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Dream Journal

A Night in the Woods

By Autumn GerbrandtPublished 3 years ago 10 min read
3
Dream Journal
Photo by Sebastian Unrau on Unsplash

Blinking, taking in the light, Anna Hayes entered the dream realm. A bright swirling of color overwhelmed her, and she brought up her weathered hand to shield her wrinkled face. Anna’s eyes finally adjusted to the dazzling scenery, and she was surprised to see it was familiar. She was in the forest behind her meager cabin. Anna couldn’t see her home from here, but she would know these trees anywhere. She looked around cautiously, wondering what she was doing so far from civilization. Normally Anna wouldn’t stray so far from the town; it was dangerous in the woods, especially for a frail woman such as herself. A tugging on Anna’s skirt startled her, and she looked down to see a young boy at her feet, staring up at her. Instantly, she recognized him as the face that haunted every dream she’d had for as long as she could remember. Anna had never met the boy in reality as far as she knew, she didn’t even know if he was real. Nevertheless, she’d dreamed of him every night.

“Hello, Weylin,” said Anna, smiling down at the small child. He merely smiled back before turning and running off, heading deeper into the woods. “Wait!” Anna called desperately. “It’s dangerous out there!”

She ran after him as fast as she could, but her dream self was slow and sluggish, and she soon lost sight of Weylin. It didn’t help that each tree emanated a bright light that all blended together, blinding and confusing her. Anna stopped abruptly, looking around frantically. She had no idea which way Weylin had gone, and the trees were closing in around her, flashing iridescent lights in her eyes. Anna frantically covered her face and screamed as loud as she could.

“Weylin!” The sound seemed to echo through the forest, bouncing off the trees.

A moment of crushing silence followed, the forest ceasing to make a sound. Anna waited for what seemed like an eternity, straining her ears to hear the small boy. All of a sudden, a sharp shriek cut through the palpable quiet. Anna’s hands flew away from her face, the scream like a focal point for her mind, pulling her out of the fog. The lights receded back into the trees, and a wave of conviction came over her. She took off sprinting toward where the sound had come from. The forest turned into a blur around her, Weylin the only thing on her mind.

From a distance she saw him, lying on the ground, his face frozen in a state of panic. A dark figure loomed over him, its black, beady eyes staring with intensity down at the boy. This was exactly the reason why Anna was so afraid of the woods, because of these creatures that so ominously ruled it. Bears.

“Run!” Anna’s voice squeaked, alarm coating her tone. Weylin turned his head ever so slightly to look at her, his facial expression the embodiment of fear. The bear raised its massive hairy paw, its claws outstretched. Too late, Anna realized that the bear was about to slash Weylin across his face. The paw came down with surprising agility and was inches away from the small boy’s face when Anna suddenly fell through the ground into a dark abyss, leaving the scene behind her.

Anna sat up in her bed, gasping. She scanned the room frantically, looking for Weylin and the bear. When she finally realized she wasn’t dreaming anymore, she laid her head back onto her pillow and breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t real, Anna told herself. Weylin isn’t real. But she couldn’t be sure. Anna closed her eyes for a few minutes, attempting to calm herself. In… out, she breathed. Once her shaky breaths had receded into a shallow, sturdy pattern, she sat up and opened her desk drawer, pulling out a little black book. It was her dream journal, which she used to record all of her dreams about Weylin. She dreamed about him quite frequently, so she only wrote about the ones she deemed the most important. This dream definitely qualified. Anna began to write something, but she felt words wouldn’t do the horrific scene justice. Instead, she began to sketch, not really certain what she was drawing at first. Slowly, the pencil strokes began to resemble the boy’s face. The outline of his jaw, his ears, his curly hair that practically bounced out of the page. But, as Anna began to draw his facial features, the fear that had clutched her heart in the dream began to resurface. She was drawing the scene from right before she woke up, Weylin’s petrified face inches away from the bear’s claws. As his horror-struck features began to become more and more prominent, Anna had to put the pencil down. It was too hard to look at, even though it was only a dream. Or was it? The dream felt so real, and it took place in the woods right behind her tiny cabin. For all she knew, Weylin could be lost in the forest right now, about to be mauled by a bear.

Without thinking, Anna got out of bed, her joints protesting against her as she stood. She pulled on a jacket and grabbed her shoes. If there was a possibility that Weylin did exist, and that he was in fact out there in the forest right now, alone and scared, didn’t Anna owe it to him to try and find him? Even though the forest was dangerous, and it was the middle of the night, she knew this was something she had to do. Anna’s little cabin was far away from the other cabins in the small village she lived in; it was on the outskirts of town. There would be no one to hear her screams or her cries for help if she were to be ambushed by a bear, or any other creature for that matter. She was a frail old woman after all; a raccoon could likely take her down. She chuckled darkly to herself at the thought, but it faded as she stepped outside, into the blackness. Anna grabbed an electric lantern from the porch, and turning it on, she held it up to the gloomy forest. Tendrils of fog escaped through the trees, almost like a warning that attempted to thwart Anna’s impromptu plan. But, the tugging on her soul called louder, and she headed off into the woods.

