My Living Nightmare

My Reality

Most people are blessed enough to live a normal lifestyle. As you may have guessed, I am not one of these fortunate souls, but I wish I were. I am cursed to never be ignorant of the horrors that are found in the depths of the night. Ever since I was little, I have been able to see them. You know what I'm talking about. The ones in myths and legends, those evil beasts and creatures of all kinds.

I'm here to tell you that they are real. And they very much wish to cause you harm. Physical, mental, emotional, whatever. Some sneak about your house at night, waiting for the proper moment to haul your unconscious body from your bed and off into their lairs, where they do all sorts of unspeakable things to you, before killing you.

But this is my story. I'm not here to make you afraid of darkness, just to let someone finally know the truth. I first saw them when I was small. Younger than the age than most humans can remember. But then again, I'm not most humans. You know those small creaks you hear in the house when no one is up at night? I've seen them. That rocking chair that rocks with no one in it? That's your worst nightmare come to visit you. They normally just sit there and watch you sleep, knowing that one day you'll be theirs to keep. But not all the time.

Sometimes, they steal people away. Or kill them, leaving just a little bit of evidence behind in order to freak out the people who lived there. They don't make a sound, just hide in the corners, waiting for you to fall into a false sense of security because they're just ghost stories. They're not real. Oh, but they are, and they're watching you. Chances are, they're watching you right now.

No, don't look around. You can't see them, and even if you could, you'd wish you couldn't. Look into the light. See that shadow writhing out of the corner of your eye? That's him. He's after you. Don't panic, just makes things worse. Trust me. He can smell your fear. Don't worry though, now that you know how to find him, you'll be able to keep track of him. He won't do much at first, but be careful. It's once you start having nightmares over and over that you should be worried. Because one of those nights that you wake up covered in cold sweat, you'll see him. Now, I don't mean that you'll glimpse him out of the corner of your eye like you have today. You will actually see him. And you will never sleep again. You will also never see anyone else again, let alone be able to warn them of the things that have taken up residence just down the hallway in the picture on the left. There isn't a picture on the left you say? Then run. Run for your life. I left one there last night. It was a picture of the only thing nightmares are afraid of. The sun. Because, let's face it, all other lights will go out. Why are people afraid of the dark, some ask. Because darkness hides the unknown. And things are far more scary when you don't understand them or what they want. That's why they love the dark.

The darkness has always been a symbol of the unknown, the mystery behind the next corner. Adventuresome souls use lights to make the way clear, and now they've unleashed something that can't be pushed back. They can't be resisted or fought against. You have no hope, other than to hope that they don't find you.

Maybe I should start at the beginning, where all the folk lore came from. You see, the truly conscious beings on this planet are more spirit than physical form. You can't see it, but it's there. Some are more spirit than others, with less connection to the physical realm, allowing them vision into the world of nightmares. I am the one with the smallest known connection to the normal world, what some would call "reality." In some ways, I am more protected than you are. But in others, I am in far more danger than anyone else could ever be. They can't hurt me physically and I am harder for them to find, but I could be trapped by them forever, not dying and moving on to the afterlife like common folk such as you.

So back to the story. Because you walk through the physical realm on an everyday basis, you must recharge on the spiritual level at some point. This is when you sleep. You see, your dreams are real and happening to you. But not physically. That's why if you die in your dreams...well...let's just say it's not pretty. To go into detail would cause you to fear, and that fear would attract them to you.

At night is when you are the most in danger of something happening, because the shadow hides them from the burning light of sun. They wander around your house, making strange noises that frighten you, because they feed partially off of your fear. They observe who you are and what you love to better understand what scares you most, then use those ideas to torment you, savoring every time you wake up in a cold sweat.

My first experience with nightmares was at a young age. I was an orphan, forced to live out on the streets of my city. I knew the back alleys, and roamed through the filth and refuse because no one was there to look after me. No one would notice if I went missing. No friends, no education, no responsibility to be anywhere.

One day I vanished. My body was disappearing, being swept up by the wind. My tenuous hold in the physical realm was disintegrating, and I saw both realms merge. The shadows moved, twisting and alive, following their victims, who were entirely oblivious to the horror that silently stalked them. They would rise up when they were all alone, swallowing the people whole and leaving nothing to give any proof to what had happened. Other than the visions in my mind. The mind is the connector between the realms, and that is why you remember your dreams. And why everything that I have seen is ingrained in my mind, as if imprinted like the shadows on the walls near a nuclear blast.

My life has been a series of hit and run with the nightmares. Hiding from them is difficult, and I always know it is only a matter of time before they find me again. The first time they found me, I was sitting in a park after sunset, pondering the lives of the people I had seen wandering through during the day. Suddenly, my thin form started shivering, and I knew that something was wrong. I roused myself from my thoughts, looking around. I saw nothing, but the hairs on the back of my neck told me I was not alone. So I did the only sensible thing. I ran. I ran far, and I ran fast, since my body was insubstantial by most people's terms, but my fastest still wasn't enough. I couldn't hear their footsteps, but I knew they were right behind me. I zigged and zagged through the dark streets of the city, hoping to lose them in the maze of alleys criss crossing the night. Unfortunately, all this running only wore me out and took me farther from the safety of the streetlights, so eventually they caught me. Cold sweat broke out from my form, and I knew they had captured me when the heat vanished from my shoulders, sucked out by their touch.

Suddenly, my surroundings changed. I was no longer halfway between the worlds, but rather wholly in the realm of spirits. The nightmares that had captured me blocked all chance of escape, forming a circle around me. They were no longer touching me, but I had the sense that something far worse was going to happen, as the largest one approached me. It was like a flame, yet was an absence of light, the darkness flickering about a humanoid figure. Its limbs were indistinguishable, fading in and out of sight like the shifting of a fire. The face though, was the most terrifying. The eyes captured my vision, and I found great difficulty in tearing my eyes away from them. They seemed to stare into one's soul, picking out your fears and failures, ready to expose them to the world in order to torture you. The mouth was gruesome, and it smiled, showing teeth both sharp and long, ready to devour what little flesh I had. My insubstantial body quivered in fear, and I glanced around, desperate for any chance of escape. There was none.

The nightmare drew closer, reaching out a ghostly hand towards my face. I dodged and kicked at its body, but the instant I came into contact with it, my body froze and it entered my mind. It sorted through my memories, searching for weakness, leaving a trail of agony as it went. I have no recollection of screaming, but my throat was raw when my mind was finally returned to me, torn apart and broken into many pieces.