Nightmares and Daydreams

Nightmares and Daydreams

“Jasper!” The voice that echoed through the house was high, with an undertone of familiarity and comfort in what was being said.

“Jasper, honey?” The owner of the voice, a young woman in her late-twenties, pulled open the plain white door to her six-year-old son’s bedroom, her eyes glancing around the room to observe the condition it was in; There were no clothes or toys on the floor, the drawers of the dresser were all neatly shut away, there were no signs of crayon or marker coloring the deep blue walls, the bookshelves were still filed away in alphabetical by author order, the blackout curtains over the window were pushed together, and his mixed shaded blue bed was completely made without the slightest wrinkle. Then there was Jasper, a young, frail boy with mousy-brown, curly hair like his father’s and clear, mint green eyes like her own. His pale skin often gave others the impression that he was sick, but his bright smile had always warded away their worries. It was different now, though. In the past few months it had become a rare thing to see Jasper’s smile, and an indifferent, frozen frown had replaced it. Now there were tears sliding down Jasper’s face as his mother looked down to him. Hurriedly, the woman knelt in front of her son and placed her hands on his shoulders to steady his shaking.

“M-mommy,” the cry from the boy was pained, and even as he spoke his eyes seemed to look straight through his mother.

“Jasper, wake up,” his mother urged him, gently shaking his shoulders. She seemed calm as she held her son’s cheek in one hand, her cold touch bringing reality back to the boy. A shocked expression ran across his face as a registered what was going on, and then he abruptly leaned into her, hugging her tightly as he cried into her shoulder.

“Y-you were dying!” He cried as she returned his hug, “I...I couldn’t save you! I tried s-so hard t-to help y-you, mother!”

“It’s alright,” she cooed in a soft voice, her hand stroking his hair in an attempt to calm him down, “I’m right here. It’s okay now, I promise.”

It wasn’t okay though. Her big heart sank in defeat yet again. Jasper suffered from constant daydreams, daydreams that were really nightmares. She’d taken him to multiple doctors, but all they could do was give him pills that didn’t help at all. Sleeping pills, ADHD meds, and even anti-depressants. He was seeing a therapist too. A six-year-old boy, seeing a therapist!

Jasper’s mother pulled away slightly after their long embrace, giving her son a reassuring pat on his shoulder.

“Get dressed, honey. I’ll make you breakfast and take you to school, alright?”

--

School wasn’t Jasper’s favorite part of the day. He preferred to stay at home, with his mother, rather than learning how to write the alphabet and how to count to ten on his fingers. First grade was boring for the boy, and while he understood what was being taught to him in class, he barely paid any attention to it. He was often sent to the school nurse, or the principal, when his teacher would notice him spacing out for long periods of time.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

Jasper glanced up as his teacher, Ms. Lainey, continued to sing the merry holiday song. Other students joined her as she hopped from desk to desk of enthused children. She was the one, possessed by a demon of the underworld. The exact demon that had killed his darling mother. When the woman hopped over to his own desk, he could see the evil in her eyes, feel it radiating off her aura, shrouded in darkness. Jasper was going to avenge his mother. He was going to kill this demon--the demon singing joyously, mockingly, right in front of him. Without a moment’s notice, Jasper snatched up the pencil laying on his desk, moved forward and then jumped with a snarl towards the woman, thrusting the pencil deep into her neck.

“Jasper!” Tick-tick-tock…

“That’s it! I’m calling your mother!” Ms. Lainey was standing in front of him, perfectly normal and full of life. He blinked, confusion filling his mind. She’d been a demon just a moment ago, hadn’t she? With a firm grip, Ms. Lainey pulled the boy up to his feet, her other hand holding an old cell phone. “...Yes, I’m sorry, but Jasper isn’t paying attention in class again and he’s holding the class back from moving on. ...Alright, I’ll send him to the front..” Jasper’s eyes widened when his teacher looked down at him, a tired and annoyed glint in her eyes.

