waking his mom up, he whispered, "Mom, mom! My stomach hurts." She didn't respond. He tried moving her, but she didn't wake up. He felt frustrated.

He rumbled to himself, whispering, "Just Great, I don't want to stay awake all night like this." The pain was worsening and Jack couldn't handle it anymore. He got up to go to the bathroom. When he got out, he started to feel tired. He felt lightheaded. He went to the sofa, and he just fell into it, just like a hard day at work and finally getting home to rest. Furthermore, he finally was starting to feel sleepy, and he just black out. He started seeing something in the distance, there was the figure again, just standing there. Waiting for him to do something. There was nothing in sight, just jack and the figure. Surrounding us were black and red clouds. In his mind was the feeling of déjà vu except it's almost every night, but something was different. It was closing on them. Jack started to move forward. Then he stopped, he felt this tense feeling. He felt stuck. He couldn't move anymore. All of a sudden, the figure started to move. Then stopped. Slowly, he held his arms out. Suddenly, His arms stretched towards him and grabbed my neck. He started to pull Jack into him. He was hesitating. Not only that, but he tried to escape, but he couldn't. He felt like he couldn't breathe anymore. It got closer to his face.

The only thing he heard was, "YOU FINALLY CAME TO ME..." (With a deep, weak voice). He suddenly woke up in shock.

"What the hell was that? The figure finally moved! It felt so real!" He thought. It was still night time; it was 4:33 a.m. He calmed down and went back to sleep. He woke up the next morning, but with a terrible cold and a sore throat. From that day, Jack started to have a harder time trying to fall asleep almost everynight. With headaches, stomach aches and having more nightmares. However, the problems wouldn't stop there, because it was not the last time that "HE" would come back.