The Dream
Helen Eyre
Copyright 2011 by Helen Eyre
The girl ran. Her screams echoed around the dark and gloomy corridor. Her footsteps thudded loudly as she thundered down the long corridor. The high cruel laugh rang in her ears. The more she ran the louder it became. It seemed to be coming from all around her. Her terrified breathing seemed deafening in her ears. She looked back and immediately regretted it. A dark, thick, red liquid that looked awfully like blood was oozing steadily from under every door she had passed. The blood was following her. The walls seemed to melt and form terrifying faces that seemed to laugh at her as if they knew something she didn’t, as she fearfully continued her run. The floor lost its colour. The only thing left with colour was the red liquid chasing her. As she neared the stairwell her arms seemed suddenly heavy. She felt like her legs were sinking right through the dark, creaky floorboards. She shook her head and pulled herself free from the invisible force pulling at her. As she reached the stairs she could hear cruel whispers that pounded her skull,
“Never escape, you’ll join me, you’ll never escape from me…” the whispers went right through her and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, she felt her skin crawl. With added determination she forced herself on, she had to get out. Fast. Petrified squeaks escaped her lips when she almost ran straight into the slithering snakes in front of her she jumped over them and headed towards the stairs. She reached the stairs and hurtled down them dodging the stairs that fell away as if to try and stop her leaving.
Once she reached the door she paused…but when she heard the chilling shrieks and howls of angry sounding creatures coming closer behind her she jumped and continued her escape.
She grabbed the skull shaped handle of the door and withdrew it quickly. Her hand was burnt. Blisters rose up from her scorched digits. Crying desperately she grabbed the door handle again and heaved it open ignoring the pain shooting up her arm. As soon as the door was open the girl tumbled out frantically. Almost at once she gasped, forgetting her troubles for a brief moment. The sky was a dark blue. The moon was full and hung high in the air. The sky was clear. The black house behind her glowed eerily, in the dull light. Its evil features making it seem as if it were scowling down at her ivy had crept its way perniciously around the house, like a shadow holding all who enter in eternal darkness. A single laugh boomed from the inside of the house and the girl, suddenly back in reality, ran.
She ran for what seemed like hours, until she was to tired to carry on any further, she collapsed to her knees crying un-controllably half in terror half in relief that she had escaped. She gasped for air holding her sides. When she looked up again she reeled back and screamed her loudest. She had run straight in to a graveyard. And the graves were rumbling. Soil and gravel fell away in clumps as the center rose unsteadily. As she stared in horror, rotten corpses rose out through the now thin layer of dirt that had covered them. A mottled, clammy hand grabbed her shoulder. She screamed again and pulled the hand off her. She started to run back towards the large iron gates of the exit. She dodged around the graves as more bodies rose free out of their prisons.
As she neared the exit a figure appeared. At first she thought this man could help, as she drew nearer the full horror of her situation hit her. The man was tall, and un-naturally pale. His eyes were mere slits that gleamed red. He wore a long, black hooded cloak. Evil emanated from him. His long fingers were stretched out as if to catch something…or someone. This was no man. He couldn’t be… He looked… dead.
The girl couldn’t escape. She ran straight into his open hands, the creature spoke,
“Welcome back” it drawled, voice dripping with pure malice and a faint pleasure.
One final scream started to escape her lips, but then died in her throat, as consciousness left her…
She woke with a start. She could see nothing but darkness. She tried to move but she found herself in a box of some sort. She screamed but abruptly stopped when she realized her air would run out quicker. She banged on the lid as hard as she could. When the lid was finally opened she had to squint to see who had helped her. Then she screamed. It was the tall pale man. He grabbed her and pulled her bodily out. She yelled in pain. Her skin felt like it was on fire, she wished she were dead just to stop this agonising pain, and then as suddenly as it started, it finished. But her mental torment wasn’t over yet.
Once outside the box she realized she had been kept in a coffin. She trembled and whimpered,
“P….p…please d..d…don’t hurt m..me” she stammered.
“I … I just want t.. to.. to go h.. h….home.”
“But you are home” said the terrible face with a silky voice through an evil grin, “why do you want to leave?”
