Moonlighter

Chapter 2: The Nightmare

Chapter 2: The Nightmare

     Something went awry the night Enzo went to sleep. His limbs locked up, his head began to swell, his body enwrapped in an intense painful grip, and everything fell dark and silent.

    Enzo was unable to move. He was not able to make any sound. His heart began racing, causing him to convulse and tremble. His breathing was stifled. His head was perspiring profusely. He became consumed in a powerful, violent trance as everything around him dissolved and faded into black.

     His body began to lose its feeling and strength. Enzo began to tear in agony and helplessness as the tight grip on his body increased in force at any move he made. He began experiencing a sensation of descent. Like an eternal spiraling fall into a bottomless pit. Uncontrollable anxiety.  Increasingly frightened. But could not let out a scream nor even open his mouth, for his jaws had been clenched and shut tight by the cruel grip on his body.

    Then the falling came to a sudden halt.    

   Enzo opened his eyes, shaken, blurry, and full of tears. The grip on his body had been broken. His heart was still racing as he kept breathing heavily. He realized he was still in the bed he was sleeping in. But he was no longer in Kahree's house. There was nothing but darkness surrounding him and the bed. 

   Where is this place?

   He rolled out of the bed to his left and fell to the ground, his body feeling tortured and beaten. His insides felt numb and sour. The sweat from his head dotted and pelted the ground as his head fell into his arm. 

   After catching his breath and regaining his feel and strength, Enzo, shaken and frightened, looked around into the darkness. His vision, still a little impaired and blurred, could make out something not too far away from where he was standing.

   It was a bright white light.

   There it was, just floating in front of him, twinkling, emanating. It was the same white light he encountered on the mountain passage... 

   The white light stayed in place for a moment, then began to drift away. With nowhere else to go in this place, Enzo desperately followed it. 

   Slowly appearing out of the darkness, the shape of a large building began to come into view. It looked dilapidated and was completely covered with weeds and vines. More things began to appear all around. The pathway leading up to it was lined with massive torch-bearing pillars. An eerie crescent moon graced an all-encompassing foggy sky above. The white light scaled up the giant steps that fronted the building and stopped at the doors of the entrance. The two towering, massive doors loudly swung open. The white light went inside.

   Enzo was still at the bottom of the steps as he continued to pursue the light. His breathing was labored and his legs were waning. As he approached the last step, he noticed engraved text on the wall right above the doorway. It read 'THE HOLY PALACE OF HIS BIRTH'.

   He walked inside. It was a long, seemingly-neverending hallway in front of him. There were doors littered all over the place. The white light was nowhere to be seen.

   Enzo started hearing sounds coming from behind one of the doors. He slowly opened and entered through it to see a lone beam of light shining on a child sitting at a small table. It was a little boy hunched over with a paintbrush in his hand. Quietly approaching the child, Enzo saw that he was painting something on a piece of paper. Next to the boy, there were ink blocks and a tall stack of white paper on the table. 

   Enzo slowly walked around the table to face the child. The child's hair was completely covering his face. Painting in a furious, trance-like manner, it was like Enzo was invisible to him. Enzo slowly walked closer to the mysterious boy, attempting to see what he was creating.

   In a quick instant, just before Enzo could see the painting, the boy took the paper and threw it aside. It landed on the floor just a few feet away. He then grabbed a new piece of paper from the tall stack and began painting again, this time something new.

   Enzo picked up the paper from the floor. He flipped it over. What he saw was a ghastly image of a four-limbed beast violently tearing a human in half. There were details of blood and internal organs everywhere. Piles of dead, deformed, severed bodies filled the picture.    

    Shocked at the disturbing images, Enzo threw the paper back down to the floor. Suddenly the entire room was covered with malicious artwork, the walls completely engulfed with paper.

    Enzo looked back at the child, who was now standing up and facing him, his face still shrouded. The child began to smile and laugh while walking towards him. "The beast will consume you!" he screamed.

    Enzo quickly left the room. He was now back into the hallway. He began hearing something in the shadows. He looked behind him and saw a towering figure appear. It was the beast from the painting the boy just drew, manifested in physical form. It grunted and scowled and then starting heading for Enzo. Its large jaws opened, revealing a vicious, terrifying mouth full of pus and slime. Enzo ran down the hallway in cold fear as fast as he could, the loud footsteps of the beast behind him. He made a faithful act and hastily entered a random door and shut it immediately. 

    The sounds of the beast began to fade away. Enzo, with his back pressed against the door and his heart pounding loudly, was now in someone's bedroom. Someone was sitting on the bed, crying and weeping out loud, hands cupped over the face. He removed his hands from his face and looked right at Enzo, revealing a disfigured face that had been severely beaten, cut, and bruised. It was the same boy. 

    The child stared at Enzo, face full of tears, then suddenly muttered, "Help me.." Out of the darkess came a silhouette of large man, grabbing the child violently by the throat and throwing him against the wall like a rag doll. The large man then began fiercely kicking the child in the stomach and in the face. 

    "Hey! No!" Enzo yelled helplessly. As Enzo tried to confront the man, the floor below him crumbled and poured downward like sand. He fell into what seemed like yet another room, a large circular one. This time, there was a young man standing right in front of him. He seemed to look like an older, adolescent version of the boy. Enzo noticed he was holding a small photograph in his hand. It was of a girl. But Enzo could not clearly see who it was. 

    Suddenly, a group of shadowy figures began to surround the young man. There were about 30 of them, dressed in dark robes and wearing gold masks. They formed a circle around the young man, him being right in the center. One of the strange figures walked up to him and extended out an arm. The strange figure had something in its hand, trying to offer it. It was a reddish pill.

    The moment the young man took the pill, Enzo began to have raging spasms all throughout his body. 'What's happening to me?' he thought. The violent sensations consumed him entirely. The young man looked at Enzo silently and just smiled. The strange figures in dark robes began clapping.

    Enzo fled the scene, now desperately wanting to leave this place. The pain was so great, he could not run upright. He continued to run, somehow finding himself back into the main hallway. He could see the main entrance up ahead. But there was someone standing still in the way of entrance: it was a woman in the doorway, blocking the way out.    

    As Enzo slowed down in front of the woman, she went up to him and gripped him tightly by his shoulders. Enzo gasped in fright. The woman looked scared and disparaged, her face flowing with tears and her body shaking wildly. Enzo saw that the woman was pregnant.

    Enzo tried to free himself to leave, but she gripped him tighter. She began to say loudly and desperately, "I don't want to have this child! Help me, please! Remove it! I DO NOT WANT THIS CHILD!..."

    And then, within a flash of white light, Enzo's eyes shot open. He found himself back in his bed. He looked around him and saw that he was back in Kahree's house. Beams of sunlight shone through the bedroom window. It was morning. Enzo let out an agonizing sigh. What seemed like a surreal, cryptic nightmare was over.

    Still feeling traumatized and overwhelmed with anxiety, he calmly tried to collect himself, wondering what those horrifying visions were about.