The dreams were recurring, and frightening to say the least. Carol had been having these dreams since she was young, but they had stopped for years. Why were they starting again now?
They were always the same. Carol would find herself in the middle of a castle made entirely out of ice. The light was very dim, and outside the caslte there was none at all. Every time this happened, she would feel as if her whole body was being frozen. She would run through the castle trying to find a heat source.
Finally she would come to a fire and desperately run next to it. The fire wasn't warm though. Carol would almost feel colder when she got close to it. Suddenly a hand would reach out of the fire and grab onto her wrist. The hand burned more than anything she had ever felt. She would pull away from it, but the hand would never let go. It dragged her into the flames until they consumed her entire body. Throughout the process, only the hand would burn, the flames still felt like ice.
Behind the flames was a room of complete darkness. Carol would see something glowing and white in the distance. She chased it, but it only seemed to get farther away. She would try even harder to catch up to it. Eventually it would stop moving away from her. Up close she could see it was a woman. The woman would slowly turn around to face Carol.
She had stringy black hair and pure white skin that glowed softly in the darkness. She had the face of Carol's mother, only hers had been horribly mutilated. All of her skin was showing the first signs that it was starting to decompose. She had long ugly scars all over her face. Her once blue eyes were now completely black and crying tears of blood. Suddenly the glow became harsher, until it was almost blinding.
Carol would wake up in her bed with tears running down her face. Her mother had died in childbirth and Carol only knew her through pictures and stories. The dreams had started when Carol was only five years old and continued until she could barely sleep for fear of having the dream again.
After about a year they finally stopped. Carol was 15 now and she had never had the dream again until a few months ago. They had never made sense, and nothing ever seemed to stop them.
This time was different. Yesterday, Carol had met someone on the street who stopped her and asked about the dreams. He refused to give his name or explain what he was doing. At the end of the conversation he gave her a card that only had a phone number on it and said to call him the next time she had the dream.
Carol turned her light on and walked over to her desk. She stared at the card, trying to decide if she should call or not. She wasn't sure if she could trust this man or not. Even if she could, what could he possibly do to stop the dreams?
Despite these questions, Carol knew she couldn't spend another year having these nightmares.
"Hello," she said.
"Carol," a voice on the other line said, "You had another one of the dreams."
"How did you-"
"You need to get out of that house and come here."
"I can't just leave!"
"Carol, you need to leave."
"What's going on?"
"I'll tell you when you get here. I can't say anything over the phone."
"Why can't you come here?"
"It isn't safe for me to leave."
"But it is for me?"
"You'll be fine, just hurry up. We need you right now, and if you don't come it will put all of us in further danger. We'll make sure your dad doesn't punish you. He'll think you were there all night."
