White Hall Chronicles: Whispers in the Field

The Bull

Journal of Evan Shelley

White Hall, Texas

Apr 24, 2008

Have you ever had trouble sleeping because of a dream? DREAM. More like night terror.

Have you ever had trouble sleeping because of a night terror?

Well I have. This feels like an awful psychosis trick of my mind. I'm not crazy but the lack of rest is making me feel minor lunacy. For several weeks now my dreams have been recurring and they've been frightening. I can't exactly tell Joanna because I don't want her to think that I have some sort of mental illness. What woman would marry a man with mental illness?

Are nightmares considered a disorder? I know sleep paralysis is a disorder, but I've never experienced that before. I'm positive that insomnia is a disorder because I wrote a paper about it for health class during my sophomore semester health class.

Right now, the time is 1:34. A.M. I'm too afraid to fall asleep and even contemplated on making coffee to stay awake. I don't ever actually remember falling asleep before this happens either. I just wake up terrified.

Maybe if I write the dream down it will go away, and I can finally return to a health sleep routine.

Orange. The sky is always a russet orange as I look out the window of grandma Lynn's kitchen window. I walk through the house room for room trying to find my grandmother but she's never there. Nobody is ever in the house on the porch or in the yard.

I've always expected to see my grandfather in these dreams, but he never appears. Somehow, I'm transported to the front door of the house which is always open. I push open the screen door and see the empty black rocking chair. In the distance I see my father mending the barbed wire fence to keep the cattle contained and he calls me to help him.

My father wraps the wire around the fence post, and I help by keeping the post in place in the distance the herd of cattle watches us as we work. The cattle are the one part of my dream that always changes. Sometimes its brahmas and other times longhorns out in the field. But what happens after is a return to the recurrence.

Whether its brahmas or cows; they always get frightened of something and start to stampede in different directions. My father tells me to keep on eye on the cattle to be sure they don't run towards us. As soon as he says this a large black bull appears in the center of the cattle and stares us down. I always tell my father that the bull scares me, but he tells me again just to keep an eye on it.

Time and time again I make the same mistake of looking the bull right in the eyes and notice that both eyes are red! In my mind I know that I'm dreaming but I can't wake up from what I'm seeing. The red-eyed bull is furious at me and I'm unsure why.

I yell at my father and tell him that the bull is going to charge us and in a nonchalant way he repeats the same line, 'just keep an eye on it'. As soon as he finished this sentence the bull charges towards us and I begin to sprint towards my grandmother's house. I look behind me and notice that my father has been gored by the wretch of creature.

My sprint lasts an eternity and even though I know I'm dreaming I still can not rouse myself from sleep. I see my grandmother on the black rocking chair with her head down sleeping and scream for help but I'm voiceless. I'm so terrified I can no longer communicate.

Eventually I reach the porch and look behind me only to see that the bull is no longer behind me; nor the gored body of my father. I'm walk up the stairs towards my grandmother on the black rocking chair and try to awaken her.

She looks up at me with the ruby red eyes of the bull and laughs with pure evil and says, 'I've been trying to catch you and now I have'. Her hand has claws that I've never seen before and she reaches for my arm as I awaken.

Some people may not think to much of this, yet my recurring nightmare absolutely terrifies me. I pray that writing this down may aid in sleep. I plan on inviting Joanna over tomorrow night to see if she can provide any comfort.

I pray.

Apr 26, 2008

It happened again. My dream.

This time it was different though. It was real and I'm beyond frightened. Joanna says that I should go see Father Uriel. She believes that what is happening to me is evil, especially after what she witnessed.

I fell asleep with Joanna in my arms and the dream repeated itself as it has done in-numerous times. Joanna woke because I was thrashing around violent and she says hat she tried to wake me even.

I'm afraid to even write the events of my dream even though there was only a single change to the events. I walked up the stairs towards my grandmother on the black rocking chair and tried to awaken her. She looked up at me with the same ruby red eyes of the bull and laughed her evil laugh.

'I've been trying to catch you and now I have you in my grasps'. Her clawed hand reached for my arm and I felt burning paining and screamed loud with agony.

The pain caused me to wake and Joanna was sitting on the floor across the room crying as I bled from arm. There is no way I could have scratched myself in such a manner. There are three deep gashes across my right forearm and I'm unsure of what to do about this situation.

I refuse to sleep from here on out and will take Joanna's advice to see Father Uriel.

**

An email from Joanna Dawson to her mother

Ganado, Texas

Mother,

Evan is dead. He was unwell and hadn't been sleeping. Something scary happened to him and he drove to see Father Uriel a local priest. He fell asleep at the wheel and hit a bull while driving. I'm not sure what do now. Could you please come here to be with me? I need someone to help me and I've been having awful dreams. I love you more than anything.

Pray for me,

Jo