Let me all regale you with a nightmare I had just last night.
It started with me waking up. Well, what felt like waking up, at any rate. Nothing gave away that it was a dream at all. I could see everything, hear everything, feel everything. It was all as it should be. Not that knowing it was a dream would have helped with anything, anyway. The only thing strange about my room was that it was cold. Really cold.
My routine goes as it would in real life, I stumble around a bit groggily and turn on the shower. I do my business while it gets hot and steamy. Except it was cold this time, even though steam was coming off all over the bathroom. I stuck my hand in a few times to make sure it was right, but it never got hot. Screw it, I think, I can just shower before I go to bed tonight. I go back to my freezing cold room, not yet noticing that it's the only cold room in the house, and I get dressed and head downstairs. Everyone is already up and watching the TV. The curtains are closed, which is weird since it's supposed to be the morning and the light is turned on. That never happens. My mum is a stickler for that sort of thing.
I ask why the curtains are shut and they just look at me for a while. "They have to be," my mum says after a long, empty pause. Whatever. It's just curtains anyway. That's when I remember something; I have somewhere I have to be. I still can't quite remember where it is or what I'm going to do when I get there, I just know I have to be there. So, I head back to my room and I grab my keys and my phone. A quick drink and I tell everyone I'm going out. In hindsight, I wish I had noticed their reaction before I left. A look of sadness. They tell me that they're locking the door soon, and if I go out they aren't going to let me back in. A bit harsh, isn't it? I have my keys, though, so I'm all good. I can get back in anyway, so I leave. The moment the door shuts, it's like someone hit a mute button on the world.
It's cold, again. Really, really cold. Painfully cold. It feels like I'm being stabbed by tiny needles all over my body. It's also snowing, too and not the usual light snow we get that never settles on the ground. It's a heavy, powdered snowfall that obscures quite a bit of vision. The type of weather you always see in those horror movies or in horror games. I can see that everyone's curtains are shut, even though it's the daytime. I would dwell on this fact, but I have somewhere I need to be, so I start heading off. The snow crunches under foot, which when coupled with the eerie silence makes it seem like the loudest thing I'd ever heard. It feels a bit weird, though. Something isn't quite right about the noise it makes. I start making my way again, coming out of the path and onto the main road. There are no cars driving though today and no birds chirping or dogs barking. The only noise is that odd crunching which doesn't seem to sit right with me. I carry on walking, down the main road to my mysterious destination, the cold hurting every step of the way. My jacket and coat doesn't seem to be doing anything, but I know that if I didn't have it, I'd probably die out here.
My walk goes without issue, except for that accompanying feeling of oddness that permeates every single step I keep taking, along with that crunch of the snow. But that's when I catch it. That's when I stop walking.
That's when I hear the crunching of the snow.
It only happens once, though and makes no other sound. I take a few steps forward and stop again and it happens again. It's as if the sound of the world has become out of sync with my footsteps. I do this 2 or 3 more times before I'm certain: something is following me. I go to turn around to confront my pursuer but my brain starts firing off a craptton of warning signals for me to not turn around. Turning around would be bad. I start waking again, much more cautiously this time but that's when I notice that it must have noticed, because after a while, its footsteps stop being in time with mine and instead start sounding off whenever I'm not walking. My crunches mix with its crunches and it's like a constant beep. One that is getting faster.
So I book it. I run like a madman, trying to keep balance on the ice and the snow. I weave and bob around bushes and fences. I even do a little bit of garden-hopping and scale a few small buildings. Eventually, I find myself in an open field that is usually used to grow crops. Since it's the winter, there's nothing here, but mud. Not ever grass. I'm tired and my gut hurts from all this running and I'm still so cold. Still, nothing can come here without me noticing; there's nowhere to hide and nothing to provide a stealthy approach. That's doesn't stop it, though. I hear the crunch of the snow.
It's right behind me.
I stand, rigid and petrified in fear. I can't move any more because I'm too exhausted and too afraid. The footsteps of my follower get louder until they stop when the noise they make becomes so loud, it feels like it's reverberating through my entire body and I feel its breath on my neck. Its fingers snake around my neck as well and they are the hottest thing I have ever felt. This warmth should be solace from the painful cold, but it isn't. Far from it. My neck is on fire and it hurts more than the bitter frost ever did or could ever hope to. It isn't long before it starts squeezing and the pain only intensifies. I can still breath though, it isn't choking me. But as the grip gets tighter, the pain becomes more pronounced. IT gets to the point where I can't even stand any more and I fall to my knees. It loosens its grip and I fall forward onto my hand, vomiting all over the dirt. It is smiling at me. I know it is because for some reason, I can feel it. I can feel it smiling.
Then, suddenly a slow and sharp pain stabs me in the back. It starts from behind my right arm and seeps forward. I can't move it, but then again I can't really move anything at this point. IT keeps spreading down my arm and into my fingers, causing them to fan out. After a while, it goes dull and my fingers move about, like that motion people do to get blood flowing. Only issue is, I'm not doing it. I can't feel my right arm at all, as if it is missing from my body. It happens again, agonisingly slowly but this time it's my leg. The toes wiggle, but it doesn't feel like my toes doing the wiggling. The penny drops at that point, exactly what this thing is doing: it's wearing me.
That's when my brain goes into overdrive. It's telling me it's a dream, but it doesn't care. I need to wake up before it finishes doing whatever it's doing. Something bad will happen if I don't. Not "dream-bad", either but real-life bad. This is dayum fricking important that I wake up as soon as I possibly can. Never have I experienced such a sense of urgency as last night, as if waking up was one of the most important things I will ever do. I feel starting down my left arm, the last limb that's mine. I close my eyes and I try with all my might to wake up.
My eyes shoot open with a start, but I don't scream. I don't even mumble. I don't shoot up, like in all of those shows you see. My eyes just open and I'm wide awake. ...My room is cold.
At this point, since I'm still groggy and that nightmare felt like the realest thing I have ever had the misfortune of encountering, I'm freaking out. My legs and my right arm are numb, but I flop out of bet and boot up the computer.
To those that helped me through that after I woke, thank you. You have no idea how helpful that brief period was to me. I don't think I could ever thank you enough. ...And that is the tale of my nightmare.
