HORROR SHORT STORY: NIGHTMARE...child seeks out her nightmares to escape reality...
Samantha lay on her bed, gripping her blanket over her head and trembling with fear. A cold sweat had broken out on her face as goosebumps prickled her skin. She wondered what dreams of her mother would come to visit her tonight, as they had been for every night since a few months ago. Samantha was terrified to sleep but found it extremely taxing to attempt to stay awake. At ten years old, Samantha had been blossoming into pubescence and the process of forming an adult mind was just now beginning. Despite her pleasantness, she was ostracized in her class as some kind of freak, for a reason that she could not decipher. Something about her left others perplexed and threatened by her steady gaze and inquisitive words. In any case, Samantha was a confused and lonely child, her current state of sadness only exacerbated by her drunk, pill-popping addict of a mother. There was no safe haven for Samantha, no friends, a concerned teacher, a single human being to witness her pain. Oftentimes, when the pain was too great, Samantha would hide in her closet with a lamp, blankets, and all her dolls, her only companions. They would talk, the only time that Samantha ever had someone to listen to her, and for brief moments Samantha could feel some semblance of comfort. Tonight, however, Samantha lay in her own bed. She struggled to keep her eyes open but, against her wishes, she fell asleep. When consciousness returned to her, she was laying flat and unable to move, unable to speak. Through her slitted eyes, she could see that the shadow man had returned. He was tall, lanky, and dressed in an all black suit, his face shrouded in the darkness. All she could see with clarity was his glowing red eyes. He never spoke, never moved and merely stared at Samantha, boring holes into her flesh and bones. She wanted to scream and run but she couldn’t manage a single sound or movement. For the first time, the shadow man approached and she could see him in greater detail. His skin was all black, like a true shadow, and had no features other than his burning crimson eyes. The edges of his appearance flickered like small black flames. For the first time, the shadow man approached her, floating across the ground. Samantha tried to scream but was unable. He lifted a hand, distorting like buffering streams, and dragged a knife down his palm. Glowing red blood pulsed like ruby jewels and Samantha became enraptured with the sight, that living heart beat, that depth and passion. Her fear began to abate at the beauty of his wound. He raised his hand and ceremoniously placed his palm on her face, leaving behind a handprint of blood. His voice, grating and deep, emerged from his invisible lips. “The sleeping child anointed by the holy bells of Truth,” he said in a low tone, almost a whisper out of reverence for this sacred moment. To her surprise, she felt calm, actually felt comfort and began to regard the shadow man with fondness. Suddenly, the bed below her became a gaping hole and Samantha was falling, falling and falling in black space. Exhilaration flowed through her and the pains of her existence felt distant as she flew through nothingness. Before she could think, she heard her alarm clock and opened her eyes to meet the sunlight slanting through her bedroom window. She sat up slowly, looked at the shadow man’s corner, and craved to be near him once more. All fear of her nightmares wasted away at this development and Samantha felt different after his branding. It was then that she heard her mother calling her down for breakfast. Samantha cringed. She did not like the sound of her mother’s voice. Quietly, she slipped her school backpack on and walked into the kitchen. A bowl of dry cereal was on the table, mother had forgotten to go grocery shopping, as always. Samantha wordlessly ate her dry cereal, knowing that to refuse meant a beating. Suddenly, her mother threw her ashtray at Samantha’s head, colliding painfully, making her head ring. Blood trickled from her wound and Samantha rubbed at it absently, she was used to her random acts of violence. Her mother began a tirade of insults and guilt-tripping, trying with all her might and effort to break Samantha apart with a sick pleasure. The wound today was obvious and apparent so her mother told her to stay home for the day. Samantha nodded and quietly, as quiet as she could, she returned to her room. She crawled into her safe closet and switched on the lamp. She talked to her dolls until she mercifully fell asleep. When Samantha opened her eyes, it was dark in the closet. The closet door slid open and Samantha was terrified that it might be her mother. But, instead, she was met with the most glorious vision. The shadowman stood there, patient and beckoning her forward. “Come out child,” he whispered in his fashion. Samantha crawled out and stood up. Before her was a barren wasteland, stretching in all horizons without the relief of a single geographic presence. The expanse of new land, both proud and stalwart, took Samantha’s breath from her. Dark and oppressive clouds blanketed the sky. Lightning crackled through the atmosphere, as if Zeus himself struck the earth with bolts of power, meeting the desert with flames. Thunder rumbled and shook the