Nightmare

Chapter 4

I wake up on the road, a small stream of blood dripping down from my lip, glass shards stuck in my arms, I look forward onto the road, Arthur's car is upside down, the windows broken, but there is no sign of Arthur. 

I bring myself to my feet and weakly walk to the nearby gas station. I stumble through the door, and the clerk sighs, thinking I'm another street drunk, and then he notices my wounds and beckons me over. "Ma'am, are you alright?" the clerk says "I got into a car crash, I need to know how far St Milton Medical center is from here," I reply, "Ma'am, I'll drive you there, it's about a 2-minute drive from here," he responds. I think the clerk and we head outside to his car and begin to drive.

I notice a trail of blood on the road, and I hope to the good Lord above that it belongs to Arthur, and he made it to the hospital. 

We stop at St Milton, and I thank the clerk for his help. I walk inside the building, and several associates rush to me as I'm about to collapse. I pass out. 

I wake up in a stretcher, being carted back to the lobby by a nurse. I drowsily ask the nurse what happened, and he explains that I fainted in the middle of the lobby, and they just performed some simple bandaging and removed the glass shards from my wounds, along with treating the blunt force damage on my upper back.

I got off the stretcher, and met up with Arthur in the lobby, who was wearing a cast around his arm.  "Looks like I got off worse than you did" he says as we walk out of the hospital.

"So then, should we just go home, or should you get your..condition checked out?" Arthur asks       "based on what happened on the way here, I don't think it's a condition" I reply.      "It was just a weird horse, that's a-" Arthur is cut off. I look over at Arthur, and see that he's impaled by a sharp boney blade, curved like a scimitar. Arthur is lifted up, revealing the Unicorn below him, the beast stands much larger than a typical horse, easily seven or eight feet tall, fanged teeth, Infernal breath venting from the holes in it's skull-like face. The Unicorn jerks to the left and throws Arthur's body off the tip of it's horn, and it turns back to me. "𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖒𝖆𝖞 𝖋𝖑𝖊𝖊, 𝖇𝖚𝖙 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖜𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖓𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗 𝖇𝖊 𝖍𝖎𝖉𝖉𝖊𝖓" it whispers. I sprint away into the road, hoping to lose the beast, and I did, strangely enough, though it could be that it didn't attempt to pursue.

after a good 45 minutes of running, I finally make it back to my house, and get on my motorcycle, and drive the opposite direction.

I pull up at the cemetary where my mother is buried, and I walk inside. I step up to my mother's grave, where there are some old flowers from a few days ago. "Is this what this was?" I say to the grave, "was it hunting you too?" I say through terrified tears, gripping the grave as hard as I can. I look up to see a tall, hatted figure, cloaked in darkness, looking down at me, carrying a farmer's scythe in one hand.

"𝔴𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔡𝔬 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔰𝔢𝔢𝔨, 𝔠𝔥𝔦𝔩𝔡?" it says to me in a ghastly voice, echoing through the deepest depths of my soul.

"I want to get away from this monster, it won't leave me alone." I say, nearly sobbing.                 "𝔜𝔬𝔲 𝔴𝔦𝔰𝔥 𝔱𝔬 𝔟𝔢 𝔣𝔯𝔢𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔑𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔢?" it replies.                                                              "Is that what it's called? The Nightmare?" I reply, "ℑ𝔫𝔡𝔢𝔢𝔡 𝔦𝔱 𝔦𝔰, 𝔠𝔥𝔦𝔩𝔡," the Figure sighs, "𝔣𝔦𝔫𝔡 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔤𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔱 𝔤𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔣𝔞𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯'𝔰 𝔤𝔯𝔞𝔳𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔭𝔩𝔞𝔠𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔯𝔬𝔰𝔢 𝔲𝔭𝔬𝔫 𝔦𝔱,"  "Why?" I inquire "𝔟𝔢𝔠𝔞𝔲𝔰𝔢 𝔦𝔱 𝔴𝔞𝔰 𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔡𝔬𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔟𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔤𝔥𝔱 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔰𝔲𝔣𝔣𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔲𝔭𝔬𝔫 𝔶𝔬𝔲, 𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔴𝔦𝔩𝔩 𝔟𝔢 𝔢𝔵𝔭𝔩𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔢𝔡 𝔬𝔫𝔠𝔢 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔭𝔩𝔞𝔠𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔯𝔬𝔰𝔢" the figure responds.

"Who are you?" I ask, my final question to the figure

"ℑ 𝔞𝔪 𝔡𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔥, 𝔠𝔥𝔦𝔩𝔡"