nightmares

I woke into a dream. The same kind of dreams I've been having lately. In my dream I saw the fox spirit, his face hidden for me to see. There's a film of thick ominous fog that hovered around him like a protective spell, a boundary that separated the worlds between us. I tried to cross it so many times without so much luck. I couldn't break though no matter how hard I tried.

I watched the fox spirit from the distance barely making sense of his shape. The fog made it difficult to see blurring my vision constantly. For a while I couldn't tell what he's up to until everything came together and saw that he had a man cradled on his arms. 

He would bend over which I thought was a show of  affection at first until I realized he was taking nips of his flesh chewing and eating the dead man's body. It was like watching a horror opera unfold before me and being trapped in it. 

A gasp of horror escaped my lips, clapping my hands to my mouth. But it had been too late because the fox spirit had already noticed me. Long pointy ears pressed to his head, his bushy tail whipping back and forth, he turned to me, eyes filled with rage.

He snarled and his threatening snarl send shockwaves of fear all over my body. I tried to scream but my voice was muted and there's no one here to help me.

I woke up from the nightmare with mother's gentle face greeting me, giving me a form of relief. I'm glad she was here because her presence made me feel safe and all I want to do at the time is get swallowed up in her protective embrace.

"Mother!" I wrapped my arms around her tightly, my head resting on her arm. "I'm so glad you're here. I was having the worst nightmare."

Mother patted my head. "I'm glad you're awake. I was so worried so weren't going to wake up."

"Huh? How long have I been out?" I glanced over the window and noticed the brightness of the sun outside. It was the middle of the afternoon and the sun had been up for a while.  "I'm sorry, I overslept."

"No, Hana.  You didn't wake up late. You've been asleep for three days?"

"Three days?" I asked bewildered. Three days is a long time. The nightmare couldn't have lasted that long. Couldn't it?

"You were missing. You disappeared in the middle of the night."

"Missing?" I tried to recall the memory of that night and couldn't come up with nothing. I don't remember leaving the house. I don't remember doing anything much less leave in the middle of the night."

"You must've crawled out of your window. You know how you act strangely from time to time? We have people searched for you for days." Her gentle hand brushed my cheeks like she always have when I was young. "Poor girl, you must have been so upset about Jungjae. They found you in the same ditch where they recovered his belongings."

Strangely? What does she mean strangely? All I could think of was the fox spirit and its magic. How was it able to lure me the way he did? I was completely unaware without any memory of what happened. 

This is not good. This can't keep happening. I need to find a way to make it stay away. 

"You have to be careful, daughter." She continued. "You can't just take off like that. I know you're upset but you have to realize the fox spirit is back. What if..." She paused, her voice broke unsteady. "What if the fox spirit get you?"

My mouth opened and closed, clueless how to tell her her fear has already materialized. I don't have the heart to tell her and the last thing I want is for her to worry. "I'm sorry mother. It'll never happen again."