I opened my eyes and as I looked around it appeared that I would soon die. The moon highlighted the vast flatlands before me that looked so small. I was standing on a cliff in the middle of the desert, the wind biting into my skin. I shivered as the cold spread, starting at my feet, up my legs, to my heart. It was a similar sensation to the nightmares that haunted me every night. But this time something was different; this time it wasn’t a dream, it was all too real.
I had imagined deserts to be so hot that a person’s skin would seem to burn within a few minutes of standing in the sun, but at night they were anything but. “Jump magician,” a voice that I had heard all too many times said, but this time it sounded darker, angrier. “Your time has come to die.”
“You haven’t killed me yet and no matter where you bring me I won’t let you win.” I screamed into the cold night, my words twisting into the howling wind. I nervously crawled over to the small edge and glanced over. I couldn’t see the ground. Thick fog blew in the wind as if a fresh white sheet had been laid over the golden sand. It almost looked beautiful and if I hadn’t been close to dying, I would’ve enjoyed the sight.
“Candace, you want to jump and you know it.” His voice was hypnotizing; it stirred feelings deep inside my chest that I couldn’t resist. “Don’t worry, the fog will catch you, you see it’s magical,” he continued. I looked down again and knew he was right, the fog would save me. “It will take you to another world… and all your problems will disappear.”
Maybe my problems could go away and I could finally escape the dreams that tormented me every night.
I glanced over the edge again, but that time felt something different stirring inside of me: doubt. I closed my eyes, shook my head, and finally came to my senses. I realized the trick that had bestowed me. “What do you want from me?” I screamed, “Leave me alone!”
“I would but that could result in dangerous consequences. If you survive this night, you could cause me great destruction, but you could also help me.”
Despite meeting the strange voice for so many nights, I still never understood his motives. He liked to speak in riddles, and never gave clear answers. “What do you mean?” I cried in despair.
“One day you will know, magician.”
I was tired his mysterious words that didn’t make sense. “Stop tormenting me and just show yourself.”
At first there was silence, and fear welled up inside of me, but the voice soon broke the silence, as if a gunshot had just gone off. “Just remember you asked me to.” I once again was unsure of what the voice could mean, but seconds later I instantly regretted my words as he shimmered into existence in front of me. The man, or more lack of one stood before me in torn and faded clothes. His right foot was twisted at a very strange angle and he had oddly shaped stumps where his hands should have been, as if they were gone and were now growing back. The right side of his face was melted like he'd been in a fire, the skin of is right cheek sagging lower than the left, almost transparent in places because it was so thin. His right eye was missing, and so was half of his nose.
I tried to back away, but was petrified by him. My brain and muscles seemed to be disconnected, as my brain urged me to move but my muscles wouldn’t respond. He slowly floated closer and closer to me until he was only a meter away. My muscles finally responded to my brains warnings and I began to move. I crawled backwards until the edge of the cliff was right behind me “Do you want to know why I look like this?” The incomplete man asked, as he stood in front of me. I chose not to reply. “Your kind did this to me. This happened so long ago that if I told you how long it was, you wouldn’t believe me.. One hundred years ago I was in far worse condition and no one, not even my superiors could see me without having horrible reactions. I will make your people pay by losing you, their greatest…weapon.”
“What-what do you mean?” I stuttered. Confusion swam throughout my brain as I tried to comprehend his peculiar words.
“Every day I experience excruciating pain while healing. Countless spells have been cast, but none succeeded in returning my original looks to me. I must get my revenge for this,” He gestured at his face, with his hands that weren’t there. He spoke the words right into my face and I gagged at the stench of his breath, which smelled like rotting corpses. He must have sensed my fear and gave me an evil smile. I could feel my brown eyes widening as I viewed his mouth, his tooth. There was only one front tooth remaining, but it was half gone: rotting and yellow. “Please go away, and don’t bother me again,” I pleaded. I desperately wanted to get away from the monster that stood before me and wanted me dead.
“As you wish,” He bowed. “My lady,” I suspiciously looked at him, and was surprised at the words that had left his mouth. He backed away, and I slowly got off the ground, never taking my eye off him.
Half way to my feet, the man ran at me with surprising agility and speed and kicked my stomach. Since I was not steadily on my feet, I fell screaming. The ground was approaching very fast, but there was nothing I could do. I hit the white blowing fog and it appeared to swallow me. Then before I hit the ground, I woke up.
