Haunted Dreams

By SW Carter

Edited by EnvyMachinery

Tears streamed from his eyes, and Nathan awoke to the dark embrace of his room.  Tossing his blankets to the floor, the chill filling the bedroom formed an instant, unnerving cushion around his body.  The nightmare once again came for him, and the laughs now echoed in his mind.  No matter how hard he tried, the feeling that he remained half-sleeping clung to his soul.  His nightmares, as if clawing out of his mind, gave his room an oppressive air.

Moving with a steady fear, Nathan placed his feet on the ground next to his bed, and walked to the wall.  In the pitch dark, he felt around, searching for the room’s light switch.  His apartment felt hostile and unfamiliar to him.  Moving in last week, he knew only time brought the small comfort of knowing nothing skulked in the dark.

“God damn it,” Nathan’s voice echoed through the silence of the room.  “Not again,” he said as he turned on the light, and leaned against the wall.  He let himself slide down into a seated position, and looked around the dimly lit room to ensure his safety.

Nathan remained on the floor for the rest of the night, although his position eventually moved to the corner of the room.  Bags formed underneath his eyes from the continuous cycle of insomnia and restless sleep.  He faltered to remember the day before today, as time now seemed to blend together.  His alarm going off indicated that his day began.  As he went through his morning routine, he tried to calm down from the heightened fear, fresh from his nightmare like an oozing wound.

As Nathan got ready, he constantly checked the corners of rooms and behind curtains.  Bringing his fragile ego to believe he escaped the taunting laughter, which echoed through his being, proved impossible.  Ready to face the world, he grabbed his keys and headed down the stairs, tearing open the door, and slamming it shut.  As he locked the door, he sighed in relief knowing that meeting friends erases his ongoing fight with paranoia.  Most of the time, he found company draining, but today he desired the security.

Nathan adjusted his coat, walking down the sidewalk to the local café where his companion waited for him.  As he walked, he felt the stares of those around him.  He never escaped the idea that complete strangers watched him.  He often thought he saw them, out of the corner of his eye, stopping and looking towards him.  However, when he turned towards their direction, he seemed proven incorrect.

Nathan felt today strived for exceptionalism in arousing his paranoia.  Everyone that he passed gave him that familiar feeling that proved incorrect mere seconds ago.  Soon, his ears filled with the sounds of quickened footsteps behind him that chilled his spine.  Quickly turning around, only emptiness filled the space behind him.  He craved the isolation abandoned by this adventure, at least no one watched him in the safety of his room, or at least he failed to prove so.

The fear of what Nathan experienced the night before drove him constantly forward, and into Café Nightshade.  He looked into the shadows of the back booths, and there he saw the shape of his friend.  Edging his way forward, he felt the paranoid feeling once again taunting him.  Only this time, instead of disproving his fears, gazing around he saw everyone in the café indeed found him the subject of fascination.

Nathan stopped in his tracks. He grew frightened as he looked into their eyes.  The eyes of the patrons appeared blank and haunting, as if they found his very spirit unimpressive.  He began to hear a slow rising pitch, it sounded like a baby screaming into his ears.  The sound echoed to great enormity until suddenly it stopped, and with a flash everyone once again looked away and went about their business.

“Hey,” a sudden voice boomed, and Nathan flinched.  He spun around to see only his friend standing in the aisle with a look of concern coloring his eyes.  “Are you alright?”  His friend’s voice echoed with a tinge of pity as his friend placed a comforting hand upon Nathan’s trembling shoulder.

“Yeah…” Nathan’s weak voice trailed off as he looked around, checking to make sure the unusual gazes truly ceased.  “No!  I mean…” he looked to his friend with a face drenched in fear and perspiration.  Throwing his friend’s hand from his shoulder, Nathan grabbed him by the arms.  “It’s the nightmare, it’s come back!”

“Listen man, it’s time you seriously considered some therapy,” the friend replied cautiously, backing out of Nathan’s death grip, and shrugging off the pain.  “You also need to get some sleep.  You look like shit, man.”

Nathan looked down at himself.  His wrinkled clothes brought any onlooker the feeling of pity or humor, and it appeared he forgot to tie his shoes.  His mustard-stained shirt filled him with shame, and he realized he put on dirty pants from his laundry, covered in a beer-stained aroma from the previous night.  Filled with a sudden feeling of melancholy, he looked back up at his friend.  “I thought it finally abandoned me, but I guess it’s going to destroy me. Nathan’s voice collapsed into quiet whisper, and then became punctuated by his eyes slowly wetting.  He blinked back the tears, “It refuses to let me get better.”

“Sit down, man.  I planned on paying for breakfast, so just relax, and breathe a little,” Nathan’s friend said directing him to the booth.  “If you need someone to chill with while you get some rest again, I’m here for you.” He gave a short, comforting laugh.  “It’s a damn comfortable couch, too.”

