Disclaimer: I do not own characters in this work of fiction. This fic isn't happy. Go here for happy: www. /watch?vgL8BssBA9hE
Winter had ceased and spring came. Not only did the warmth came to the quiet small town, but also a circus. The small town was happy as this would be the first time they would have a circus. Before then the circus was a 5 hour trip away. Some of those willing to make the trek would tell about the wonderful time they had at the circus. This made the children jittery with anticipation except one little boy who was quite neutral to the idea but had no objections in attending the show.
During the days, while the circus was setting up, musicians, clowns, arcobats and other entertainers would come in town and give the residents a taste of what to come. They sang, danced, played card tricks. The boy couldn't help but take an interest in the pair of acrobats in funny hats who would lift their partner into the air so they could perform a graceful and beautiful trick and and be gently placed back on ground. They mesmerized and captivated him. He couldn't wait to see them under the big top.
On the way to the show, the boy was taken in by the bright primary colors, the smell of the popcorn, the feel and sound of the straw crunching under his feet. He chuckled at a cat eyeballing a plump fish sealed in a bowl. He saw a booth selling toys and he thought about asking his parents to buy him that strange looking dragon doll. He did a double take at the fat lady with the long ears. He also found it strange someone left just their cape and mask just hanging around. It reminded him of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.
The boy learned that there were three rings in a circus and he looked for which one the acrobats he saw the other day would be performing in. He saw the equipment that were painted on the posters and he dragged his parents to that section. He wanted a closer look at the platform and ropes used to suspend everyone in the air. It fascinated him and he explored the area until he heard the announcer trying to get everyone's attention
He returned to his seat by his parents. They gave him popcorn and juice which he happily accepted. He enjoyed the clowns, the elephants, the lion tamers, yet it couldn't bring about the same excitement as when he saw the pair of acrobats come to the ring. They performed a few flips on the ground to draw attention to their circle before climbing the ladder upward to the trapeze.
He watched one wave to audience while their partner dusted their hands. He saw them talking and he wondered what type of conversation they were having. One took the bar and their aerial performance began. Spectacular. Every elegent spin, sleek twist, and death defying catch filled the boy with unbridled joy. He was happy.
They returned to the starting platform and bowed to the audience. The boy realised their performance had ended and he felt a little sad; he would have like them to continue. He kept his focus on them and noticed the weren't descending the ladder. Something was going on. There was a loud creek noise and the boy notice the pillar supporting the platform had bent. The safety net laid before the acrobats. They fell backwards.
Chaos filled the area. Many parents who had saw the acrobats begin to fall, had reached over and covered their children's eyes telling them to not look. His parents were too frozen in fear and disbelief to act as quickly. The boy could not move either. He couldn't make out the deafening noise around, nor could he focus on the blurry images around him. As he shook in terror, he could only see their twisted still bodies. People started to evacuate the scene, his own parents followed suit and grabbed their son. Even when being dragged away, his didn't take his eyes off them until they were out of view.
With everyone leaving at once, there were backups. The boy and his parents were stopped near where the mantle and mask hung. The mask seemed to be staring back at the boy with a sneer like it was enjoying the young boy's despair. Finally they moved ahead. They didn't move far ahead as the woman with the long ears was heading towards the tent, impeding the crowds movement. The boy and his parents were momentarily crushed, his lungs already having a difficult time breathing, as she shoved her way through the crowd. As they past the booth, the dragon toy he wanted to buy appeared as it was going to swoop down on him to tear away at his flesh. Even when passing the water bowl, the fish's grotesque eyes seemed to follow him. The last straw was the cat rearing up and hissing at the boy, baring it's fangs. The boy screamed.
He kept sobbing all the way to his house. His parents told him everything was going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay. All he needed was a good night's sleep and it would all be okay. They gave him a glass of warm milk and held him until he finally cried himself to sleep. They laid him gently down, gently kissed his head and let him drift off to Dream Land.
He didn't arrive in 'Dream Land'. Thick darkness surrounded him like clothe. The dark veils moved as if something were behind them. Was there something behind the darkness, waiting to jump out at him? He heard noises. It wasn't safe here, he had to move. He had to get away. He started to run. The noises and cackles followed him. For what seemed like an eternity of running he saw a bright light ahead. He ran towards it. Was this the light of his salvation? When he finally reached the light, there was nothing. He looked around, nothing except the dark veils clinging to the edge fo the light. He looked up. There was something. He squinted his eyes. Up there were the acrobats. They were alive! He smiled and started heading towards them.
He heard a sudden cracked. The platform, which the acrobats were standing on, broke and they started to fall.
