by Dixon Lee
STRANGER
NIGHTMARES
- The Dark Nautraum -
Written by Dixon Lee
Copyright ® 2019 Dixon Lee
The characters in this book are entirely fictional. Certain long-standing institutions, agencies, and public offices may be mentioned or hinted, but the characters involved are wholly imaginary. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Table Of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 1
Tony Preciado
The wind howled into the late afternoon, carrying along with the limp leaves from the oak trees, now exposed from the bitter cold season. Ominous clouds hung suspended over a pale sky, blocking out the sun as it struggled to warm the land beneath it. Its efforts were proven to be in vain as the freezing weather stung their frost-bitten faces. Both of the bodies hurried through the empty sidewalks together against the ever-growing flurry. Short overhangs provided minimal shelter from the pounding of the rain above. Nevertheless, he took her numb hand and the two danced in the puddles of the storm, laughing as the current knocked them down.
“We should probably find a place to get warmed up,” she struggled to say through her childish giggling, while still laying in the pools of water.
He held back out his own hand, to help her back onto her feet, eyes twinkling.
“What? You can’t stand a little rain?” he joked as he scooped up some water in his palms to splash onto her.
“I can handle water just fine, it’s the cold I can’t stand.”
He could see her body trembling beneath her many layers and knew that her disease flourished in such weather, which induced great anguish.
“If you really insist, there’s an antique shop a couple of yards ahead that we could stay in until the storm passes.”
“Thank you…” she whispered, voice trailing off into the growing gloom of the day.
The couple began to speed up from their once leisurely pace, into a slow jog. The sky had opened up allowing all of its rain to crash upon the earth with wrath. About five minutes of walking later, the pair arrived at a tiny boutique. It was immersed in darkness and from the street looked closed, but out of pure desperation, they decided to take a closer look at the peculiar building before them. Leading up to it was a series of stars, which she had nearly slipped on stepping up. Above the wooden door was a sign reading “Alpine Grove Antique Shop” and below it hung an open sign. The two exchanged a look of agreed suspicion and caution but knew that anything would be better than hiking through this cold night on their way back to his house. With those final thoughts, he reached his shaking hand out, grasping the door handle, and turned it.
The door creaked as it was pushed open revealing a cramped space full of various items and treasures. It was much smaller than it had looked from the outside, but that might have been a cause of all the clutter playing a trick on their eyes. Around them were dozens of plates, bowls, pictures, and statues all from long before their time, especially since they were both still in their early twenties. It was certainly a sight to take in, but perhaps the most incredible aspect was the radiating warmth the whole place had.
The two split up, each walking through different aisles, looking for whatever fit their tastes and needs. Gazing around the quaint store, he quickly found himself lost in his own mind. As a result, he ended up walking straight into his girlfriend who had just turned out of a different aisle.
“Careful.”
A sing-song voice from behind them sounded, causing them to jump since they had previously believed they were alone with the shopkeeper.
“Tha… thank you,” he stuttered, trying to find the words to say while finding himself oddly intrigued by her facial features.
Sharp blue eyes pierced into his honey brown ones, drawing him in. Her cheeks sustained their rosy color, even though his own were void of any shade. Her long sunshine blonde waves contrasted his straight shoulder-length mocha. A small smile played at the corners of her plush pink lips, which he found himself wishing to kiss. All the while he was making these observations, the strange woman maintained eye contact with the duo, even though her main focus was on the male.
“Well I suppose I should introduce myself then, I’m Lillian White, but most people just call me Lily,” she explained. “And you two are?”
“I’m Stephanie Clifford,” his girlfriend said, eying him as she waited for him to provide his name, but he never did. “And this is my boyfriend, Tony Preciado.”
“Preciado, you must be of Mexican descent then,” Lily wondered aloud, fully focusing on Tony.
“Yeah, my family moved here when I was younger, what about you?”
“I was born in Southern Florida, so I’m only visiting here for two weeks before making my trip home.”
“Would you like me to show you around town before you go?” he inquired, completely ignoring Stephanie’s pleas to leave.
“Why, I would simply adore that, how about we meet tomorrow, does here work?”
“Yes, I believe that it works perfectly.”
The woman then turned back to looking at the dishes from before he had collided with Stephaine, who was now pulling him aside into a different aisle.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she snarled, fingernails attaching themselves to his coat.
“What do you mean?”
“You were flirting with that… that… thing!”
“Just because you decide to get jealous, doesn’t give you the right to degrade her by calling her a thing.”
“She’s weird looking, especially her eyes… I don’t know Tony, but I don’t trust her and I don’t want you anywhere near her.”
“Steph, I’m going to do whatever the hell I want. You don’t control me.”