earth, causing vibrations that Samantha could feel through her bones. All around her were crooked and ancient tombstones that had been planted from eons and legend. As if in a spell, she placed a hand on one and closed her eyes, contemplating the life here that had expired. “Where are we?” Samantha asked as soon as she returned to her thoughts. “This is another splinter of reality. An existence that pierces the veneer of reason. Welcome to the land of Irrationality, the home of demiurges and madness,” the shadow man replied. In the distance, Samantha could see living figures wandering listlessly and could not explain why she felt at home in this reality. “You find comfort here, don’t you?” the shadow man asked. Samantha nodded passionately. “You belong here, young one. You bear the mark of Cain upon your forehead, forever distancing yourself from pitiful mortals. They avoid you, they malign you, they burden you with unspoken words. This is the world where you truly live,” the shadowman replied. Excitement tittered in her nerves as she took in all the horrid sights around her. Finally, she felt like she truly belonged somewhere. Born into a crucible of an abusive mother, an absent father, a classroom of children that rejected her and great suffering that only felt unburdened in this world. The sky roared, letting loose more thunderbolts and rumbling thunder. Skeletal remains lay around them as beasts roamed in all directions. Bonfires and infernos raged around her, the heat whipping her hair across her face and nearly blistering her skin but Samantha was in pure rapture and did not care in the slightest. The stench of burning flesh wafted in the air, combined with the smell of ozone in the living air. A small creature approached her, resembling a dog with three rows of teeth. A stub of a tail wagged as it nuzzled its soft fur against her legs. Samantha bent down to pet it as it purred with pleasure but was suddenly jolted from the moment and she disappeared. When she opened her eyes, she was met with pain that she had returned to this terrible nightmare of human reality. The sun was slanting through the window, her mother had kept her away from school until her visible bruises faded. Samantha buried herself in blankets and stuffed animals, wishing that she was anywhere else, anyone else, someone entirely new with different circumstances. Eventually Samantha grew hungry enough to venture outside to the kitchen. She walked to the kitchen to find her mother drinking vodka and smoking a cigarette. Samantha hated the smell of her cigarettes but never said anything. She opened the fridge to find an empty space and she resorted to eating dry cereal like always. To her horror, Samantha stumbled and dropped the bowl onto the floor, cracking it and sending pieces scattering. Her mother flew into a rage and pounced on Samantha. Her mother straddled her and beat on Samantha’s chest with gorilla strength. Samantha began to cry but lay limp, knowing that resisting would only make it worse. Her mother stood up and grabbed a fistful of hair, pulling her back as she slapped Samantha across the face, screaming with rancor and pure contempt, which Samantha never understood. What was it about her that made her mother so furious? Her young and delicate mind could never puzzle it out. Suddenly, her mother stopped as if she had sobered up and realized what she was doing. Samantha took the opportunity and ran into her room, into her closet, curling up and weeping quietly. She wished deeply for her to fall asleep and return to her nightmares. To see the shadow man, to explore a world, to witness depravity of all kinds, this is what excited her. Mercifully, Samantha slipped into a deep slumber. When she awoke, she was in the barren wasteland once more. Again, she marvelled at the sight and became quite excited. There stood the shadow man, as tall and lanky as always, his figure black and the edges of his form shifting and changing, like a light breeze flowing across a lit fire. Samantha jumped up and squeezed the man tightly in a passionate embrace. “I missed you,” she said with a perkiness that surprised even her. “Another splinter of reality fractured from the mortal path to bring you to the nexus of the human soul. We exist in the All and in the None, where the irrational reigns and the rational is blasphemous,” the shadow man said. Again, Samantha was met with an enigmatic response and she relished the mystery behind his words. “What are we doing today?” Samantha asked. “Wherever you please, little one. You are free here,” he replied. Samantha looked at him with a stout gaze, much too old for her young face. “As terrible and corrupted as you can possibly show me. I want to see horror, pain, suffering, abject misery,” Samantha said with a trill of excitement fluttering in her chest. Just then, a great moaning could be heard across the entire wastelands. The air vibrated, giving Samantha a pleasant sensation. From the clouds, from the lightning, from the thunder, came a monument of a creature. Descending upon the earth, Samantha could see it clearly that it was a giant whale with a few extra strange appendages. Multiple fins extended down the ridge of its spine and it opened its maw to let loose a monstrous bellow that made Samantha shiver. The shadow man grasped Samantha’s