I run up the stairs and fly through the creaky screen door not caring about the noise. Mom wouldn't be alert enough to hear me anyways. She was probably still high on all the Halusinorooms she had today, so I wasn't going to worry about it. I rush through the dark living room avoiding the few sparse wooden chairs and all the Halusinoroom stalks strewn about the floor. Until I make it to my room, open the door and sit down on my small straw bed.
I've always dreamed of leaving this place and looking for a new home where things made sense. A place where people didn't create things with their dreams or go crazy taking dream supplements and shut down completely like my mom had. I look down at my arms and can just barely make out the curvy golden pattern with small golden dots inside each curve. They go from my shoulders all the way down to my wrists. And scratch at them out of habit.
I clear my head and get back to business. I grab the sack off the floor that I had prepared for when I deemed myself ready to go it alone. I had actually planned to leave this Sumner when all the leaves fell off the trees and it is nice and warm. Mostly so I wouldn't get lost as easily and I wouldn't have to worry about getting a nasty little Cold Faery up my nose, the nasty little devils. But I suppose that I'll have to leave now and take the chance of catching a cold faery. Which is a lot better than getting stuck inside a nightmare for all eternity.
I grab my water pouch, and slip on a long sleeved shirt so they can't see my birth markings. I stuff my water pouch into my bag and put my arms through the strings. I hear an angry neigh like a horse on evil pills and dread fills me. I almost trip over my feet scrambling to get back into my room. My mind races and I almost crawl under my bed to cower in fear, but I stop, take a deep breath and try to swallow down the horrible illogical fear that was controlling me.
"Think Casper, think", I mutter to myself. "It was just a horse it could've been any old stray that roams around these woods".
But I think that it's probably a lot more sinister then that. I hear the front door squeal as someone or something bursts through the door. And then nothing, But I know that the evil horse is after me, and that I don't have long until it finds me. And for some reason that makes me feel more dread then getting caught by one of those nightmares, well... almost. But I try not to cower in fear and grab my staff from the corner of the room. I back up against the wall hope that I can fight the thing off for at least a little bit.
I don't wait long when I hear my door creak open, the only thing that tells me it has entered my room is its orange eyes that blaze like a forest fire. Fear bubbles up inside of me and I find myself curled in a ball on the ground shaking. I hear someone whimper and I will them to shut up until I realize that the sound is coming from me and I can't stop. The only thing in my mind is fear; I cannot form any coherent thoughts, just fear.
It grasps my shirt with its teeth and roughly drags me out of my room, back through the living room and over all the trash a gunk that has collected there. I come to just enough to feebly grasp the door frame before being yanked outside. We come to a halt on the old rotting floorboards of the porch and I hear the raspy voice of a nightmare say,
"Well done, sssservant you have done your tassssk. Be free."
I hear a clatter of hooves, and then nothing the fear slowly drains from me and I feel my muscles loosening up but before I even get the chance to stand, I feel a slimy hand covered in small suction cups enclose around my neck. The nightmare pulls me up so I can see under its hood all I see is black nothingness.
I feel something hairy on my arm and as I look down I can barely make out a huge tarantula with large black wings crawling up my arm. The nightmare makes a terrible scratching noise that sounds like laughter.
"I ssshall enjoy ssseeing you ssssuffer, it hissed, and sssso ssshall my brethren."
The spider crawls up my arm, chirps and suddenly a flood of winged tarantulas start crawling out of the nightmare's robes and up its arm. They unfurl their wings and fly towards me. I look on in horror unable to do anything as they land on my stomach. I scream until my voice cracks and spiders swarm my body. All thoughts leave me, all I have left is fear and I cling to it desperately. I can feel their little hairy feet crawling quickly up my neck. I try to bat them away but they swarm up my hands, making me scream with what little voice I have left. Until, finally nothingness consumes me.
