Hadagery, Book of Canaan

Chapter 3: Nightmarish...

Chapter 3: Nightmarish...

There is a darkness that hides in the night, like all monstrous things just out of sight. Its just a nightmare you start to shake, still it comes for you asleep or awake. The unnerving words had tumbled right into place.

In the midst of landing on a hard surface. Thinking nothing other than, "Where am I?" And, "What's going on?" Until the mind settled on its last clear memory. The khadaver dolls. Hadlin screeched, "Noooooooo!" Scrambling to keep the khadaver dolls at bay. Finding he could not move his arms, nor his legs. Panic coursed throughout his body. "What's going on? Why can't I move?" During which his eyes shot open. Just barely making out branches carved into a sloping ceiling. The light was dreadful. However he had enough sense to know he was no longer in the land of the lost. It must've been a dream. He would've much rather been dreaming about something else.

Bam! He looked at the knothole window half expecting to see a panotti. Nevertheless nothing was there. By that time his eyesight had adjusted to the sallow light. He found himself in a semicircle room. His bedroom. It appeared he'd fallen out of bed. His arms and legs wrapped in a blanket. Hadlin sighed with relief, "It was only a nightmare." Home safe and sound. Bam! He nearly jumped out of his skin again. Turning just in time to see the last khadaver doll hit the floor. In fact the floor was littered with all sorts of debris. Although the falling dolls explained away his nightmare. Nonetheless it didn't explain how everything ended up on the floor. His eyes grew large asking Eidolon, "What happened?" Scanning the poorly lit room. Hadlins eyes stopped under the bed. As clumps of dust bunnies had collected there. Certain he was safe and sound now. Whispering, "I'm home." Then he remembered his mother scolding him, "Hadlin get to bed, or the babasova will come spirit you away." He was self-assured there is no such thing as a babasova. A beast man that takes bad children. Hadlin started to laugh at the thought. Seeing the dust stir up from his breath. Causing something to shift in the darker recesses under the bed. Something larger than a dust bunny. A chill coursed throughout his body. While his mind was shrieking, "What was that?"

Without warning the ground beneath him began to shake. Then the floor tilted to one side. Everything on the surface began sliding in that direction. His mind screaming, "What is going on?" While desperately trying to unwrap his hands. He'd never felt anything like this, except... "Oh no...It can't be..." His mind refusing to believe it could be an enenra. How else could he explain all this? Still telling himself it was nothing more than a nightmare. All the while the floor kept tilting back and forth. In all the disorder he'd managed to loosen the blanket. Although only enough to grab the leg of his bed. Even as the blanket sandwiched in his palm made it near impossible to keep a hold.

Exactly as something ran from the darkness beneath his bed. Something the size of a rat. However it was no rat. Seeing that it ran on its hind legs. Running towards the curtain covered doorway. As the labored sounds of croaking came from its way. Just as something much larger stepped from out of the darkness. Something half the size of the door. The hairy three foot man stomped on the smaller creature. As the black remains oozed from under its foot. The ooze reassembling into tiny versions of itself. All darting under the curtain. Hadlin couldn't help but gasp. At that moment the dwarf like man looked in Hadlin's direction. However Hadlin couldn't make out any real features. Then just as quickly it too went through the doorway. The billowing curtain the only sign it had been there. Its shadow awkwardly springing out of sight. "What in Canaan was that?" Hadlin could not comprehend what he was seeing.