Living a Life of Fear

Chapter 2: The dream journal

          My dreams had only gotten worse over the years... More detailed, longer, It was almost like the thing was toying with me. I knew it was just my mind but honestly... It didn't help... Almost two years had passed, all of the nightmares lost to time. It started becoming too much. I started going to a therapist. Who offered that I make a dream journal, so every session, they could look at my dreams to better help me.

          Thankfully my mother was willing to buy me a spiral notebook that wasn't going to be used for school. My therapist told her what the book was going to be for. Saying that I am suffering from immense night terrors that have manifested themselves as a phobia in my mind. She wasn't too surprised by this as a similar thing happened to her with Mimes. Yet for something so simple as a Mannequin? It was seemed as childish.

          We came home from the store with my notebook, I began to mark it, ownership, dates and times etc... Finally it was ready for my first dream. At the top of the page it read "Night 1, July 20th, 2014" The pen I had slipped in to the rings along the side of the notebook and the notebook itself rested on my nightstand open to the current day. I had heard the buzz about a new game that was coming out soon, A "Five Nights at Freddy's". It sounded great, I had no idea what it was about. Regardless I was excited for it. Not a day sooner either, as its release date was the 24th of the same month that year, just 4 days away.

          Excited for the new game, I went to bed early so that the day of it's release would come sooner. After devouring my dinner quickly, I ran to my bed, jumped in and covered up. My mom had just gotten to the door when I was trying to go to sleep. She chuckled and just kissed my head before leaving my room, my nightlight on and my main light off. I slipped into my dreaming world. Anxious for the next batch of nightmares that awaited me. Yet also excited to wake up a day closer to that new game.

        Again, I was falling, this was pretty normal now. And again, I fell into the mall, I looked around, and the surroundings were closer to my first dream. Abandoned, Dilapidated, dark... I cautiously began to walk around, looking around for any sign of him, Keeping a sharp ear out for his breathing. As I walked, I couldn't help but notice the ground slowly changing tile by tile to a dark wood floor and then to dirt. I blinked and suddenly I was no longer in the mall, I was in the woods.

          "Oh, am I finally gonna have a slender man nightmare" I chuckled to myself. My mother was telling me about lucid dreaming and lined my room with a salt line, I can't remember what that had to do with, Maybe spirits... Anyway, I was aware that I was dreaming. Which as I've read, is the first level of lucid dreaming. I started walking through the woods looking around. Eventually I found a flash light, I flicked it on and the dim light illuminated a small circle in front of me. It was a small little pocket flash light so the light it emitted wasn't that great. I began searching for the pages like you would in the game but... there weren't any pages, I searched for what felt like hours in this seemingly infinite forest. All for these notebook pages with drawings sprawled across them. After a while I got angry and stopped walking, looking around in my spot. Then I started hearing sounds, footsteps almost, but somehow not. I started looking around more frantically. That fear welling up inside, ready to burst in a panic.

Then I heard its breathing.

          I gulped and just picked a direction before I started to sprint Slenderman I could handle being chased by, Just don't look at him, simple... But this thing? If it even so much as touched me I was done and not to mention the weird pulling and pushing forces it supposedly had. I didn't want to chance it, I ran through the woods, My light illuminating a small path ahead of me, But no matter how fast I ran, no matter how far I sprinted it sounded like he was right behind me... Like he was in my head. I stopped, out of breath, I couldn't go any further. My legs gave out and I just sat on the ground. Struggling to breathe. I didn't see his face this time. But I felt his touch and that sickening coldness of my fire leaving my body. My vision went dark before I awoke. I looked around, Nothing... Typical. My breathing was fast. My legs weak, My heart pounding. But nothing in my room.

          I grabbed my journal and started scribbling down the notes I had from my dream, a summarized version, short but still detailed enough for my doctor to tell what was wrong.

And There you have it. Chapter 2, There are only gonna be a few more chapters like this before We get in to present day stuff. Thank you for reading, I hope you've enjoyed so far.