CHAPTER II - NIGHTMARES

I'm running through the night, being chased by what I can only describe as "death itself". It speaks in a devilish voice that grinds my ears every time it is heard. He appears as a shadow that stands 6 foot 10, and has blank white, devilish eyes with no pupils. I can only do my best to run past tree after tree, swiftly dodging the branches that extend out from them to escape him. I don't know why I'm being chased, or what I am doing here. As everything is going on, I can only recall the words from my father's note, never Travel at Night. I am such a fool. I disregarded the note and now I'm going to die by the hands of the creature behind me.

"You shall not escape me." the creature called out, "I own this forest. I will always know where you are, what you are doing, what you are saying, what you are thinking. You cannot hide, and you will not escape this forest alive."

I can only just imagine the gory way I'm going to die. Maybe I'm going to be ate, or chopped into chop-suey, or just ripped from limb to limb, but while all of this is going through my mind, I catch a rock with my left foot and fall face first straight into the slick muddy ground. This is it for me. He's caught me.

Before I can even turn around and get up, the creature is over top of me, staring into my soul with the lifeless white eyes of his. He lifts me by my neck and now I know my life is over. It's ended. My vision is going black. Everything is fading away. I've been killed. Ripped apart. But before my life faded away, I saw a person in the distance, shrouded in a white light. I tried to get closer, but he kept drifting away from me. I try to run, and run, and run, and run, but I cannot reach the warm person. He called out my name. "Tom," he said, "wake up. It's just a dream. Wake up and don't let him take over."

Before I know it I've found myself, crunched up, face down in the dirt. I was dreaming. I was asleep having a nightmare. I slowly get up and try to come to my senses. My vision is blurry, but I can tell by the sounds around me that it was raining. This tree canopy has kept me dry however. While my vision is coming clear, I notice that the fire is almost out. I immediately jump up, frightened. "I cannot let this fire go out." I said to myself. I look around for any possible dry wood or branches around, and I see that there are some dry branches in this tree canopy that I can use.

"That'll work." I grab them and throw them into the fire and try to get it back up. As I am trying to rebuild my fire, I look around, trying to determine what time it might be, however, it appears to be somewhere in the middle of the night. It's untelling. I definitely don't want to leave this shelter, by my dad's words in the letter, and the sound of the rain. Judging by the distant rumbling, it appears to be a storm that is approaching, and a bad one by the sound of the distant thunder. I really hope that this canopy will hold up.

Other than the rain and thunder, it is dead silent in this forest. Not a single creature to be heard. Not the sounds of the chirping crickets, or the sounds of the croaking frogs, nor are there sounds of howling wolves and coyotes. Nothing. Just rain and thunder. "This can't be a good sign." I said to myself. It's going to be a very bad storm, but there isn't much I can do about it. Maybe I can sleep through it. Just maybe, and maybe I won't have another nightmare like the one I just had. It's worth a shot.

I finally got the fire going hot again, and I squeeze back into my dry spot in the back of the canopy, close my eyes, and try to sleep again. It wasn't 5 minutes later until I was awoken to an extremely bright light and immediately after the sound of an atomic explosion. "Damn," I said to myself, "this storm must be closer than I thought. I'm not ever going to get any sleep at this rate." I close my eyes again and try to ignore the sounds of the excruciating thunderclaps. After about 60 minutes of restlessness and constant thunder and lightning, I finally fall asleep again.

I found myself inside of some sort of mansion on a very dark and stormy afternoon. I don't recognize it at all though. I had just heard the bells of the grandfather clock on the wall, signifying it was 7 o'clock. I was in a library of some sort. A huge one at that. Books everywhere, and I had one in my hand. It was some kind of book filled with descriptions of ruins and curses, legends and myths. "Why do I have this?" I asked myself. It was a very mysterious book. One filled with legends and myths from Bigfoot to the Mothman.

I'm looking around at the massive multitude of books and I eventually see a door that probably leads out. As I head towards it, I hear the frightening echo of a shadowy voice. It sounded like the cry of a demon. A demon that would forever leave my life scarred and left in fear. It was a horrible sound, filled with death.

While I am heading for the door, the lights behind me shut off, and I feel this breeze of a very frightening and cold wind run through my body, a wind that felt like it took my soul away with it. It was a very scary feeling that left me lifeless and frozen. As I slowly turn around I see it, a tall 7 foot white eyed demon, growling at me, just waiting to strike. Before I can even think of what I want to do, it spoke upon me, "You cannot escape your past, and you cannot change your future."

Before anything else happened, I found myself screaming, sitting up against the tree canopy. It was another nightmare. As I am rubbing my eyes and looking around, I notice that the rain had stopped and the sun is starting to rise. I made it through this night, out of many horrible nights to come, and it would be time to set off and head north to the village mentioned in my dad's note, but the walk north wouldn't all be that easy.