“Jasper,” she said softly to him, “Do I have to tell you again? You can’t be yelling during class for no reason, okay?” All Jasper managed to do in reply was offer her a small nod, to which she sighed loudly and shook her head, before telling the rest of the class that she’d be back in a minute, to be good while she was gone, and when she came back they’d finish the caroling.

--

“Mommy, I-” The six-year-old didn’t finish his sentence as his beautiful mother bent down in front of him and ruffled his hair lightly.

“I understand,” she told him patiently, “Now let’s go see Dr. Simmons, okay?” Jasper held in a defeated sigh, but nodded anyway. He knew that he went to see Dr. Simmons to help him get better, but Dr. Simmons was always in a sour mood and nothing that he said to Jasper actually made sense. The man was a famous psychiatrist, but he didn’t work well with young children.

“..Tell me about your daydreams today,” the doctor commanded in a tense, uncaring tone. Jasper tapped his cold forefinger to his temple, as if he even had to think about the nightmares he’d experienced.

“My mommy died,” he said quietly, counting off his fingers, “and I killed my teacher.”

“How did your mother die?” the man asked. This was the part that Jasper hated: retelling his visions to this man, and reliving his nightmares.

“She was being chased by a demon,” the boy told Dr. Simmons, “When my mother ran into my bedroom, the demon sliced her throat and then licked her blood off of its long nails.” The doctor didn’t flinch at this, nor did he ever react when Jasper told him of the dreams.

“And why did you kill your teacher?” Dr. Simmons questioned.

“She was the demon that killed my mother.”

Dr. Simmons didn’t ask anything more for quite a while. Jasper thought that maybe he was thinking, but had no idea from the way the doctor just stared at him, unblinking. Jasper’s focus went to the bottle of water that the man was constantly drinking from.

Drip-drop, drip-drop.

“Jasper..” the voice was garbled, and echoed around the room as if it’d come from everywhere at once, but Jasper had clearly seen Dr. Simmons’ mouth open in speech. Jasper’s eyes widened as the doctor stood and stumbled over to him slowly, his form more elongated from how he’d looked sitting down. “It’s all in your head, Jasper,” the garbled voice continued as the doctor’s long arms reached out for him, “It’s a disease of the mind.”

Jasper screamed at the touch of the man’s...thing’s bony fingers. He jumped out of his chair, and ran to the other side of the room. “Go away, go away, GO AWAY!” he yelled at it, but the figure, no longer in the doctor’s form, gave him an evil smile in return.

“I’ll never leave you, Jasper.” Terrified, the boy reached for the water bottle and threw it as the specter.

Drip-drip, drop.

“Somebody call 911! I think this kid just had a seizure!”

Jasper was cold, freezing. His fingers and toes were numb, his muscles weak, and there was a heavy pressure resting on his chest. A large, warm hand grabbed his own, and the panic that had been starting to rise in the boy suddenly subsided. The sound of muffled crying came to his ears.

“Mommy, don’t cry.” His voice was weak, but at the sound of it the pressure on his chest lifted.

“Jasper!” He opened his eyes at her pained voice, but the face before him was too blurry to make out any definite features. He blinked multiple times, trying to clear his vision, which was fading even more despite his efforts. “No, mommy! Don’t leave me! Mommy!” Soon, her voice faded into oblivion.

“Client #37, Mr. Jasper M. Edgewood. You killed your family: Your step-father, Jared Simmons, your step-sister, Lainey Simmons, and your mother, Kristen Edgewood, at the age of six. Is that correct?”

Jasper’s minty green eyes, surrounded by dark shadows from lack of sleep, looked up at the kind-looking receptionist. He nodded, his curly brown hair bouncing as he did so, and smiled to her, a smile that would ward off any security she felt from the guards standing to each side of him. She was going to have to get used to him, this psych ward was his home now.

Reviews

[Obscured by the Shadows]

I love the ending, it is not what you would have expected. Insanity is a terrible thing to go through...


Doctor: I hear you and your family suffer from insanity

Me: Suffer? We quite enjoyed it!

Students are going to love it when you read it! Excellent excellent excellent!

Lots of detail, imagery is good, I love how the reality is mixed with fantasy, it allows you to really picture what the boy is going through.