Awakening. Or was I still asleep?
Darkness surrounded me from all sides. "Where am I?" My voice echoed hollowly through the pitch blackness. "Is anyone there?" Silence pressed upon me from all sides, deafening. The chilling claws of fear crept down my spine. I began to walk, then run blindly through the darkness. Stumbling, I fell hard. The ground was colder than anything I had ever encountered, smooth, and silk-like in texture. Mocking laughter began to ring out from the enveloping darkness. Irrational fear clenched my heart like a vice. This made no sense! I was in a dream! In a minute, I would awake to the warm sun of the real world.
As if sensing my thoughts, the laughter became louder, and louder, penetrating deep into my skull. Head banging like a drum, I clambered upright, stumbling forward. It was only a dream, a nightmare. It was impossible that any of this could be real. Right? All about me, the laughter continued, jeering, scorning, taunting. Half-sobbing, I ran on through the darkness. Was it only my imagination, or did the darkness seem to be pulsating, as if it were...alive.
All of a sudden, the surface below me gave way, plunging me down into a pit. Falling through the air, I watched in horrified fascination as hordes of nightmarish creatures turned to watch my descent with featureless faces. Turning, I ran, mindless with fear, heedless of where I was going. I ran through the air, uncaring of how it was being done, as long as I could leave this place of horrors.
Foot catching upon something, I fell. Rolling, I turned to look upon the thing that I had fallen over upon, my breath catching as I did so.
It was me. My face split almost in two by insane grin, both eyes rolling up to fix upon me with a frenzied intensity. The fake me crawled towards me, its hands bloated, pale, and bleeding. Howling, I kicked it away, its hand breaking away from its body to fly through the air. Turning away from the nightmarish apparition, I kept running. A light appeared in the distance and a faint flame of hope jumped to life within my chest. Forcing my tired legs to keep moving, I continued running. Chancing a backwards glance, I saw the ghoulish image of me stagger drunkenly upright and give pursuit. With one last burst of energy, I jumped through the hole of light, faint with relief at escaping from the nightmare.
Sagging to the ground, I rested my tired limbs. Suddenly, the light winked out. I froze, as ice-cold fingers latched onto my neck. And the taunting laughter started once again. Softly at first, but slowly growing louder and louder into a cacophony of noice. Screaming, I mercifully passed out.
"Hey, wake up!!" Hands shook me as I shot up , drenched in cold sweat. Panting, I stared at the clean, blue linen of my bedsheets. So it was a dream, I thought, slowly becoming aware of the voice beside me. "Are you okay? You were screaming in your sleep. Were you having a nightmare?" Relief pouring through my veins. "Yeah, I'm fi-" My voice caught in my throat, the very blood in my veins turning to ice as I looked into the face to the fake me. It smiled the same unnerving grin, revealing broken teeth and bleeding gums. "Thank goodness you're awake," it said sweetly, its fetid breath washing over me. "You wouldn't want to miss the real nightmare." Its hands latched onto my arms with inhuman strength. Struggling to break free, I frantically tried to wake myself. To awake and enter the real world. Except this time, this was the real world.


END...