My Best Nightmare

My Best Nightmare

I turned to run from the dryer as the door slammed open on its own but it felt like I had slammed into an invisible wall of wet cement. The creature was enclosing behind me, I couldn't see it either but it's presence was unmistakable. Fighting against the heavy feeling, I struggled to get to the toilet in the corner. I was in my childhood bedroom in the basement, no idea how or why I was there but I had little time to think about it either. This creature plagued my dreams as a child, now it was back to finish me. Pushing a little harder, I stretched my fingers out, willing them to be longer. An eerie green glow spread like wildfire, I didn't dare look back in fear of seizing up in fear. Just a little bit more...

I somehow managed to get to the toilet, squeezing my eyes shut I flushed myself down, just as I had as a child. When I opened my eyes, I was upstairs. Looking around, I see my parents as they had been in another dream I had as a child...as if on cue, the roar of a chainsaw cut through the dead silence behind me. Turning in terror, I see the grinning nightmare clown with blood dripping from his razor-sharp teeth. I start sprinting, the clown is laughing manically behind me with the chainsaw raised above his head ready to strike the second I trip or slow down. I make the sharp turns as I had before, my parents staring as if they were puppets from their seats next to the pillar I was racing around. My third time around there was a blinding flash and I saw two children were walking with a man on a snowy road in a small village I had only ever seen in a vivid dream before. Blinding pain and I saw in my mind that three older ladies were bustling about, preparing for the arrival of the children.

"We're going to be late at this rate" the man groaned. "Hurry up, both of you".

Somehow, I was the little boy I was back then again, reliving this nightmare as I had the others. A dark brown van barreled down the road towards us, running my father over and only leaving his corn pipe behind. I can only assume the car ate him, it is the only thing that makes sense in this madness. My sister had vanished, I ran and hid behind a tree. Looking around to the left, I saw a sleek black sedan barreling towards me at high speeds. Looking around the tree to the right, I saw nothing, at all. Preparing to bolt, I suddenly experienced a sharp pain in my right shoulder as everything went black. When the world returned, I was standing in the last front yard I had as a child. Knowing what I'd find when I ascended the deck steps, I clenched my jaw and marched myself up to the top. As expected, an old lady sat on the porch swing, staring blankly at the floor. Upon my approach, a wizened hand flew out and grabbed my arm, and forced me to stare into the face of my deceased great grandmother. She looked exactly as I remembered her, from the fly-away ash gray hair to her wrinkles. I feel as though she is trying to warn me about something, but I don't know what. I don't feel the fear that I did the first time, I feel a tinge of sadness instead. Unexpectedly, she smiled, released my arm, and gestured to the front door of my last childhood home. I opened the door, stepped into the darkness beyond, and accepted my madness as part of myself, living happily ever since.