Want Horror?I'll give you Fear.

Maybe Tonight

"Maybe tonight." Thought the man to himself. "Maybe tonight I'll sleep." But the fear inside of him was still there, sitting and burning itself into his memory, as it eerily chants the same three words over, and over... "I'm still here, I'm still here..."

You see this man is afraid to sleep. It all started three weeks ago. Every night the man would have these twisted nightmares, and a few days later they would come to life. His dreams were something like this;

The man was standing in a wheat field around noon. He was holding an old, rusted scythe, and was cutting down the stalks of wheat. Cutting down the wheat seemed to last hours. It seemed to be a very peaceful dream, but that idea soon left him.

As he was cutting down the wheat, he noticed a group of kids playing with matches. These kids seemed so peaceful, but the strange thing about it was that they were playing with fire. The man then noticed the children had set the wheat on fire. Within a few seconds the field was engulfed with the roaring flames. Noticing there was no way out, the man started to use the scythe to cut his way out. As he was doing so blood was spurting up into his face. After a few minutes his whole body was covered in blood. Something then appeared above his head. It was the children and they where dancing in a circle chanting it's all your fault, it's all your fault... The man woke up before anything else happened.

A few days later, totally forgetting about the dream, the man was in a field helping his sister cut the wheat because it was the end of the season. He then saw three kids playing with fire, thinking nothing of it the man kept chopping. Then the field was engulfed in flames, just like in his dream. He then thought the only way to get out, was to cut a path out of the field. Though he didn't see the children above his head, like in his dream, he was somehow covered in blood. He felt something hit his feet, when he looked he saw a headless body. He noticed it was one of the children playing with fire, he was just lying there dead and headless. The man was just sitting there, looking at the body somehow forgetting about the fire around him. When he finally remembered, it was too late, he passed out. When he woke the next morning he was severely burned on his arms and torso. He didn't go home for about a week. He still had dreams like that whenever he slept. For the next few weeks after that incident, he has not slept.

So that brings us back to where we are today, sitting on the cold tile floor in his nearly empty apartment. He is waiting until the morning when he knows he can keep himself awake. During the night though, he trys everything to keep himself awake, from drinking coffee to listening to loud music, which didn't go well with the neighbors. There was one thing that he thought worked the best, he calls it the angel's song. The neighbors right next door to him have a newborn child. The constant wailing of it is the greatest thing the man has ever heard. He knows that one day the child will grow, and he will have to try to sleep, that thought makes him cringe.

Tonight though is a new night. He'll try it, his greatest fear, facing it right in the eyes. That strange chanting is still there.
"It's 12:00 here we go, I'm going for it." Spoke the man to himself.
It is no working, his heart starts racing, and he starts sweating. The feeling is not going away, he is in a puddle of his own sweat now. He is sitting face down in it hoping he'll die, but he can't even do that. So he sits up and screams at the top of his lungs. A muffled shut up comes from next door. Not being able to say anything back he just sits back in his corner on the cold tile floor. He puts his head down on his weak; trembling knees and starts to cry. As he's crying he thinks to himself;
"Why sleep when I can just kill myself, and not have to worry about any of this again." He didn't realize until a little while later, that he was only on the second floor, he was too poor to afford any weapons, and he never had the gut to drown himself. He soon found that plan useless.

So there was only one thing to do, stay awake for as long as possible, until one day he falls asleep and never hopefully wakes up. The night finally passes on to the next day. As the hours go by he is still sitting in his corner thinking how he'll stay awake. He never expected he would fall asleep. His sleep passed him into another one of his dark nightmares.

Unlike the other dreams this one seemed more likely to happen. In this dream he is sitting in his corner, trying to stay awake when he hears a scream from the house next door, the one with the baby. So he stands up, and starts to walk over to their house. When he gets to their door, he hears a thud inside. He decided to walk in surprisingly the door was unlocked. When he got in he noticed the wife dead on the floor. The sight of it makes him sick. Then he hears the baby crying, so he starts to walk towards it. When he gets into the room he sees the awful sight of the man next door holding a knife in the air with the dead baby sitting there in it's bed. He wakes up before anything else happens.

When he wakes he starts to panic again but it interrupted by a scream coming from next door the one with the baby. So he walks over and walks in, and just like his dream the door was unlocked. When he got in he saw the woman dead on the floor. He walks into the same room as his dream and sees the same thing, the child dead on the bed and the man next door with the knife in the air.
"Who are you?" said his neighbor with the knife still in the air.
Still looking at the dead child on the bed, the man says. "I'm your neighbor." The man shifts his head so he is looking at his neighbor, who has the knife at his side now.
"You tell anyone about this I'll kill you!" The neighbor screams
"Go ahead," said the man calmly as he gets down on his knees "Take me, I have nothing to live for."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Clarisse47