“I’m your girlfriend, and if you’d like it to stay that way I would follow this one simple request. Stay away from her.”
“Fine. I’m sorry to upset you,” Tony smirked, voice coated in sarcasm, which she seemed to be unable to detect.
He went back to wandering the store, before laying eyes on an interestingly designed vase. Something about it appeared to be calling out to him, so he quickly inched forward to grab it, but was halted in his tracks.
“Stop! Don’t touch that!”
The exclamation had come from Lillian, who was now standing directly behind him.
“Why not?” he questioned, mischief on his mind.
“I’ve heard stories of people who have touched vases identical to that one right there. They say that after you’ve laid your hands on its smooth surface, it places something inside of you that awakens while you’re fast asleep. It comes out in your dreams and hunts you down in every way imaginable. Possibly the most horrifying factor though, is that whatever it does to you in your head, becomes your reality. Myths state that this is the reason why so many people fall victim to death in their sleep.”
Tony’s face twisted into a look of disbelief.
“Of course, only the bravest have ever dared lay a finger on it,” Lillian continued.
“Only the bravest, huh?”
She nodded, that same sly smile tugging at her mouth but she never quite let it out.
“I would say I’m pretty brave, especially in the presence of such a pretty girl,” with that Tony grabbed the vas
e, clutching it both sweaty hands. He then took a closer look at it, then at Lillian, and he licked the vase, all while maintaining eye contact.
“That was pretty stupid,” she laughed, putting emphasis on the ‘pretty.’
He laughed along with her, enslaved in her beauty, or maybe more accurately, her eyes.
“Tony!” Stephanie screeched from across the room. “We’re leaving. Now!”
He thought for a few minutes about refusing, but knew that she was ultimately right, besides it was getting late.
“Alright, let’s go,” he muttered, turning towards the door. “Goodbye, Lillian.”
“Goodbye Tony, we’re still on for tomorrow, correct?”
He waited until Stephanie had left the room to slip her a discreet nod, before spinning around and joining his girlfriend in the chilly winter air.
The further away the walked, the less he remembered about the woman at the antique shop, which he was beginning to find quite strange. Did he really agree to meet with her, or had that all been made up in his mind? He couldn’t possibly imagine cheating on Stephanie, but yet there he had been, ready to undress then and there for someone he had just met. The more the walked, the angrier with himself he became.
“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have done… whatever it was that I did.”
“Don’t try to play it off,” she snarled, quickening her pace.
“I’m not, I feel awful.”
“If she suddenly appeared right in front of us you would do it all again, in fact, I was waiting for you to drop down on one knee and propose.”
Through the fog, a single light shown through the darkness, highlighting his home. They were almost there.
“Look, you know I love you and I would never do anything to harm you. I don’t know what got into me back there, but I promise it’ll never happen again. I have no plans on actually going to see her… I only want to forget.”
At this point, they had reached his doorstep where they both briefly paused so that he could let them in.
“I want to forget too,” she said, casting him a sideways glance as she made her way towards his bedroom.
“So then why don’t we?” he asked, watching her slip her wet clothes off onto the floor.
“On one condition…”
“Oh yeah? And what would that be?”
“You make it up to me, the best way you know how,” she signaled to his half-made bed, with his dirty clothes sprung all over the top of it.
He gave her his fullest smile, but she was already climbing on top of the mess.
“Hurry up,” she sighed.
“Coming.”
He slid his clothing off of his body, letting it fall onto hers. He then pulled a condom out of his bedside table and slipped it on before climbing on top of her. She moaned lightly at the contact their two bodies made and a little louder once he positioned himself to push his member in. He dragged his fingernails along her skin, pausing to squeeze her breasts. Then, he leaned forward to kiss her face and neck.
By the time the two reached climax, either one of them could be certain that the neighbors could hear all of the sounds their lovemaking caused.
“I forgive you,” Stephanie groaned, panting heavily.
“Good,” he replied. “Can you stay here tonight?”
“Yeah.”
Sleep began to creep into his weary head, as he lay in her warmth. The soft sprinkle of raindrops on the roof was beginning to lure him into a peaceful daze, and soon enough, unconsciousness took him over completely.
Chapter 2
He awoke to sun rays dripping through his curtains, warming his face. Rolling over, he noticed that Stephanie wasn’t with him and he suddenly felt much cooler, the feeling of loneliness is a peculiar one. Tony sat straight up and stretched his arms outward, shaking off the haze of sleep. Slipping into a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie, he stumbled his way into the kitchen, tiles burning into his naked feet. The temperature was seemingly dropping with each step forward he took. Nevertheless, he carried on, towards the fridge for his daily cup of coffee, when he was suddenly stopped in his tracks.
The light sound of footsteps could be heard in the living room, which neighbored the kitchen.
