Prologue: Vivid

There was a suffocating chill in the air as Morphie raised his head in the dark, vast landscape before him. All he could see were shadows, twisting and curling in the form of a monstrous human being with an empty face and two glowing spots for eyes.

The eyes seemed to glow a luminous shade of golden sandstone and was gleaming with sinister intent as it stared down at him. Time seemed to hold still for a second while those eyes kept him rooted to the ground before there was a rumbling sound that seemed to gurgle out in a thin, wispy rasp before it boomed.

"Give it back!" It spoke, its shadowy figure expanding and raising a limb to reach out to Morphie as if to crush his head into a fist with its size.

Morphie could not speak, he could only break out in cold sweat as he paled. The shadow fingers spread and seemed to suffocate him in their approach, reflecting on his blue glassy eyes as they watered in alarm at the terror he suddenly felt.

"You little thief! " It shouted angrily and its face split at the bottom of its two glowing eyes, spreading into a dark smile that seemed to make shivers crawl up Morphie's spine. It was anything but warm, seemingly sinister and full of malicious intent.

"I'll curse you!" It suddenly said aloud. "Curse you!!" Its words seemed to echo into his skull, reverberating into his very soul as if in promise.

*

He woke then, breathing hard and feeling cold sweat perspire on his forehead to the side of his face. His vision seemed like it took a moment to blur into the proper planes of reality--having seen a dream so vivid disoriented him.

His eyes gradually adjusted to the sight of suspended dust particles floating in the air at the beam of sunlight that seeped through the gap between his curtains. The muted blue walls of his familiar bedroom walls helped him calm down. With eyes blearily looking around, he spotted hiis dark mahogany study table at the side of his bed looked very cluttered and was a complete contrast to the bare and plain furniture in cozy colors of brown and black.

Morphie's alarm kept blaring in the background and the noise felt more like a comfort to ground him away from that horrible nightmare. "Geez," he said, rubbing his hand on his face while he took a breath.

He's always had vivid dreams.

He's had them since he was young. It's what his parents had dubbed as an active imagination. Truth to be told, it has been nothing but a hindrance. Giving him the benefit of nothing aside from imagined beings and fragmented sleeping, he thought.

Morphie began to rise from bed groggily, after having spent a moment rubbing his knuckle on his eye a little too harshly as if to soothe away the incoming headache as well. He quietly padded into the bathroom and stood before his own reflection.

A pale face framed by unruly black locks stared back at him. His face as pale as usual and his glassy blue eyes stared back in an almost permanently wary expression. 'Prudent' his mom would use to tell him lightheartedly, having always seen the same look pasted on his face on a daily basis.

Morphie sighed before he turned on the tap and stared at the running water listlessly. He took a moment to process the sound of flowing water, a white noise in the background while he thought.

The vivid dreams always got overwhelming at times but today's dream of the giant black shadow so far was too loud, too creepy.

He placed his fingers beneath the water and splashed them on his face and a flash of glowing eyes encased in an ominous shadow seemed to pulse in his memory, reminding him of the terror he had felt while pinned by that gaze.

Too real.

The feeling crept up to him yet again. Something is yet to come, he thought.

As if it was only the beginning of something far more hellish.