“Thanks, but I prefer to avoid the title known as ‘that guy that stays on Jim’s couch,’ for now,” Nathan said with a faint sense of humor, giving a pathetic laugh.  He knew Jim appreciated him returning the effort.  They ordered pancakes as they began to catch up, a friendship staple.  Several months had passed since they last saw each other.  Nathan recently acquired a reputation for suddenly disappearing.

“So why keep vanishing, and where?  You know it worries everyone when you poof away into nothingness,” Jim asked as he leaned forward, showing a genuine interest.

“Nowhere, just going to work, and coming back.” Nathan stared down into his coffee, averting his friend’s gaze with a sudden fear of being judged.

“Anything interesting ever happen?” Jim pressed.

“More interesting than the usual?” Nathan fired back almost defensively, looking back up with a small fire burning in his eyes.  His temper became quick during the periods of the nightmares.

“Alright, I’m not trying to anger you, it’s just…” Jim trailed off, thinking of hiding his new tint of annoyance better.  The last time he fired off on Nathan, he thought his friend disappeared for good.  It took many days of knocking on Nathan’s door to get him to answer in equal frustration.  He thought of avoiding that situation again at all costs.  “Why invite me here if you refuse to talk to me?”

“I want to talk.” A sense of desperation arose in Nathan’s voice.  “It’s just that…” He paused for a second and looked around the room to make sure eyes placed themselves somewhere other than his conversation.  “I think he hears me, man.”

“The thing from your dreams?” Jim let out a small scoff, quickly stifling a laugh upon seeing his friend’s flustered expression.  “It’s just a dream.  You believe that your dreams hear you, honestly?”

A loud slamming noise echoed through the room as Nathan brought his hand down on the table with a loud thud, causing the dishes on the table to rumble with a loud ring.  “It’s not just a dream!  You know what I see when I go to sleep!  I refuse to keep seeing it!”

Jim looked around in embarrassment, noticing people staring, “Alright, man, calm down.  I apologize. I just want to see you better.”

“How!?” Nathan became very stubborn in his frustration, and then lowered his own voice when he saw his friend’s embarrassment, “I wish one person listened to me on this.  You most of all.” His voice gave off a guilt-inducing disappointment.

“Well, I want to,” Jim assured.

Nathan leaned back, let out a sigh, and looked around the room once more as the intrusive feeling of paranoia began to overtake him once more.  Leaning in, he began to speak with a hushed tone.  “I never get a good look at it, but it’s different now.  It’s giving off this strange chuckle that I hear even now.  It’s stalking me, and I remember that laugh despite barely remember my dreams anymore.”

“You can hear it now?  Is that just poetry or do you mean literally?” Jim became increasingly concerned for his friend’s health as the conversation dragged on.  He worried soon Nathan would be dragged away in a white coat, confined to padded rooms.  His friend’s paranoia deserved immediate attention.

“It’s there when I wake up, in my head, Jim.  Then, I think I see it throughout the day in the eyes of other people,” Nathan answered as he observed a desperate look over take his friend’s face.  “Listen, it’s more than just a fantasy in my head.  I feel it, you know?”

“That’s it man, you need to find a pill or something for this!”  Jim said as he leaned back, trying to steady his worried heart.  He judged his friend, sure, but a situation like that compelled him to.  He attempted to reach Nathan’s remaining bits of sanity, no longer caring about offending him.  “You know how insane this sounds?” Jim asked as he faked a smile to the waitress who refilled their coffee, hoping to avoid banishment from his favorite breakfast restaurant.

“It’s not insane!”  Nathan desperately insisted.  “I need you to buy into at least a little bit of this.  I need your help on the next part of this.”  He frowned as his eyes fell to his food, noticing a lump underneath his pancakes.  “I always forget to tell them to leave off the butter.” He raised his pancake with one fork casually to look at the gooey substance underneath.  However, he saw something large, and white, in-between his pancakes.  It appeared stuck in the center of the lower pancake, and he began pry it out with his fork as he tuned his friend out.  The white ball came loose from the pancakes, and he gasped as he observed the form of a human eye.  It flung backwards and landed on his shirt.  He let out a powerful scream, leaping from his seat, and falling to the floor, attempting to brush the organ with his eyes tightly shut.

“Jesus, Nathan, relax!”  Jim scolded, launching up from his seat and leaning down next to Nathan.  He grabbed his friend’s arms to stop the gooey show. “There is butter everywhere now, man!”

Nathan opened his eyes, and realized his shirt and hands became coated in butter.  He found himself unable to close his mouth as he observed the situation in total shock.  Once again, everyone starred at them as Jim began to rub his own temples in frustration.

“Get the hell out of my store,” the pudgy owner sternly pointed to the door from behind the counter, his expression overtaken by a primal rage.

