Stranger Nightmares- the Dark Nautraum

by Dixon Lee

  But then she remembered something that the book had said about it blaming the dreams on different objects or other people. Oh my god, it can’t be... But, how could it not? It all made sense; the dreams, the vase, the cuts. It was all so clear now, and she wondered why she hadn’t figured it out before. She had known something was wrong with that woman, but she couldn’t place it and now all roads were leading back to her. Without a single doubt in her mind, Stepanie knew who this demon was, or rather whose skin it was currently parading around in. The thought of it made her sick, but she was sure about it. It was Lillian.

  Chapter 7

  Tony Preciado

  He awoke in his bedroom, laying next to Stephanie who had been watching him sleep. A sigh of relief broke through his chapped lips, he was awake. His eyes flew down to his wrists and sure enough, the gashes were still there, much like the hole in his stomach, but this time she didn’t seem to notice them. The bleeding had mostly stopped, so he carefully placed them back down and turned his attention back to her.

  She was still watching him intently, which caused red flags to begin to sound in his brain. He propped himself up and tried using laughter to break the silence, but her mouth stayed quiet. Finally, not being able to take it any longer, he decided to speak.

  “Steph, are you alright?”

  For a second, he wasn’t sure if she had heard him, as she stayed still, but soon enough she began to talk.

  “Of course I am silly, how could I not be with you next to me?”

  Her voice was a few decibels higher than normal and her words were kinder than anything he had ever heard her say, but he decided to just ignore it and not start another fight.

  “I don’t know babe, you were just being awfully quiet.”

  “I’m sorry, I guess I was just zoning out.”

  He nodded in understanding and moved over to peck a small kiss onto her lips. She returned it by slipping her tongue through his and pushing him back down onto the bed. He let out a small moan of enjoyment and for a few seconds, he even forgot about his troubles. He could finally rest now - he was safe with the woman he loved.

  She climbed on top of him, performing an exotic dance as she did. He was starting to find her behavior quite strange, but once again decided that it was nothing. After all, hadn’t she been the one who was researching different types of sex styles not even a month ago? This was probably just some weird ritual she had read online and made the choice to test it in the bedroom. While normally he would have laughed at such actions, he found the way her arms swung around him with such grace to be enticing, maybe even a little bit hot. Yes, without a single doubt in his mind she was beginning to turn him on and after the torture, he had just endured, he was grateful for it. It felt like years since he had last been in the same room with her, let alone be lucky enough to have her sitting on him, touching him.

  After about five minutes of her arm waving later, he began to grow impatient. All of her clothes and his clothes were still clinging to their hot and sweaty bodies, but he refused to upset her any more than he already had the last couple of days. What he had gone through, the creature which ripped his innards out, the old man, the water, all of it - had felt so real. He could shut his eyes and be immediately transferred to the worlds of his nightmares as if he never even left.

  Maybe it had all been nothing more than a vivid dream, which appeared to have lasted a lifetime. He still remembered all that he went through and the long list of rules he created to survive. The first of which had been thought up after something (he could no longer picture exactly what this something had been) had tried to open a black hole to swallow him inside of it. The instructions had been there, clear as day, he either had to fight the monster and die or take a chance by going through the black hole. He had chosen to ignore the warning and face off against the beast alone, which resulted in a long gash from the monster’s claw being dug into his left eye. Shortly after, rule number one was created - ALWAYS follow the instructions.

  The dreams became like a game, you either followed the rules or you would die trying to outsmart them. Death had drawn increasingly close to him an innumerable amount of times, always slinking around the corner waiting to pounce, but it never took hold of him. Tony had always found a way to survive, which he partially thanked rule number two for. This rule states that caution is the key to survival, nothing is as it seems. Due to this message, he had avoided losing his life and kept enough limbs and important organs to stay alive.

  Now, those instincts were beginning to kick in. Stephanie had never been the type of girl who liked to keep him waiting and while she sometimes enjoyed experimenting, this was definitely going too far, even for her. To say that he was growing impatient was an understatement and he was far more than sick of waiting, so he decided to take the situation into his own hands. He sat up, gently pushing her off of on top of him, so that he could remove his shirt and shorts. She made no noise or recognition whatsoever of his actions, opting to stay completely silent instead. Once he was done removing all but his boxers, he turned his attention to her clothing. He gripped the edges of her shirt, eager to pull it off, but he stopped himself to check and make sure she was okay with it, which as it turned out, she wasn’t.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Tony?” she snarled, eyes red.

  He was slightly taken aback by her harshness towards him and found it quite unnerving, even a little bit suspicious.

  “I just thought…” he trailed off, unsure of how to justify himself if he really had misjudged the situation.

  “Thought what?” she hissed back, mouth beginning to gather foam at its edges.

  “I don’t know, Stephanie. I guess I just thought that you wanted to have sex, but if you’d rather not, then I’m sorry for making a move on you.”

