Stranger Nightmares- the Dark Nautraum

by Dixon Lee

  “Yeah…”

  He wasn’t even entirely focusing on the words coming from her mouth, but he knew he wanted her gone.

  “I feel like you’re not, what’s wrong?”

  “For the love of God, when I tell you I’m fine, it means that I’m fine!”

  He hadn’t meant to scream at her, and watching her shrink backward was a hard sight to watch, yet he felt no sympathy.

  “Fine, at least let me help bandage you up.”

  “Look, I appreciate that you’re trying to be there for me, but I really just want you to leave me alone. Okay?”

  Her face flashed a look of hurt and confusion, never before had he asked her to leave, only begged her to stay. This was new and what’s new is strange and what’s strange is terrifying. Yes, she was terrified. Of losing her boyfriend to another blackout, of the stream of blood continuing to run from the opening in his chest, of a possible breakup. He knew all of this to be a fact, yet, how could one feel empathy for such childish fears when he had almost been killed by his own? Perhaps this made him cruel, but why should he care? He loved her, but that didn’t change anything in his heart, which had almost just stopped forever. He hoped with everything he had that maybe, just maybe, it was his mind playing tricks on him while his body fought itself for life. That maybe the monster hadn’t been real after all, and this was just a coincidence, it was possible that Stephanie really had punched a hole into his chest. However, after all of this fighting to convince himself otherwise, one lingering detail struggled to prove otherwise: the strange woman at the antique shop. Hadn’t she said that if he touched the vase, his dreams would come to life to attempt the murder of their host? He could overlook every other detail except for this tiny one. Yes, he really needed Stephanie to leave so he could pay the lady, Lillian was her name, a visit.

  “I’m just trying to help you, Tony. Jesus, I just brought you back from the dead.”

  This was true, had she not stepped in when she did, his head would have most likely been bitten in two. The thought of her finding him in that way brought forth delirious laughter and a ‘you’re crazy’ look from her. After trying for two minutes, he was finally able to get himself back under control.

  “Yeah I know, thank you but I really need to be alone right now. I’ll call you later.”

  Left with no other choice, she shot him one last loathful look and took her dramatic exit, being sure to slam his door closed behind her. He wasted no time throwing himself out of bed and stumbling towards the bathroom (his head really was a confused mess). Ripping his shirt off, he revealed the wound. It was jagged and deep, dark amulet strings of tissue hung down inside of it. The thought of how much it resembled the inside of a pumpkin, brought him back to the uncontrollable laughter, but this time he was able to stop much more quickly.

  He fumbled around the cabinets, searching for any type of disinfectant and bandage he could find, eventually laying eyes on what he was looking for. The cleaning process was long and painful, the injury would undoubtedly need stitches, maybe even surgery, but there was no time for any of that now. He had to get back to the shop and find the lady who had warned him of this awful plague on his mind.

  He threw on a pair of clothes, oddly enough the same ones his dream counterpart had been wearing and made his way out of the door, not even making sure to lock it first. If he had thought the rubbing alcohol had burned, he wasn’t even close to prepared for the seething sensation he found while walking. It felt as though his stomach was being ripped apart by invisible hands, prying their way towards his heart. Each step forward only resulted in more of this unbearable pain. It blinded his eyes and turned his brain to liquid mush, slushing around. Come on, Tony… just a few steps further. While this positive encouragement might have given him a little motivation, he knew the words were untrue, in fact, that was the only thing he knew. Where he was going, why he was going there, all of it - fled from his mind leaving him an empty shell.

  He tried to process the sounds around him, as his ears still mostly worked, but the thoughts wouldn’t connect in his head. Perhaps the most distracting sound was one of fast movements. Whizzing, maybe? He wasn’t sure. He recognized it, but couldn’t place what it belonged to, so he just kept walking towards the growing noise. A new sound, that resembled a horn blared into his head. Over and over the noise repeated, coming from multiple directions, trapping him inside.

  Then there was a new feeling that made his previous pain feel like a papercut. Something large had run into him, knocking him onto the gravelly ground. He was paralyzed where he lay. New sounds and old sounds rushed by him, but he was unable to distinguish them from each other. He wasn’t even sure if he was awake or not, most likely he was somewhere in between, a limbo. Invisible claws scratched into his skin and blood poured out of a cut on his head. The whizzing sound continued all around him, cars. Yes, he remembered. The sound was that of cars. Oh my god, I was hit by a car. He was struck with the truth of his situation, like a bolt of lightning, burning into him. I’m going to die. A smile tugged at the edges of his mouth. How stupid could he be? He could’ve just told Stephanie the truth and they could have found Lillian together, but now he was going to die alone in a street. What was not to find funny?

  Unconsciousness was once again threatening to take over his mind, which filled him with more fear than simply dying. He was in pain, but the thought of being trapped in his mind again, unknowingly, fighting for his life against the nightmares inside was far worse than meeting his end right now.

  Light flashed in front of his eyes and shadows danced in front of them in the shape of a person, a woman. She leaned forward, coming into his shrinking view.

  “Lillian?” he tried to whisper, although he wasn’t sure whether any sound had actually left his lips.

