No Longer a Nightmare

He woke up.

	His name was Max. A 15 year old boy with a brownish afro and bronze skin. He was 5 feet, 4 inches tall. He wore an Abercrombie T-shirt and some rust red shorts. He was chained to a wall. How did he get here? Where is here? Why am I here? Thousands of questions rushed through his mind as he took in his surroundings. Nothing. Pure darkness in every direction. The only light came from the ominous button placed under the toes of his left foot. “Why? Why? Why? Why?” He repeated to himself, over and over again. He knew it was a futile effort but what else could he do? Then he heard the static. “Hello, Maxwell”. Suddenly awake, the tired near-corpse of Max looked up. Nobody had called him by his birth name in years. “Glad to see you’re awake Maxwell” said the voice. “WHO ARE YOU!?” shouted Max at the top of his lungs. ”The audience.” Said the voice.  Silence.  “The button under your foot will sever each and every one of your limbs. Push it, and you leave. Don’t, and you die.” The voice paused to let Maxwell take it all in. The voice enjoyed this. Near tears, Maxwell asked “Why”? Nothing followed. Nothing except a tick of a clock.
60 SECONDS REMAINING. He waited and pondered on what to do.

30 SECONDS REMAINING

He wanted to push it.

20 SECONDS REMAINING

The button beckoned to him, like candy would to a child.

10 SECONDS REMAINING

Maxwell Charles Jr. closed his eyes.

And then he woke up.

	Her name was Elizabeth. She was a tall, 18 year old girl with red hair fair skin, and freckles on her face. She didn’t remember where she was going. But it was apparent that it didn’t matter anymore. She couldn’t move. Not because she was chained to something or because she was scared. But because she couldn’t. She just couldn’t. As if her mind had given up on her. She couldn’t even breathe easily, much less scream. A man came up to her and pointed a gun at her head. He stayed there. This gave Elizabeth time to study the man. He looked to be a thousand years old. Like a walking corpse. His skin sagged and had a gray, lifeless color to it. His eyes seemed to pierce the soul of all who looked at them. He was short, about her size. But the most peculiar thing about this man was not his figure, but his eyes. Pure white. He was blind… blind yet able to see. A crystal ball, foreseeing her death and everyone else’s. Elizabeth tried to express her fear but couldn’t. The man put his finger on the trigger. Elizabeth became hyper aware.

She notice the bodies of other women strewn around this prison.

 She noticed the roof was pure black.

 She noticed the floor was covered in blood.

She noticed the man was sad.

He pressed his finger to the trigger

“WAIT!” shouted Elizabeth.

The man eased his finger only a millimeter and smiled.

He pulled the trigger.

And she woke up.

	He didn’t remember his name nor did he care about it. A lifetime had passed this man and he has done nothing with it. And he believes that he is being punished. Surely this room must be a demon’s work… right? He was in a small room lined with brick walls and drowned in the smell of death. In the center of the room there was a hole. Two bodies wide and a trillion deep. The hole seemed infinite. It beckoned him with its display of eternal darkness. It seemed to be eagerly waiting for its prey to come to it. And it did. The man felt his stomach go into his mouth. He felt death creeping up on him. THE FEAR OF PLUMMET WOULD SURELY KILL HIM BEFORE HE HITS THE FLOOR WON’T IT? He fell for double of an eternity before he woke up.

What a strange man.

	Marvin was a child that nobody understood. This would explain the uncanny (very uncanny) nature of the experience shown in this paragraph. He awoke in a cave. He remembered his camp but nothing else. He shouted for his friends and parents. This generated a small peep that could be heard from within the cave. Marvin did not waste a minute and enter into its depths. He heard their voices, but from where. He decided to leave the cave. Unfortunately, due to Marvin’s increasingly bad luck and the infinite probability of the universe. The cave entrance had disappeared, replaced by a wall hat was purely black. A bit unnerved by the void, Marvin jumped when he heard a sound coming from straight above him. He looked up, and saw Kevin, the only real friend he had. Kevin looked down on Marvin with soulless eyes. His best friend had been hung by his feet and had been gutted, like a fish. Of course Marvin ran, but not because of the body hanging above him, but because the body had begun to giggle. Marvin ran. All the while the giggles followed him. And they didn’t stop. They never stopped.

Marvin didn’t wake up.

	A small child, neglected by her parents and by the rest of society, had only one escape. The television. Every night, she was visited by these cute little puppets. She told her parents that they came out of the TV and that they played all the time. Her very unintelligent father thought he had bought a 3D TV. Her slightly wiser mother asked for a picture of the puppet. And so she drew one of the numerous puppets. It was a simple wooden marionette with the only exception being its eyes, which the little girl had scratched out. Curious the mother inquired about the eyes. “They don’t like other people looking at them” said the girl. A chill ran down the mother’s spine but, she thought nothing of the incident and went on with her life. That night, the puppets didn’t leave the TV. They asked the girl to come in. “Come with us” they all said in union. COME WITH US COME WITH US COME WITH US COME WITH US COME WITH US COME WITH US. The puppets wouldn’t stop. The little girl finally said okay and crawled towards the TV and jumped in. The puppets fell silent, and the TV turned off.

There was a new character on the show that was introduced later that day.

The girl was never found either.

	You wake up in a cold sweat. “What was that?” you ask yourself. A boy, a girl, a child, a weird kid with an undead friend who giggled? Why were you so scared? Why—
You stop your train of thought for a moments to listen.

You hear a giggling noise.

You hear the beckoning of a thousand voices in unison.

You hear the laughter of a blind old man.

You hear the voice of a sadist.

You heard the silence of the void.

You tried to wake up.

But this was no longer a nightmare.