Nightmare

Hi guys .

It has been awhile.

Happy Halloween in advance.

°°°°

"Did you hear that?" you say to your coworker, Ana.

"Hear what Margaret?" Her eyebrows are arched. You read the worry and slight confusion in her eyes.

It's happening again, you think. The voice is back.

You can already foresee the office gossip- Crazy Cat Lady in Accounting is hearing things again. You don't even own a cat. And you're not crazy but Nobody believes you.

You try to diffuse the situation by laughing uncomfortably like you made a bad joke. Your eyes shift back on your laptop but you still feel Ana's eyes linger on you before it leaves.

You bite your lip, because it's calming. No, it's distracting. The pain distracts your thoughts.

Is this strange voice your thoughts? But it doesn't sound anything like you neither is it familiar.

"Don't forget. You promised." You hear the little girl's voice again in your left ear. You would have felt ticklish if you were not petrified in your seat.

You don't turn to face the voice. You ignore it. Re-reading the tax fillings for the umpteenth time. Your eyes glance over the words but none of the letters come together to register anything.

The little girl's voice sickeningly sings, "If you don't come. Bad things happen." You can hear the amusement in her voice.

You want to run. But you cannot. Where would you run to? There was no refuge. No matter where you crawl in to, you still hear the voice. Neither could anyone help you.

Already, people think you are crazy. The psychologist had already tried to label you schizophrenic.

"I'm going to the Bathroom," you say to Ana, stumbling out of your desk.

You are dazed. It feels like you are drowning. Everything seems to be fading away. The weird stares, the smell of printing ink, the loud keyboard clicks, and the people passing by, all fade into a feverish daze.

Once you get into the toilet, you splash water from the toilet tap on your face.

"You need to wake up," you think. This has to be a nightmare.

You look at your reflection. Your face is pale. The dull grainy skin is from loosing your appetite for food and life itself.

How did it all start?

°°°

You have not been able to sleep since you moved into your new apartment. Every time, you shut your eyes, you see yourself at a run-down bar by the counter. It's a recurrent nightmare.

In the last one, it was nighttime. It's raining heavily so a group of drenched strangers are seated in the bar.

The moonless night and the thunderstorms could not be a better combination for a bar with only one lantern on the counter as its illumination.

You are about to ask the barman what this place is when the bar door opens.

A tall man in a black raincoat comes in. His heavy rubber boots stomp as he walks in. He mounts the stool beside you, seeking warmth from the lantern.

He pulls off the Cowboy hat and pours the rainwater it gathered at your feet.

You look at his face. It's burnt. Burnt to crisp; you cannot make anything out.

You stumble backwards but he clutches your hand. "Margaret. Please promise you'll stay this time."

°°°

You look at your reflection in the bathroom mirror—the dark saggy skin underneath your eyes. The skin on your lips is broken, red, and bruised from your constant chewing.

You look at your hand underneath the running tap, you see the thick purple bruise marks on your left wrist when the man in the raincoat grabbed you in your dream.

If it was only a dream, why is the bruise real? If it's all in your head, why is the pain so deafening?

You did not notice when the tears started flowing down your dry cheeks into the zink.

You hear the voice, again. "All this pain will end if you come back". The same little girl's voice that haunts you at day. It sounds like she's by your right side.

At this point, you're afraid again. But you cannot tell if you are terrified to see the owner of the voice in the mirror reflection or if you're terrified not to see the owner of the little voice and just to be haunted by a body less voice.

You notice the tremble in your hands and slowly you look up back at the mirror.

Eventually, when your eyes face the glass, you see the girl. She's in a dirty dress so dirty you cannot tell if the dress was originally white or wheat. There's a broken metal pipe through her eyes sticking out the back of her head.

She's smiling at you.

You look at your left but there's no one there.

You look back at the mirror. She's still smiling.

She moves to the surface of the mirror. You feel she can reach out and grab you. You feel the impending presence of doom, you feel your hope has been dragged to hell.

You feel shivers down your spine and all the hair on your body is alert. It's almost as if, your body is screaming at you, asking you to flee.

Yet, you cannot scream. You cannot move. Your mind is trapped.

The little girl places her blood stained hand on the Mirror. Her smile dissolves and you see her black claws appear.

"Margaret," she says in a firm warning tone.

You close your eyes. Finally, giving up. You know your fate is sealed.

Lastly, the little girl says. "Don't wake up."

The end

°°°°

Authors note: I have been watching the series called 'from' and Season 3 is currently ongoing.

After Season 2, I was looking forward to season 3. I hoped to get answers to the questions from previous seasons.

But all have gotten us more questions.

That was the motivation for this story.

To give you a story that is unresolved. To leave you with unanswered questions.

So what do you think?

> Were any of your questions answered?

> What answers were you still hoping to get?

> Was the ending satisfactory?

Oh well.

Also I wanted to bring back the second person POV

> Was it scary for you?

> Was the character relatable.