Nathan quickly exited the café, and darted down the sidewalk.  He walked with such great fury, he left his friend behind to throw money on the table, and run after him. 

“You want to live like this!?”  Jim’s voice echoed through the streets, breathing heavily in anger.  “What the hell makes you so sure you even possess an intact mind!?”

“What makes you so sure my mind’s broken!?”  Nathan picked up his speed.

“Well, getting us banned from Nightshade presents itself as a pretty fucking great indicator,” Jim fired back. 

Nathan stopped and spun around.  “Just forget it, I go alone.  I’ll figure this out by myself, then maybe I search for a friend that gives me a little more benefit of a doubt.”  He rubbed his tired eyes, almost stumbling from his exhaustion.  The anger excursion proved slightly too much.  He steadied himself until the images in front of him joined back into a single unit.

“Go alone?  Go where!?”  Jim ran up next to his friend, holding out his hands in case Nathan tumbled over.  To his relief, Nathan steadied himself and then continued his march forward.

“A while ago, before this started, I walked home from work when I came across this tiny cave in the forest next to my apartment.  I found this really bizarre book inside,” Nathan looked over to gauge his friend’s interest.  “I read part of it, or at least attempted to.  The first couple of words gave me this strange cold feeling, and I left.”

“At least repeat these mysterious words to me.”  Jim tried not to sound curious, he wanted to talk his friend down and finish with everything.  He loved a good campfire story, though.  He thought Nathan told very good ones before he misplaced his brain cells.  He continued walking beside his eager best friend, waiting for the answer to come.

“The first sentence, it said ‘Those who dream death, dream eternal.’  That’s all I read before I got freaked out and left.  The nightmares haunted me ever since that day.” Nathan’s reveal met a short, quiet silence from his friend before he finally heard a reply.

“It’s just a creepy book,” Jim dismissed.

“So you still refuse to believe me!?” Nathan’s voice raised once more into a shout as he turned his head to his friend, staring at him with a furious intensity.

“I believe that you found a scary story in a cave,” Jim attempted to curb his friend’s newfound vigor before Nathan made himself faint again.  “But listen, if you think this thing caused your nightmares, let’s just go up there and destroy it.  It seems like a quick fix, right?  Then if you still find yourself riddled with nightmares, you go talk to a doctor, deal?”

“So you want to follow me?”  Nathan stopped, and looked to his friend with silent desperation.

Jim stopped abruptly, too.  “Yeah, man, if it makes you better, anything.”

Nathan paused for a long time, and let out a sigh of relief.  “Thank you,” he gratefully stated as he looked around, noticing one or two people stopped and looked at them with the same soulless eyes he previously observed.  A chill ran up his spine, “Let’s go quickly then!”

Nathan and Jim walked along the sidewalk with a quickened pace until they got to Nathan’s apartment complex.  They entered, and ran up the stairs to his apartment door.  As Nathan opened it, a horrific smell wafted out, and filled Jim with disgust.  Jim plugged his nose, and followed his friend into the apartment. 

As Nathan ran off to his closet, Jim walked around the apartment, observing its condition.  The floors clearly needed some looking after, and trash littered the hallway.  Jim followed the horrible smell that filled the apartment to the trashcan, where he found quite the brew of rotting food.  Filled with intense nausea, he took out the trash bag and tied it up. 

Nathan quickly found Jim after scavenging the house and acquiring the items he sought.  Nathan retrieved two large flashlights, and a couple of metal bats.  As he looked at Jim tying his trash bag, he felt immediate shame.  “Unless you leave the apartment, the trash, sort of, gets neglected,” he let out a forced laugh.

“Yeah, I noticed.  Tell you what, man, let’s put this thing off, and get your place back in order.  A clean house makes a man feel better,” Jim offered, as he took the trash to the door. 

“No, we go now.  I refuse to wait any longer!”  Nathan let out with a desperate plea.

“Alright.” Jim sadly looked to his disheveled friend.  “Let’s at least toss this trash bag out,” He wanted so hopelessly to help his friend, but the more this continued he found himself infused with the feeling that he simply played a madman’s game.  He opened the door as Nathan shoved a bat into his free hand.  “I seriously doubt we need weapons.”

“It’s just in case,” Nathan darted out the door, as he compulsively turned the flashlights on and off, to make sure they worked.  He felt his friend’s judgmental eyes as they stood by the dumpster, and then he handed Jim his flashlight.

Nathan and Jim said nothing more to each other as they headed in the direction of the forest.  Jim began to regret his decision to go along with this.  He felt a sudden wave of guilt that his actions merely fueled his friend’s psychosis.  As they ventured into the forest, Jim’s guilt replaced itself with a sudden feeling of dread.  He played in this forest as a child, but now it felt very sinister.  The trees almost felt as if they evolved eyes that all turned to him as he walked.  He silently worried Nathan’s strange mental illness now spread to him.  He shook his head like a dog shaking off water, and ignored his feelings.

