Frozen Fear

My fingerprints imprinting in ice on my back porch. My dog Sadie leaving all kinds of paw prints in the snow as she runs back and forth trying to catch every snowflake with her nose.

"Let's go Sade. That's enough. Gonna catch my death out here." It didn't take much to get her inside. She shook off the snow as I stomped mine on the welcome mat. I hung my coat and she laid by the fire.

I sat on the couch to grab my book and felt sleep come over my eyes. The warmth of the fire and the crackling of the flames upon the wood sang like a lullaby upon my dream state. I open the book and read one page. I feel my eyes slowly closing as my lashes interlock into each other. I scoot down on my couch and lay my head on the softness of my winter flannel pillow case. I breathe a deep breath as the world starts to spin.

I feel dirt. As I move my hand, I feel cold hard dirt. My fingertips freeze on the grains as I dig for a grip. I sit up and see desolate land for miles around me. I'm in a shallow hole that looks freshly dug. I stand to step out, but lose my footing and twist my ankle as I caught my fall. It's freezing cold, but I see no breath. I walk, but I feel nothing beneath me. I feel nothing at all.

I wander through empty destruction of what was a world I had once known. I touch a barren tree and it collapses to dust. I fear I am lost. A lone lost soul among an empty world. Although I am lost and this world is empty, it feels familiar.

I turn to a sensation that is behind me. There is my home. There are Sadie's paw prints in the snow. My back patio where I watch her play. I step inside and wander my empty home.

I turn from room to empty room. What has happened? Where is Sadie? I look out the back and see the hole I was just in, just beyond the yard. A man in a hooded black cloak stood beside it. This man I feel I have seen in many movies, but this isn't a movie, right?

He points at me. I emerge from my empty home onto my frozen patio. I wasn't afraid of him. I stepped off the patio and approached him.

"Who are you? Why was I in this hole?" He doesn't reply. "Where is my dog?" No answer. "What happened to my home? What happened to the Earth?" He said nothing, but raised his cloaked arm and emerged a blade.

Fear arose in me as I turned and ran as fast as I could. This man chased me. I looked back and he had no legs and no feet. He was levitating off of the ground after me. I moved as fast as I could, but it wasn't fast enough. I instantly felt a fire in my chest. I actually felt this, as I felt nothing before this. I looked down and saw the point of the dagger sticking out of my sternum. Blood dripping to the frozen dirt below me. I fell backwards and somehow I was back into my hole. I close my eyes.

My eyes start to open and I see lace and satin around me. It's dark. It's cramped. I put my hands above me and I'm trapped. I can't get out! Help! I can't get out! Scratching at the lace and tearing it apart as I'm screaming. "HELP! HELP! HELP!" I gasp for air. I feel the fire in my chest again, then darkness.