Through The Darkness

Jake finds himself in one of the most realistic dreams he's ever had with his best friend Alice. When things take a dangerous turn, and Jake can't tell whether he's in a dream or reality, he and Alice must fight to survive.

Authors Note: Italics are reality, and normal font is the dream.

 I hit the lights, as I head towards my bed. Today has been so long, that I fall asleep near instantly when my head hits the pillow. I drift off into a peaceful sleep.

        Everything is crisp and clear, the trees blow gently in the wind, and the birds chirps fill the air. I can't remember a dream becoming this real. I can feel the warm, gentle breeze caress my skin, the colors are so vivid, and the sound of the stream beside me is very relaxing. I look over and see Alice, my best friend of many years, she looks the same as she did today in school.

        “Jake?” She asks.

        “What?” I answer her question with another question.

        “You just spaced out, and stopped talking.”

        “Oh my bad, it's just really nice out.” We continue talking, and her voice sounds the same as it did today too. This dream is pretty real, hanging out with my best friend is good, I've definitely had worse dreams. We keep walking along the scenic path towards nowhere, and then she stops me.

        “Look,” she tells me, and points behind us. I turn around to see a blackening sky quickly consuming the crisp blue one that had been above us moments before. I close my eyes and spin back around and open my eyes. The sight before my isn't the calm, vivid scenery that I saw before. I now see that suddenly the black sky has completely taken over and in the place of the forest is cold concrete, and I can see a few torn down buildings and dead trees.

        “What happened?” I ask in distress.

        “It looks like everything just, died. . .” She trails off, taking in the dead landscape in front of us.

        “Well, this is only a dream,” I say with complete confidence. She looks over with a completely serious face and says,

        “Jake, this isn't a dream, we've been walking around for about an hour.” I can feel the disbelief spread across my face. How can she tell me that what I know for certain is wrong? I fell asleep, and now I'm in a dream. Sure, everything feels more real, but it's still a dream. I continue taking in the baron, and completely pale gray scenery that contrasts against the black sky. We then continue a little farther and she asks,

        “Well, what do we do now?”

        “What do you mean, what do we do? I don't even know where we are!”

        She shoots me a look of anger and skepticism, “What's wrong with you, your acting really f*****g weird today.” I can't believe what I'm hearing, she's freaking out because this dream is changing? Maybe it will change back, and then I can wake up soon.

        “Watch out!” She shouts, but it's to late. I feel some sort of claw rake across the upper part of my left arm, and it knocks me to the ground. The pain is searing at first, and then it fades to a dull throb.

        “Are you okay!?” She asks loudly in a worried tone. I inspect my arm, and see that it looks like a cat scratch, that's a little deeper then normal. It's only bleeding a little bit, but it still hurts. I notice that the cold, pale gray concrete beneath me feels a little bit to real, and so did the injury. I look in front of me to find a little black ball, what I imagine to be the living form of a shadow. It has the most evil eyes, that instantly strikes terror in me. I look up to Alice, who is completely frozen in place. This catches me by surprise, since she's not normally scared by most anything. I look back at the shadow, and I can feel murderous intent radiate off of it in waves. I blink, and as soon as I do, there's a lot more. I look around and we're almost completely encircled by shadows. Most of them are bigger ones, that look more human-like. I guess the one that hurt me, is a younger. . .whatever it is. I don't plan on sticking around to find out what it is, because I already knew what they plan on doing. They are going to kill Alice and I.

        “Let's get the f**k out of here!” I shout and grab her arm and pull her, and we both break into a full run through the break in the almost circle. I knew they easily could of killed us then, but for some reason they let us pass. We keep running until I see an aluminum shed-like structure off in the distance.

        “In there!” She shouts and we run as fast as possible, and soon we reach the building. The door is unlocked, we slam the door behind us, and lock the door. We both collapse onto the floor, and start panting, in a weak effort to try to get as much oxygen back into our lungs as possible. About five minutes before she speaks again,

        “Do you think they stopped chasing us?”

        “No,” I say, “They are just playing with us.” I get up, and feel around for a light switch. After a few seconds I find one and flip it on. The light illuminates the small metal structure. There's almost nothing in this place, besides a shelve and a table.

