Sleep with the Lights On ✔️

1. Sleep with the Lights On

  

         Cassie lay awake, and staring at the ceiling. The lights were dimmed but still on -- she couldn't remember the last time she'd slept in darkness.  She sighed and glanced at the clock, it was a quarter to one. She'd been lying in bed for hours and sleep still wouldn't take her. Or maybe, it was that she wouldn't take sleep. Every time she started to doze off, she would jerk awake, trying to stop the oncoming nightmare as it formed in her mind. She'd been having nightmares for months. The nightmares that came to her now took hold stronger than they ever did in childhood. She could see the shadows pulsing in the corners of her vision, She saw the monsters waiting in the darkness, she felt their rotten breath on her neck when she closed her eyes. Everything felt so solid and real, no matter how much she told herself it was just a dream, she couldn't slow her racing heartbeat.

           Falling asleep had never been difficult, sleeping in past noon had been something of a hobby. Now she woke in fits, covered in sweat or tears and heart pounding in her chest. She had tried everything from meditation to dreamcatchers; nothing worked. Each nightmare was worse than the last and she could see no escape, she dreaded going to sleep.

          She heard slow footsteps in the hallway and her already ajar door opened more. "Cassie?" Her sister whispered as she poked in her head. "Are you still awake?"

          "Yeah," Cassie croaked out. Her sister sighed and padded further into the bedroom. Alexis sat on the edge of Cassies bed and patted her shin.

          "You need to go to sleep," Alexis said firmly. Cassie looked at her older sister with a pained expression, of course she knew she had to sleep. "You're been having nightmares?" She asked. Cassie nodded. "Do you think they have anything to with..." Alexis pauses.

         "No," Cassie said quickly. She'd recently been rejected from her dream university. After months of waiting, applying for scholarships and writing applications she was rejected. It was a major let-down but the nightmares didn't start until after she'd come to terms with the disappointment.

          "What else could it be?" Alexis asked softly. Cassie shrugged, her half-reclined posture in bed made the shrug look more like a wiggle. Alexis sighed and went back to the door. "Just try to sleep, okay?"

          "I'm trying," Cassie said trying to hide her frustration. Of course she was trying. Alexis tiptoed out of the room again and left the door ajar. Cassie tried to make herself comfortable in bed and stared up at the ceiling again.

          "Alright Cassie, You need to sleep or you will die." She spoke softly to herself. "Nightmares can't actually hurt you." She frowned and closed her eyes. Sleep took hold of her fast, but a nightmare was close behind, sending Cassie was spiralling down into the blackness.

           Cassie ran through the crumbling ruins of a city while her muscles screamed in protest. A team of shadow-beasts ran full speed behind her, yipping with the twisted pleasure of the hunt. She knew they were following the scent of her fear and they delighted in it. The most disturbing part was that she could feel that their wild violence was serving a greater goal. Something else was telling them what to do, urging them on. Something horrible had its sights set on her, with a deadly purpose in mind.

           She turned into a dilapidated library and ran through the aisles. She knew that others had cowered in the library and hoped that the remains of their fear would throw the beasts off her trail, if only for a second. As she climbed to a higher level on a broken staircase, she found herself in front of a monumental statue. A man kneeling down and offering a hand, his marble face wrinkled in a kind smile. There was large plaque on the pedestal of the statue with engraved text in a language she couldn't discern. The words shone bright and formed in her mind with unnatural ease.