The Old Nightmare

"Oh these dreams are not nightmares, but realms I've been choosing to walk.

-The cold acre, by Augie March

The Prevailing Darkness
Sarah ran through a dark hall with the ominous feeling that something was chasing her. She could feel its dark presence, yet she could not hear, nor see it.

She passed a looming statue of a warrior knight whose cold, still stone eyes followed her without even moving. She felt more scared than ever. Everything it seemed was out to get her.

The halls grew even darker, with the only light coming from the pale rays of the moon coming in from the ceiling above. The stained glass depicted several grissly acts of torture and in all of them was a black mass of evil with glowing red eyes. Somehow this gave her a sense of relief as it seemed to personify the evil thing that seemed to be chasing her.

Suddenly she heard tortured screams coming from all around the hall. High pitched, shrill screams of pure terror and fear seemed t echo around the very place she stood, rotted in absolute terror.

And then around the corner it came.

A black mass of pure eveil with deadly claws and glowing red eyes.

"So you are the one who dares disturb my musing?" the creature said in a strange voice that was the combination of thousands of fearful screams and a deep evil tone.

"Who are you?" Sarah asked in frightened tones. She was on the point of breakdown as she was so scared.

"I? I am the embodiment of fear and darkness." the thing said in shattering tones, "I am the eternal avatar of all that is and was. I am the very face of death."

Slowly out of its hideous darkness emerged a grissly black skull. And slowly over the skull grew a dead face. A frightfully familiur face.

"You've got my face!" Sarah screamed.

"And soon I will have your soul!" the creature bellowed.

Sarah ran, where she did not know. All she knew was that she had to put as much distance between the monster and her as possible.

All around her, she heard the torured screams, only louder and much more anguished. Some were familiur, others were so disfigures, she wondered if they were even human in the first place.

Passing a looming dead tree with blood red apples growing on its branches, she bursted into a massive room with a roof so high that it seemed lost in the oblivion. In the room was sevral chairs, a high altar and at the very back was a massive pillar with all sorts of names carved into it. And atop the pillar rested a crystal: small, feeble and barely glowing. It strongly resmebled her hope.

All of a sudden she heard the monster scream behind her. Paicked, she ran towards the front of the room as fast as she could, yet the room never seemed to end. When all eternity seemed to pass, she reached the end. In the last seat, she saw a lone figure sitting perfectly still on the seat, never moving. Her curiosity was piqued and she proceeded towards the figure, desperate for company.

Just as she approached him, the figure disinitergrated. All that was left of it was a small pendant. She picked it up and then gasped.

It was the very pendant that she so cherished. The pendant that had her name and an incantation carved into it. She had always assumed that it was a good luck charm. But the thing tha frightened her most was that she believed the disnitergrating figurre and the pendant was a premonition. What if it was her ultimate fate? what if the pendant would be her ultimate undoing?

All of a sudden, the monster burst into the room. With that, all the lights were extinguished and Sarah was no more.

"'WAKE UP!!!" 'came a sharp voice.

All of a sudden, Sarah woke up. Although she was scared beyond all belief, the light in her room provided her with enough strength to lift her head.

The first thing she saw was her best friend Luke. she wondered what he was doing in her room. She looked at the clock

"10:39 in the morning???" Crap, School started ages ago!"

"I know." Luke said with warmth, "I was waiting for you outside. When you didn't come, I came in and saw you convulsing in your sleep. I decided to watch you until you awoke."

"Sorry about that. I was having a terrible nightmare.I can't remember what happened in it, but it was so scary. And the worst part was it all seemed so real. Are there any giant monster made of darkness around?"

"I can assure you that there is nothing around here that could hurt you. You are alright."

Sarah felt assured, but there was still a nagging suspicion in the back of her head that something wasn't right.

They left the house to go to school as usual. Everything was fine. However, as Sarah walked out of the house, she could have sworn for the briefest moment, she saw a word etched into the sky:

"ZYTARE"

To be continued