Night Terrors

That night, I dreamed of Tianna and Trisha. In my dream, the two were fighting over me. They pulled on each other's hair and ripped each other clothes to bits. Just when I was about to start enjoying my dream, I noticed that they were still ripping at each other. Flesh fell in chunks on the ground. Blood curdled with the dirt to make mud which grew a deeper and deeper shade. On cue, clouds rushed in and closed off all light. The park we were in darkened. I fell knee-first onto the hard dirt. The pain did not register. There sure was a lot of blood to be washed away. I hated blood.

My eyes could not turn away from the gore before me. Both girls had torn each other's face apart as they clawed at each other until their organs started spilling up. I threw up a little in my mouth before choking on my own vomit. I couldn't breathe.

I screamed for help and the sound of my own terrifying shriek woke me. I expected my mother to run into my room. She did not. I tried to settle my own heartbeat that was beathing at least four hundred beats per minute. My eyes started to focus a lot better as my chest heaved slower and slower. I was so hot.

I looked at my reflection in the dresser mirror across from my bed. From the faint light which bounced off my skin from street lights outside, I saw my skin shimmering with sweat. It was hard to breathe. The heat of this crammed neighbourhood should have eased up by now but I was sticky all over. My clock showed a dim 12:04am.

In the right corner of my room, a quick flicker of light drew my attention. Someone was sitting in the corner where my study table was. The person was arguing. I recognized the familiar voice of my best friend. She twirled something long in her hand. Now and then, it caught a fleck of street light and glimmered in random places. I forgot to breathe.

Someone was on the floor.

Tianna sneered, "He's not worth anything. I've already tried him."

The girl on the floor was annoyed.

"That doesn't mean you have to kill him," she whispered impatiently.

"Why did you follow me here, Trisha?"

I could not see Tianna's face but her murderous tone sounded like it was made of thick poisonous smoke and I coughed involuntarily. They both looked in my direction but ignored me. I was frozen in place. How did they get into my room. Where has Tianna been? Why does she sound so evil.

"Listen!" Trisha snarled. "That little vixen got herself chewed when all I wanted was a taste. She wasn't even worth it. But now, everyone is watching me, and you know I can't move on until I've made my stomach happy! You are going to draw unnecessary suspicion to me."

"That's your problem," was the last thing I heard before the sound of a knife clinked on the tiled part of the floor and everything went on mute.

In an instant, the two girls were on either side of my bed. Both wore exaggerated evil expressions. Tianna held the longest knife I'd ever seen above my stomach. Trisha side-eyed her with disapproval but quickly turned her focus on my petrified expression. She smiled and touched my stomach with her index and middle finger. she slowly moved her hand up the middle of my belly to my chest. At this point I was gapping as though I was drowning. I tried to back away but my limbs would not listen to me. Trisha squeezed into my chest and all her fingers extended down and around my heart. She was caressing my heart. I'm going to faint. I am going to die.

All this time I could hear nothing. I saw Tianna cackling loudly but heard nothing. I felt my heart speed up when Trisha's hand pierced my skin but could hear nothing. My ears felt clogged. I saw both girls look at each other.

Trisha's lips moved and I could read her lips saying, "do it."

Tianna looked me dead in the eye and jammed the long knife in my belly, once, twice, three times and blood pooled then spread across by bed. I felt the fourth stab before it landed.

My eyes squeezed shut and reopened wide to see my mother shaking me violently on my bed. She was frantic.

"God, o God, O God," she mumbled.

The fear in her eyes turned to relief when she saw my eyes open. I could here her speak but she sounded low and far away.

"Greg, I have to get you to the doctor. You are burning up. I don't know what's wrong. I've been trying to wake you but you wouldn't wake up," she rambled.

She had a habit of rambling when she was scared.

"Ma. I'm fine."

"Don't give me that. We are going to the doctors right now."

"I'm way too exhausted to move."

My mother rolled here eyes and flung my sheets back to pull me out of bed. She stopped abruptly and here eyes widened. My bed was soaked and a little smelly. She looked at me and took two involuntary steps back.

"What's wrong with my son?" She whimpered a little.

She stifled a sniffle and clenched her jaw but a tear still roll down her cheek.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By late afternoon, my mother had managed to get a doctor to make a home visit.

She had had a mini breakdown after the bed-peeing incident but I really think she was over-reacting. Many people have one night slip ups and my dream the previous night is as good an excuse as any. It's not that I'm okay with it, I just don't want to add to my stresses.

I can't help worrying about Tianna. Why do I keep having these horrible dreams about her? What if she's in trouble?

"Are you even listening, Greg?"

The exasperation in my mother's voice was hard to miss.

"Yes, Mom. I'm listening," I lied.

I wasn't listening, I tuned out this quack of a doctor about 10 minutes ago.

"So you'll do as the doctor says." my mother's asked half pleadingly.

Why was she making me out to be a wayward or difficult child. To be honest, I always thought her blessed to have a son who did not cause her heartache. I consider myself very low maintenance. She's almost never home and I do not let that bother me. Working two jobs is already stress enough.

She led the doctor to the door. When she closed it, she leaned back on it, obviously relieved. Whatever the doctor had told her must have been what she needed to hear to stop making such a fuss over a simple matter.

Our eyes connected as I got up shakily to go back to my room.

"I'm going to make the first appointment for next Friday, son. How does that sound?"

"Appointment?"

"Yea. The doctor gave me a referral to a psychologist who specializes in helping victims of trauma."

"What!"

"Don't be difficult," she cried with renewed exasperation. "You already agreed."

In that moment, I felt sorry for her. I may have been the one in the accident a few months ago but she had gone through quite a bit too.

"Sure, Mom. Whatever." I headed back upstairs to my room.

She rushed forward to help me up but I stopped her with my palm up. She nodded her understanding and went to the kitchen.

When I got to my room, the smell of new linen on my bed was pretty inviting. I laid my body down and my head hit the pillow softly. I looked up towards my ivory ceiling and thought about Tianna and for some reason, Trisha too.

A shadow moved outside my window. But, this was broad daylight and I wasn't about to lose any more rest being afraid of simple dreams.