creepshow (wattys2018)

Endless Dreams

I stepped cautiously with bare feet over leaves and fallen tree limbs, damp with early morning dew. The knee length night gown I wore did little to nothing to protect my body from the chilled air and fog that cascaded throughout the forest, weaving in between trees and slithering around blades of grass. 

On my arm, just above my elbow, a cut I received on my last trip into the woods reopened, a few drops of blood gathering on the wound and seeping through the white material. I never bothered with cleaning it because every time I reached the end of the trees I would just end up back at the beginning. 

I counted each step I took just as carefully as I counted the ones it took. I knew it was right behind me, trailing slowly as to not be detected, but I knew it was there. It was always there. I heard its claws as they scrapped down each passing tree, cutting into the wood, slicing the bark right off of the trunk with clean precision, similar to the way it sliced my skin. 

I could still feel the marks on my arms and legs, the imprints its claws made as they dug into my flesh.I could still hear my deafening screams and cries of terror as it clawed at my ankles, crippling me until I had no other option but to crawl away pathetically, praying that this time I would actually make it out of the woods.

Perhaps I should word that differently, I did make it out of the woods. I made it out every time, but the moment my hand or foot or which ever body part touched the clearing I would blink and find myself back at the entrance, forever forced to repeat this nightmare. And that's exactly what it was, a nightmare, nothing more than a dream within a dream. I wake up every once a while and everything is okay until suddenly im at the entrance to woods all over again. Its funny, you see, I remember waking up, but I can never recall falling asleep.