The Dream That Always Returns

Ever since I was 5, I have had a nightmare every month. It always starts out the same. I am walking outside what appears to be an abandoned hospital, with no other buildings around for miles. There always is a tall figure wearing a long black cloak standing next to a tree in the front of the hospital. He has a long scythe in one hand, and the other one reaches out for me. I am familiar with this by now, so I no longer struggle, as what happens when I do is much worse. At first I would always try to fight my way out of his grip, but all I succeeded in doing is making him grab me with his skeletal hands that much tighter. He drags me up the stairs and opens the door. He whispers to me as he throws me in. "I hope I don't have to take you tonight, but that depends on you," he says as the doors shut. I turn around to walk out of the doors and back into the frigid night, but they have dissappeared. The halls look different every time I come to this dream. I am the type of person to always feel better when I have a weapon in my hands, so I look around for something to use. Usually, there is a knife that I can use against whatever terrors I will face in the durration of the night. After I have grabbed the knife, I feel a chill coming down my spine. I start to walk down the hall, looking for a way out, while constantly checking for anything following me. I walk past many blood spattered rooms, in which I can feel that the spirits of those that died in them still remain, wailing in constant agony. The first real ward that I reach is the childrens dormatories. I can see young girls playing withh their dolls, and young guys playing with their cars. This area makes me sad, until I hear the giggling. It is always that damned giggling. The young spirits must hear it too, because when I look back at them, they are no longer there. All I can see is a large grotesque creature. It looks like it might have been human at one time, but not anymore. It steps out of the shadows, and I feel sick to my stomach. It looks like a man that had its head replaced with a wolf's. The only problem is that its skin was still that of a humans. The rest of its body was cut up and torn, almost as if it tried to eat itself. It screamed at me as it was getting closer. "Free me," it would yell. "Free me form the pain. FREE ME!" It lunges toward me, It's long, cat-like nails stretched out like claws towards my throat. I step backwards, but slip in what looks like blood. Luckily, the beasts first strike misses me. I quickly lash out with my knife, scoring a long, yet shallow cut across its chest. It reels back in pain, so I press my advantage. I lash out twice more, cutting the beast's arms. He wails in pain, and I quickly stab it through its heart. It tries to smile at me, but it lacks the facial muscles required. The children reappear, and tell me that the beast was glad that I had freed it at last, and with its death, the children too are free. One by one, they each vanish in a flash of light. I am happy for a moment, but then that damned giggling returns. I hear a what sounds like a man speaking in a falsetto voice, "You might have killed my pet, but you will have to kill me before you will get away." I turn around and continue on my walk, hoping to find the source of that giggling, and bury my knife in it. As I continue to walk through the hospital, I see more creatures liek the wolf man, along with the spirits of other patients. All of them wail out in perpetual pain. I feel sick, seeing so much suffering, but I continue to try to find the source of the giggling. I walk down the stairs into what seems to be the basement. A sickly sweet smell assaulted my senses as I went through the door. The horrors of the basement in my dream haunt me in my waking hours. The doctor stood by a bed that had a corpse laying on it. The corpse was mangled, as if the person that it had been died by getting hit by a train. The doctor grabbed its head, and using what looked like an icecream scoop, took out one of its eyes. The doctor turned and looked at me, giggling like a little girl, and stuck the eye in his eye socket. I assume that he was the source giggling and the voice. "Welcome," he said. "I am glad you came. You see, through all my work, I have discovered the secret to immortality. The only problem is, that my body wares out. I am glad you came, because you have a wonderful supply of new parts for me." At this point, I felt like throwing up, but I wouldn't take my eyes off him long enough to do so. My eyes were watering as the smell of the rotting flesh became over-powering. I could barely see him as he charged. I would have met my end by the knife he held in his hand, but at the last moment, one of the spirit kids charged him, and knocked him back. He swung his knife through the ghost, and the spirit dissapeared. I charged him, and stabbed my knife through his left eye, connecting with his brain. Next, I pulled it out and stabbed through his heart, then I slit open his throat. That finally put an end to his accursed giggling. Next, I heard a rummbling come down the hall. It sounded like the word FREE. The next thing I knew, I was outside, standing next to the dark cloaked figure. "Well," he said. "You freed all the spirits trapped inside, and put an end to the mostrosity that lived in the basement. I am thankful for your help, and glad that I did not have to take you tonight. You may yet be helpful to me." He walked forward, spread great black wings, and flew off. He had left his Scythe laying on the grass. On instinct, I grabbed it, and I awoke laying in my bed, in a pool of sweat.

Some people say that dreams are caused by your imagination, which makes me wonder how 5 year old me was able to conjure up such a horrifying vision. Yet others say that dreams are omens, glimpses into your own future, and that is what worries me. I have now been dealing with this nightmare every month for 11 years. Now, time to sleep.