The Gift

By Joel Dao-Zi Kh'as

He had been running for as long as he could remember.
He did not know what he had been running from at
first, but now he knew. Those dreams he had as a
child, where the monsters had killed everyone he knew,
he was told that they were just dreams, with no truth
to them at all. Unfortunately, it turned out they
were real....

*Colony Planet Vega 3*

Joel had just woken up, startled from his sleep by a
horrible nightmare. He was being chased by some
strange, horrible creature that had killed the rest of
his family. He had been getting therapy for these
dreams, and for a little while it had worked, but then
the dreams came back again. Also, he had recently
been hearing strange noises, sort of like talking, but
with a slightly echoing quality, and he could not make
out what was being said. He did not mention these
things to his therapist, because he did not want to
have to take all those tests again. However, since it
was about time to wake up anyway, he decided he might
as well get some breakfast. He had an appointment
with his therapist again today, and he really did not
want to go to it...

*At the Therapists office*

"Joel, I heard you started having the dreams again.
Is there anything you want to tell me? You know
anything you say will be kept confidential." Said the
therapist, Dr. Tsien.

"I really don't want to talk about it..." said Joel.

"You know I can't help you if you don't tell me
anything. What is it about the dreams you don't want
to talk about? If I get to a subject you don't want
me to tell right now, I'll stop."

"Well, ok..." said Joel.

"Good. Now, you say these nightmares have something
to do with some 'Strange, frightening creatures' that
kill all your family, and also the rest of the colony.
No, why do you suppose that you might be dreaming
this..."

*After the Psychoanalysis*

"Mr. And Mrs. Fargo, this is one of the strangest
cases I have ever dealt with, if not the strangest..."
began Dr. Tsien.

"What do you mean by that? What's happening to my
son?!?" asked Mrs. Fargo, extremely worried.

"Well, you see, I can't really find any reason why he
would be having these dreams, except for one reason.
He might have been abused in his childhood, the
'creatures' as he called them, representing the
abusers. Now, you said before that you adopted Joel,
correct?"

"In a way, yes. He was actually found 8 years ago
wandering in the northern desert. We thought he was
about 6 at the time, but he appeared to not know where
he was, or where he was from, etc. So we don't know
if he was abused or not. I would think that he might
have been, or he might just have gotten lost one
day..." said Mr. Fargo.

"Well, the only other reason I could think of would
be reconstructing a past occurrence... but that would
mean that these creatures were real..." said Dr.
Tsien, unsure of himself.

*Joel's POV*

I had been in the desert for who knows how long. I
had forgotten where I was, and even who I was. I
could only remember terrible, frightening things that
had happened, although I couldn't remember the exact
details. I'm not sure I'll ever undrestand what
happened that day, but for now, I'm pretty sure I'm
fine with that... Well, I'm tired now, so I guess
I'll try to go to sleep... I hope I don't have that
nightmare again, but I guess it might be inevitable...

*Joel's Dream*

Run. That word was the only thing he could think of.
He had only been able to escape because of his small
size, and that wouldn't hide him for long. The things
had gotten there not that long ago, and he couldn't
imagine how there had been so many so fast, but he
could care less about that now. All he knew was that
he was scared, his parents and sister were dead, and
he was the only one who had survived. Luckily, there
was an escape pod which had autopilot, and would
automatically guide it to the next inhabited planet.
That is when the creatures surrounded him, and that is
when he screamed and awoke.

END OF PART ONE