Dead Dreams

Sixteen

My eyes open, and I'm relaxed for only a second.

Then I'm panicking.

How long have I been asleep for? How could I even fall asleep?

Have ten minutes passed? Has Iris come or not?

Too many things run through my head to process. I no longer know anything about my situation, and that is very, very dangerous. I have spent too much time in one place. I need to make a choice, and I need to make it now.

The choice is easy. Run.

I turn towards my bag, grabbing it and making my way to the hole in the front of the tree.

Then I stop.

If I had to guess, there is only about a hundred feet between me and the monster that now stands in front of the tree, looking directly into the hole. As I had guessed, it is the same moon I had seen. Its eyes are round, black craters that gush black.

My panic surges and wells in every part of my body. I turn back to my bag just as it starts to run at me. I zip open my bag, grabbing the heaviest can I see. I hold it up and ready myself to throw it as hard as I can when it crosses the ten foot mark. It's fast, breaching the entire distance in ten seconds.

This is it.

I either hit a point that's lethal, or I die.

I'm guessing the latter.

My eyes are trained on it. One second it's in front of me, and the next...it's gone.

I hear a crack, then I hear a screech. What is going on?

I practically leap to the front of the tree, sticking my head through the hole to look where the noise is.

I see the first monster, now covered in the black liquid. It's struggling, but not doing well. It's suspended to a tree by the neck, by thick, sharp nails.

It's another monster. One with thick, messy, long black hair, and a sinister smile.

That one look is all it takes for me to back all the way into the tree again, covering my mouth with my free hand that trembles terribly. I set the can down next to me.

There wouldn't be any escaping from this one.

I cover my ears as the first monster gives a final loud, screech. I hear something snap, and then fall.

The moon man is dead.

My shuddering only gets worse as it comes closer, done with its task. I soon see a pair of legs in front of the hole. I press myself further into the back of the tree, trying to make myself more difficult to get to. Trying to make myself invisible.

I'm so scared that it takes me a minute to realize my vision is swirling, darkening. I fight the urge to fall asleep, but it doesn't work. My rapid thoughts turn from screaming, to talking, to whispering, then to silence. My body which just a minute ago was tense relaxes, and I slump down against my bag.

Why was I fighting this again?

I don't know.

I guess it's time to sleep now.

And for once, there is nothing. I fall into the abyss without a care.

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I wake up for the third time in what I think is the span of twelve hours. I lay on flat ground, the forest around me seeming both familiar and different at the same time. I wait for my vision to stop swirling before I sit up.