Scene 8: Nightmares

He was there again. In the room. Although he couldn't say for sure whether it was really a room where he was right now, because all his eyes could see was endless darkness that seemed to stretch in every direction around him. He felt like as if he was surrounded by impenetrable black walls that swallowed up every light, every sound and every living thing.

Five opened his eyes wide into the darkness. The blackness had to end somewhere, have a boarder, a boundary. There had to be at least a small glimmer of light. His eyes systematically scanned the blackness, looking for a lighter shade of black in the sea of darkness, but there was just endless... Nothing. For a moment, Five wasn't even sure if his body still existed, if he was still alive, if there was anything else but this endless void that surrounded him and threatened to suffocate him.

"Hello?" he called into the darkness. No answer. His voice faded unheard into the vastness. "Hello!" he shouted at the top of his voice in all directions. "I'm here!" Again, no answer. Five turned his head searching in all directions. The darkness offered no point of reference, nothing to fix your gaze on, and an uneasy feeling slowly rose in Five, a feeling as if he were falling from somewhere into the depths. He felt dizzy and his stomach rebelled.

- Five groaned in his sleep and tossed and turned in his bed, his fingers clawing into the blanket, searching for something to hold on -

After the queasy feeling in his stomach had finally subsided a little, he dared to turn his head again. And suddenly there was something. Yes! In the distance, something emerged from the darkness and slowly took shape. Five stared at the spot, afraid to blink even once as he feared it would disappear again. Never before had he perceived anything but the blackness in the room. He had always been frightened and alone, trapped here.

"Hello?" he called again, listening for an answer. Still nothing. Maybe he was just too far away? Excited, he set off in the direction of the outlines. His heart was pounding. The hope of no longer wandering alone in the darkness drove him on, making his steps longer.

"Is someone there?" he shouted as he ran. Someone... someon... someo... the echo of his voice bounced back as if from invisible walls. Still no answer. Five quickened his pace even more, now running, his breathing ragged.

There! Could it really be? Yes! The contours became clearer the closer he got to the figures. Now he could make out three different shapes. One very tall and slender one and two smaller ones, one of them stocky. Five opened his eyes even wider, trying to see who was standing there in the darkness.

His eyes traveled up to the heads of the figures, and then to their faces. Suddenly, he came to a halt, as if he had crashed into an invisible wall with full force. His mouth had opened to a loud scream.

Because where the facial features of the figures should have been, there was... nothing. A blank surface stared back at him. Fives' scream faded into a loud gasp as he tried to avert his gaze from them, not wanting to have to look at the faceless masks for a second longer, but his eyes had frozen in their sockets, became lifeless green marbles.

Now the blank surfaces began to pulsate, to billow, to change. With horror, he watched as the shapeless faces took on forms, morphing into horrible facial features. Eyes from which a grayish mist crept and mouths that looked as if they had been cut with a knife. The faces stared at him and then...they came closer.

"Run! Now!" his mind screamed at him. Five tried to back away, but his feet were glued to the floor. He couldn't move a single muscle.

- Five whimpered and bent his head back. His feet kicked wildly at the blanket, trying to push it away -

"No... no, please, go away!" he screamed at the figures, but the grimaces were undaunted and slid further towards him, while he could only stand there helplessly and watch. They would touch him in a moment. Their soulless faces would press against his. His heart was racing wildly, he wanted to shrink back, to run away, to at least close his eyes to them, but his body didn't obey him.

Five's muscles tensed, became as hard as stone, his whole body trembled and twitched with fear, sweat soaked his pyjamas, while he was trapped in the nightmare -

Just a few inches from his face, the figures came to an sudden halt and Five expected them to open their ghastly mouths at any second to devour him. Any second now, the sharp lines of their mouths would part and open up the hell behind them.

Five felt his chest getting tighter and tighter by second, as if someone was squeezing his ribcage with tremendous force. Breathing frantically he tried to expand his ribcage, to fill his lungs with oxygen to drive away the tightness, but nothing changed.

Blind panic seized him. He would suffocate, right now, even before the mouths could devour him. The grimaces would stare at him and wait until he was finished. If they didn't eat him up first.

Five felt hot tears running down his cheeks, but he couldn't even raise his hand to wipe them away. Dead, dead, dead, it pounded in his head with every heartbeat. He would be dead soon. His vision blurred, his body burned with pain, his lungs screamed for oxygen that they did not get. The blackness began to penetrate his pores from the outside, the mouths opened to a blood-red hellish gate and...

- Five was screaming and crying in his sleep, when his door flew open and a shadow scurried in, lifted the blanket and snuggled up close. "Shhhhh, it's okay, Five, I'm here, it's okay! Shhhhh, please, calm down, brother!" -

In one fell swoop, the darkness changed. Five felt warmth on his back and a gentle voice whispering to him from the darkness. He couldn't understand what it was saying, but its sound was strangely comforting. Its murmur enveloped him like a warm cocoon. And suddenly Five was able to breathe again. He greedily sucked the air into his lungs, spitting and coughing. His vision finally cleared.

The hell closed before his eyes and with every new breath the grimaces retreated, became blurred and finally merged with the blackness again. Relief flooded his body. Although he was still trapped in the black room, the darkness no longer felt oppressive and threatening. Yet on the contrary. It seemed to be filled with a comforting warmth. A familiar scent gently enveloped his body. Five let himself fall into the warmth and the scent and a few seconds later slid into a dreamless sleep.

- A hand stroked reassuringly over Fives sweat-soaked hair and the voice whispered, "Sleep well now, Five, I'll protect you."-