Only a dream

Chapter 6

~Im in some kind of store. There's tons and tons of clothing and shoes, it seems to go on forever. It's very dark, I can barely see. A light somewhere very, very far to my left is flickering wildly. I begin to walk towards it, I mean what else should I do?

Pushing through dresses and shirts and pants I start to walk in the direction of the light. I feel kind of like a moth, attracted to this luminescent thing. But I keep going. And going. And going. The light isn't getting any closer.

What the heck?

I stop walking and squint through the darkness. All I can make out are clothes. Just tons and tons of clothes.

Ugh.

I sit down beside a rack of denim shorts and rest my head on my knees, my eyes focusing on the floor.

I hear a noise. It's continuous, a thumping sound that echoes in this gigantic, endless store.

What now?

I peer under the infinite racks and tables and clothing. That's when I see it. Or them, I should say. The things making the noise. Shoes. Hundreds -no, thousands- of shoes stomping under the clothing. But they are just shoes. No feet. No legs. No freaking body. Just shoes stomping up and down and in circles. There are high heels, sport shoes, dress shoes, flip flops, boots, even slippers.

What in the world?

I flip over so I'm on my hands and knees, crouching low to gape at all the ghostly footwear. I start to crawl towards the nearest pair, slowly so I don't...scare them, I guess. They're sneakers, black with white laces that are undone and flying everywhere with each stomp. The sneakers are under a display for animal print scarves.

Tacky.

I continue crawling quietly and carefully towards the shoes. Once I'm close enough, I can see that they have a mind if their own. No feet to control them. Just messed up, possibly possessed footwear.

I take a deep breath. What I'm about to do will either be a helpful idea, or a bad idea. I've gotta grab one shoe, to examine it.

I don't think.

I reach my hand out quickly, like lightning hitting a tree. My fingers close around the middle of the sneaker.

Bad idea.

Both shoes stop stomping. So do all of the other shoes. Slowly, terrifyingly, each and every shoe in my dimmed vision, and possibly I'm this entire warped store, turn to face my direction.

Oh crap.

Like a rabid herd of wolves, the shoes begin to charge at me. The one still enclosed in my hand breaks free and flies at my face. I smack it away and jump to my feet.

All around me, in every direction, are shoes. Seemingly angry shoes.

Frantically, I look around.

To my right, not even two feet away, is a large display of floral high heels. At least thirty pairs sit strategically placed along the huge table.

I jump onto it just before a steel-toed boot kicks into me.

I sigh with relief. I'm safe for now.

Wait.

Floral high heels. I'm sitting on a display with at least three dozen pairs of floral high heels. HIGH HEELS.

"Crap!" I exclaim as a pair of heels whiz in my direction. Barely missing my face. I jump off the table without thinking. My left foot catches on something, but it's to dark to see what it is.

I'm sent flying through the air over bunches and bunches of shoes. It seems to go by in slow motion. The lights get dimmer and dimmer as I slowly soar through the air. The stomping of the shoes dies down to nothing and I'm gliding over a silent scene like a bird over a field.

Suddenly, time catches up with itself and I quickly thud to the ground. Hard.

"Ughhh," I moan. My head smashed against the dark brown, tiled floor with a loud crack.

My vision is going blurry. I can hardly make out billions of shoes stampeding at my limp body, as I lie helplessly on the ground. Everything feels like I'm underwater. Im light and floaty and I can't breath.

Before everything goes black, I catch a pair of unusual shoes. They're pure white and have no laces or heels or anything. All they have are five little stumps on the end of each one.

I laugh.

They look like little nubs. Ha. Nub is a funny word.

Wait. The strange nubby shoes are different then the rest. They have feet. And legs. And a body. I gaze up and almost choke. It's a person. But not just any person. It's her.

"Hello, Sam!" She muses, "I told you that I'd be back!"

She begins to laugh a cracked, disturbing laugh. Her long, jet black hair shakes slightly with each howl and laugh. It is quite knotted and disturbed

"You," I whisper, "what do you want?"

She stops laughing and smiles and evil smile at me, showing her pointy, almost shark-like teeth.

"Oh Samantha! You know what I want!"

She starts to cackle again, her electric blue eyes glinting off the flickering light that is still in the distance.

I stare at her, narrowing my own eyes. "No, I don't know," I growl.

She keeps laughing and laughing for what seems like ages. Then quickly and abruptly, she stops. She kneels down so she is almost face to face with me, her hair combing the floor.

Her breath reeks of...blood? I don't know, but it's disgusting. I recoil slightly as she exhales in my face.

In a cold, quite voice, she whispers to me, barely audible.

"You had better learn soon."

Them everything fades to darkness and billions of devilish shoes pound and kick me into nothing.~