Fear

The phone rang with its usual Nokia tune I picked it up and placed my ear to the cold edge speaker. And off course it was my mom, my overprotective nagging mom. “Don’t walk through the woods son, its way to dark!!” No!! I said screaming into the phone and slamming it shut. Ugh I hate it when she does that, I thought to myself swishing my jet black hair defiantly out of my eyes. I proceeded into the dark trees, weaving in and out of the gnarled bushes avoiding scrapes and bruises. The shadows loomed high and tall over my head, the hollows of the trees looked like eyes in the black surroundings, piercing, gazing, following my every move. I trampled like an elephant over twigs causing them to crunch and crackle under my feet. An owl hooted in distance and a bush was rustling nearby. I began to shiver with fear… a cold wind brushed across my face and my whole body turned to ice. At the end of the trail I could see something; I was not so sure what it was, it looked like a man. He was starring aimlessly into space. I was then overcome by an eerie sensation down my spine. The man turned around, I could see his cold heartless eyes even with the surrounding darkness. I began to run, splashing in puddles, snapping twigs running blindly into emptiness. Suddenly I tripped falling into the squelching mud my jeans ripping over a thorny bramble. I was bleeding; I could taste the soft wetness of blood on my chapped lips. Painfully I staggered to my feet, praying and hoping I had out run the man in the shadows.  Too weak to move, sick and shaking from head to foot I slowly opened my eyes, to my relief the man had gone. Instead there was a light in the distance, a blinding white light which glowed with the intensity of a thousand suns. The great glimmering light was illuminating the grass around me; behind the light I could just make out animal amidst it. Eyes blurred with sweat I tried to make out what the creature was, it was as bright as a unicorn. With every ounce of strength I could muster, I began to run, run as fast as I could towards the animal within the light. All I knew was that the creature gave me a sense of security and courage.  The blisters on my feet where aching and seething with pain, but all I could think about was reaching that magnificent animal as fast as I could.

 Suddenly, just as quickly as it had arrived, the light vanished. The little fire that had momentarily been lit in my chest and just been extinguished as if someone had thrown a bucket of water on it.  My heart froze; the air had suddenly gone cold. A gust of wind carried over me covering my arms in goose pimples. Then out of the darkness almost a hundred hooded figures came gliding towards me, their scabbed and rotted hands stretched out towards me. I wheeled around hoping to make a break for it in the opposite direction but to my dismay they had me surrounded. I stood there rooted to the spot in fear; I could feel them watching me, hear their rattling breath like an evil wind around me. One of these creatures made its way out of the enclosure towards me sucking through the air as it advanced. “No please no” I muttered to myself.  The creature paused and raised its slimy hand and drew up his hood. To my horror it was the same red eyed man I had seen before, a broad grin etched upon his face. I screamed like I’d never screamed before, it pierced the night like a dagger going through a man’s flesh. The man had touched me on the head, and it was as if my head had split open. It was pain more than anything I had ever experienced, my bones were surreally on fire, and my eyes were rolling madly in my head I desperately wanted it to end, to black out, and to die.

Then it was gone, I opened my eyes and sat upright drenched in cold sweat panting hard, it had been a dream. For a moment vivid images from the nightmare kept flashing across my mind. The man in the shadows, the animal within the blinding white light, and the cold clammy hands of the shadow demons. I was still shaking and jerking from absolute fright. I tasted a salty bead of sweat which trickled down my cheek and stared at the open door. Shadows were scuttling across the wall like gigantic spiders weaving a web. Instinctively I pulled the sheet covers up to my eyes and peered over it like a baby. I used to have problems with nightmares when I was young and it was as if I was six years old again. Everything in the room seemed to remind me of the terrible dream. The fan in the corner of the room sounded like a death rattle not unlike the shadow demons breathing in my dream.  Scared out of my wits I tried to sleep my fears away, but all in vain. The red eyes kept popping up in my head and once again I awoke and saw fear staring me in the eye. The darkness was too overwhelming; I was beginning to panic becoming extremely twitchy and scared.

 I jumped out of the bed and rushed to my parent’s room. Panting I jabbed a finger into my mother’s back, she stirred mumbling words to me, I tried to understand them but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. Another hard poke in the back did the trick; she opened and flickered her eyes looking at me with a beady expression on her face. “What!” she said in a short sharp voice. “I can’t sleep” I whispered to her. She sighed and said lazily “go back to bed’ and before I could say another word she had once again drooped of to sleep. Slightly dejected I left the room, and upon entering the pitch black hall way I seemed to have come out of a reverie. Enveloped in darkness my fear returned and it forced me to run flat out towards my room and dive onto my bed.

 Once again I hid myself beneath the shelter of the blanket and felt a bit more secure, as if reality could not penetrate a few soft cotton fibers protecting me. Hugging my stuffed polar bear very tightly I began to pray, pray for god to relieve me of this torture and make this everlasting night come to an end. Then I noticed something glinting out of the side of my eye, cautiously I opened my sanctuary of cotton to peek at what was shimmering so brightly.   Mars was out that night and it was surrounded brilliantly by an array of dazzling stars. The stars looked so familiar… “Aha!” I cried and again I had a fleeting image of the glimmering white animal in my dream. A kind of electricity surged through my body and feeling more confident than ever I hurled my blanket out of my way and stared into the blackness covering my room opening my arms and welcoming it into my clutches . I didn’t feel a single thing not even the red eyed man could scare me now, I felt elated. As I laid back to rest my head on my pillow and my eyes drooped with exhaustion and I soon felt the sensation as if my mind was going blissfully blank and instantly I fell into waves of monster free dreams.