Peaceful Nightmares: Chapter Two

Ulrich was in Ms. Hertz` classroom, working on his Science Final exams. Mathias Burel was right next to him, stealthily copying his Ulrich's work. Ulrich didn't care. At least he would be doing good in his life. As Ulrich was writing down Question 42, Emanuelle Maillard burst through the door, coughing and choking. He seemed to be covered in black smoke, and he almost instantly collapsed onto the floor. Ms. Hertz tried to help him up, but he again fell, smashing his face on an idle stool. He lay on the ground, clearly unconscious, while the teacher went to call the nurse. The students stared in horror, as he lay motionless, then at the teacher opened the door to the hallway. The finals were not the right time for this kind of problem. Suddenly, she backed away from the door, as huge billowing columns of pure flame exploded through the doorway. She ran towards the windows, and frantically tried to open them, while all the students, except for Ulrich tried to help her. The blazing inferno of raw heat continued to blow in through the door, and quickly covered most of the floor surrounding Ulrich. He backed towards the window, which all of the students had already climbed out of, but the circle of fire kept Ulrich in check. He last of the students climbed out the window, and closed it behind them. Ulrich frantically jumped over the flames licking at the soles of his shoes with burning hot tongues. He ran to the window in a panic, banging on it with his fist. He could see them talking, but he couldn't hear them through the glass. Although he thought he could see them saying, "Where's Ulrich?" "I think he went out through the door." "I thought I saw him running through the window before us." "Well, he's definitely not in there, or out here." "WHAT?" Ulrich screamed. "IM RIGHT HERE, DON'T YOU SEE ME?" They didn't even seem to be looking in anymore. Ulrich fell to his knees, his hands sliding down the glass window pane as the flames came up from behind him. He just stare out at the class waiting on the school grounds, as his clothes caught fire. The flames burned every inch of him possible, and his very flesh felt as hot as the sun itself. He yelled out in pain, even tough he knew nobody could here him. Was this how it would end? His entire class leave him for dead in a fire? This couldn't be happening. What had he done to deserve this? As the fire reached the ends of his arms and his neck, he looked out with disdain at the class outside. He cursed. He cursed them one, twice, three times, four times. He didn't care if he went to Hell for all this. It couldn't be much worse than this. The pain reached the back of his neck, and he could feel his whole body melting away, burning away. The pain slowly dying along with him… But then, he could see the girl, the girl from his drawing. She was calling out his name, telling him not to give up: "Ulrich!" "ULRICH!"

"Ulrich Stern! You ought to be ashamed. Most people usually sleep during the night." Ulrich awoke from his nightmare, and looked up at Ms. Hertz. She seemed incredibly angry at the fact that he had fallen asleep during the finals. "Ms. Hertz, I-I'm sorry, it's just-" "I understand that most of you did not get much sleep last night studying, but students," Ms. Hertz said, now speaking to the whole class, now; "You can do better than this! I thought you would all be able to handle a simple science exam." Ulrich continued to listen to her ramblings go on, and on, and on. He picked up his pencil, and stared at Question 42: "What is a symbiotic relationship?" Ulrich wrote down his answer, save one word. He quickly wrote it down, then glanced quickly at the door, as if his nightmare were about to come true. It wouldn't be the first time. He was living in a nightmare right now. He continued to look at the doorway, but nobody came. Not even a passing teacher. He went on with his test, until he was almost finished. He knew he couldn't fail this. His grades would drop into the 30's. His father would become a maelstrom of anger and disappointment. Oh, well. Ulrich wouldn't last much longer if he got held back. He felt as if at the beginning of his life, his hope, happiness, and values had just gone away to some far off place, as if they had just left him behind. He felt like his whole life he had been waiting for them to come back for him. If his whole life he had been left behind, then soon, in a year or so, he would begin to catch up again. He knew it…

Well, that's Chapter Two. Review, comment on the story, give some ideas for a nightmare you had, you know the deal. Also, id like to explain some things in the story:

1: The nightmare for this story came from a suggestion by Commando Wolf, where her house was burning down, and her family left her inside. This wasn't exactly how it went, (of course I had to change it a bit) but that's where it comes from. CW, thanks for the idea!

2: The quote by Ms. Hertz in the middle of the story about sleeping was a reference to the episode "Aelita," in which Aelita wakes up in class from a nightmare, and Ms. Hertz makes that remark about sleeping hours.