How's this for a Wet Dream? [Nightmare On Elm Street]

Chapter 2: Not the Same

As I walked through the dark streets of my old neighborhood, a soft breeze kissed my cheeks in the cold night air, sending a chill through me and making me realize that I was bare foot. The sudden sensations of the soles I stood on freezing and being scratched a bit with every step, created the sudden awareness that I was dreaming...so I could control what was going on instead of simply watching some subconscious story progress.

I turned around to head back toward the home I had grown up in when I saw I had, in fact, been on my my way out of the small town...a place I often took respite in visiting or thinking about as it had meant much simpler times for my young brain. The place we had moved to, Springwood, wasn't much bigger than it, but the energy of it was so different that it felt as if I was in another country...not just another town or state. Even little as it was, Springwood seemed to have a more city-like atmosphere which varied quite a bit from the poor country town where I had been born.

On my trek back to my original house, I sensed that things had become even more still in the empty darkness. Something was off for certain... I remembered that there would be locusts chirping at this time of day and year so loud it could be overwhelming. Not to mention the crickets and the frogs that the place was always flooded with and the seasonal fireflies. There was no sound whatsoever...no chirping, no croaking... the wind had stopped as well and I couldn't even pick up the sound of my own treading footsteps.

I stopped in the middle of the street with sudden paranoia that someone was watching me...or something. My heart skipped a beat and then began pounding in my chest as I turned around, peering into the dark. I knew it was all a dream...all in my head, but I was somehow still frightened. I normally had pretty good control over my dreams. I had practiced and even studied techniques yet for some reason, I felt less powerful than was usual... I hadn't had an actual nightmare in quite some time- as in a dream that bothered me. I used to have them all the time hence my reasoning behind learning to take conscious control of my own dreamworld... Something was different about this one... It felt like the old days...

That small voice in my head kept assuring me that I could handle this and that they were just mental pictures. However scary- they weren't real. Instinct though, I suppose, took over and silenced her, leaving me with only this intense need to find safety and prepare to run... to get out of harm's way when it finally presented itself. So I started jogging until I had traveled that last half-block  that left me in front of the home where I had spent my years prior to being a high school student. I ran up to the door and jiggled jiggled the handle, glancing around and still seeing nothing around me but the quiet neighborhood. From what I could tell, I was still alone, but that sense of impending doom had only worsened. As I shook the handle and pushed on the door again, my mind took in the number posted beside the large red-painted door...

1428...that wasn't the number of the house I grew up in...

Just as this new information settled into my mind, the entrance swung open to expose a small foyer just before a staircase. I jumped inside and slammed the door behind me. There was a den to the left of me and a family dining room to the right. Off to the side of staircase and behind the den, I saw a kitchen with a breakfast nook... Everything inside appeared crisp and new...This wasn't my old home's interior either...

At that moment, the first sound I had heard in some time came. It was a young child laughing. Cautiously, and probably stupidly, I followed the voice into the den. Stepping around the couch revealed to me a small girl in a white dress sitting on the floor. She wasn't facing me, but she was moving...playing with something. I crept closer and looked over her. Finger paints. She was painting a picture on the floor there.

"Hello?" I called softly, not removing my eyes from her.

"Hello," the girl answered flatly in a tiny voice.