Nightmare Story, Chris Williams [early reader chapter books .txt] 📗

Chapter 1

There, I stared into darkness. I was in complete silence for quite some time, as I wondered if I had moved to the place were I always wanted to be. A place of solitude and total-self…no… I couldn’t be. I could feel the cold sheets that covered me, hard springs beneath my back and flat pillow under my head…I was in a bed and a bad one at that. As I continued to stare into the everlasting night that was around me, I realized something interesting. I wasn’t wearing clothes, clothes never felt like this before to me and not to mention it was covering my face as I tried to shift. “Bandages” I thought to myself, rapped from head to toe in them too.

“Why am I in bandages?” I thought, as tried to recall what I did last. The harder I tried the more my brain pulsed, there was only fire,” DEATH IS FREEDOM!!” that is all that keep coming back; over and over again. I could hear my heart beating rapidly in my chest, wanting to scream, “SHUT UP” at my head. Wanting the endless phrase to stop its haunting echo. The images of fire mingled with distorted faces tortured my mind, and crazed laughter chilling over my soul.

My head waving side to side and wishing for the silence I had just a moment ago, “Am I in hell or am I just mad?” I tried to say. My words muffled because of the bandages, I tried to chew through them and shift them. It was so hard for me to believe this was not hell and that I wasn’t dead. But I could feel the world around me; the soulless people slinking like venomous snakes through their concrete jungles. The ticking on the superstitious and religious man’s doomsday clock. The feeling of “those” people made me so sick, “I know you’re there…I know your watching.” I said in anger and strife. I was only letting my anger run me, I would never have guessed that there was anyone with me.

“I wasn’t fast enough, I heard your screaming laughter all the way from my side of L.A.” I didn’t jump, but I shifted my head in her direction. The woman’s voice was silky and gentle yet strong. It didn’t seem familiar, but there was a feeling that I have heard her voice before. “May I ask you an obvious question?” I ask the stranger. She quickly replied and told me almost exactly what silly question I was going to ask. “Yes, you look like total crap and your body is all burnt and disgusting.” the strange women said bluntly. “Why were you looking for me and why say you weren’t fast enough? What’s been happening that you would have to find me in a hurry?” I asked. I know bombarding her with these questions was rude and personal, but the more I talked the better my voice sounded. The questions created that ominous silence that can be cut with a knife. “Maybe I shouldn’t have asked as many.” I thought to myself.

“I can’t tell you all that just yet, you most likely won’t understand it in your current state anyway.” she said in a semi-smug sounding voice. That kind of irritated me and I felt a little warm, not because of the sheets I was in. It was like I was basking in the sun warm. “How do you know, how do you know what I’m capable of?” I said in an angry voice. My teeth clinching, another image came to mind, another face. A less distorted face, one that I recognized. “HER” face came to me, that know-it-all. I hated seeing that face out of anyone‘s. Her image left as soon as the woman’s voice interrupted my train of thought. “Did you hear me?” she said a little load. “Sorry, I didn’t.” I admitted in a way that I sounded like I was 10 years old.

She started to laugh and it didn’t sound like she was laughing at me, but rather she was laughing as if I made a joke. “I was saying, call me Vixen, ok?” the women said with a more friendly tone. She sounded like a mature teenager, her voice was a little to slang based to be anyone over there 20’s. The thought of her name was the part that kept me thinking about her. Until now I didn’t care who she was, or why she was with me. I didn’t know anyone named Vixen and it was hard for me to believe that I wasn’t dead either. The darkness in my mind started to reel back and I was over run with the images foxes and their cubs. The more I thought of who Vixen was the more my head started to hurt, so I gave up. “What’s up, tell me how you feel?” Vixen said. “Okay, aside from my head hurting from thinking to much.” I said expecting her laugh. “And trying to see through these stupid bandages.” I said in waiting and listening to her pacing foot steps that seemed to be across the room, with which I guessed had tile floor. Her shoes made noise so it wasn’t a bedroom with carpet, and it couldn’t be a wood floor, because her step would creak and echo a little.

