The Dreamscape

Chapter 1-Monsters of Darkness

Searing pain climbs up my legs as the twigs and thorns on the forest floor slice through the soles of my feet. I'm not sure how long I have been running, the pain of cramps is taking over my upper body. But I don't care. The only thing I'm focused on is getting away from them. I can hear them getting closer, their howls and screeches putting shivers down my spine. My sweat and frightened tears are blinding me, making me unable to see what has suddenly jumped out in front of me. I could smell its breath before I could see it. The smell of death itself.

How could it have caught up to me? I thought to myself. I skidded to a stop just before colliding with the horrific creature. Before I knew it, they had surrounded me. Their howls, growls, barks, and screeches threatening to make my eardrums explode. The Hellbeasts, The Creatures of the Night, The Monsters of Darkness, whatever you called them, they were after me. Well, crap. Alright, I guess I couldn't have gone on running forever. Even though I am in the-- My own thoughts were cut off as a Hellbeast lunged at my throat. I was able to dodge just in time; as it passed by me, I bring out my pistol sword and slit the throat of the Beast. It crumpled to the forest floor, a pool of what looked like oil growing underneath it.

One down, twenty--wait twenty?--ok,yeah. One down, twenty to go. When one Shadow Monster goes down, the whole pack goes for the kill. After the first kill, three of them attacked: one for my throat, one for my legs, and one for my heart. I sliced the throat of the first, shot the second in the head, and dodged the last. Huh. That went a lot better than last time. And not even a scratch! Who's gonna die in the Dreamscape now, Mikey? I wasted precious second imagining on how I was going to boast to Mikey about me killing three Hellbeasts and not even getting scratched.

I felt the pain before I even realized what was happening. A Wolf-life Hellbeast had sunk its teeth into my neck, and others were joining, latching onto my arms and legs, threatening to rip them apart from my torso. Ok wow, I guess I'm going to die in the Dreamscape then. Welp, better than being drowned by a squid in a pitch black ocean...again. The number of Night Creatures that surrounded me grew with the pain they caused. A wet, sticky substance covered me, soiling the shredded rags that covered me. And there's my blood. Darkness was creeping into the sides of my vision, slowly spreading, so that all I could see was black. I felt no pain, had no thoughts, no fears, no feelings.

~~~

A pinprick of light breaks through the eternal darkness that had taken over my vision. It slowly grows as I open my eyes. 

"Hey, Elliot. You can't stay asleep forever. We both know you haven't been able to stay alive in the Dreamscape for more than 4 and a half hours," said a voice from somewhere in the light.

 "God, is that you?" I reply, with as much sarcasm as I can muster in my tired, sore, and shaken up body. 

Light, friendly laughter erupts from the blurry, slowly-focusing figure in front of me. "Yeah, right. Imagine me as a god, Elliot. What do you think would happen?" 

"The whole universe would be screwed. You'd turn the Milky Way into actual milk, all of humanity would become a bunch of tacos, and puppies and kittens would overtake everything."

"Exactly. So, how'd the Dreamscape treat you this time?"

"Hellbeasts. 'Bout twenty of them."

"Oh, man, those little buggers are the worst. How'd it go?"

I tell her--my mother--about my run-in with the Creatures of the Night as I pulled off the electrodes suction-cupped to my forehead, arms, legs, and everywhere else. Detail not necessary.

"How do I look?" I ask when I finish peeling off the electrodes. 

Giggles erupt from my mother's frail frame. "With all those red spots, it looks like you have the chicken pox! Oh, Elliot. Just like your father," my mother says as she strokes my ruffled hair. "With his crappy sense of humor. He was so young went he went, so full of life. We both were. You look just like him, with that fiery red hair and mischievous look in your eyes. You got some of his fighting habits, too. Same weapon, same quick reflexes, you both get cocky when you think you did something cool..."

"Ma!"

"Well, it's true!"