The Nightmares I Dream in Reality

Chapter 1: Another Nightmare

This hallway never ends. I've been walking for probably ten minutes now, and still with no end in sight. The walls are red, the floor is stone tiles. Red and gray. That's all this is except for the blackness that is the hallway that's too far to see. It's all blank except for the occasional pedestal holding a flower pot with dying rhododendrons. Each time I pass one, the flowers die more and more. 

But I keep walking, hoping to find the end. I continue walking for minutes? Hours? I don't know. I lose all sense of time, replaced by a sense of dread. *I'm going to die here,* I realize quickly. I want to stop, but I'm no longer in control of my feet. 

On and on I go, for all time. The walls begin to deteriorate with time but are still held up to shape this hall. The stone beneath me cracks and crumbles, begonias growing, carpeting the floor. My dread grows into fear and anxiety, and the hairs along my neck stand. 

I hear something. Something besides the sound of my footsteps on the flowers. Breathing. I hear the ragged breaths of something behind me. I turn around, seeing nothing but the flicker of candlelight above me. *I heard- or.. I thought I heard..* I think. I see a shadow on the floor in front of me as the breathing resumes. I look behind me and scream. I run as fast as my legs can carry me. *WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!?* I internally scream. It is black and red and gray, and holy freaking huge. I risk a glance behind me and see nothing. When I turn back in front of me, I scream again. Its snake-like body is pressed against the walls, floor, and ceiling, coiling in the space. The spikes cut into the supports holding the hallway together, digging grooves. 

Within a moment's flash, it's gone again, and so is the entire hall. I fall through the dark air, only to be met with something that reeks with iron. Instantly I know it's blood. Then I hear swimming around me, and see the monster that was chasing me. It swims around me, creating a vortex in the blood. It sinks me, and I feel myself drowning in the blood, everything painful and constricted. I can't breathe and the thought of dying terrifies me even more than everything else that's happened before now combined.

Then everything goes back.

I open my eyes, blinded by the light flooding in from my window. My heart is pounding from my nightmare last night, and everything hurts. My legs are sore and my lungs feel closed off and the air stings them. I get out of my bed, lightheaded and tired. I nearly collapse. I sit back down on my bed and hold my head in my hands.

Someone knocks on my bedroom door, the sharp sounds pounding in my head. The door opens quietly, as my mom comes to check on me, likely to wake me up. She sees me holding myself. "Honey, is everything okay?" She asks. 

I don't move, not even to look at her. *Everything. Hurts.*

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asks, trying to get something out of me.

Again I don't move. She takes the hint and leaves. "Wait, Mom," I start. She opens the door again and looks at me. "Can you get me some ibuprofen?"

"Of course," she nods and leaves.

I'm still breathing quickly, matching the pace of my racing heart. I lean against the wall and tuck my knees to my chest. That was the third time I've had a nightmare this month, but they're always different. I don't even want to think about the others. *Why am I having these?* I question. *Aren't nightmares supposed to be related to a fear or something traumatic that happened or something?*

My thoughts are interrupted by my mom holding a glass of water and two pills. I gladly take them from her. "Are you sure you don't want to talk? It'll help," she says.

I know she means well, but I can't talk about my nightmares. I've tried, but something takes my voice each time. I shake my head, not finding my voice once more.

"Okay," she says and leaves me, shutting the door behind her.

I let out a breath. The ibuprofen is already taking the edge off the splitting pain in my head. I slide out of bed again, still a little lightheaded, but keeping my balance. I change out of my pajamas and into a pale orange tank top and shorts.

I go to the bathroom and splash cold water on my face. In the mirror, I see the faint outline of the snake monster from my nightmare last night. I don't move. I don't even breathe. I don't hear it, but I see it moving like it's breathing. It stays for a few seconds, then goes through the floor, making a dark purple portal looking thing with colors that look like space nebulae. I risk looking behind me at the portal, but it's not there. I look back in the mirror, then behind me again. *The.. the mirror doesn't match what I'm seeing in real life.* I look in the mirror once more, and the portal is gone.

I go to the kitchen to make breakfast, when my sister Lilinoe looks at me. "Everything alright, Kal?" She asks. "You look like you've seen a ghost." 

"It's- I'm fine." I say. "Just a nightmare."

"Another one?" She asks. "They're getting really frequent. Do you want to talk about it?"

I avoid answering. I put a bagel in the toaster.

"Kalei. It's not good to keep things bottled up."

I sigh. "I know."

There's a moment of silence between us. My bagel finishes toasting. I spread cream cheese and Nutella on it and start eating, the silence grows and Lily knows I'm not going to say anything more about it.

She sighs. "If you ever change your mind," she leaves the room, leaving me to eat my bagel alone at the counter.