small hand and jumped high enough in the air to land on the back of the whale. And then they took flight. The whale swam into the space above the wastelands and flew in the direction of one of the horizons in this reality. Samantha marvelled at the sights, her hair flowing across her face and back. She looked down and saw the wasteland’s qualities changing as they flew. Ghostly shades of humanoid figures wandered aimlessly, she witnessed several strange creatures lumbering around. A grouping of withering and blackened trees were screaming, dripping blood, and the sound pleased Samantha greatly. A giant guillotine came into view and Samantha looked at the line of beings waiting for their turn. One by one, they approached and placed their neck upon the edge. The blade of the guillotine fell, decapitating them instantly. The expended bodies were carelessly tossed into a grand pile of corpses. As they flew, Samantha caught the first sight of the grand vision. The wasteland edges turned softer, turned towards sand and Samantha could see an endless ocean of blood. A breath caught in her throat at the majesty and beauty of what she was now witnessing. A crimson sun was setting in the distance, casting shades of ruby and orange shimmering on the ocean’s surface. A healthy and salty breeze grazed the waves upon the ocean, gently brushing back her face. A rare smile crossed Samantha’s face and she could feel tears welling in her eyes. The shadow man put an arm around her midsection to brace her as the whale submerged into the bloody waters. Pressure and deep red, she could breathe and see clearly, a surreal sensation that she craved more of. Yes, more surreal, more abstract, more macabre, she wanted it all. Strange underwater creatures milled and floated around her, evolutionary marvels that had become demented, deformed, their thoughts distant and foreign. As the whale swam to deeper depths, Samantha could feel the sense of gravity and pressure bearing down on them. There was a comfort to the sensation. Samantha reached out and gently felt the flesh of the underwater creatures, smooth and slick, immense and completely alien. A number of them began to circle them, slowly and patiently. As if it was some kind of religious rite, they swam with great ceremony around her. The image was beautiful and Samantha felt as if her insides were changing, beginning to feel more at home and at peace, a sensation that had been long ago lost from her. A thudding heartbeat could be heard now, vibrating throughout her, causing waves of electricity in her nerves. They went deeper and deeper into the ocean until they met a giant chasm. The heartbeat was growing more powerful, the pressure causing blood to stream out her ears. Her eyes felt like they were bulging outwards and she painfully watched as they swam deeper and deeper into the depths. They finally reached the bottom of the ocean and witnessed the origin point of the ocean. Nestled in a crater was a foreign god-heart that was attached to the sand with fibrous flesh, firmly designed in stasis. The thud of the heartbeat was deafening and powerful, sending shudders of rapture through Samantha’s veins. Down, down, downwards they approached it until Samantha shivered in the cold depths. The heart was impossibly enormous with several valves, beating with life and ancient instinct. Samantha leapt from the whale and drifted down, falling upon the god-heart. She closed her eyes and embraced the deity, feeling a sense of comfort of touch that she had never experienced before. Samantha nearly winced at every point of contact, remembering in her bones the feeling of her mother beating her wildly. Upon instinct, Samantha crawled and entered one of the open valves. It was a tight fit but she could make it. Forcing herself inside, she felt great pressure and dug her way deeper and deeper. Finally, she felt quite nestled within the god-heart and could feel her consciousness drifting into alien planes. An entire history was inserted in Samantha’s thoughts as she witnessed all that this being had seen and survived. Oh! What depravity Samantha was experiencing! Watching wars, drought, famine, savagery! Blood, blood, blood! Bent and snapped flesh and bone! These surreal threads of thoughts vibrated as she trounced her way through the path of the god-heart. Slowly, steadily, the pains of Samantha began to ebb away. Her fractured consciousness was now processing itself, understanding itself. The images of her mother’s bleary eyes, the drool at the corner of her lips, the way her eyes went shark-dead before falling upon Samantha. The sensation of her hot strikes all over her body. The black words that emitted from her mother’s mouth, all her loathing and hostility. Everything that Samantha could not and, most likely, would never truly understand. As if soaking out the poison from Samantha, a sense of peace was now embracing her, in the way that a mother should hold their daughter. The god-heart showed her much, experiencing Samantha in concert with its visions. Before Samantha, the god-heart presented a surreal image. It was pitch black except for golden threads extended into a far away light. The threads were taut and powerful, each one vibrating with energy and Samantha saw that all her paths would lead to the light, to freedom. Perhaps, Samantha