"No!" The boy yelled. He didn't want them to die yet they still fell. And fell. Until they hit the floor. He could hear their bones snap and their organs crush with a wet sound. He saw them die again. He dropped to his knees.
"Not again. Not again." He kept repeating as tears poured from his eyes. By then the noises had caught up. He heard them, they were right behind him. He didn't want to turn around. In his mind he thought as long he didn't turn around they wouldn't get him. They wouldn't get him. As long as he didn't turn... There was a loud inhuman scream. Instinctively he turned around.
They attacked.
He didn't wake up from this. All night long he avoided attacks from dragon, fish, mantle, cat, and the sphere. Even those that weren't immediately attacking him, still cheered the others on and haunted him. Once, when he had thought he's lost them, he tripped and landed atop the acrobats bodies. Their blood was still warm. Then the others found him again.
Morning finally came and at last he was able to wake up. He ran to his parents bed and sought their protection. He told them about the incident. How he was chased and attacked and how he didn't think he would make it out alive. The parents explained to him it was just a nightmare and nightmares couldn't harm him. They made him look at the spots he claimed he was injured and showed him there were no marks. He remembered so vividly the cat leaving many marks. His parents held him until he calmed down.
The day passed like any other day. The boy didn't have any school, so he was allowed to go out and play. To have fun and try to forget the previous events. However, the town was buzzing about the accident last night. Details, assumptions and conspiracies theories floated on the lips of the populaced. Everywhere the boy went he could not escape the memory of yesterday. He ran back home. There his parents only whispered about the deaths when they believed the boy to be out of earshot.
Dusk approached and the boy stared out at the setting sun. He couldn't shake the uneasy feeling in his heart. It was just a nightmare Nothing more. Still when night came he laid awake in his bed. Letting his eyes become accostumed the the dark and stared at the ceiling. He didn't feel tired not at all. Morning would come and he would be fine. In fact the ceiling got brighter. He sat up and looked at the beautiful light.
"No..." He whisper. The acrobats were on the platform again smiling and waving at what they believed was a tent full of people. Didn't they know they were about to die? The boy whipped his head as he heard growling. He could see the cat's paw sticking out from the veil of darkness. He looked back up at the acrobats, but they had already began to descend. He saw their deaths, the lights cut out, and he could hear the others rushing towards him. He spent all night running.
The next morning, his body had no wounds, nor exhaustion. He still felt like he had spent another night in hell. The third night came and again he experienced the horrors. As he did the fourth night, fifth, sixth nights until the nights became years. Filled with dread, he had no hope the nightmares would ever stop. Soon he stopped running but the others still attacked him. They kicked and sliced at his body and he endured all the pain. Trying to remain as still as the deceased arcobats.
One day all of this torment took its toll. He was admitted to the hospital for exhaustion. His parents didn't know why he was like this He had plenty of sleep. The doctor asked the boy if anything was wrong, but the boy remained silent to the doctor just as he was silent about this to his parents. He didn't have any courage to tell them the problem. He feared he would just be told they were just nightmares and it was all in his head. He did not need to hear his debilating mental stress belittled as nothing. He wouldn't tell anyone. He would deal with it silently.
The boy got older and dark thoughts, devoid of any purity, filled even his waking days. When he did talk to people, his statements remained vague and enigmatic. Some people thought it mysterious. Most labeld him as weird. He didn't mind. He had worst assaults from his visions at night. He considered ending his life yet he knew he would only experience hell all the time instead of just when he slept.
Time still passed on and soon he attended a university. He perferred a dorm room to himself and made arrangements for it to be so. The boy may have gotten older but he didn't have any growth to allow people into his personal life. Though he preferred a room, and his life, to himself, he still wondered around campus, talking to whomever but mostly listening. One day a classmate loaned the boy a book. It was entitled "Understanding Your Dreams." The classmate had picked up on the boy's verbal cues, as well as seen the boy's disturbing pieces he submitted in their art class. The boy was unsured how to respond but thanked his classmate. The classmate replied it was not a problem. The classmate did wonder why the boy lacked the intelligence to go check out a book from the library himself.
That night the boy read the book, about how brain waves were measured by a electroencephalogram, rapid eye movement and how cycles repeat themselves. This information did not help him. He tired of the book just as he did this waking world and threw it to the side letting it hit the floor with a thud. He laid down on his bed and left the waking world to his own personal world of horror. He saw the acrobats' death again. If only he could change it. Why did he have to see this image every night? Why did those others have to haunt him so?
He woke the next morning and settled down at his desk. He grabbed a pen preparing to start another submission for his class. Upon his desk laid opened the "Dream" book. He looked to the floor. He clearly remembered throwing it there last night. He looked at the opened pages. A passage seemed to caught his and he began to read.