        “Holy s**t!” she shouts, and I look over. There are two handguns resting on the table, with two small boxes of ammunition beside them. This further reminds me that this is a dream, since the guns are so perfectly placed. I don't want to wake up now, if I get to kill things with my best friend, this is one of the best dreams I've ever had. I inspect the guns, and find out that they are already fully loaded. I take a box of ammo and put it in my back pocket, and she takes one and put it in her purse.

        “Do you think those things will be susceptible to gunfire?” I ask her.

        “Yeah, isn't everything?” She says smugly, even though I can see her shaking. I choose not to bring up the dream subject again, knowing that it will only upset her. We get our guns ready just as the door gets torn open, and one of the things bursts through. There's a flash of sound and light, and I look towards the thing. Right between it's fear striking eyes, is a hole where the colors of the wall behind it show through. Alice has nailed the thing right in what looks to be it's head. It stumbles back slightly, but I can tell it's still alive. I deposit two bullets into it's chest, and it bursts apart into little particles that disintegrate.

        “When the hell did you learn to shoot like that?!” I ask her, after I realize we're temporarily safe.

        “I don't really know,” she answers honestly with a laugh. I look up and her eyes are wide with amusement and surprise. I shake my head and smile,

        “Let's go.” We run out of the shed into the open, where there are two or three shadows waiting. We stop needing to be still to aim, then shoot them and they, like the other one burst into particles and disintegrate.

        “Let's head to the edge of town, we can try to hide in the woods there.” She tells me, and I choose not to question her decision. After all, she is part of this dream, my head is still stuck in reality. We seem to run for a while, and I make the mistake of blinking again. We are in the woods now, but the warmed up grip of the handgun isn't being picked up by my hands. I stop and ask,

        “What happened to the guns?”

        “We run all the ammo out of them, remember? We had to kill a ton of those things, and we have to keep moving!” There must have been a lapse in time, that must have been caused by my blinking. It seems that blinking in the dream always creates the same effect, a time skip. I make a mental note to not blink again, because whenever I do, drastic changes take place within this now nightmare-ish dream world. I break into thought while running, I've been blinking, but when I really think about doing it then things change. I just have to not be conscience of doing so. A scream breaks me out of my reverie,

        “Jake!” Alice shouts while reaching up. I jump over and grasp her arm. Somewhere between the conversation about the guns, and my mindless running we had approached a cliff. She must have not been paying attention either, because the cliff is very high up. I use all my strength to pull her up and back onto solid ground. We're both visibly shaken, and I hear her call out,

        “S**t those things are here!” I look back to see a huge cloud of black with hundreds of murderous eyes among the darkness. I quickly look to my left, where there's a slightly rusted yellow slide. I think back to the start of this. . .well actually I didn't know what to think of this dream or reality that I'm in. Emotions are too high, feelings are too real, and everything is starting to make sense. It scared me a little when a long slide off a cliff popped out of nowhere. The line between reality and dream is blurring ever so slowly and seamlessly. I then get back to thinking of the start, when the colors made me relaxed and comfortable. Safety, I don't know what I'm in, but I know this slide represents safety. All I know now, is this is real enough, and both Alice and I can't die.

        “We have to take the slide!” I tell her completely certain.

        “That thing is so old and rusted, what if it breaks and we fall off and die?!” She shouts, obviously trying to be logical.

        “It won't, just trust me.” I say, and we both look back again, seeing that the shadows are rapidly approaching. I add, “What other option do we have?” She takes a deep breath and then nods, and we race towards the slide. I jump on first, to show her that it's safe. The slide is slicker then the rusted appearance makes it seem. The slide doesn't give way at all, just like I knew that it wouldn't. I look back, and I see Alice hesitating. The shadows are right behind her now, and before the first bend in the slide I shout, “Jump!” When I go around the bend, it straightens out again, and I see the entire land mass that the slide is connected to disappears, but the slide stays in place. The land mass particles just float up into the black sky above. I assume the shadows left with it, but my heart dies a little, as the thought of Alice dying surfaces in my head.

        “That was f*****g close!” I hear her shout behind me. I'm totally relieved, and my gaze turns forward in time to see a near ninety degree drop before me. My eyes widen and then I lay down and cross my arms across my chest.

        “Oh, s**t!” I scream out as I begin plummeting. I close my eyes, but I can feel the slide beneath me, so I relax very slightly. Through the speeding wind, I can hear Alice's high pitched scream behind me. I chuckle, and know she'll make it down too. I then find myself rolling through grass and some sticks, and I open my eyes. I've landed near a town, but this one looks undamaged and people are in the streets. A force smashes into my back, and I roll forward in pain.