  She sat back down, next to him on the bed, as she had previously been standing. Her face was still curled up in a rage, body prepared to pounce

  “Why would I ever want to have sex with such a dirty, worthless man such as yourself? You don’t mean anything to me Tony, and do you want to know a filthy little secret? You never did. From the first day I met you, I pitied you, but I knew that you were someone who I could easily manipulate. So, that’s what I did. The sex, if you could even call it that, was awful because you sucked at it. In fact, you’re awful at everything I’ve ever seen you do. Then, you had the nerve to flirt with that disgusting dirtbag at the antique shop, with me right in front of you and you wonder why you’re loved by no one and nothing. It must sting to be as insignificant to the world as you are, but at least you should crave and appreciate the sweet release that death will bring to you.”

  He sat there, shocked and stung by the venomous words she had just spit out of her mouth. How could she possibly be so cruel? He was heartbroken and destroyed, but his stubborn personality prevented him from accepting the reality of the situation.

  “What the hell are you talking about, Steph? I know you, and you would never do this to me.”

  “You don’t know the first thing about me, you absolute ass.”

  Her eyes appeared to be glowing, but the shock distracted him from that fact.

  “We’ve been together for years, and now you’re telling me you did it all… for what? According to you, I’m ugly, we both know I don’t have any money, and I’m friendless. So, why in the world would you choose to put yourself through years of me? If everything you told me was true, then what was in it for you?”

  “Oh honey, you still haven’t got it yet, have you? Well, allow me to put it in terms that even you could understand. Maybe you don’t have any of those nice things good boys have, but you do have something I desperately crave.”

  Curiosity peaked his mind.

  “And what would that be?”

  “What I don’t have. A life.”

  He sat there confused for a couple of minutes, unsure about what she was referring too. She couldn’t have meant a social life, because she made it painfully clear t
hat I don’t have one. If not that, though, then what? That was when it hit him, like a car striking the body of his soon to be lifeless corpse. He looked up at her and began to notice features that he had previously overlooked. Her eyes were definitely glowing a dark shade of cranberry and her smile revealed spikes in place of her teeth. The smooth skin of her face appeared to be oozing off of her in many layers, dripping down her neck. Her nose was sinking into her face, leaving nothing but two holes behind. Her hair was frayed and left in thin strands, much like those left behind of an elderly person. Her scalp was perhaps the worst, as blood was dripping out of scabs and mold was growing around them.

  He was shocked that he had been able to overlook such tremendous details, but as rule number two clearly states: nothing is ever as it seems. I never even woke up, this is just another nightmare, which means… His thoughts trailed off, but he knew already what they were trying to tell him. This thing imitating his girlfriend was going to kill him. That’s what it meant by taking my life. Another thought was playing on the edges of his mind, but he wasn’t able to reach it just then, but whatever it was, was huge. Possibly a way out of this curse he found himself living, or maybe he wasn’t living. Maybe this was his hell. He wasn’t sure what would happen if these things managed to grab hold of him and kill him, but he was sure that it wasn’t good and he was in no rush to find out.

  Stephanie was still in the process of transforming into her true form in front of his eyes, but he was too busy to pay much notice, as he was looking for the instructions. There were always instructions, so where were they now? He tore the sheets off of the bed, knocking her off with them, but he didn’t care. He searched all around the room, desperately trying to find something - anything at all that would direct him on how to escape, but he kept coming up empty-handed. Frustration was blooming as was his anger. Why do I have to suffer like this? Why me? What did I do that was so awful as to deserve to live out the rest of my days in such an unruly pain as this? Why even continue on? Why not just lay down and die? These questions were like a plague in his weary mind, tempting him to quit everything he had worked so hard to receive. Was freedom even worth it? Stephanie - the real Stephanie had been pushed away by him, who knows how long ago, but why would she ever want to see him again? Why had I even pushed her away in the first place? Something had happened and I wanted her gone, but what? Questions and misery danced around and played inside of him, but the memories still wouldn’t come back. There was something this Stephanie had said to me earlier that had started to trigger something, but what was it?

  His imagination and brainstorming were cut short as his eyes focused on something on the creature’s rigid skin. Letters! The instructions were printed out in tattoo form on the back of its neck, the only problem was that it appeared to have fully transformed and was more than ready to feast on his flesh.

  Its body was grey and it was oozing out of its pores. Long meatless arms and legs supported its blubbery torso, as it kneeled down on all fours. Needle-like claws extended out of its fingertips and toes, causing it to puncture the ground where it walked. Its eyes, which were placed solely on Tony, were bulging out of its head and were still glowing, although they had grown dimmer with time revealing black soulless holes.

  Tony slowly started to edge towards the backside of the monster before him, desperately trying to see the words which would bring its downfall. It didn’t seem to appreciate his efforts, however, as it let out a bellowing screech. Blood began to drip from his ears as he rushed to protect them from the noises which were disorientating him. The creature found its advantage in his confusion and lunged at him, knocking him over in the process. It snarled and rushed back at Tony, where he lay helpless on the bedroom floor. All around them, the room was beginning to shift as well. The walls were peeling back, revealing the lava beneath which was burning through the floorboards. He had to jump out of the way of falling debris and ended up landing directly on the creature which seemed to be unharmed by what was transpiring around them.