She was mumbling something, “Well you should stop before you hurt yourself…more then already. Besides hospital bandages aren’t that transparent.” Where am I?” I asked her. She didn’t answer me. “What happened?” she asked me. “That was rude” I thought, she was deliberately trying to avoid my questions. Two can play at this game. “I’ll tell you later, where am I?” I asked again. I heard her sigh and mumble a bit more, “You’re in the Danial Freemen Medical Center, the hospital you were born in. They’ve been transferring you from one hospital to another for a while now. I’ve been trying to track you and when I found out where you were it was hard to sneak in here.” Vixen said while the room fell to silence again.

I had the urge to say, “You snuck in here without being seen to see me,” but I would have done the same thing if I was tracking someone down. “So are you here to kill me or something…I mean people don’t track other people unless they want something.” I said with anticipation. “No, killing you is the last thing on the list.” Vixen said. “But its on the list?” “Yes, and time will not stop that from happening.” Vixen said with a determined voice.

Now that I think about it, I couldn’t feel the sun. Was it night time? The bandages made everything so dark, there was no light what so ever. “Vixen, what time is it?” She giggled that made me question her age again, “It’s 2:43” she said. “Is the sun not out or is it raining?” “No” she said. “A.M., its 2:43 in the morning.” Why are you here at a time like this, aren’t you sleepy?” “No, where I go I could sleep forever. Besides…I’m the only one left who truly cares for you Zazo.” Vixen said quietly. My warm feeling was rising again but warmer then before, “What did you just now call me?!” I had not been called that in over 2 years. I had to know who was Vixen, I had to know! “Tell me how do you know that name! Vixen!” My voice sounded unfamiliar to me, but I didn’t care. I was angry and wanted to see her face. My anger motivated my body to see who this women was, my arm moving over my thigh, over my gut and my hand touches my chin. “If you look at me you will not recognize me.” Vixen said. “How do you know that!” I yelled as loud as I could. “What do you know!” “I know a lot more then you do! Its been years since you’ve used your brain let alone your eyes. You haven’t even asked how long you’ve been in bed!” Vixen said in an angry voice that shut me up completely and not just because of her voice, but by what she said. It had shocked me to the point that I needed a barf bag.

“ Okay, I’ll bite. How long have I been out? A week, 10 days, a month?” Vixen was silent, that worried me. “Right?” The silence was starting to make me mad, I moved my hand to my nose and pinched on the bandage. I couldn’t pull because I felt a hand on my arm. It glided up and finger tips entwined into my hand. I let go and calmed down quickly, her hand was ice to my fire like rage. She gripped tightly and said slowly “Try years…you burned and tried to kill yourself the day before your 16th birthday, and in 4 months you will be 18.…” “Wow, how-” I couldn’t think of anything to say. She sat down next to me, holding my hand, telling me what has been going on in the past 2 years that I have been asleep. How the people had had a 2nd Great Depression becoming more and more like animals, how nations were on the brink of war and how the United States became a 2 world country with a strong and new worldly military. “How is my family, is everyone okay Vixen?” I tightened my hand and she said, “I don’t know, I spent a lot of my time tracking you not your family. Though I will make sure that they know you are awake.”

She let go of my hand, I heard her foot steps walking away to the other side of the room. I didn’t want her to go until I saw her face. I reached up and pinched on the bandages over my eyes, I started to pull. It was as if the bandages had become merged to my skin. My eyes turning into slits as I pulled. I pulled harder and harder until it came off and the pain hitting me…I screamed. I didn’t want to scream, but the pain was nothing I could remember. I panted and open my eyes, more darkness. “Am I doomed to stare into darkness forever?” I thought to myself. “You wont be able to see until your eyes are ready, so you went through that for nothing.” Vixen said. I want to scream “no”, but she was absolutely right, because even though my eyes were open they felt dry. I did burn to a crisp and I haven’t used them in 2 years, so they are most likely useless. I was starting to get mad, “ I may not be able to see, but I can still feel.” I said as I reached out into the air. I asked her if I could feel her face, she agreed. I heard her grunt, she must have sat down. When she got up, a ball of white light came from nowhere.

With each step she took the ball grew, her foot steps grew louder, her heart beating was like a drum in a tunnel. I felt her breath on my finger tips. I was nervous, the light started to go away and a shadow, hazy figure was over me. “Please remember me…” Vixen said in a broken voice that made me question her age again for a split second. I hesitated for a bit, this feeling was as nerve racking as your first kiss. The sweat, the hard breathing, the hesitation…”Are you