3AM

Darkness surrounds me. The darkness rushes away as the low dim of a ceiling light glimmers. I’m in the same living room as last time. Every thing is closing in. The ceiling seems so close that there’s not enough clearance for my head. The living room feels like it’s underground. It feels like a coffin. I look down at the ground and notice a black spot on the floor. It looks wet. I stoop my body down. I use my little finger to touch the stain. The liquid is wet and warm. My eyes focus on my pinkie to see that the color is not black, but a dark red. My insides tense up. I fight the bile beginning to rise. My heart beats faster.

From the stain, a trial leads to a darkened bedroom on the far right of the living room. I don’t want to be here. My conscience prods me. My body feels as though it is being drawn into the darkened bedroom. But I just want to leave. This living room feels like a coffin. I step into the bedroom. I reach for the light switch. The light slowly flickers on. I wish I didn’t do that. I see a bed in the far corner of the room. On the bed there is a body covered in blue sheets. The dark red color is everywhere on the bed. I can only imagine what’s under those sheets. I’m gonna puke. I’m gonna puke. I’m gonna puke. GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE! I hear a loud deafening scream.

I wake up in a cold sweat. What time is it? I turn to see the neon-green lights telling me its 3:45AM. It’s sad. I seem to be able to sleep for two hours a night. I get out of bed.

The day moves by in a blur. I can’t believe its 10PM already. I went to my classes then to work. Now night has come. The nights are the longest part of my day. I lay in my bed, praying that I’ll be able to sleep the whole night through. I pray that I won’t have the same nightmare. Around 3AM I’m in darkness. Once again the light enters and I’m back in the coffin living room. The blood stain is in the same place. There’s a trail of blood leading to the bedroom. I HATE THIS! I walk into the darkened room and turn on the light. The body is still covered in blood.

I have to see the face. I have to see what’s under those blue sheets. If you think this is nightmare, wait till you see what is under those covers. The curiosity is killing me! I slowly move to the figure on the bed. I grab the blue sheet at the bald of the head, the figure is a shape of a girl. The sheets stick to the lifeless body as I pull them away. Long black hair mangled with blood is the first thing I see. My knotted stomach turns. Pale blue eyes stand out sharply against the blood. I’ll never forget the color of these eyes. As I stare at the girl’s eyes, I feel as if I am looking into a tormented soul. Her jaw is horribly busted. Most of her teeth are missing and her eyes are the only distinguishable feature. Her head twitches and the jaw moves open. A sound comes from her distorted mouth. A scream comes out like the siren of an ambulance.

My eyes open and I look to see my alarm. Its only 3:45AM. The same time as last night, I try to stop my body from trembling.

By noon feel like I could pass out from lack of sleep. I sit on a tacky blue chair on the shuttle bus that will drop me off by my car. The shuttle has three stops before I arrive at the parking lot where I get off. The bus diver looks to be in his late 50s; what little black hair he has left, he combs over. This is a special bus to be on. The driver blares the music from the radio as loud as bus regulations will allow. Today it sounds like he is making his own regulations.

Two girls get on at the second stop. One of the girls has long black hair, pale white skin, and distinguishable pale blue eyes. I think the gods are sending a direct message of supernatural proportions to me because the song playing on the radio makes this whole event even more bizarre. I don’t know the name of the song, but the lyrics give me goosebumps. This can’t be real. I’ve gotta be dreaming again!

“Linger on your pale blue eyes. Linger on your pale blue eyes.”

The word “linger” just adds more to my shock. Since the moment I saw those eyes the image lingered in my mind. I’ve never been the type to listen to others’ conversations but I try as hard as I can to hear what the two girls are talking about. The girl, sitting next to the black hair, pale, blue-eyed girl, is an average everyday blonde-haired petite girl in blue jeans.

“Joey asked me to go with him to the Halloween party this weekend and I said yes,” pale blue-eyed girl says.

The blonde girl rolls her eyes and acts as if a major sin is being committed. “I can’t believe you’re actually thinking about going out with him. He’s strange.”

“Well unlike you Jenny. I don’t have boys rushing in line to ask me out. So I go out with those who ask me.”

“Alice, Alice, just because you don’t have as fortunate a dating life as others doesn’t mean you should go out with a creep like Joey. You still have to use good judgment.”

Her name is Alice.

“I’m sure Joey’s a fine guy, he just gets excited sometimes. Anyway, all you heard were rumors.”

“They’re not rumors if they turn out to be true. Now, I can line you up with Nick, he’s cute in his own way. How about that?” The blonde girl sure is trying hard to keep Alice from going out with this Joey guy.

“I’m not going to cancel with the guy, that would be mean. I am going to the party with Joey. Now let’s talk about something else. Alright!”

