This time it wasn't just a nightmare.

It had become contrastingly clear to the little boy throughout the night that this was indeed reality. A cruel, horrifying reality. His nightmares come alive.

The little boy ran as fast as his eight year old legs would allow him. Yet he still felt sluggishly slow, the long hallway never ending. Fear had long ago taken over his thoughts, hysteria followed close behind like a looming shadow. He couldn't even scream anymore, he knew there was no one to hear him. He could only run to the pace of his ragged breathing, praying his room would offer safety.

The young boy slammed the door of his room behind him, feathery black hair falling into his eyes as he held his weight against it. He didn't want his nightmare to break into his room. He didn't want it to hurt him like it had hurt all the others. Was he the only one that it hadn't picked off yet? He was its main toy, playing with the poor boy before finally delivering the killing bite. Would that bite come tonight?

The Nightmare's talons could be heard in the marble hallway, clicking against the hard floor and dragging along with a screech as the Nightmare loped towards the child's room. Click. Click. Screech... Click. Click. Screech...

"Don't hurt me." He could only sob under his breath, holding the door firmly closed. The clicking, followed by that horrid screech like nails on a chalk board, grew slowly closer. Taunting him with fear each time those steps sounded off in the hallway, stealing his every breath away. His heart raced faster and faster, sickening the boy. His legs hardly had the energy to hold him up anymore and ached to run far away, to some place safe. But no place like that existed for him anymore.

The loping footsteps stopped at the eight year old's door. He froze in his room, utter terror taking hold. His hands remained firmly pressed against the door, holding everything out. A sheen of sweat covered his whole body. Was there any way getting out of this?

An unsettling silence emitted from beyond the door where the Nightmare stood. The terrified child could only wait for something too happen, for some noise to be made. He could sense its dark presence on the other side of the door, feel it's black, beady eyes staring at the closed door as if seeing through it. And when the boy gathered the nerve to lean forward and place his ear on the door, he could easily hear its labored breathing.

Every breath from the Nightmare came out choked and strangled with a raspy hiss as if in pain. They came slow and steady, scratching up from the bottom of the Nightmare's lungs and rattling out of its mouth heavily, labored. It made it all the more horrifying for the child. He could only choke back a cry for help, knowing it was no use. No one was left alive to hear him.

Those strangled breaths stopped for a moment, just long enough for the child to wonder if the Nightmare had left. When he pulled back away from the door, there was no mistaking the horridly loud sound of the Nightmare ruffling it's hideous and magnificent cloak of black feathers, staking out it's prey. The little boy didn't want to be prey.

"Don't touch me." The child could only whisper under his breath, backing away from the door. He wanted to be as far away from that monster as possible. Horror writhed in his blood like a parasite, fear overcoming like a poison. From beyond his room, he could hear the Nightmare shake out his feathers again and drag one foot of talons against the hard floor, creating that sickening screech again. Then it pounded against the door.

The boy could sense what the Nightmare was doing, he could mentally see it heave its ugly body back, before lumbering towards the door and landing against it with a heavy thud. Then again it pushed back, hauled forward, and hit the door with a thud, knocking it loose. One more hit and the door would come off its hinges, allowing the horrid Nightmare to enter his room.

The monster hit the door full force and it exploded off the frame, landing in splinters on the child's floor. The boy cried out in horror, falling back on to his butt and instinctively scooting into the corner to cower. His arms hovered in front of his face. The boy knew there was nothing he could do to defend himself against this beast, this must be the end.

The black Nightmare stood in the room, taking up most of the space with it's ginormous body. Taloned feet were placed among the splinters of door, digging with razor sharp blades into the wooden floorboards. Such strength followed that those talons graved deep scratches into the floorboards, digging through each wooden slab with a horrid sound. Up from those taloned feet were long, spindly legs, hidden by a cloak of black feathers. Feathers like shadows, black and drifting, twisting shapes as if those feathers had no mold at all. The whole Nightmare was a shadow itself, shifting and fading out of focus before coming back in sharp contrast, features fully visible before it became almost transparent once more. The Nightmare had the body of a bird, enormous black wings lifting to the ceiling as if ready to take off. Those widened wings covered the whole room, cloaking it in darkness. The boy could only gape in horror as those shadows slid over his body.

The huge Nightmare towered over seven feet tall, taking up the whole room. It had the wide and heart shaped face of a barn owl, looking stark like a moon against it's black body, but the hooked beak of a vulture, made for tearing and twisting off rotten flesh. It's eyes were onyx and golden amber, marbled together against black pupils. Those speckled eyes weren't like the black and beady eyes of a bird, they were alive and dancing with hatred towards the child and cruel, malicious excitement towards his suffering.

