Nightmare in hell

I'm tired of being a pawn

I had to be dreaming. I really had to be. I would wake up in the safe house and Mark and I would have to get up and check the map to see where the next place to level up was. Those silly frilly white lace curtains, the carpet that I always got nagged to clean. The leather couches all placed around the TV, even my faded red bean bag placed in the middle with a giant dent in the middle where I'd been sitting and my controller on its side.

A light tapping sound came from the direction of the kitchen, like a wooden spoon being tapped against a plastic bowl to get all the mixture to come off. No this wasn't a dream, this was another sick twisted nightmare come out to play. "You don't have to go in there," Mark whispers to me but I ignore him and walk forward, running my right hand against the peeling white paint of the wall. I step around the corner with Mark and Caleb right behind me.

There she was. My mother. Baking, like it was the most normal thing to do in the world. Like she did it every single day. "Morning honey, can you taste this batter for me? I think it might need a little more sugar." She turned dramatically slow. I almost expected her to have a dolls head for a face from some horror movie but no she was normal. Short dark brown hair, green eyes, that slight curve of her nose that said we were related. It was all there. Not a fraction of a detail that was wrong but still I was wary. "Mum what's going on?" The word mum got stuck in my throat on the way out. I could just see the video of her brain pushed up against the camera. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. "Just taste the batter dear, I need to get these in the oven before 8, we have guests coming." She holds the wooden spoon out to me with a tiny dolop of custard coloured cookie mix on top. I won't take it. This isn't right. "Lara?" Caleb and Mark say at the same time and I look up to see my Mum's expression. It's twisted in fear, eyes wide. I don't see the wooden spoon drop from her hand till it hits the floor and she explodes. The pieces of her body hit me so hard that I get thrown backwards into the window. I'm covered in her blood. I'm numb, I'm numb, I'm numb. I won't feel it. I'm fine. I'm numb, I'm numb, I'm numb.

"Lara get up!" "Lara!" Arms snake around my waist and lift me onto my feet. "It's Alicia! Caleb's gone after her!" I shake my head and slowly the remains of my kitchen fade away till I'm standing in a park. A completely normal park. A swing set, one of those things that you sit on and your friends spin you around until you feel like you're going to be sick. An ordinary rock climbing wall. A completely normal park, with normal green grass, normal trees, the sun shining high in the sky that is the clearest blue I've ever seen, with not a cloud in sight and yet right in the middle is Alicia, the way she was before she was changed, when she was just an ordinary girl pulled in to a nightmare of a game. "CALEB YOU IDIOT!" I chased after him but he had already reached her and the conversation had started. We were stuck actually living what had happened to our loved ones. Stuck in a loop. Mark was next. I would not watch the two of them fall apart again just as I had. This was going to stop. "CALEB! LEAVE HER SHE'S NOT REALLY HERE! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!" I knew I would be too slow, that's just the way it is. That's just the way the nightmare goes for us.

I can see the tears pouring down her face. She is just a girl. An innocent young girl that loves Caleb with everything she has. He tries to reach out for her but she steps away shaking her head. Her sobs were making her whole body shake and it pierced my heart. I reached Caleb just as her body twisted and she screamed as her body tore itself in pieces, blood pouring from her body, turning her skin into a red bloody mess. Over and over, like it was in a glitch and she was stuck in it forever. Caleb screamed and I threw myself at him, tackled him over and locked my arms around his chest, pinning his arms to his side. I couldn't say anything because I knew nothing would make this better, nothing I could say could possibly make the shaking, the screaming, him trying to writhe away from me towards his love who was still dying, every possible way you could think of. I couldn't look. She was my best friend. I couldn't watch her die. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for it to fade. I am a selfish cow because I prayed it was Mark's turn. God, I prayed with all my heart that it would be Mark's turn so it would all be over.