“Stephanie, is that you?” Tony called out, traveling towards the doorway so he could have a better view of the other room.
Standing in the middle of it was a tall, oddly built creature. It had black hair, which fell like strings down its bareback. Its spine protruded from the paper-thin layers of skin and its fingers were long, ending in sharp spikes. The thing slowly turned around to face him, betraying the horror of its facial features. Dark, bottomless eyes and a mouth full of dozens of teeth lunged at him from across the room.
The creature landed on him, knocking both of them on to the floor where it proceeded to sniff his face. Its breath was the stench of a rotting corpse, it made him gag as he tried not to inhale it in.
“PLEASE... PLEASE NO...” Tony screamed as the monster opened its gigantic mouth and began to lower it around his head.
He could barely even take air into his lungs, thanks to the massive weight of the beast on his chest. It raised up one of its hands, then lowered it onto his torso, slicing him open with a single finger. Blood began to drizzle out from the fresh wound, and Tony let out a scream from the pain. The gash was long and jagged as if it had been forced by some unnatural power. Unfortunately, the creature wasn’t done with him yet. It reached both of its fleshy arms, dripping in black goo, out to grasp each of his shoulders. Its nails dug into his bare flesh as the thing began to wildly shake him, picking him up off of his apartment floor, and throwing him back down with a ruthless vengeance. It repeated these actions for six, maybe seven times? He had lost count. In his head, he was praying for the blackness to save him from all of the pain he was feeling, but unconsciousness wouldn’t come and the shaking wouldn’t stop.
At this point, Tony was ready to accept that simple truth - he was about to die and there was nothing he could to save himself. There was red, oozing from the back of his head from hitting it so many times on the hard floor.
“Please… please stop… please…” he groaned to his predator, begging it not to devour him like some helpless soul, left to die alone.
He could feel his eyes begin to roll to the back of his head. Excitement overtook his broken body, it was all almost over. It was an easy decision to allow himself to quit fighting for life, he was ready to welcome death with open arms. He could feel the reaper creeping nearer with each jolt he faced. Only one word cycled on repeat in his mind, “Tony.” Yet, the voice seemed rather distant, as if they were a hundred miles away. None of that mattered now, his eyes could no longer focus on his surroundings and the pain was fading away into oblivion. Still, that one word persisted and it was that one single, simple word that brought him back to life.
Chapter 3
“Tony?”
“Tony, are you awake?”
“Tony! Answer me! Why won’t you wake up?”
Stephanie sat on top of his unresponsive body, violently shaking him, pleading to the gods to not take him away from her.
“Tony… please!” sobs riddled her voice, causing it to crack and splinter.
She rested her head on his chest so that she could hear the beats of his heart.
“Come on…” Stephanie pleaded, through bittersweet tears. She slammed all of her weight onto his stilling chest, fighting to keep him alive. Red splotches were beginning to appear on the outsides of his white t-shirt, but she refused to stop pushing down.
“Come on Tony, wake up.”
Desperation began making its way into her like a disease, crawling up her spine and laying waste to her brain. Rational thoughts fled the scene as her mind became a warzone. She couldn’t lose him, it just wasn’t an option. She crashed her arms down, punching his rib cage with all of the strength she could muster. Get up, Tony. Fight it. With each strike, her fists grew increasingly bloody and she wasn’t completely
positive if the blood was hers or his.
Out of nowhere, his body lunged forward, head remaining on the pillow. His eyes swung open as some breath was finally allowed to enter into his lungs.
“Why the hell were you punching me?” he croaked, the words came out broken up and cracked, much like the voice of someone who had just spent the last couple of hours screaming wildly.
“You wouldn’t wake up, Tony, I thought you were going to die,” she wailed, tears flinging from her eyes like fireworks.
“Well, I’m not, so it would be cool if you could get off of my ribs now,” he muttered, as her face lit up with the realization that she was still sitting on his torso.
“Of course, I’m so sorry,” Stephanie hastily moved, revealing the puddle of blood oozing out of his open chest.
As soon as she did, pain exploded and it took all of his remaining strength not to scream out in terror. All he could do was stare at the mess he was in, horrified at the sight.
“I’m so sorry… I think I did that to you, I don’t know how it was all kind of a blur… I’m just so sorry,” she said, talking way to fast for his pounding head to keep up with.
“It’s not your fault Steph, you saved my life so stop apologizing,” he said these words, knowing that his wound had not been a cause her repeatedly punching him.
No, this had been caused by something - someone much darker. Sinister, even. He had no clue how, but that creature in his nightmares had harmed him in real life. Jesus Christ, it could have killed him. After all, it was certainly aiming too.
“Are you sure?” she murmured, standing up off of his bed.