A Nightmare, Or Something More

The rain water trickled down me. The rain had stopped. The air was filled with a delightful petrichor. The cloudy sky had cleared up. I kneeled down on the ground, arms open, for a while, taking the scene in. I heard her giggling, and I looked up. There she was, in all of her glory. 

I got up, dumbfounded. I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of her. Truth be told, she made my heart race. I had butterflies in my stomach - butterflies so big, I could fly away. Not knowing what to do, the least I could do was give her a toothy grin.

She signaled to me to follow her. I did exactly that. It felt as if out of nowhere, the city appeared.

She was running, and I chased after her. For those few moments, it felt like we were the only two people in the world. It was an amazing sensation. 

I finally caught up to her, and we stopped for some time. She took my hand and dragged me along. She went into an alleyway, following a lonely man walking down it. What I saw next was horrifying. 

She licked her lips. Her eyes dilated and slowly transformed into a blood-red. Terrifying jaws opened up a gigantic mouth, able to fit a person. Bone white, sharp claws sprouted from her hands. She looked disfigured, to say the very least. This horrific beast jumped into the air. I couldn’t bear to see this, so I started running for my life. The blood-curdling scream of the poor man rang in my ears while I kept running.

I woke up, frightened, to say the least. Sweat trickled down my forehead, falling onto my hand. I could not be more relieved that it was a nightmare. But I was unnerved. Something about the nightmare felt so real like this creature was lurking in the shadows, ready to jump out at any moment…

After taking some time to recover from the nightmare, I got out of my bed. I felt childish but safe in my blanket. I brushed my teeth, then headed to the kitchen to make myself some refreshing coffee. But then I made a mistake. I blinked. I saw the monster again. I freaked out, and took a swig of coffee. 

I got ready for work and drove to the office. For once, everything seemed normal. I waved to my coworkers as I walked to my desk. My boss gave me the usual assignments, and I quickly got to work. 

After maybe an hour, the chatter in the office increased. Wondering what was going on, I asked my deskmate. He told me that someone new had joined the company. The boss’s door opened, and I could hear echoing footsteps down the hallway. 

The new person appeared. My coworkers surrounded her, introducing themselves. My deskmate also left to talk to her. He told me to come to. However, I wouldn’t budge from my seat. This was the very woman, the monstrous creature from my nightmare.

I remembered her completely. Her chestnut hair, and dark, eerily blue eyes. She locked eyes with me, and I was frozen. She slowly started walking towards me, and I inched backward. She looked confused and did that very same giggle. She then said a very creepy statement: “I think we’ve met before.”

I was speechless. I wanted to run away from this place. Far, far away. 

Slowly, time moved on. She seemed relatively normal, but I still preferred to steer away from her and avoid her. She was wildly popular among the office. She had a likeable personality and was quite sociable. Many people got along with her quickly. 

I wanted to talk to her, but I just couldn’t. Every time I would see her, I would see that horrendous creature from my nightmare. I could picture those claws shooting out, ready to kill anyone at any moment. 

Whenever she held parties, everyone would flock to them. I would stay at home, in fear. Her very existence was frightening. My boss noticed that I was deteriorating in work as well. He had threatened to fire me if I didn’t work efficiently. 

I tried my very best to avoid her. My sanity was disappearing. My boss decided to retire, and he made this woman the new boss of us. Everyone was happy. Everyone except me. 

I then noticed that one-by-one, my coworkers were disappearing. Everyone assumed that they had been fired or gone to another job. Every time this was mentioned, the woman would glance around nervously. I always had a suspicion that it was her. Coworkers disappeared, day by day. Eventually, there was just a handful of us left. 

It was late in the night, and I had to work this shift. She was there, along with a few others. She called an unsuspecting employee into her office. I followed this person, oblivious of his gruesome fate.

She opened the door, let him in, looked around, then shut the door and locked it. I looked around and found a paper clip which I used to open the door. The door was very slightly ajar, but I could hear everything. 

Out of nowhere, there was a muffled sound, followed by crunching. I immediately pushed the door open. The very same creature, with its same blood-red eyes, and its same bone-white claws, and the same terrifying jaws were all there in front of me. She devoured the poor employee. This creature then locked eyes with me and pointed at me. 

I ran to my car, running for my life. I drove off, leaving my life behind. I never looked back once. 

I now live with my wonderful wife, who helped me forget this ordeal. But I keep my gun at ready, afraid of all the creatures, lurking in the shadows, and lurking in us.