The 30th Letter

Chapter Three

If dreams come true, so do nightmares.
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Natalie Walker was no stranger to staying up till the ungodly hours of the night. But, you see, it's usually because she lost track of time while reading a book or because she was binge watching some TV show, but never up has she stayed up simply because she felt vulnerable sleeping. Or even closing her eyes, for that matter.
The restless girl look over at the alarm clock on her nightstand.
4:32 am
Natalie sighed and rubbed her tired eyes.
Ugh I need to get some sleep, thought Natalie.
So, she laid down and closed her eyes, and in a matter of seconds, sleep had claimed her, and she hoped to escape reality and enter her wildest fantasies. But what was once a place full of magic and happiness turned into a place full of terror and darkness...

A scream pierced through the air causing the sleeping girl to jolt awake. The ombré haired girl who was sleeping soundly just moments ago was now on full alert. Looking around she realised that this was her room but it was different. The once vibrant baby blue walls are now dull. She looked to where her bookshelves are and they were empty. A small gasp left her lips.
"My books..." she whispered sadly as she slowly got out of bed and walked over to the now empty shelves.
At that moment, she remembered her photo album that she kept under her bed.
Jogging over to her bed and kneeling down, she found it. Sighing in relief, she opened it, expecting to see the familiar sight of goofy pictures of her and her best friends, but was shocked to find it empty. The whole album was empty. Not a picture to be found.
Before she could look at anything else in her room, the same scream that woke her up was heard again.
Gasping, she stood up and ran down stairs and into the kitchen, nearly falling twice.
Honey brown eyes widened in horror when she stepped into something wet on the floor of the kitchen
"Please don't be blood," the nauseous girl whispered to herself before she forced herself to look down.
"Oh thank god." she sighed in relief when she looked down and saw that it was not blood but, gasoline.
Then she looked around and the whole place was dripping with the substance.
"What the heck is going on?" she mumbled to herself.
"I'm finally getting what I want," a deep voice from behind her chuckled.
Natalie twirled around. All colour drained from her freckled face as she spotted the large man in front of her. The same exact man from last time.
"W-who are y-you?" Natalie demanded. If it wasn't for the stuttering, one would've thought she was completely unbothered by him from how confident and fearless she sounded.
"You'll find that out soon enough." The dark, shadowy man chuckled. A deep sinister chuckle. With that said, he lit a match and dropped it on the floor. And that floor was covered in gasoline.
Frozen and unable to move, Natalie watched with wide eyes as the match fell. Everything felt as if it was in slow motion.
"No!" she screamed, terrified, as the match hit the ground.

Jolting up from her bed, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath, Natalie looked around frantic and panicked.
"Just a dream, it was just a dream." sighed a very relieved Natalie.
Running a hand through her sweat-drenched hair, she got out of bed and headed into her bathroom to shower, grabbing her phone from her nightstand on the way.

Once she was in the bathroom, she stripped from all her clothes and turned on the water. While waiting for it to get to the right temperature she put on a song and set it on shuffle.
Once the water was perfect, she stepped in and let the water run down to her feet and moisten her skin in the process. The hot water felt good on her skin. At that moment, with music playing in the background and the water hitting her soft skin, she felt at ease.

If only that poor girl knew what was going on in her room. That the only thing separating her from her worst nightmare was the bathroom door.
He stood right outside her bathroom door, using all the self control he had to be able to resist walking into the bathroom and taking her right then and there. Shaking his head, he walked over to her desk and placed the letter under the laptop so that only some of it is showing. On his way out, he saw her book on her nightstand and his eyebrows shot up in delight as a face splitting grin slowly appeared on his face.