could survive her mother and emerge victorious when finally released from her control. She had never imagined a free life beyond her mother, too rooted in the stink and mire of her mother’s abuse. Adulthood had never been more appealing than now and Samantha understood: she could survive her mother. As if sensing Samantha’s transformation, the god-heart gently pushed her out of a valve. Samantha floated, enjoying the buoyant feeling of weightlessness. The whale dipped down and scooped her up. The shadow man was quiet and Samantha lay her head in his lap. “I don’t want to see her again, but I will. Wait for me, please,” Samantha whispered. The shadow man pet her head as sleep soon took her away. Samantha awoke to violent shaking. She had fallen asleep in her closet again and her mother had dragged her out, tearing Samantha’s shirt. Her mother was clearly high on her pills again and Samantha could smell the fetid boozy smell that emitted from her gob. Mother was screaming at Samantha in a stream of incomprehensible and broken thoughts. She never made any sense. The only thing that Samantha knew with certainty was that her mother hated her. Mother slapped Samantha upside her head, making it sting and ring. Samantha fell to the ground and Mother began to kick her. Samantha rolled into a fetal position as Mother stomped on her furiously. Mother called her a bitch, a fucking slut, a worthless little shit, anything she could think of to wound Samantha. The words rolled down Samantha, making bitter tears stream down her face. Mother was infuriated by a lack of response from Samantha and lifted her by the shirt, shaking her until her shirt was ripped off and Samantha was half nude with great shame. Mother shoved her into a wall and gripped Samantha by the throat, squeezing with all her drunken, drugged strength. Samantha kicked her feet as she gurgled for air. Suddenly, as if sobering up for a moment, her mother released. Samantha fell to the floor, gasping in air wildly. Her mother left the room. Samantha crawled into her closet and despite having just woken up, wished for nothing else to go to sleep and return to her true home. Mercifully, Samantha fell asleep with twinkling tears that gently left a trail down her cheeks. When Samantha awoke, this time she was in deep and empty blackness. The shadow man was right beside her, as always her dear friend had awaited her. “My mother beat me badly today. I think she wants to kill me,” Samantha said, tears reforming in her child’s eyes. The shadow man took in her small hand and grasped it with strength. “What would you like to do today?” he asked gently. Samantha wiped her tears. “I want to see depravity. I want to see the worst. Take me to blood and screams,” Samantha declared. “Then we head to the ice lakes,” the shadow man replied. The shadow man changed form into an immense crow and Samantha hopped on, gripping his feathers with delight. “Fly! Fly!” Samantha cried out. He flapped his wings and took flight. Suddenly, the moon came into view and the shadow man flew directly towards it. The pale light exuded calm and mystery. They landed and they found themselves on a lake of frozen blood. Samantha arrived on the floor and could immediately hear screams and moaning. Countless heads were sprouting out of the ice, their eyes rolling back in madness as they emitted strange noises. Tears frosted their skin, freezing in the ice-cold temperatures. Eyes rolled back and heads tilted from side to side. Samantha and the shadow man walked between them, she savored the sounds of them begging to be freed. The din of fear somehow comforted her. Fear had been her home for so long that it was a familiar sensation, she felt that she belonged in these realities, not the long nightmare of living with her mother. On an impulse, Samantha patted one of the heads as it snapped its jaws towards her. It whipped its head back and forth, with such strength that she nearly thought its head would pop right out. Another was weeping uncontrollably, its tears frosting as they dripped down. Most of them were screaming, their expressions ghastly with pure and unfettered insanity. Others were frozen over, their faces caught in futile misery with their dead and black tongues hanging out their slack jaws. Samantha could feel the futility of their situation and commiserated their pain, a pain that felt so familiar to her. In a strange way, Samantha felt that the entire macabre scene was quite beautiful. She could not explain it but she felt at home on the surface of the lake. Playfully, she slid and skated around the heads, delighting in her play. As they travelled, they reached a marvel of absolute terror. A giant demon with three heads sat, its legs crossed while sitting on the lake. In each mouth was a human being gnawed on with an excruciating slow pace. Blood dripped from its lips, chewing with blunt teeth that were yellow with age. Its eyes were half closed in a trance, grinding on the humans’ flesh. Samantha watched in rapture at the wonderfully disturbing scene, completely consumed with intrigue and wonder. Suddenly, Samantha was very sleepy and began to cry, she didn’t want to return to her nightmare. But she was powerless. She lost consciousness. Samantha awoke in her closet as always. However, she awoke to find herself nude. There