  It seemed to be quite pleased, however, by Tony’s mistake as it flung him over its shoulder like a rag doll. From this new angle, he was able to see the words etched into its skin. The letters were small and jagged, making them almost impossible to read. Almost. He leaned forward so that he could view them as clearly as he would be able to from his current position. He read them once. Then twice. But it wasn’t until the third time, that they truly sunk in and he felt his heart rise into his throat. Then, he read them again:

  Who do you trust?

  The fire or the monster?

  One will kill you and one will save you, but which one is which?

  Make your choice and let it consume you.

  But pray that it’s the one to rescue you.

  He wanted to hope and plead with whichever gods might exist to spare him from this deadly task. Unlike the others, there was no clear path for him to take, only two choices. He had a fifty-fifty chance of survival, which was less than any time before that he could remember. What if they keep getting increasingly riskier? Then what? If I live through this, who’s to say that I won’t die a more painful death in the next one? As far as I’ve been able to tell, there’s no way to escape. This is all I know, so why even bother continuing on?

  Once again, suicidal thoughts itched at him, but can you kill yourself if you’re not truly alive? He didn’t fully know, but he did know that his choice was now or never. It was either death by fire or death by the beast and how was he supposed to chose between them? In some weird way, this reminded him of not so long ago, when he had to escape from hell by jumping into the fire. Was this really so different? I didn’t trust the instructions to dive in then, but I lived. So now, I have to make my decision. He knew that this was something he had always been bad at. On one hand, he had previously had to go through something like the lava, which encouraged him to take the side of the monster. However, how was he supposed to know if he had gone through something like it before when he retained so very little? The truth of it was, that he had no way of knowing which path was the right one to take. Do I even care whether or not I live or I die? Maybe at this point, death is better, so what do I have to lose? He knew that the best option for him was to go with what his gut was trying to tell him.

  He stopped trying to fight the monster, and it laid him down on the ground, or what was left of the ground. It sniffed him with curiosity before growling into his ears, causing the blood to flow once more. It plunged its needles into his stomach repeatedly, pulling out his lungs and kidneys as it did. His blood was coating everything around them and the smell of rotting flesh crept into his nose. It burned his nostrils but went by almost unnoticed compared to the pain he was experiencing in the rest of his body. The creature leaned forward and opened its mouth wide and bit down around his head, swallowing the top of it. He prayed for the pain to go away, but this was a dream, after all, so he could stay alive long after the point of death for any normal person. His guts lay around him and juice poured out through the hole in his head. He could feel everything. Every needle prick, every drop leaving his body, every single breath it released on to him. In fact, the beast probably wanted him to die as much as Tony wanted himself to die. Laughter fled from his split lips, although he was unsure of what he was finding funny. He decided to just call it exhaustion.

  Tony lay there, surrounded by everything which had once made him up. His hand, the only one still attached to his body, was touching his heart, which had been ripped out of his chest. What was it the instructions had said? Something about letting it consume me? Aw yes, of course, this couldn’t be as easy as simply dying, no, the creature had to eat him and as of yet, it had only turned up its nose. The fucking bastard.

  Death by lava would have been quicker, had he understood the part where it had to eat him but nothing worthwhile is ever easy, now is it? He found that he couldn’t move, but there wasn’t really anything left for him to move anyway. All he could do was lay there, and hope that it would
eventually get bored with torturing him. He was soon granted his wish, although he immediately regretted it. The creature started with one of his legs, which had previously been laying off to the side. It crouched down and took the broken off limb into his mouth and began to chew on it. Tony felt every single bite it took. He could feel chunks of his leg being ripped off and swallowed. He was forced to watch as it moved on to his opposite leg, then an arm, and then the other. It lavished in his anguish, enjoying every second of it and dragging the entire process out. Screams could no longer be heard coming from his throat, as his voice had been lost altogether. He got a moment of peace after all of his limbs were finally in the stomach of the creature, but this serenity was cut short as it moved over to sniff the rest of his torso.

  It settled first for his eyes, sticking one of his claws into each eye socket, removing his eyes and swallowing them whole. For a split second, he felt grateful for no longer having to watch his own death happen, but not knowing what the creature was doing proved to be much worse.

  The monster had appeared to have grown bored of playing with its food, now preferring to finish him off quickly. It inserted its teeth into his bare, naked skin, puncturing millions of holes into his body. It began pulling pieces off of him until nothing but his eyeless head was left behind, but not for long. It rolled his head onto its snake-like tongue, drinking him up like a cat would a bowl of milk or a bird. The pain was unbearable as it slowly chewed the last of him and the darkness was a welcomed sight, as he slipped down the beast’s throat.