She could feel something cold and slimy on the back of her neck. She spun round and almost fainted in fright. What she saw was two rows of very large yellow teeth shaped like tombstones grinning hungrily at her. The teeth were dripping in blood. The mouth was drooling a mixture of blood and saliva…right on to her! The girl felt her skin crawl as she felt the slim slip in to her top. The girl slowly raised her eyes to the terrible beast that these teeth belonged to.
It had large, evil looking yellow eyes. She saw no mercy in them, only hunger. A large silted nose sniffed hard, as if tasting her smell. Horns sprouted out of above the eyes. Pointed ears moved independently listening closely to every sound made. The creature moved slightly and she saw its dark shaggy fur, matted and dirty, covering his chest and back. Its back was hunched with large pointed spikes protruding down its length. Large twisted tusks wound their way from the upper lip of the snarling mouth. It had large fingers that it flexed constantly. Its claws slid out with an ominous schiiick. Its clawed feet scratched the floor and thudded heavily when he shifted his weight impatiently from one foot to the other. Its knees were permanently bent as if it were about to pounce. Then another facinorous looking creature appeared from out of the shadows. This beast was by far the worst. It seemed to have taken the general form of Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld. One head was thin and pointed. Sharp teeth reflected the dim light. Its sharp nose sniffed angrily. Horns stuck out at odd angles above its pointed ears. Its fur was moth-eaten. Its skin was a dull grey-black as if it had died and rotted then been set on fire mercilessly. Its eye sockets were empty but for the tiny dots of red that peered at the girl with curiosity. The second head was similar to that of a dragon. Its mottled skull was covered in scales. A forked tongue hung out between its fangs. Smoke issued from its nostrils when it breathed out. Glowing yellow eyes stared blankly through heavy eye lids. A skull design glowed eerily red in the light of the candles. And the third head looked like a very ill lion. Its eyes were sunken with dark shadows surrounding them. Blood oozed from the many cuts covering its face. The matted fur that would once have been a mane lay in shambles around its ears. It looked as though it had been beaten many times by human hands. It looked like it wanted revenge. Its lips were pulled back over its teeth in a growl.
All three of the heads roared so loudly that the girl felt her very bones being rattled.
The first beast snarled impatiently. It stamped the floor and howled angrily. It waved it clawed fists. It raised them over its head, and a storm of plaster and brick fell on top of the group. The girl automatically made her self as small as possible and covered her head with her arms. When it had finished falling, the odd group all looked like they had been in a snowstorm. Creepers wound their way through the rubble and grabbed the ankles of the cowering girl. As the pulled her away from the frightening creatures she fell flat on her face. Blood flowed from her broken nose and cut lips. She trembled. Although she was pleased to be away from those terrible creatures, she couldn’
t help thinking she was going somewhere much worse. And she was.
The creepers kept pulling her. No matter how much she tried to escape, they pulled her easily as if she were a feather. It pulled her through a small hole in the floor. She felt herself falling. Then a loud splash! Then silence. She was worried about where she was and it took her a minute to realise her clothes were soaked. She was in a pool. Then she saw a faint flickering light. She started to get uncomfortable about her situation. She began feeling very hot. She imagined her skin blistering. She thought the light was some sort of fire. Like a gas lamp. Then the chanting began. She spun around. A dozen or so hidden things were surrounding her chanting. Then a light blazed from somewhere, and she nearly fainted again. She was in a cooking pot! She hadn’t imagined the heat. They were cooking her! She trembled and desperately tried to clamber out of the pot but her hands were wet and couldn’t get purchase on the side of the pot. The creatures were throwing items into the pot. Then something hit her head and darkness claimed her. The last thing she felt was the boiling water rising over her head as she fell through the liquid. Hundreds of eyes watched her go, laughing… laughing…..
The girl woke screaming. Her mother and father stumbled into her room.
“What’s wrong?” asked her mother. “Why are you screaming?”
“Terrible dream, horrible creatures, they tried to eat me, they did something to you,” the girl mumbled in a hurried voice.
“Don’t worry love, it was only a dream, nothing has happened to us….”
But the girl interrupted with a small scream and shuffled abruptly away from her mother, because she noticed the two small holes in her mothers’ neck, the pale skin. The fangs! It wasn’t a dream. The girl had entered her nightmares!