Out of the Darkness

117

"Your best friend is here with you, and I see that will always be true." Sam clapped me on the back and smiled as we followed Ash down the shore to another part of the desolate beach. "When traveling between planes of existence, between dreams, you can never really know what to expect when they aren't your dreams. Each dream that every person in the world has, is connected in the dream realm. Some of the realms are just 'starter packs' I guess you could say. The generic dreams that everyone has at one point in their lives. Basic nightmares with clowns, or good dreams, like spending time with loved ones. These dreams are filled in by each specific person, using the people that they know or what they are afraid of, to make it tailored to each individual. Nevertheless, they are all connected. Which means there is a door in each dream, leading to a different part of the realm. We just have to find it." "Is Anna here somewhere?" I asked, jogging to keep with Ash. He seemed to walking at a normal pace but he ended up being 10ft or so in front of Sam and I. "I believe that Anna did follow us here. She is a spirit, of sorts, and is able to travel between realms, if she knows how. She was with you when you arrived, but I do not know which realm she is in now." "Wait, she was with us?" I asked, surprised by his statement. I felt like Anna was still around but when she didn't show herself for days, I began to think that I was imagining the little signs that indicated she was around. "Yes. Unless you have another spirit attached to you? She didn't say her name, but she resembled the doll that you brought so yes, I'm sure it was her." Sam was quiet, too quiet, so I looked over to see him taking in the scenery, scanning the shore, his forehead creased with worry. "Are you okay?" I asked, nudging him to get his attention. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm okay. I just feel like someone, or something is watching us." "That would be the demons," Ash replied, nonchalantly. "Stay close." Sam and I both jogged back up to his side. "I'm sorry, did you say demons?" Sam asked. Ash nodded. "Yes. We're in Colby's nightmare. All nightmares are caused by demons who are trying to tempt you, or soil your soul. They love to cause havoc, pain, and turmoil. The demon realm is the closest to the earthly realm so it's easier to reach this realm first." My own eyes started scanning the parts of my dream that I hadn't bothered to look at before. Shadows, deep and dark, lined the back of the shore. Now that Sam had said that, I could almost swear that I was seeing dim red eyes blinking in and out of existence. "What exactly are we looking for Ash?" I asked, getting nervous. He shrugged. "Dunno. An entrance of some sort. It could be a door, a cave, a bridge. I'll know when I see it." That didn't help my anxiety. "Sooo...what do we do if the 'demons' or whatever come at us?" Sam asked the question that was running through my head. I was scared of the answer. Ash looked back at us and laughed. "They won't bother us right now. This is your dream. We don't have to worry about them until we get closer to the door, or we end up in someone else's nightmare." We waited to see if he would say anything else. When he chose to stay quiet, I asked the question again. "So, what do we do then?" "Run," he said, shooting us a smile. I didn't know if he was being serious or not, with the way he laughed and then smiled, so I waited for him to say 'just kidding' or to tell us what we really needed to do. When he didn't say anything else, I swallowed down the lump of fear that lodged itself in my throat. I don't know what the fuck I was thinking, agreeing to this. Wait. Yes I do. I was thinking that I was willing to do whatever it takes to help Anna. Even though she would never be mine, even though we could never even be real friends, I needed to help her. It was a lot easier to say that before I knew that I would possibly be fighting off demons. A thousand year old witch? Sure, I got this. Scary ghosts with minions that live on the Queen Mary? Piece of cake. Demons coming at me, while I was stuck in the dream realm with no real way to fight them? What the fuck had I gotten myself into? What had I brought Sam into? The more I thought about that, the more my anxiety rose. My breathing started coming in short pants and I felt nauseated. I kept seeing shadows out of the corners of my eyes, like they were moving towards us, but when I turned to look, there was nothing but darkness and the shore. We walked the shore for what felt like a very long time, until finally, Ash spoke again. "We're getting closer," he said, breaking the silence. The sound of his voice made me jump a little, since we had been quiet for so long. "How can you tell?" I asked, glancing at the shadows. Still no demons running at us. "They're gathering. Look harder," he said, pointing at a particularly dark patch of shadows that we were passing. I strained my eyes, trying to make something out of the darkness. Then I wished that I hadn't. "Oh. My. God," Sam whispered, stopping in his tracks. I stopped too, frozen in fear by what I saw. The shadows weren't shadows anymore. Now, they were hundreds of demons, snarling with their razor sharp teeth bared at us, saliva dripping down some of their chins, like they couldn't wait to see what we tasted like. They're gnarled claws were glinting in the moonlight, reminding me of Freddy Krueger's knife tipped gloves.