was the sound of grunting and she slowly opened her eyes. To her shock, she looked down and saw that a strange man was licking her flat chest. She attempted to jump away but he held her head down as he assaulted her. Samantha began to cry for him to stop which seemed to only give him more vigor. Suddenly, she heard the footsteps of her mother raging up the stairs and she burst in with a baseball bat. Relief came to Samantha as she assumed her mother was there to rip her boyfriend off her. Instead, she grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the closet, screaming profanity, calling her a slut, a whore, a little bitch. With fierce swings, her mother struck her as Samantha attempted to crawl away. A bone fractured, a rib was broken, her lip split and bleeding. Samantha begged for her to stop but her mother heard nothing, obeying a primal instinct to destroy Samantha’s innocence. The reason behind this was a mystery to them both, especially her mother who could not control herself. Mercifully, Samantha passed out when the baseball bat cracked her across the temple. When Samantha awoke she was inside the remains of a war, corpses carelessly scattered across the earth. The earth was barren and flat, she had come back to the endless wastelands. A red sun burned in the sky, stained crimson by the blood of these wayward bodies. The shadow man was beside her once more. Samantha dived into a pile of corpses and hid, comforted by the darkness and pressure of bodies upon her. She wept. She cried. She screamed in absolute desperation. The shadow man watched and a single black tear streamed down his shaded face. Some time passed in this fashion until the shadow man bent next to the pile of corpses. “Would you like to come out now?” he asked gently. Without a word, Samantha reached out and the shadow man pulled her out. A fetid smell emanated from her, baptized by the fluids and guts from which she emerged. Her mood had significantly improved as she eased back into this reality. They meandered around the results of a war until they reached a particularly high pile of corpses. They climbed up and sat at the top, taking in the sights. A heavy mist of blood still clung to the air and the glint of the sun saturated the blood, striking Samantha with its beauty. Samantha held hands with the shadow man as they enjoyed their mutual silence. Sludge and fluids dripped from Samantha’s face and she relished the scent and sensation. Winged vultures came in a flock and landed upon the corpses. They tore and gorged on the dead flesh spraying out coagulated blood. Skin ripped apart. Gulping vultures. Bone cracking in jaws of power. It all struck Samantha as exquisite art that she could not understand. Samantha was a child of instinct and understood that this was her true home. She had come to the conclusion that she now chose this reality as her true story. Mother was wonderfully absent here. Such beauty of the macabre and demented resonated within Samantha’s heart. With new vigor, Samantha made the decision to say fuck it to the world of her mother. With intention, Samantha closed her eyes and fell back asleep. She awoke on the floor, her body aching from the beating. She put on clothes, still nude from her boyfriend’s assault, the stink of him on her skin, the dried spittle on her chest. It made her cringe, but now, a new emotion: anger. Samantha went to the living room and her demon mother was watching TV while smoking a cigarette. She opened her mouth to spit more vile insults but Samantha charged her. With a wide swing, Samantha slapped her mother across her face. Samantha relished her mother’s shocked expression. Before she could react, Samantha slapped her once more, and once more. Exhilarated and invigorated Samantha began to laugh as she grabbed the ashtray and bashed her mother’s face in, breaking her nose. Her mother’s reptilian eyes glinted in the din of irrational fury. Her mother leapt to her feet and grabbed Samantha by the throat. Samantha dangled and she kicked her mother in the gut, dropping to the floor. Shock spread across her mother’s face and Samantha could not help but grin at the sight. Her mother grabbed a lamp and smashed it over Samantha’s head. She passed out. Samantha awoke in her home reality, the world that she truly belonged to. She was delighted and was slowly realizing her own strength despite her self-image of despicable cowardice. She had fought back to her corrupted mother and could scarcely believe the power within herself. “How do you feel?” the shadow man asked, as if sensing the transformation within her soul. Samantha considered the question. “I feel…good,” she admitted. The shadow man nodded and took her small hand in his own. “This is your home, you will never be free from your nightmare but you will always return home. I will always be waiting for you,” he said gently. Samantha nodded vigorously. “What should we do today?” the shadow man asked. Samantha smiled with such joy and she jumped up. “Whatever I want!” she cried. The shadow man smiled. The two continued their unending adventures in this reality, where Samantha truly belonged. The memories of her mother slowly ebbed away as she healed from her wounds. Never again would she allow her mother to abuse her freely. Samantha was finally free in her blissful home.