"Leave me alone!" The child screamed suddenly, falling forward onto his hands in desperation. Tears dripped down his cheeks as the horrifying Nightmare just stared at him with those marbled eyes, crackling with sinister intent. It didn't move as the boy cried, only scratching deeper grooves into the floor and breathing in that horrible, haggard way, each slow breath painful for both him and the child. The boy could only watch the creatures chest rise and fall in labor, its feathers of shadows drifting with each breath.

"Please!" He begged again, tiny hands forming fists on the floor "Go away! "

The Nightmare only blinked at his request and ruffled the feathers on its back. With a low and inhuman sound bubbling up from the back of it's throat, the creature leaned it's whole body forward, lowering its head until it was eye level with the boy on the ground. The poor child was shaking with terror, paralyzed as his blue eyes came to rest in the Nightmare's speckled ones. Their faces were only inched apart, the creature's rotten smelling breath landing on the child's face, making him shrink back in fear.

The boy's heart pounded mercilessly, utter terror taking over his senses. Fear ran rampid in his mind. The Nightmare tilted it's head slightly and cracked open its hooked beak, showing the terrified child the sticky blood that stained the inside of its mouth, gushing down its beak. The blood of the servants and maids who had lived in the house with him; who had taken care of him. The little boy screamed and ducked his head down, trying to block out the horror in front of him.

He could almost sense the Nightmare smiling in its own way. The little boy could imagine it laughing at his terror. Maybe that was the strange gurgling sound that came from the back of its throat; laughter. With eyes closed shut, he could hear the creature rustling, moving. Another second and he could feel one of the razor sharp talons resting on his scalp. The Nightmare dragged it slowly across, from the base of the boys skull up to his forhead; too gently to break skin, but strong enough to let the poor child know that it had the power to cut open his skull at that moment. The boy could only shudder viciously and pray that the creature didn't end his life at that moment. Shivers ran down his spine as that natural blade dragged through his black hair.

"Please, go." He whimpered, unmoving.

The Nightmare pulled its talons back and stood over the boy. The child cried and lifted his head, trying to look past the beast for an escape. The Nightmare blocked any route to safety. Giving up with a sob, the boy brought his blue eyes to the creature's black and amber ones, getting caught in them. They were so alive and active, two cold marbles that pierced the child's soul. Literally, stabbing at the boy's soul, bringing real pain that he cried out at.

It was almost as if the boy could feel the Nightmare's cold talons wrapping around the bright orb that was his soul, squeezing the life out of it, trying to steal it. Those eyes were the gateway, what kept the boy trapped, and his soul was the prize. After all, that was all the Nightmare was after. What it had been after this whole time as it stole lives and inflicted suffering on his poor victim. The boy didn't understand why it had to be his soul, why the others of the maids and servants, even his parent's weren't enough for this monster. This creature had stolen everything from him, it wouldn't take this.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" The boy screamed at the top of his lungs, "YOUVE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM ME!" The boy ripped his eyes away from the Nightmare, hitting the floor weakly. He was drained off all his energy, knowing the monster was just about getting what it wanted.

"You won't take this from me." The child spoke up, his voice utterly cold as he pushed up to his knees, "You've stolen enough."

The Nightmare stared him down for a second, and the boy glared boldly back. It this was the end, he wanted to be strong for it. This tension sparked moment only lasted a few seconds though, before the creature let out a scream. Not a scream of pain or fury, but a scream that it would not be undermined. A scream of determination to get what it wanted from the boy. The child screamed too, in pain as that call hit his ears, and doubled over. The Nightmare's shrieking only grew louder and more horrid as the boy curled up over his knees, hands on his ears.

"STOP!" He cried, but to no avail. The creature's painful shrieks only grew louder, blocking everything else out. It turned consuming for the boy, the horrible noise the only thing he could focus on, the only thing that existed anymore. Everything else numbed out, leaving the boy alone with the Nightmare's screaming, driving him to the brink of insanity. The cries reached it's earsplitting peak; the lightbulbs in his room popping, shards of glass spilling everywhere. The glass on his bedside table shattered, water spilling onto the floor. The boy felt himself breaking as he hunched over in a ball with his hands firmly clamped over his ears. Chaos had broken free.

Then the screams began to form a name. Pitches rose and fell as the Nightmare focused on turning its maddening shrieks into a human name. One it repeated over and over to the boy- his name.

"Isaac!" It screamed over and over, "Isaac! Isaac!"

"Leave me alone!" The boy screamed back.

"Isaac!"

This time the boy couldn't reply. As if in slow motion, he felt his hands pull off his ears, he saw his vision blurring, and he felt his body slip over itself, tumbling to the hard floor limply. There was only the screaming left, and then there was nothing.

Everything was black, everything was gone. Yet, still in the boy's deadened state, he could sense the Nightmare step over his body, in the same way a vulture stepped over the rotten animal it longed to devour.