From A-Z, and Everything in Between

Nightmares

  It was the same place every time. A dark, dreary place that was silent and cold. Tendrils of mist curled around in the air, covering the ground in a veil of gray. He tried different things each time he got to that place. Sometimes he'd wander around for hours without ever getting anywhere, other times he'd sit on the ground with his knees pulled to his chest and wait for it to end. There was nothing to be gained from this place. And yet every night he returned here, leaving only when he regained consciousness.

The more he visited that place, the drearier it became. It was so dark, he could barely see a thing. It was hard to breathe because inhaling that cold air seemed to freeze his lungs. But that was nothing compared to how empty everything made him feel. It was almost like just being here drained him of his emotions. That numbness stayed with him when he left, and worsened when he came back. It got to the point where he couldn't even cry. There was just nothing there. There was nothing anywhere. But, in a last feeble attempt to cling onto whatever might've been left, he called out to the empty world around him.

"Please, it doesn't matter who, just come and save me."

Soraru was an insomniac. He had been told that by professionals on multiple accounts, and every time they suggested he should take medicine to help him sleep. They all gave him prescriptions to take to the local pharmacy, which he would give a half mumbled "thank you" to, but he never did anything with it. As soon as he left the doctor's office he'd crumple up the papers and throw them away. The one time he told someone about this they said he was being stubborn and he should just get help already. But, truthfully, Soraru wanted to sleep as little as possible.

He didn't care if he constantly felt exhausted. He also didn't care that there were huge dark circles under his eyes, or that he had trouble focusing. Soraru absolutely hated sleep. The reason for that wasn't something he could easily explain. To him it made sense, but he knew that if he tried telling someone else about it they wouldn't get it. They never had those terrible dreams. They never woke up feeling even more tired than before rather than feeling refreshed. It was just pointless trying to explain those things to them. So, Soraru kept it to himself and made up other excuses for why he refused to sleep.

Yet despite how much he wished he could just stop sleeping altogether, he eventually got so tired that it was impossible to resist any longer. And that was when the dreams would start. Well, Soraru called them dreams, but they felt so real that it almost seemed like a different reality. A very cold, depressing reality. Soraru dreaded every moment he spent there, but as he closed his eyes he knew it was impossible to avoid. There was no point fighting against it. It was a dream, after all. And even if there was a point, Soraru no longer had the will to fight anyway.

That familiar coldness enveloped Soraru's body as his consciousness faded away. It was like an old friend, except one you'd rather never see again. Soraru didn't really want to open his eyes, knowing what he'd see before he even did. Darkness and mist. That was it. Oh, how he wished he could just lay on the freezing ground with his eyes shut tight until it was all over. But he couldn't. Even though it felt like all the energy in his body had been sucked out of him, Soraru still felt compelled to get up. Maybe he still had enough naive hope in him to think he'd find an exit.

Soraru reluctantly opened his eyes and used his arms to slowly push himself up. He felt so weak that he almost let himself fall back onto the ground. But Soraru managed to stay up, switching to a position where his lower body was supporting his weight instead. He looked around, blinking a few times to adjust his eyes to the darkness, and his gaze stopped on something unusual. There was a door behind him. Not once in all the times he had come here had there ever been a door in this place. The sight of it was almost too much to comprehend. Soraru sat there for a long time, frozen in place. There was a door here. Was it real? Did he finally reach the point of hallucinations?