Title: The Nightmare
Character: Jadyn
Timeframe: after the Vong have been defeated

As she wandered down the hallway, she clutched the only weapon that she could find and prayed that none of the blaster bolts dancing from around the corner would find their mark in her.

"It's only a nightmare, it's only a nightmare." she repeated under her breath, over and over again. "It's only a nightmare."

Only this time it wasn't, not really. It felt real, there was no escape. She couldn't scream and hope that her brother would wake her up before she was killed again.

Her stick, her weapon, was clutched in a death grip. A flimsy weapon against the blasters, and laser canons that surrounded her.

"I have to find the key. I have to find the door. I have to escape."

Somehow she knew, if she could find the key, could find the door, she would escape. Her nightmare wouldn't come back anymore. At least not in the same way. She would get a few days of real rest before the next nightmare began.

'Jadyn...'

Jadyn gasped, looking around for the body that the voice had belonged to. Her mother.

'Jadyn...'

Her eyes flew upwards, and she saw a filmy body... floating... floating... it looked as if it were made out of cobwebs, and the slightest breeze would blow it into pieces.

"Mom?" her voice came out as a croak. "Is that you Mom?"

The apparation grimaced in pain, as wind swept through the hall, and she disintegrated. Just behind where she had been lay a key... a rusted key...

Trembling, she reached up in the close confines of the long hall, and touched it, drawing her hand back in surprise. It was cold... so cold... like her mother had been on the day she was buried, after dying from the fever.

Slowly she reached up again, and the key fell into her hand with a satisfying smack.

"Now for the door."

If she didn't find the door this dream, the key would be in another spot the next dream, and she would have to find it all over again.

'Jadyn...'

Jadyn's eyes squeezed shut. "Is this some sort of morbid family reunion!" She shouted. "What do you want?"

'Just to help...'

Jadyn turned around and saw her father, laughing. His body was surrounded by flames, and a bottle was in his hands, much as it had been the day he had fallen in a drunken stupor, and never gotten up.

Water came from above him, and he too vanished, in a puff of steam. Behind where he had been was a door.

She walked to the door and opened it. A maze lay before her eyes, and way on the other side...

the door.

But how to get to it?

'Jadyn...'

She fought to keep tears from falling. Her little sister stood in front of her, eyes empty. Her pale skin had a bluish cast, much as it had the day she had fallen into the water while they were playing, and drowned. Moss was tangled in her hair.

They never had found her body.

Her sister took Jadyn's hand, and they walked swiftly through the confusing corners and passages. The door stood in front of them. Her parents stood behind her, and her little sister went to join them.

Jadyn stretched out her hands to her family. "Come back with me. Please."

They shook their heads. "We cannot leave." Their voices were empty. Hollow. Mocking.

"But you can join us."

Jadyn looked wildly from door, to family, to door, to family. "You can't do this to me! Haven't I suffered enough?"

The door creaked open behind her. She heard her brother calling. "Jaydn! Jadyn! Wake up!"

With one last glance at her family, she slipped through the door, their hands falling off of her, as they disappeared one last time.

And Jadyn awoke.

...