I opened my eyes in the pitch black room and my heart pounded. My pajamas were soaked with sweat and I was breathing heavily. “Again Candace?” I heard my best friend Natalie Genstine whisper. Her voice was filled with fear, and I sighed as I realized how bad it must have been.
“Was it really that bad?”
“Yeah it was pretty bad. I’m surprised your parents haven’t come.” She flicked on the lamp which was sitting on a nightstand that separated our double beds.
I imagined my brown hair was everywhere and my brown eyes were filled with terror. I didn’t want Nat to see me scared; I wished that the suffocating darkness would return. I looked up and her green eyes were filled with fear, just as I had suspected. “I’m so sorry.”
She tried to smile at me, but the fear had already consumed her. “Was it the same dream again?”
I shook my head and sighed. I was angry, frustrated, scared. I didn’t know what my dreams were about or how the latest one could seem so real. “No.”
My past dreams that had plagued me every night for the past week were much less terrifying. In my past dreams it had been the same voice that had taunted me, but he had never shown himself to me or tried to kill me. I always tried to avoid screaming, but despite the dream being the same, I couldn’t avoid the part that would always make me scream.
“Want to talk?”
My head, which had been angled towards the wooden floor, suddenly shot up and I felt my eyes widen. “No, there’s no way I could tell you now and in here.” I glanced around the dim room that was eerily illuminated. “It’s too dark.” It probably sounded strange for an eighteen year old to be scared of the dark, but it wasn’t the dark I was afraid of, it was what was in the dark. I didn’t ever want to see the monster that had haunted me in my dreams again, let alone in a dark room.
I suddenly heard quick footsteps approaching Nat and my room. I glanced at Nat, and I didn’t think it was possible, but she looked even more scared. I grabbed my pillow and clenched it tightly. I was prepared to throw it at whoever or whatever was trying to sneak into our room. . I doubted a pillow would do much good, but it would be a distraction.
Our door slowly creaked and I saw light from the hallway flood our room as the door was opened. I glanced at Nat, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time I saw her, but the fear that had once held her, seemed to have melted away. More light suddenly flooded the room and I figured someone had turned the light on. I shielded my eyes with one arm and threw my pillow as hard as I could with the other. I heard a satisfying thump, and I knew I’d hit my target. “Candace, what is the meaning of this?” A familiar voice asked me. I cringed on the inside knowing that I should not have thrown the pillow.
I looked up and saw my dad. His hazel eyes were full of anger and his green robe was half done up over his pajamas. He must’ve been awoken by something and come running. I already suspected who would get the blame.
“Why are you here?” Nat asked trying to get Dad’s mind off his anger. “It’s pretty early in the morning.” We both knew it was too late for him to come because of my screams. Normally he and Mom came right away.
“Emma heard some banging, so we both went to look around to see what it was. We weren’t sure if someone fell out of bed, so she checked on Brent and I checked on you girls.” I rolled my eyes, because even though we were legally adults, Dad still had to check on us to see if we fell out of bed.
“Something was banging on the house?” Nat asked in a small voice. That’s when it sunk in. Something was banging on the house; something was trying to get in.
I must’ve looked horrified, because Dad ran to my side and put an arm around me, which I instantly shrugged off. I hated being touched. “What’s wrong Candace?” He sounded so worried, but I figured he already knew why. It had happened too many nights in a row for it not to happen again.
“I kind of had another dream.” I didn’t want to tell Dad, but I knew he wouldn’t leave until we told him why we were both so paranoid that something was trying to get into the house. I also wanted to know the meaning of them, and Dad would be the best person to help with them. I had the impression that he knew what they were about. Something similar happened in all of my dreams, and it was mentioned more than once.
“Yes?”
“Well, the dream that has been repeated for the past week and the dream I had tonight were different, but they had a few of the same things in them. The same voice kept saying something about my kind, and my people. Then he also mentioned magic and magicians.” I studied Dad’s face very carefully and I could tell he was trying to hide his fear. His eyes widened ever so slightly and his forehead creased as soon as I mentioned magic. He definitely knew what I was talking about.
“Dad?” I waved my hand in front of his blank face.
“I don’t know what that means. I’m sorry.” He sounded anything but sorry.
“Yes you do!” I exclaimed as my temper erupted. I swiped a small glass flower, which Mom had insisted Nat and I keep in our room for decoration, off the nightstand between our beds and it fell to the floor and broke. I glared at Dad and shoved him off my bed. He almost fell, but regained his balance.