Anna knew vaguely where the scene from her dream took place, but the shadowy forest caused her to lose most sense of direction. Not that she’d had that in the first place. That was the other reason Anna never ventured far into the woods, she was afraid of becoming lost in an unfamiliar wooded area, never to return home. It was one of her worst fears, so the fact that she was out there, trekking through the forest in the middle of the night, looking for a boy she’d never met, was quite the mystery.

“Maybe I’m losing it after all,” she muttered to herself, her gaze paranoically darting from one tree to the next as she walked. The lantern’s light created shadows that seemed to jump out at Anna from all directions. She was sure there was something lurking behind every tree; a pair of glowing eyes, a tuft of fur, a swift movement that was too fast for her to identify. Anna’s heart rate was sporadic and gaining speed with every step she took. She was now fairly certain she was lost, her paranoia causing her to lose focus of where she was going. She stopped and looked around, attempting to find a familiar tree or landmark, something. Anything. But it was all the same to her; unfamiliar dark oak and leaves, muted brown and green that stretched for miles as far as she knew.

“This is it,” Anna spoke aloud. “This is where I die.” She couldn’t go back now; she’d been walking for hours through the black forest and she knew she couldn’t find her way back if she tried. The frail woman would only end up even more lost, and likely further away from the village. Her only hope now was to call for Weylin and hope that he would hear her.

“Weylin!” She called. “Weylin!” Anna shouted until her voice was hoarse, but even then she didn’t stop.

“Weylin,” she said, her voice threatening to break off at any moment. “Wey-'' Anna's half whisper was interrupted by a boy’s scream, just like the one from her dream. Suddenly revived, Anna’s energy returned, adrenaline coursing through her veins.

“I’m coming, Weylin,” she whispered, unable to shout. She started to walk again, faster this time and with more purpose. Anna no longer heeded her fear of the shadows, or the invisible creatures she was sure were following her. There was a second scream now, but it didn’t sound like Weylin. It was higher pitched, more feminine. It caught Anna off guard. Was there someone else with Weylin? Perhaps the first scream hadn’t been the boy and these were two different people altogether. Except, the first scream sounded so much like Weylin that Anna couldn’t bring herself to believe it wasn’t him. It was almost the exact same tone and pitch.

Anna rounded another tree and about had a heart attack on the spot. She’d almost run into another woman, her back turned to Anna. Anna didn’t have time to analyze the other woman, for she had just noticed what the woman was staring at. It was Weylin, lying on the ground, looking up at a dark figure standing over him. The same exact scene from her dream.

A sound startled Anna and caught Weylin’s attention. “Run!” squeaked the woman in front of her. Weylin stared at her in panic. Anna slowly began to put the pieces together as the scene played out in front of her. The bear’s claw came down with crushing force and struck Weylin across the face, sending him flying. The woman in front of her screamed and ran at the bear. It tried to slash the woman across the face, but it ended up being more of a nick on her cheek. The bear then turned and lumbered away. Anna reached up to touch the scar on her own cheek, and watched as the woman ran to Weylin, sobbing.

“Weylin, wake up! Weylin!” The woman clutched the boy close to her.

Anna began to grow dizzy as it all came back to her. That night, in the pitch-black forest, so many years ago... The night she had lost her youngest son. Weylin. Anna collapsed to the ground, wishing a dark abyss would swallow her up, just like in her dream. She screamed, a guttural sound that she didn’t recognize as her own. Tears started falling from her face and her vision began to grow dark as she escaped to the blissful realm known as the unconscious.

After that, Anna’s memory grew fuzzy. She heard a man calling her name, but it seemed far away. Maybe she was dreaming. A few hours later, she was vaguely aware of someone’s hands sliding underneath her frail body, scooping her up. She was sure the man was saying something to her, and his voice sounded so familiar, but she couldn’t respond. A little while later, she awoke on a hospital bed. A man was staring at her, seated at the edge of the bed.

“His death wasn’t your fault, mom. You know that, right?”

“Mmm…”

“The doctor says you have dementia.”

Anna stared at him blankly.

“I’ve transferred twenty-thousand dollars into your bank account. It should cover your treatment and any other expenses. I just want you to get better.”

Anna managed a weak smile before the dream world claimed her once again.

literature
3

About the Creator

Autumn Gerbrandt

I'm a highschool senior and an aspiring writer!

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