  “Shh… sweetheart, you’ll leave this world soon. I promise.”

  It was definitely Lillian, but her words brought her no comfort, instead, they made him anxious. Something about this woman wasn’t right.

  “Don’t be afraid to dream, if you just give up control it will all be over so much faster.”

  How did she know about the nightmares?

  She then abruptly stood, turned, and strutted away from his decaying body. Sirens in the distance promised him hope, but not enough. The world was leaving him and the haziness of sleep was welcoming him home. He dreaded it but craved an escape from the pain. There was no use fighting against the current, and he went under.

  Chapter 4

  Stephanie Clifford

  The call came through her phone later that afternoon. After Tony had thrown her out of his house, she had retreated to walk the quiet streets alone. Nothing made sense to her, and she had believed that walking might help to clear up her thoughts. Why had he been bleeding so bad, I’m pretty sure I didn’t punch him nearly hard enough to cause that kind of damage. And, why did he change so drastically after seeing the blood? The movement did nothing to improve her state of mind, instead only complicating her thoughts more.

  She had been walking for about an hour and had just reached her own apartment when her phone rang. The screen had lit up, saying that the call was from Tony. For a split second, she considered ignoring it, she didn’t want to talk to that bastard anyway, but the thought of his bleeding gash convinced her to do otherwise.

  “Hello?” Stephanie said, approaching her front door, key in hand.

  “Hello, is this Miss Clifford?” a female voice on the other end spoke.

  “Yes, who is this?”

  “My name is Allison Ray, I’m a nurse from Alpine Grove Memorial Hospital. I apologize for having to call you like this, but I’m afraid Tony Preciado was just hit by a car. You were the first contact in his phone, and we had no other options but to get in contact with you.”

  She could feel her heart, clawing the cage which trapped it, fighting to escape. She could swear that her heart even stopped for what felt like hours, but was probably just a few seconds.

  “Is he a
live?”

  The question was terrifying and the answer was dreaded.

  “He is currently holding on… but I’m afraid there is some unfortunate news. At eight o’clock this morning, he fell into a coma. At the moment, we’ve been unable to pull him out of it and his brain scans are abnormal. We would like you to come down here as soon as possible to answer some questions about some of our findings.”

  She knew what the nurse was talking about, how could she not? The gaping hole in his chest was too large to simply overlook. Oh my god, are they going to blame me? Panic began to take over her once more.

  “Of course, I’ll make my way over immediately.”

  They ended the phone call shortly afterward, and Stephanie was left with no choice but going to the hospital to be interrogated for a crime she wasn’t even sure if she committed. Of course, her biggest concern was the welfare of her boyfriend. Coma… Had she really said that Tony was in a coma? If her mind had been a knotted mess before, then this was something else entirely. She was a panicked wreck behind a wheel, thinking over all of the events from the last couple of days, trying to make things add up.

  It’s easy to say that time goes by faster when one is lost in their own consciousness. She found this out when the car suddenly arrived at the hospital, after what seemed like mere seconds. Odd indeed.

  She rushed up to the reception desk, face frazzled and looks amiss.

  “Who are you looking for?” one of the ladies from behind the counter asked without even looking up to see who she was conversing with.

  “Tony Preciado, he was admitted earlier today.”

  Wait… a coma!

  “Ah, yes, you must be Stephanie.”

  She nodded.

  “You’ll find him in room B201, down the hall and to the left of the water fountain.”

  “Thank you.”

  Her feet threw her across the hall with superhuman strength, charging past the corridors until she stood still, outside of a gray door. The number next to it read the same as what she had been told, yet she stayed there unmoving. How could Tony be in a coma? He was fine earlier. This isn’t right. She gripped the handle tightly, then turned it, letting herself into the musty room.

  The windows were all drawn, allowing outside light to flood in in waves. However, that was the only form of joy in this space to be seen. The walls were a dull white, plain and naked, while the floor was the most basic tile in the book. Everything was so completely ordinary. Everything except for the body hooked to machines in the center of the room. The body of her boyfriend.

  Though at first, she hadn’t seen them, a nurse and a police officer emerged from the shadows in the furthest corner. She, the nurse, was on the short side with long red hair and fidgeting feet, scooting across the slick floor. The police officer was a gruff almost scary-looking middle-aged man, with a full face of hair. In his hands was a notebook, similar to the ones she had seen reporters carrying on television. Odd.

  “Miss Clifford?” the nurse asked, taking a small step forward. “I’m Allison Ray, we talked briefly on the phone.”

  “Yes, I remember.”

  How could she not?

  “Of course, if you don’t mind, I have a few questions for you to answer.”

  Stephanie nodded, eyes twisting and turning, memorizing the room, although there wasn’t much to take in, but it was better than eye contact.

  “Alright then, would you mind following me over here?”

  Allison led the way over to Tony’s bed where she was forced to look at the wires attached to his arms and forehead. He looked dreadfully pale, like a ghost on a summer day. His lips were the shade of plums and they were peeling off in strips.