        “Ah, my back!” I shout and hear her say,

        “My head!” We're both rolling around in pain for a moment before I stand up. “Why didn't you move?” She asks while rubbing her head.

        “I don't really know where we are!”

        “Hmm, I don't either, let's find out!.” She says, but her tone expresses that this isn't a big deal to her. The danger that tainted the atmosphere earlier had dissipated. We were able to walk at an exhausted, but comfortable pace. The streets are littered with people, almost more then one would ever expect a town this size to have, let alone be on main street. I noticed one thing, their clothes and hair, all gray. I've noticed that everything that isn't the sky in this lucid nightmare, is gray. We walk up to a random passerby and I ask,

        “Excuse me, can you tell me the name of this place?” There was no response, in fact there's absolutely no noise from a population that has to be at least a thousand. The whole town is completely silent.

        “Hey!” Alice shouts, and spins a person around. His face is dead, blank, and totally void of any emotion. His skin and irises nearly match his clothing, and he only answers with a short groan. We both step back a little, astonished by the complete lack of color and emotion. “Let's get out of here,” she whispers to me. We turn and start walking down the street. We gradually increase our pace, until we're nearly jogging. I can feel the tension build in the air until sounds of a thousand things being torn apart fills the air. We look back, and see that the lifeless people, were just the shadows disguising themselves.

        “Let's go!” I shout out and we break out into a full run. The shadows gather, and when I look back I see them hot on our trail. The city quickly ends, and there's a broken ledge in front of us.

        “Jump!” She tells me, and I trust her now, just like she trusted me on the slide. We jump off the cliff instinctively, and a massive gray ocean stretches out in front of us. I fall quickly, and I brace for impact into the potentially icy ocean. We shoot under the surface, and the water is as I thought it would be. It's ice cold and unforgiving, just like the rest of this nightmare. I open my eyes, and am surprised that I can see almost perfectly clear without any burning. We are much farther under the ocean then I thought that we would reach. I look down and see a bright light shining, on what appears to be the sea floor. I tug on Alice's arm, and she looks over. I point down, we exchange nods, and begin to swim towards the only beacon of hope left.

        We start to swim, and it seems like we are traveling much too slow. The light doesn't seem to be getting any closer. I try to swim faster, in a frantic attempt to get closer to the light. I hear the sounds of crashing above us, and I can only guess it's the murderous shadows. It's obvious that those things will be able to catch up with us very quickly, so I put as much force into swimming as I can. I can see Alice out of the side of my vision, and she seems to understand. She picks up the pace as well and keeps up with me. I don't want to look back, but I have a strong feeling that the shadows are quickly approaching us. The light is closer now, but oxygen is in very low supply. I didn't take a deep breath before we hit the icy surface. Now with the combination of the cold and the fact that we're putting as much effort into swimming as possible, air is now rapidly depleting. As the air is almost gone, the light is right in front of me. I look back and see Alice struggling, and a few bubbles burst up in the water. I swim back quickly and grab her arm. I pull her with me, and I can now see black approaching from every angle. I swim with everything I have left, and we are able to squeeze through the light.

        I'm desperately trying to fill my lungs with oxygen again. I treasure every breath now, and I can feel dry land above me. I stop, and I don't feel the malicious presence around us anymore. It know almost feels like a far off memory. I open my eyes, and I realize we're in the same place we were at before this whole race for survival began. The vivid colors have returned, peace very potent, and the pitter patter of the stream fills the air. We exchange looks of relief, and we both fall backwards onto the hard dirt and look to the sky. I smile, and thank God that the sky is blue again.

* * *

 

        

 

        I shoot up out of my bed, and worry spreads through my system. I notice that my bed, blankets, sheets, pillows, myself are all soaked in a cold sweat. I realize now, that it really was all a dream. I think back to everything that happened in the dream. I realize that it wasn't just one of the craziest things that I've ever experienced, it means something a little more. Even though it was just I dream, I survived something deadly with my best friend. The dream makes me realize that friendship may go through anything and everything, but true friendship will endure, and continue to be as strong as ever.

Reviews

[Jaeda]

A great story. I especially like the conotation at the end, how friendships last no matter what.

[XxXCherriXxX]

good job:)
i loved it

"I'm desperately trying to fill my lungs with oxygen again."

a very powerful line