Michael, Carl, and the Order of Daemons

by C. Richard Crawg

Rating may change to M. Carl was an ordinarily duelist who loved to construct various decks. But when the shady Corbak comes and offers him a deal he can't refuse, Carl will find himself fighting his best friend Michael, and working to destroy the world. On hiatus.

1. Nightmares

Author's Note

All fiction stories are based off of dreams, but some of the darkest most suspenseful ones are based off of nightmares. Well, so is this one. It is based off of a recurring nightmare I had for several months two years ago. But there's something about this nightmare that makes it even worse than most.

All nightmares have a "monster". Not necessarily in the literal sense, but all nightmares have something or someone that seeks to destroy you and/or people you love. Maybe the "monster" is a tornado, a massive cliff, a tax collector, or maybe a literal monster; it doesn't matter. The overall point is that they all serve the same purpose; they all attempt to seek out and destroy something you cherish, be it your life or someone else's or something else you love.

But the worst nightmares aren't the ones where the ones with blood sucking vampires. They don't have a tax collector intent on taking your home or a lawyer bent on taking your kids. They don't have tornados or hurricanes or any other thing in the natural world you might fear. Well,… okay, it could have those things, but not exclusively, because you see, the worst nightmares are when…

…YOU are the monster.

YOU are the thing bent on destruction. YOU will be solely responsible if you fail at something. It will be YOUR fault. That is the worst kind of nightmare. That is this kind of nightmare. So read it, if you dare…