The Dead That Dream

Prologue

It was black.

Not just the room around me, but the world.

All black.

A sound. Ringing through the silence. It sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard, sharp and piercing.

Again, I heard it. This time I also heard the sound of shifting weight. Something was moving behind me.

I didn't know where I was, but it did.

The hairs on the back on my neck stood on end. I had that feeling something was watching me. I could imagine two red eyes, staring out of the black.

I tried to move. Tried, but failed. There were things surrounding me. Running my hand across their edges, I noted it felt like wood. The soft, polished texture of a table. My hands felt off the edge of it.

Spinning around in a circle, I tried to get out any way. But they were on all sides.

Now, I could hear breathing. Soft, shallow breaths, being taken somewhere near me. To the left, no, to the right. Footsteps, breaths. Someone was here, someone was close.

Something?

My own breathe was loud. My blood, gushing through me, loud in my ears. My stumbling footsteps, spinning around in a circle, following the sounds of my companion.

I hit the torch against my thigh again, trying in vain to boost it to life. It flickered for a moment, but cast its light against a concrete wall, plain and lonely.

The second of light left the room even darker, and me, even more terrified.

"Wh-who's there?" I mumbled into the darkness.

My heart froze, my legs stumbled to a halt. My blood ran cold as ice, and my hands started shaking in terror.

"Me."