  The police officer, who had later introduced himself as Chris Barrett, joined the two females. He rested his eyes on Stephanie as he reached down and pulled back the blankets which had been covering Tony’s torso. His wound had been bandaged and cleaned, yet she could easily tell it was still there, underneath the gauze and rags.

  “Would you mind informing us of what happened to him?” Officer Barrett inquired, eyes laced with suspicion.

  She didn’t know where to start. How do you when you’re not even sure yourself? Well, Allison must have taken her hesitation as a sign of guilt because she made the decision to chime in.

  “It’s okay dear, it’s better to tell us now than us to find out later.”

  Stephanie suppressed a laugh. Like that was supposed to make her feel any better, from her point of view either was hell. Nevertheless, keeping her mouth shut wasn’t an option and was likely to end her in a cold lonesome cell. The best course of action, that she could decipher, was to simply tell the truth, or at least what she believed to be the truth.

  “This is obviously a fresh injury and his text logs say that you two met up yesterday, so how about you start at the beginning? Where did your time together start?”

  Chris was obviously losing his patience, so it was now or never.

  “We both got off of work yesterday at around the same time so we decided to walk home together instead of us each riding the bus like we normally do,” she said, already knowing there was no way anyone would believe her story. “Then the weather started to drop and the cold became almost unbearable for me because I have a brain tumor and the chilly climate makes the pain worse. So, Tony decided that we should visit some little antique shop that he had known about. Well, we made it there and we were looking around when this strange old woman came out of nowhere. She was one of the most hideous people I had ever seen, with large bulging eyes and broken yellow teeth, but the two started flirting. He acted as though she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. I made him leave when things between them started heating up more and we finished the rest of the walk to his place in silence. Somewhere along the way, we made up and then…”

  “And then what Miss Clifford?”

  “And then we had sex.”

  Neither of them looked impressed, so she continued.

  “I woke up to him screaming in pain, but he wouldn’t wake up. I tried everything I could do to save him, eventually resulting in punding on his chest with my fist. He did wake up, but when he did, he had this hole in his stomach. He acted oddly and yelled at me to leave, so I did. Next thing I know I’m getting a call saying he was hit by a car and is in a coma. That’s all I know.”

  Yep, she had called it, they didn’t believe her.

  “Let me see your hand,” Officer Barrett said, holding out his own.

  He then grabbed it and held it over a picture that had been previously taken of the wound. Her hand matched it almost perfectly. How is this possible?

  “So you knew he was bleeding out and you didn’t bother calling for help or even just staying him?”

  “I told you, he wanted me gone.”

  “And because of that, now he’s in a coma.”

  She couldn’t believe that he was blaming her for this, it was insane and infuriating.

  “Do you want to know what I think really happened Miss Clifford?” he asked, not waiting for her reply before continuing. “I think that you got jealous of that pretty girl at the store. It pissed you off to see your precious boyfriend hanging off of another girl, so you made him leave. Then you seduced him one last time and while he was asleep, you did this!”

  He pointed to Tony’s chest.

  “And then you left him alone to die, but it didn’t work that well for you, did it? No, because you didn’t finish the job, so he was able to go looking for help but not quite able enough to find it.”

  To say she was shocked would be an understatement, she was mortified.

  “I didn’t attempt to kill Tony! And you have no proof that I did.”

  “Maybe not yet, but mark my words you will be brought to justice. As for the moment, you are being watched and are not allowed to exit this city. If you do, you will be arrested. Do you understand?”

  All Stephanie could do was a nod and try to blink away the tears gathering in
her eyes.

  “Good, and one last thing, after right now, you will not be permitted to visit Tony again until your name has been cleared.”

  He waited until she agreed to those terms too before he tipped his hat to the nurse and made his grand exit.

  “I’m afraid that I can only give you five minutes with him right now before I’ll have to ask you to leave. For your privacy, I’ll stand in the hallway but if you try anything I have security on guard.”

  She followed behind Officer Barrett, footsteps stopping right outside the door.

  Stephanie laid her hand on Tony’s forehead, it was burning up. His hand was twitching slightly, as were his eyelids, but she shrugged it off as being normal.

  “I miss you so much, please come back to me,” she cried, no longer being able to hold back her tears.

  They sprang from her eyes and wetted his face.

  “I love you,” she whispered, head on his.

  She wasn’t sure how long she stayed like that before his body started jerking, causing her to jump off of it. He was seizing.

  “Nurse!”

  Allison ran into the room, confusion, then horror, flooding her face.

  “Not again.”

  “What do you mean not again?” Stephanie yelled as she was dragged out of the room by the guards.

  Just as they were exiting the doorway, she saw something. Something that sent shivers up her spine and through her neck. There, on his face, was a cut slicing across his forehead by an invisible blade.

  They picked up her body and tossed it into the hallway like a ragdoll, slamming the door behind her. What the hell did I just see?

  Chapter 5

  Tony Preciado

  He awoke in an empty room. All of the walls were bare, the floors were an ugly shade milk-white carpet, there weren’t even any lights so how he could easily see, he wasn’t sure. The longer he stood the more he began to process his situation; this was no room. This was a box - a prison with no doors or windows. He didn’t even know how anyone or anything could place him in here.