“There, we found it,” Nathan said with a whisper.  He pointed to a cave entrance.  There stood two boulders in the front, covered in strange red writing, and the top of the cave maintained the faint, red-lettered word ‘Eternity’ covered in some kind of black, sticky substance.

“Hey man, let’s turn back, and maybe report this to the cops.  Look at that black stuff.  I want to avoid whatever lives in it.” His words went unheeded as his friend plunged into the cave entrance, and faded into the dark.  “Hey, wait!”  Jim said as he followed along.  He turned on his flashlight, and desperately searched for his friend.  “Come on man,” his voice dropped into a pathetic whisper.

“Here!”  Nathan called back, causing his friend to flinch, and waited for Jim to catch up.

Jim followed the voice of his companion, and reached a rather large room in the cave.  Lit candles lined the walls, a tattered red carpet covered the floor, and an altar with a large book stood intimidatingly at the edge of the room.  Jim walked along the walls, and observed runes covering them as Nathan ran up to the altar, grabbing the book.

  “Alright, let’s just burn that book with one of these candles, and get the hell out of here.  I think some freaky teenagers must come down here,” Jim suggested.

“No,” Nathan’s fingers traced along the book’s cover, “Not yet.”

“Why?” Jim looked to his friend in concern.

“Well, I just want to dive into the insides of it a little.  Find what’s in here that caused all of my dreams.” Nathan began to sweat, teasing opening the book to finally answer his many questions.  His eyes shifted into a strange trance-like state that left his friend stunned.  “Just a little.”

“Please man, let’s not.  Who cares about the book’s contents?  I just came up here to try and help you get over it.  This shit freaks me right the hell out!”  Jim’s fear grew as Nathan quickly opened the book. Jim took a step forward, but felt suddenly grounded in place.

“No, let’s find out,” Nathan began reading it out loud.  “It says ‘Those who dream death, dream eternal.’  Then some sort of, diagram or symbol appears after it.  It’s like a circle with a bunch ancient-looking writing inside of it.”

“Come on man, let’s stop,” Jim found his courage, and a deep need to leave arose within him.  He became un-rooted, once more treading towards him.  He held out his hand in a pleading fashion. “Just get down from there, and let’s burn the thing!”

Nathan turned the page, ignoring his friend’s discomfort.  “Just a little more, ‘Those who attempt to understand, seek not forgiveness,’ It means something.”  He began to shake as he observed more symbols that danced on the tattered pages of the ancient tome.  “This part, though, I c-c…”  He stuttered, trying to read the next piece of writing.  He saw the words, but failed to understand what they meant.  His vision blurred, as if he suddenly forgot how to read.  He soon began speaking in gibberish as blood poured from his mouth.  He covered his mouth as feeling of dread over took him.

“Nathan!”  Jim shouted his concern from the top of his lungs, but suddenly noticed his hearing became nothing but an intense whistle.  He reached up and touched the blood that now poured from his ears.  He then stumbled backwards, sudden queasiness taking overtaking him.  Then, he noticed a figure slowly emerge from the entrance, but it appeared to him incomprehensible.  He saw something his mind simply failed to translate into a real memory.  A sudden, sharp migraine shook through his brain, causing him to grab his head and scream into the cave’s ceiling.  As Jim tried to hold the pressure now mounting in his mind, his eyes began to bleed, and he fell to the floor, his shriek now reaching an inhumanely high pitch.  His head appeared to collapse inward with a sickening crackle. 

Nathan tried to scream in fear, but instead vomited a blackened blood.    As he looked up at the figure, the candles mercifully blew out, and he soon found himself in the darkness overtaken by an indiscernible new fear.  He began to run, darting past the horror at the door, but he forgot his flashlight.  As he stumbled around in the darkness, he tripped over a large rock and fell into a hole, landing in a shallow body of water.  Soaked, he sprung up and looked around himself searching for some source of light.

Every time he tried to scream for help, nothing came out.  He began to let out a sobbing gasp when lights shot on all around him.  He found himself knee-deep in shallow water, and as he looked around his eyes met with a horrifying sight.  The decapitated, collapsed head of his friend was now relocated and speared onto a nearby stalagmite.  Whatever placed his friend’s head on the cyclopean spear also saw fit to cruelly remove Jim’s eyes.  Then, the head opened its mouth with a vomit-inducing snap, and it let out a horrifying shriek that sounded like an insane, injured animal with one vocal cord removed. 

Nathan stumbled back into the water and shut his eyes, and tried to believe that it all some fantasy.  As the shriek died down, another terrifying nose rose up from the pits of hell.  The caves filled up with a terrifying laughter.  Tears streamed from his eyes, and Nathan awoke to the dark embrace of his room.