The bus finally arrives to my section of the parking lot. Alice and the blonde girl, Jenny, stay on the bus. There is only one stop after mine and that’s the school dorms. I remember seeing ads all over the school for a Halloween party at the campus. Today, is Thursday, the party Saturday.

This time when night comes I try as hard as I can to keep from falling asleep. I don’t want to see anymore of that cursed dream. I’ve had many nightmares before, but never about real people. Nothing has ever been this real. Around 3AM I lose the battle to stay awake.

Not again! I’m in the basement living room that feels like a coffin. I hate this stupid nightmare! Routinely I look to find the wet blood stain on the carpet. Where’s the spot? It is not in its usual spot. In fact it’s not anywhere. I hear noises upstairs. I need to hide. My mind goes into a state of shock I can’t move. A young man with dyed red hair, about my size, wearing a black cloak walks down the stairs carrying a body wrapped in blue sheets on his left shoulder. The young man is speaking to the wrapped body. He can’t see me.

“Why won’t they listen? They never listen.” His voice causes my skin to crawl. The body begins to shake, As if it is fighting for its life. The young man loses his hold on the body and it drops right in front of me on the floor. The sheets separate and I see Alice’s face. A blood curdling scream comes out of her mouth.

The young man’s eyes looks like hell on earth. He pulls out a scout-hatchet from the inside of his cloak.

“SHUT-UP. SHUT-UP. SHUT-UP,” the young man yells. He takes the hammer part of the hatchet and repeatedly beats it against Alice’s jaw. I turn my head away. Once the young man is satisfied he picks up the lifeless Alice and carries her and whatever is left of her face into the bedroom. The spot has returned.

The blood trails into the bedroom. My courage fails me and I huddle in the corner. I try using my hands pressed tightly against my head to muffle the awful sounds that come from the darkness of the bedroom.

Once my eyes open, I run to the bathroom. The toilet accepts the remains of my dinner. The terror and nausea causes me to pass out on the bathroom floor.

Saturday night finds me at the campus party. I wear a cheap black costume from the local grocery store. It consists of a black robe with a white skeleton face mask. I want to make sure I can hide in the crowd easily if I need to. I find Alice in the lounge with the red-haired young man. Alice is dressed as a ghostly bride. Her groom, Joey, is the Reaper. Joey just stares at Alice the whole evening. The faces he makes are every mothers worse nightmare. This guy is a creep. The more real this nightmare becomes reality the more I can feel the adrenaline running through my body. My body is on fire. This mask feels like it is melting my face off! I follow the couple on the shuttle taking me back to the parking lot. I look at my watch to find out it’s already 2:45AM. My stomach feels as if butterflies the sizes of bats are flying in circles inside of me. I swallow back the overwhelming nausea.

I get off the bus with the couple. Their conversation starts to get heated, so I hide behind a yellow Honda. The time is 2:50AM.

“You should come over to my apartment and we can have few drinks,” The young man’s voice reminds of the voice from the dream.

“No thanks, Joey. I should go back to my dorm-room and get some sleep,” Alice says warily. I can tell by the sound of her voice she wants to get away from Joey.

Anger enters his voice, “Come on; don’t play me off like that. Come to my apartment.”

“No Joey I want to go back to my room. Anyway, there’s no reason to raise your voice at me.”

“LOOK GIRLEY, you’re coming with me.” Joey reaches into his cloak and pulls out his scout-hatchet. Pure fear is drawn all over Alice’s face. The blunt end of the hatchet strikes the right temple of Alice’s head. I fight the desire piss my pants in the parking lot.

Joey opens the trunk to his car and pulls out blue sheets, which he uses to wrap Alice’s body up in. “If you would I’ve just listened to me it wouldn’t be like this,” Joey said as he places Alice’s body in his trunk.

At 2:58AM I track Joey all the way to a brown house with a brown lawn. Brown, the same color as a coffin. His house is not too far from mine. How was I gonna stop this lunatic from murdering Alice? I jump out of my car and run to the back of the brown house. I find a window that is almost buried in the ground. I look through the window to see a washer and dryer. This room has to connect to the living room. To my surprise the window is easy to open. I decide to go in head first. The window seal is more slippery than I anticipate. I lose my balance, fall, and smash my head against the washer. Before the darkness over comes me I see the arrows of the clock touching on the 3 and the 12. What just happened?

I open my eyes to find myself once again in the coffin living room. My heart feels as if it going to punch a hole through my chest. The stain is in its normal spot. I follow the trail of blood to the bedroom. She can’t be. I’ve failed her. GOD NO! I see the body lying in a tangled mess of violence. My stomach contracts and the feeling to puke is also a reality.

I run to the closest bathroom. I can’t even make it to the toilet, waste sleuths from my mouth into the bathroom sink. I switch on the bathroom light and look into the mirror. Blood is spattered all over my face. My red hair shines brightly from the ray of the florescent light. This can’t be real.