“Candace-” He tried to reason with me but I didn’t let him finish, I would not talk to him unless he would tell me the truth and help me.
“Stop lying to me, right now. I am not an idiot like you obviously think and I can tell when people are lying, especially you. You know what my dreams mean, or at least part of them and you’re not telling me! I think that I deserve to know what my own dreams are about. I think my own dad should help me, but if you won’t then just get out right now.”
Dad’s face said it all. His eyes were full of anger and confusion and his eye brows were slightly furrowed, but not as much as his normal angry face. His head was slightly tilted and his forehead slightly creased. He didn’t move so I glared at him and lowered my voice.
“Get…out…now.” I put all my anger and force into the three words. Dad’s face suddenly relaxed, and he turned around and walked out the door without saying a word.
“What just happened? How did you do that?” Nat demanded. “Steve never listens to you when you tell him what to do. How come he just left?”
“I have no clue. If I knew, I would tell you. It was almost like…magic.” I instantly wished I hadn’t said that word; I was beginning to hate it and I shuddered as the dream filled my mind once more. “Anyways that doesn’t matter, because Dad is hiding something from us. He knows what my dreams are about and I don’t understand why he won’t help me! I just want to know what they mean, and then I’ll know that I’m not going crazy.”
I was frustrated with Dad. He knew that I was having a hard time with my dreams and that they woke me up every night for the past week, but he still wouldn’t help me. I woke up screaming, drenched in sweat, and feeling like I might have a heart attack but that didn’t seem to faze him. The night before he had told me he would do anything to help them stop, and I believed they would only stop when I finally knew what they meant, or after the dream I had that night, until I was killed.
“Yeah, it’s weird that he’s not telling you,” Then she yawned and glanced at the clock. “Maybe we should go to bed now and figure it out in the morning. I’m not very good at thinking at three o’clock in the morning.”
I glanced at the clock and saw that Nat was right. I instantly felt guilty for keeping her up, because I had woke her up with my screams for an entire week. I was glad that summer break had started yesterday, because then Nat could at least sleep in, rather than getting up early and being tired all day.
A thought suddenly came to my mind and I couldn’t help but ask Nat for her opinion. “What do you think Dad meant by the banging he and Mom heard? I didn’t hear anything, did you?”
“I didn’t either, but it was probably just racoons knocking over trash cans down the road or something like that.” I figured Nat must have been really tired because we never got raccoons on our street. All of our neighbours liked to keep everything neat, and they always brought their trash out on garbage days. It was something else, or someone else that was by our house.
“Nat we live in a subdivision with neat freak neighbours. We have no trash outside, and there are no racoons. We have a lot of houses here, and no woods nearby.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Nat mumbled and I knew she was already falling asleep. I decided to try and do the same. I closed my eyes and lay in bed for a while, before sleep finally found me.
Around four in the morning I woke up to something banging on the window above Nat and my beds. My heart began to race as I realized what was happening. I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. I rolled off my bed away from the window and made sure I would hit the floor without making any noise. I crawled over to Nat’s bed as quietly as a mouse and slowly got to my feet.
Once I was on my feet, I shook Nat and she groaned but I covered her mouth. “Shush,” I whispered harshly. The banging began to become more constant and grew slightly louder. I looked through the curtains, but I couldn’t see anything. There was no light, and I knew something was very wrong. The street lights were out and something was trying to get into our house.
“What is it?” Nat asked. Then she grabbed my wrist and I knew she was awake enough to realize that something was banging on our window.
“That.” I gulped. I crawled back over to my bed, quietly placing one hand in front of the other, and then doing the same with my legs.
“Pull the curtains back on three,” Nat whispered as quietly as she could, but in the dead silence, it sounded like a glass plate breaking.
I grabbed the curtain that was closest to my bed, and Nat grabbed her side, or at least I hoped she did. “One, two, three,” We ripped the curtains back and the banging instantly stopped. My heart began to race again as I realized it was pitch black outside. There wasn’t a source of light on our block and that had never happened. Even the light in the sky from light pollution seemed to have disappeared.
I walked over to Nat’s bed and grabbed her arm. Suddenly a little light lit up the dark night and grew slowly. I looked away for a second so my eyes could adjust to the sudden light and when I looked back I almost screamed. My mouth opened, but no sound came out. The monster from my dreams was staring at me, floating outside my second story bedroom window, and held a sign. It said, Magic Is Real.