A Mind To Kill The Average Joe

Day 12+/Nightmares Part 2

Maybe it was the now slightly cluster phobic room, but Samantha got along with Riley, her hospital roommate. They didn't give them papers or pens or anything sharper than their fingernails. So it was only guessing games for them. Samantha could have sworn the memories she made with Riley were brighter than the actual room. And that the walls themselves were an unexpected surprise when she woke up, as if she was expecting something different, like a different colour on the walls or even a window leading into a fairytale garden. Needless to say, Riley made her day.

                                  *

"Are you red?" Riley asked.

"Yes." Samantha answered.

"Are you a ball?" Riley questioned her.

"Yeah. You got me." Samantha said in defeat.

"A ball is not a circle." Riley pointed out. She justified wasting half the questions on something that was leading her away from the answer. "It's a 3D object.  It's, a sphere!"

"Okay, okay. Technically I'm not wrong." she defended, "If I drew a ball on paper, it would be a circle."

"If you drew a ball on paper." Riley commented, "It would be the letter 'O'"

Samantha diffused the situation by saying theatrically, "And what do you have against ovals?"

"What?" Riley said with a confused smile.

"It's my turn to guess." Samantha directed the conversation.

"Okay?" Riley said.

                                 *

Samantha woke up with fleeting guilt, after all, it was just a dream. It was about a little boy probably eight or ten years old. She dreamt that he was getting chased by a cloaked dark figure holding a kitchen knife. And she just watched him run and get stabbed in the back by this shadowy entity. Then, it came after her.

Samantha was rejecting the responsibility she had from the boy. He was looking at her, wide eyed and wild with fear, asking her to intervene and save him with it. Only getting caught because he took a turn and tried to run towards her. Riley greeted her with a 'good morning'. And just like that, she forgot about it like most of her dreams. But the feelings she exhibited towards it lingered on a good while after that.

                                  *

"Are you Satan?" Samantha asked Riley.

Riley burst out laughing, " What!? No! Try again."

"You're something red. You can be any shape, and people are afraid to see you." Samantha gathered her clues out loud in hopes that Riley's face show her lying to get back at her at one of those odd clues, but it was difficult for her. Riley was looking up at the sealing. "You also like being warm."

"You have one more question Samantha, use it well." she said with a smirk.

"Round two and I'm already fustrated." Samantha commented, "I'm being to think this game is one-sided to the person who knows the answer."

"Hey." Riley pointed out, "If you could sit up without looking like you're suppressing your screams, we could play tic tac toe in mid air."

Samantha replied, "Aren't you handcuffed to your bed?"

"Touche." Riley stated, "You still got one more question."

"Do you trouble people?" Samantha asked.

"I'm not Satan." Riley responded, " But yes."

"Are you God, stained with the blood of Jesus?" Samantha answered.

"Did you give up like that for little old me? You got fifty percent of a thank you." Riley said, "But I'm blood. You lose."

"How does blood trouble people?" Samantha asked.

"I was thinking cellular." she explained, "Like sickle cell anemia or luekemia."

Samantha didn't get the examples Riley stated. She commented, "It rhymes, so it must be true...?"

                                 *

Samantha was perplexed. She didn't know what her mind was trying to tell her. This time she dreamt the room, like it was before Riley. But grey, with a mirror for a door and a little window above her bed, the size of a doggie door too small for her to fit through. And an anaconda laying right beside her. She bolted towards the furthest corner of the room.

She stood in front of the mirror, she saw herself, but different. Her hair was in a mess, she was scrawny and paler, with dirtied, tattered clothes. And when she looked down at herself, she became just as her reflection. It freaked her out. Nothing seemed familiar anymore so she tried to escape. She considered breaking through the mirror, but her reflection became it's own person, tired and bord, sitting on the floor staring at nothing. Honestly, she just didn't want to go close to it so she used the window, tiptoeing on the serpent, only to crawl her way into a room of fire.

                                 *

Samantha's nightmare had woken her up. The room was pitch black with only the sound of breathing and Riley's cuffs softly fighting against the handlebars of the bed. Then, there was a weird sound. Samantha could feel someone standing next to her bed. She tried to remain calm. Waking up after a nightmare normally gets her paranoid, so she just pretend to sleep, if the person was really there. To her shock, the door opened, letting a beam of light in.

"Riley?..." she whispered with no reply, "Riley...?"