Nightmare Manifestations

Not again … Gavin’s thoughts were racing as the familiar noises and smells began once again. He rolled over onto his back, and threw his arm over his eyes. Stop it, stop it, stop it. He hadn’t slept in days and all he wanted was one good night’s rest, but he could tell that was simply going to be too much to ask for. The noises grew louder and the smell stung his nostrils. He squeezed his eyes shut and prayed they would just go away and leave him be. He could already feel the familiar sting of tears in his eyes, and knew it was going to be a very long night.

The first time this had happened, Gavin hadn’t known what to think. He was terrified. He was convinced that his house was haunted. Everyone he told brushed it off as stress and lack of sleep, convincing him that he was slowly going mad. He’d even consulted a priest on the matter, and he didn’t even believe in religion or God or anything close to that. He was so desperate for answers that he had gone against everything he had ever believed in and stepped inside the big Catholic church in the center of town. As he expected, the priest was of no use to him. In everything he’d been through in life, he had never once seen prayer actually work, he didn’t see how it would start now.

It finally got so bad that he’d moved from his house. He’d moved clear across town, doing everything he could to escape the nightmare that had become his reality. It was the same thing every night, just after midnight it would begin. The noises were faint at first, then growing louder by the minute. There was just a hint of the oddly familiar smell in the air, a smell he had known in another lifetime, and then it would grow more intense and burn the inside of his nose. Eventually, it would all intensify so much that Gavin would find himself in the fetal position on the floor, tears streaming down his face, with a pounding headache, screaming for it all to just stop.

Part of the issue he had when explaining this all to someone on the outside, was that when dawn broke through his window he couldn’t remember exactly what had happened the night before. He had hazy memories of the sounds and smells, and he felt as though he’d been beaten over and over again throughout the night, a feeling he was all too familiar with. But, the pictures in his head were sporadic. The only thing he knew is that there was a familiarity to it all, he just couldn’t seem to put his finger on it.

Moving didn’t work. The same noises, the same smells, and the same fear still plagued him almost every night at the new house. He began researching the paranormal and hauntings by poltergeists. He burned sage to cleanse his house. He sprinkled salt by the doors and windows. He even researched and bought stones and crystals for protection. Nothing seemed to make any difference, however. He was still haunted by this physical manifestation of a nightmare; caught up in this endless circle of dread. He hated the night, he dreaded it coming every day. He was afraid to close his eyes most nights, and wondered why he even bothered. When he wasn’t screaming from the floor, he was lying in bed counting the hours until the dawn.

Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Gavin pleaded over and over again for it to all just stop. He could feel his chest growing tighter, and his breath quickened. The tears that were stinging his eyes began to slide down his cheeks, making tracks through the whiskers that were scattered across his jaw. Please, just go away. An audible sob escaped from his lips and he knew it was just a matter of time before everything began to escalate. There was no stopping it.

Please … Gavin gripped the stone that hung around his neck – agate, it was meant to protect the wearer against evil spirits. He wouldn’t say it actually worked, but he did find a strange comfort in holding it in his hand during these dark times. Please … He rubbed the stone and continued to plead with the manifestations.

The noises were almost deafening now, and the smells were nearly choking him. He coughed. Stop, please … He coughed some more, and crawled out of bed. He laid on the cool wood floor, and coughed again. Please … He pulled his legs into his body and gripped his arms around his knees. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Please … More coughing. Sobs tore through his body. The noises grew louder. The smell was quite literally choking him by that time. He began an odd dance between coughing and sobbing. Please … Please … Stop …

The noises were so loud the floor beneath him vibrated with each sound. Please … He rocked back and forth, sobbing, coughing, pleading. He couldn’t breathe. He coughed some more. Please … Stop … No more … Please … Gavin wished he knew why this was happening to him. He knew he’d done things in his past that he wasn’t proud of, but he was a good person. Please … Stop … Go away … He tried his hardest to be good. There was a darkness inside him, he knew that too. But, he tried every day to keep that at bay, and be kind, and generous, and helpful.

Please …. Screams ripped through his body. His heartbeat pounded through his head. Stop! Stop! Stop! PLEASE!! The more he screamed, the more intense the noises and the smells grew. Yet he couldn’t stop, he had no control over the fear that coursed through his body. He screamed until his throat grew raw, and then he screamed some more. PLEASE!! STOP!!! Gavin held his pounding head willing the pain to stop, he knew it wouldn’t until he stopped screaming, but he couldn’t do that either. PLEASE!!

Suddenly, the room fell silent and the air cleared. Gavin stopped screaming and opened his eyes. Dawn was beginning to break and the sunlight streamed through the crack in the curtains. The dawn always seemed to have a way of freeing him from the darkness. He coughed again, and pulled himself up onto the bed. He took a long drink from the glass of water he always kept on the bedside table, and then took deep slow breaths. His entire body was shaking. He knew it would pass in a bit as the adrenaline drained from him. He laid back onto the pillow, and slowly closed his eyes. He had survived another night, and with the sun came a feeling of comfort and security.

He sighed. As sleep slowly took over his body and his mind, fear still held onto him. He knew that in just a few hours, the darkness would take over once again. He just wondered how long he could fight it for. How long would it be before that darkness controlled the daylight too? He would worry about that later though, for now he would allow the sleep to wash over him and help him to forget the things he had seen manifested in the night.