"...during this sleep cycle, sleep walking is most common."
He pulled his head away from the book. This had to be nothing more than a coincidence. That he had sleep walked and opened the book to the page about sleep walking. He started to laugh or at least started to. His laughter sounded more like sobbing. He had been breathing in heavily since he read the passage. It broke up what should have been a jovial laugh. His breath move across the open pages of the book. It started to turn the pages to another passage in the book. He kept staring at the book for a few moments. His heavy breathing did not move the pages anymore after it had reached this page Not even did it move the corners. He read.
"Many psychologists say you have the power to take control of your dreams. To change the outcome of even a nightmare if you simply willed it to be." The boy pulled back again. Simply? Could it be done simply? How many nights had he wished for the acrobats not to die? How many nights had he begged and pleaded for a higher power to end his suffering from the others? For a simple boy to just simply do it? How dare this book implied his problem could be simply done away with. His blood felt boiling hot as it coursed through his veins. His rage circulating in his system. He grabbed the edge on his desk and turned it over. He slammed his chair repeatedly over the book. He continued his immature childish temper tantrum not just on the book, but his mirror, the lamp, the shelving units, everything in his room.
After his room laid in shamble, he collapsed on what was left of his bed. His delirium lead way to physical weariness and unconsciousness. Won't his nightmares be surprised he came back so soon after leaving them. They soon nestled themselves in the dark veils. The boy had noticed one thing about them; they waited until the acrobats died to begin their assault. He even tried to stay away from the acrobats and not look at their death. Even if he didn't see it, he still heard it, and then the others came out.
As with all his other nights he watched them fall. His mind fell back on the book. He had wished for them to not die. For the platform to not break. The book lied. It could not be done. He would watch them fall till his own dying days. Why did they have to fall? Why did they have to die? Why? Then, again, what could they do? Fly away to safety? He looked back up at them, they were so close to the ground.
"Just fly." He whispered.
A bright colorful light burst open in the room. He shielded his eyes. He looked back to the spot on the ground where they laid, but they weren't there. He stood and looked up. For the first time, in a long, time he felt happy in his dreams. They were alive and they were flying! Not just flying but performing graceful feats in the air. It reminded him of when he first saw them years ago in his hometown. They were beautiful. After their performance they flew down to him. One offered its hand to him, urging him to take it. As if it was inviting him to join them in their flight. The boy reached out.
A familiar noise came from behind the dark veils. The boy had forgotten about the others that lurked behind them. The lights went out and instead of cowering like he usually had, he turned to face them. They seemed so far away. So far away in fact, they appeared to be the size of dolls if he would just reach out his hand and grabbed them. He started to reach out to grab one. The same acrobat moved in front him, offering its hand again. The boy ignored its offer and gently moved the acrobat aside. He focused on the others in the darkness. Swiftly he grabbed one. It was the size of a doll. It tried to fight its way out of the grip but the boy only tighten his hold.
He made his nightmare creature scream in pain. The boy sneered. He was going to get his revenge on the others. He towered over them; they couldn't hurt him now. He had used his own power to stop the deaths of his lovely pair of acrobats. He would now use this new found power to dominate and control the others. Kill them? Oh no, they didn't kill him and he would extend the same 'courtesy'. The boy, no, the man would enjoy this exhilarating authority he possessed.
He looked over at the remaining others and his acrobats. He gave a small laugh. Even his acrobats seemed small now. He used his spare hand to move them away before grabbing another nightmare. It howled in pain. The man enjoyed his sadistic acts so much, he didn't even notice the sibling acrobat holding back its partner. It didn't not want the man to continue down this sinister path. The sibling knew it was too late for the man and the others. Ah, the others.
The man was going to need more hands to take care of them all.
A/N: Then after conquering his nightmares he sets his sights on Nightopia... and you know the rest. I find it very weird that I wrote a dark fanfic for a series that makes me feel so happy and carefree. I don't usually write dark fics in general! I like comedies. Seriously, I had to take breaks with the insane fun that is Space Channel 5 to get me through this train wreck of a fic.
The story is base off the Japanese NiGHTS into Dreams instruction manual regarding Wizeman. Thank you www. for translation: The ruler of Nightmare-Wizeman, a Visitor deprived of any Ideya, had begun advancing to try and extinguish Nightopia! "If all Ideya are lost, Nightopia will disappear... And my Nightmare will rule over all!' Wizeman was the first intelligent life in the Night Dimension and the creator of Nightmare. He created Nightmarens by using his own power. His mysterious power scares Nightmarens. But NiGHTS refuses his order, so he confines NiGHTS in an Ideya palace.
Not the poor shelving units! Heh, that line makes me laugh.