When Night Falls

I woke with a quick jump, and if I hadn't been quick enough to catch myself, I would have fallen out of my bed. I looked around my still dark room and felt my cheeks flowing with heat. I put my hand up to my cheeks-warm, I placed them on my forehead-warm and below my bangs was beads of sweat trickling down the front of my face. With one swipe, they were gone. My heart was racing against my chest, and I immediately felt sick and queasy. For a second, I thought last night's dinner was going to come back up. Then, I lurched forward feeling pain in my stomach, but just as soon as it came, it was gone.

I checked the time on my alarm clock and it read seven in the morning. I listened to see if my parents were up, and sure enough, I heard them shuffling around with one in the bathroom and one, I guessed by the creaking of a bed, was still in their bedroom. I continued to lay in bed thinking about the weird dream I just had. It was strange that I recalled almost all of it like I had actually been through the experience. It was like I had this dream before and was now seeing it for the hundredth time, but I knew I had not seen anything like this. Although, the girl looked quite familiar and I couldn't figure out where I had seen her before. The only other thing that I recognized was the scenery. I know I had been on Chestnut many times before when walking around town and its neighborhoods. The other man, however, was a complete stranger to me. All I know is that he was a man of no good and is very dangerous. There was something about him that made my blood run cold . . . Even if it was just a dream; he was real enough to scare me.

I'm the type of guy who enjoys fear and isn't scared too easily. I read horror books and watch horror movies. I know anything and everything scary. I've seen plenty of movies that even the newest and scariest ones don't scare me anymore. I guess the difference between books, movies, and dreams are that authors write to thrill and entertain the reader with horror fiction, while producers make movies to entertain the watcher with horror films. Nevertheless, dreams are actually quite different. Dreams are created in the subconscious mind. Dreams are like fantasies of what we want or what we have experienced even though it may be twisted in a totally different way. Some studies have shown that what you dream about is based on what you ate that day. People come to say that they often dream about the thing they were thinking about the most before they went to bed. Even though you may not be able to remember your dream, everyone has dreams every night. The dream I had was not a fantasy, but a nightmare.

In my opinion, nightmares are much different than what we call dreams. I think nightmares are created when you feel guilty of something or maybe even paranoid. I am neither guilty nor paranoid, and I often wonder the reasons for my nightmares. Could it honestly be the food I am eating?

There was a knock at the door.

"Zach? Are you up?" my dad asked poking his head around the door-way.

"Yes, dad," I called noticing the croakiness of my voice.

"Hurry up and get ready for school," he said. I didn't want to upset my dad or my mom. My dad was going to be taking me to school for a little while before my grounding was lifted. With one swift movement, I was up and out of my bed ready to start a new day. I wondered what road Mother Nature would be taking today. I ruffled the blinds on my window to see that the clouds were a dull gray and looked like rain was swelling inside of them. Of course, my predictions were usually wrong, even if there may be every possible sign of rain. The smell, the look, and the feel could all be a fluke. On mornings like these, I usually feel reluctant getting out bed and heading off to school, though I still had a diminutive pain in my stomach, I felt great.

In the next twenty minutes or so, I was preparing myself for school. By the time I was finished, my dad was already waiting for me.

"Ready to go?" he asked putting on a black jacket obviously agreeing with the weather symptoms thinking that it will rain. I took my chances and ignored my jacket which seemed to be staring at me everywhere I went.