461. A haunted house, 9

(Myls)

The lord of nightmares has been after us ever since Blume and us met her.

We’re now sailing as fast as we can, trying to escape her grasp. We’re somewhere over Russia or Kazakhstan. We don’t know precisely.

We’ve been sleeping awfully poorly for far too long. We’re exhausted and completely. At the moment we doze off, terrifying nightmares invade us, and we end up waking up in sweat and screams minutes later.

We’re terribly sleep depraved and our best judgement has turned to garbage too many nights ago.

We’re just trying to escape. That’s about the only thing still clear as water in our mind. Everything else is mushy now.

The lord is trailing us wherever we go. Her giant monster looks like a bird when it’s near the horizon. We can sail faster at times, but the demon is not letting us go.

Zeslinry is dozing off. I hold her hand. It helps we’ve noticed. It can take much longer for the nightmares to spoil our sleep if we fall asleep with a reassuring presence with us.

But then, we can’t sail. So the distance between us and the demon shrinks.

I’m pissed off at Rose and Blume for telling us that awful thing was a friendly being. She’s been tormenting us without pause.

Zes’ hand twitches in mine. Hang in there... If we reach the rose, she’ll take care of her so-called friend. She’d better...

I smell something unusual. Fat? An oily sweat of some very large animal.

The giant bird monster and its too many wings to count has suddenly drawn much closer. I must have dozed off as well for a while.

Zes is still asleep so I let her rest, as much as she can.

I exit the ship’s room.

Night has fallen outside. We’re hovering slowly over the dark land, wherever the winds carry us as we float above the ground.

I can’t see the demon in the night. But I can smell that it’s closer than ever.

I hear a whispered laugh behind me. My gun points at naught but the night.

She’s whispering things again.

When she’s not trying to turn us insane, she’s laughing sadistically at how miserable we are.

Our minds and especially our dreams are in the palm of the hand of that sadistic djinn.

She doesn’t want anything else but to torture us for the fun of it.

We suffer. But we will prevail.

~

I smell the air very carefully from every side, trying to detect them.

We don’t like to sail actively at night, but if needs to, I shall.

Unfortunately, the only place I know the demon is currently, is inside my mind.

My hands are trembling from fatigue, rapidly. My legs are shaking at every step.

She’s out there, to wear us down gradually. To consume us, to drink our blood until we fall dry and cold.

At some point, the sleep depraved panic turns into nightmarish hallucinations.

She keeps us in this paranoid frame of mind where reality and nightmare are twisted and molten into one another, into a narrative she controls.

The worst and unthought-of fears we have are extracted out of our minds, fuelling the torture of our spirits.

And her real presence sips into our dreams like a nasty mould.

I don’t know for sure whether I’m awake or inside a night terror as I have another panic attack. My heart fails me. I’m about to shoot myself in the leg to find out which is it.

That’s the kind of inane behaviour she’s pushing us into committing.

I recover enough self-awareness to avoid shooting myself, this time.

I gasp for air, sweating. I’m awake. I shouldn’t follow that idea she tried to nudge me into.

And I hear her whispered laughs echoing through my skull.

Oh I amuse her... Bitch.

I have to escape her... We have to.

How’s Zeslinry? I’m scared. I stumble painfully my way to the room. I fall into the darkness.

I hear her laugh. I smell her beast not far.

I’m falling asleep, too exhausted to stand up again. I just want to rest a little while.

I cry... And I fall.

~

I feel a hand brushing my hair kindly. Must be Zeslinry...

I hear her laugh, the Nightmare’s laugh. She twists what begun nicely into something made of anguish.

N - One today...

She’s laughing.

It takes all my energy to wake up, push myself back standing and enter the room, worried for Zes.

The bed sheets are ripped. She’s gone. My heart explodes. She’s gone. Nightmare just took her from me, right beside me!

A rush of adrenalin keeps me more alert and angry. I run to the deck after my worst nightmare, figuratively and literally.

Dawn lights blind me for a moment.

Then I see the cloak of darkness near the handrail, holding the body of Zeslinry along with pieces of the ripped sheet.

My heart feels like it’s exploding again inside my chest.

I see myself already running to them, gun in hand.

Nightmare is laughing, though she has no face. She’s telling me through that mocking laughter that Zes is now hers, and there’s nothing I can do. Try me bitch!

I’m mad. I shoot. Zes wakes up, held by the beast. The arm over her mouth prevents her scream to escape her throat. My bullet did nothing to the demon. I’m sure I’ve hit.

Nightmare and her prey then fall backwards. I yell a no that rips my throat and eyes as they disappear.

I rushed to the ledge. The giant snake bird is below. They landed over its head.

Nightmare is still laughing inside my head, which enrages me further even though it progressively devolves into a whisper.

My heartbeat is just painful fire regularly hurting me.

I’m grinding my teeth to the point of breaking bits or cramping my jaws.

I see the body of the beast gradually getting away below our ship, pair of wings after pair of wings.

My hand grabs a few things that lied just there in a hurry. My heart and my breath have stopped. I don’t think.

The reality spun in a twirl around as I jumped as well.

I land heavily on the tail of the beast snake...

~