The Beast of Dreams

A W O K E N W I T H I T

I awoke this morning to find that the Beast had once again escaped from the walls of my mind. It stood before me, its shadowy skin touching all and creating a great black void wherever it went, and it looked at me with the great white voids that made up its eyes.

It appeared in a humanoid figure, a large contrast to the last form it took—a large tiger-bear looking thing—and looked at me with a face as blank as its eyes. It wasn't laughing at me like last time, it wasn't smiling with a mouth that took up its entire face, it was only looking at me with no emotion. This happened perhaps a few times before, but it always ended with it smiling or laughing. But this time, and only this time did the Beast not do anything.

It just stood, standing, standing upright, covering everything with the great shadows it created, and the anxiety was slowly taking me over. This must've been its torture this time, and my god, oh my, oh god, it was his best yet. I knew it was going to do something. It was going to speak again, it was going to completely enclose me, it was going to finally kill me. But then it didn't. It stood until I finally broke. It vanished the second I moved my hand to punch. It always did that. That damned Beast. It vanished back into my head, back into its only safe place, and I had to deal with it. That damned Beast.

I saw it again while eating breakfast. I swear it, I know it, it was most certainly right outside the window. I was looking at my neighbor, but the shadows took him. It became the Beast, I saw it, and it looked at me with the same expressionless look it gave me only a few minutes ago. I went to school, did my work, and continued my life without the Beast. That damned Beast still lurked everywhere, however, I saw it everywhere. It could not hide from me! That damned Beast only exists because of me! Therefore, I always see him! That damned Beast can hide, but I shall always see it. I have power over it! I do! But my homework was much too complex to allow for multiple thoughts at the same time, so I put it into the back of mind. And I saw no longer of its dark, shadowy, destructive self. I knew I would have to go to sleep again, that disgusting practice us humans have made, and I was scared. That damned Beast would kill me. I was wrong last night! It was tonight! It would kill me tonight, and I couldn't wait.

I can't believe I was going to do it. I was going to sleep, and I couldn't bear this. I closed my eyes, I actually closed my eyes. Why did I do such a horrendous thing? Why did I do it? I'm an idiot, that's why, I'm an idiot. I have no brain, no brain cells, none of that. The interior of my head consists only of the Beast, that damned Beast, and there is no brain cell that isn't controlled by the Beast. That damned Beast. It made me sleep, it's so obvious. It made me sleep! It forced me to close my eyes! That damned Beast! All it wants to do is torture me, that's all, and it's doing such a good job! Why is it so good! How does it know every single one of my secrets! It's because it is me, that's why, and it is my all! I am the Beast! My damned mind! The only way to kill the Beast is to kill myself!