ADRIFT DREAMER: Inside of Nightmares

Chapter 4: THE OTHER CLOWNS

Jack woke up as always and got to do his morning stuff. He went to the kitchen and his breakfast was already there. However, no one was there.

"Mom?" No one answered.

"I think she went grocery shopping." He thought. He ate the quesadillas that were on the kitchen table. There were only a few more days until his middle school life could start. Therefore, Jack took advantage of his time left and stayed in bed, relaxing while looking at his phone as always.

Then suddenly, "Ahhh!" Jack heard a scream, almost like his mom's voice. He imagined she was back from doing her things. He rushed to the living room. Nevertheless, she was not there.

"It sounded so close." He thought. He got out to the courtyard to check, but she was not outside. In fact, he did not see no one in the courtyard. Jack headed back and thought that it might have been someone from the streets.

A few minutes passed, and his mom finally came, "I'm home!"

Jack yelled, laying in his bed, "Ok!"

However, a few minutes go by and then, "Ahhh!" Jack heard another scream.

"It's 100% my mom!" He thought. Therefore, he rushed to the living room, but there was no one there again.

He started to call her, "Mom?!" He looked all around the house and headed back outside, but nothing. Likewise, he started to get a little worried. He went to the bathroom. Before he could open the bathroom door, in the corner of his eye, he saw something crawl out of the bathroom along the walls into his bedroom. He froze. He got chills along his spine.

"What the? I thought I saw a spider for a sec." Thought Jack. He slowly walked to the bedroom and saw something shivering. He was looking at a giant cockroach. However, it had some uniqueness he did not expect. It was blue, with patterns of white lines and black wings. It had enormous blue antennae with the tip being white and sharp. Jack noticed it was choking on something.

"What is he eating?" He thought. Jack looked at it even closer, and he was in suspense.

"It has a finger on his mouth!" Jack exclaimed in shock in his mind.

"Was that my mom's...?" He thought, worried. His mind was running wild.

"That's not her finger! Is she all right? Where is she? " He explicitly taught. Jack started to freak out. The strange cockroach noticed Jack. As it noticed him, Jack started running without hesitation. The creature started flying to Jack. Jack ran to the front door. However, when he touched the knob, the knob started crumbling away.

"What!?" Exclaimed Jack. As he turned around, he noticed his whole apartment started to diminish. The living room started to shift, little by little, pieces started to come off. The roof, the walls, the floor, everything.

"WHAT IS GOING ON!?" Jack yelled. Jack was agitated with his confusion. A couple of blinks later and he was in another place.

Everything from before was gone. Jack was on a pathway, with trees on the sides of it. Beyond that, he was on a field surrounded with flowers. It was a bright blue sky with birds chirping. Jack decided to walk on the long pathway, observing everything around him. Until he noticed something in the sky. He saw two figures floating. They were looking at Jack. Jack knew what they were. Without any hesitation, Jack ran the other way. He tripped and rolled outside the path, landing into the flowers. He stood up and started running on the field. Suddenly, He thought of the time when he ran superfast down the hill.

"What if I try it again?" Thought Jack. He tried to force himself as hard as he possibly could, but failed. He tried something else.

"What if I try to imagine the energy?" He thought. Therefore, he started imagining himself generating energy. Then he imagined that energy flowing to his legs. Fortunately, He finally did it. The white particles on his feet came back.

"That's it!" Jack said. He looked back, and the two figures were behind his back. Chasing him while still being in the sky.

"I need to go faster!" Jack said while starting to worry. He tried doing zigzags, but he quickly started to get tired, he was not able to keep going. They were still catching up. Unluckily, all his energy ran out. One of the figures threw something at him. A metallic plate landed on his back. When Jack noticed it, he felt a strong pull on it. Unexpectedly, Jack went flying towards them in the sky. When Jack got to them in person, he noticed more details on the figures. They had clothing that he had not seen before. They had big mouths, smiling with big red cheeks.

"They look like... clowns? But they look terrifying..." Jack thought. Jack tried shaking himself to escape, but clown's force was strong. He also tried to grab them but couldn't. The clown started to talk to him.

"If you think you're safe here, you're wrong." The right clown said.

"You're only going to suffer!" The left one added.

"We're in control here, so whatever happens to you; you're not going to end up the same as you entered." The right one continued and laughed. They said it demonically; their vocals sounded damaged. The right clown grabbed Jack's shirt by the collar for a split-second and threw him briskly. Jack went flying into the other side, extremely fast. He couldn't stop. He was going at an incredible speed that suddenly; he felt a transparent glass, hitting through it. (Like the time when he was falling from the hill into deep space).

"ARGH!" Jack cried in pain. He felt his back fractured. He started to fall into the fractured hole that he made. Furthermore, he was going deeper and deeper. Each second, he felt his surroundings more corrupted. Jack started to hear voices in his head. It kept going and they got louder and louder. Images were popping in his head.

"Is that, me?" Jack wondered. There were images of things he was doing, but they were unpleasant images. Mostly getting hurt and screaming in pain. His mind was getting crazier and wilder. Jack couldn't handle it anymore. He wanted this to stop. Fortunately, he woke up.

It was morning again. Jack was frozen. Jack was frightened. His mom noticed him shaking.

"Are you alright, did you have that nightmare again?" His mom said. Jack thought it was all happening in real life. Jack looked at her and opened his mouth, but his mouth was frozen as well. These were the only words that he could let out.

"Yeah... I'm alright mom..." Jack said.

"If you want, you can tell me what you dreamed about." She said while grabbing his hand.

"It's okay. You don't need to worry." Jack smiled at her. She smiled back and was relieved.

"Ok." She responded. She headed back to the kitchen.

"I'm making breakfast; I'll call you when it's ready!" She yelled.

"Okay!" Jack answered. He laid back on his bed again. He couldn't believe that he didn't tell his mom. Jack got accustomed to telling everything to his mom. This is the first time he kept something to himself. But he felt like he couldn't say anything about that dream.

"It won't go away; it's still in my head. I don't get it, something is off." Thought to himself. One drop of tear flowed through his cheek. He rapidly took it off.

"Just try to forget about it, just for now. I don't want to be a bother to anyone and I don't want to annoy her or to worry anymore, especially everything she has gone through." Jack thought to himself. From that moment on, his new adventure was going to begin.

"Welcome to my world now... Jack."