With a life-wrenching gasp he sat up, white tee shirt clinging to the cold sweat that covered his body, sheets tossed about and half lying on the floor. It flashed intensely in his mind for one horrible moment, and then faded off, into some black, vague nothingness, leaving only the irrational fear. The latest nightmare.

Samuel Greene was a dreamer. Not only of day but at night as well. He walked through life half in reality and half gone somewhere else. He tread the line of unconscious and the waking world, and at times it was hard for him to tell the difference between the both.

But other than that, he was your average Joe. He wore glasses, with thick, black frames that stuck out like a sore thumb. He had short messy black hair that hung over his eyes in stringy waves, slick now with sweat. He was of a light build and pale skin, with large awkward hands with slim, long fingers and feet he seemed to trip over now and then. Fourteen years old, he was a classical nerd.  

He jumped again at the loud, mechanical buzzing of his digital alarm clock, instantly slamming his fist on the button, grumbling to himself and slipping out of bed, the nightmare pushed out of his mind for now.

From there, he fixed his bed, always aware of messiness and always one to keep things immaculate, he straightened his sheets to near smoothness before getting dressed in sloppy denim jeans and a generic white button up shirt.

Walking down stairs he was greeted by his father, who was getting ready for work, preparing his briefcase and papers.

“Hey, son, c’mon and have your breakfast, I have to leave early today, so keep watch on the time, will ya?” He said distractedly, messing with his tie while looking in the mirror, making last minute adjustments. Sam’s father worked in the city, his office high above the streets with walls of glass and steel. The conversations between them now were quiet, short, and awkward since his mother had passed away, her heart just too weak to keep her alive…

“Yeah, dad, I know.” Sam plodded over to the kitchen table, pouring a bowl of cereal groggily, almost opening the microwave instead of the fridge when foraging for milk then sitting again and preparing his meal. Nightmares always left him so dazed...

Taking the spoon and dipping it into the bowl of flakes and raisons he lifted it to his mouth, eyes half closed until he heard a loud, horrible hissing noise chased them open, his whole body flying back, and away, landing on the floor with a loud thud and a crashing chair. From where he lay, he watched as a flood of hissing, gleaming and hideous cockroaches flowed over the edge of the table, coming down in cascades and torrents, scrawling over him and covering him in their terrible mass. Sam heard a far-off screaming, guttural and primal, filled with terror. Then he realized it was his own screaming, his own arms swatting and flailing at the surge of insectoid invaders.

And his father’s screaming at him, suddenly in his face and there, real and there.

“Sam! Sam! Are you alright, talk to me! Sam!” His large fists easily circled around Sam’s wrists, holding them so they couldn’t retaliate with their weak yet frenzied and desperate flailing.

He screamed of cockroaches.

“Sam, calm down, please, stop your shouting, what cockroaches, there’s nothing there, Sam, listen to me!”

“Their coming! They’re horrible, horrible... Horrible…”

Sam’s breath came in short, panting breaths as he calmed down, staring at his father as if he were a semi about to crush him. Looking around him, he saw nothing, no bugs, just small, broken flakes of wheat and raisons.

“Son, they’re just raisons, you don’t have to fly off the handle, they’re just raisons…” His father trailed off as he lifted his son to his feet. His face revealed worry, eyes looking over Sam warily, brows pulled together in concern.

“Are you sure you’re alright? I’m going to call Dr. Erickson, and see if we can get an appointment…”

As he turned around Sam protested.

“Dad, no! I’m fine, really, I just... I’m just tired, alright? I’m fine…” Samuel ran a hand through his hair, now fluffy and in his eyes, feeling overwhelmed. Every time it happened it got worse and worse..

Eventually, a honking was heard outside, and both knew whom it was. Sam’s heart leapt. Then plunged down again.

Julie.

Another few honks and Sam sighed, taking up his backpack, which he already had prepared the night before, and shook his head. Heading out the door, his dad came over and put a hand on his shoulder, the concern more evident than ever.

“Please, Sam, I wish you would tell me what’s wrong, you’ve been so out of it lately, and coming home with bruises and black-“

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” Sam pushed his way out of the door, shoving the hand away and making his way out into the driveway, leaving his dad hurt and sighing, shaking his head as well now.

“Hey Sammie,” a cheerful voice seemed to sing, as it sounded like a song to Sam’s ears. The ‘ie’ was added at the end of his name, as it sounded cute enough to have such a thing as that at it’s end. He loved the way she said his name, smiling and forgetting for the moment his troubles.

Julie, his closest friend and confidante, girl next door and self-proclaimed big sister, was sitting in her red, roofless sports car, beaming at him. The first thing he noticed was her wonderfully olive-green eyes, calm and deep and yet so lively and up beat. He’d known her since he was five years of age and it was always her eyes that seemed to capture him. Over the years she had grown into a lovely sixteen-year-old young woman, but he still couldn’t resist her eyes. Light brown, shoulder length wavy hair framed her face, black at the roots, and with bold black eyebrows.  She wore her usual denim vest, frayed and fuzzy at some edges and a mellow-yellow tank. Hip-huggers adorned her legs, which were rather shapely he had to admit to himself, though only to himself or he’d blush a bright red that reached his ears.   

“Hey, Julie,” He ambled over and took the seat next to her, easing back into the soft chair. Looking over, he froze.

“What’s up? You look like you just had a heart attack or something.” Said Julie’s voice, but where she sat was another thing altogether. Or… No, it couldn’t be Julie, It… It couldn’t…

Sitting where Julie sat, was a burnt and scarred corpse, skin black and flaking away, almost burned down to the seared bone. Her eyes were replaced with deep, black sockets, and her jaw moved, though half of it was gone, like a charred door hanging on one hinge. Her head was more a skull than anything, nothing left of her hair, nothing but scorched flesh, chipping and falling in ashes every time she-no-it moved. It was something to see this, but it was all the more horrifying hearing her perfectly clear voice come from this blistering and burnt-to-the-bone carcass, cheerful, then worried.

“Sam, what’s wrong?” Julie’s pale green eyes looked perplexed, her face reflecting the exact same concern his father had shown.

Flinching and snapping out of it, he just sat, blinking at her, eyes wide in fear. He realized then that he was shrinking away, pushing himself back against the seat and the door of the car. Quickly, he got out, fumbling with the handle then stumbling out of the car, all the while staring at Julie.

“Sam you’re scaring me, what’s wrong?”

“I-I… I have to go, I’m sorry, I just can’t go with you today.” Sam immediately started walking away, leaving Julie staring after him, only confused and worried. He walked away quickly, too ashamed and confused to think twice about it.

He didn’t know what was wrong with him, he couldn’t figure it out, these.. These hallucinations were too much, he couldn’t be having them. He was a perfectly normal teenager. He didn’t to drugs at all, besides the occasional allergy medicine, and that was prescribed to him.  For being very light, he was healthy, he was okay, perfectly sane…

But why did he have these stupid nightmares?

Around the corner he heard Julie’s car drive off, and he was about to sigh when he head a loud scream and the screeching of tires, then a loud crash. Turning on his heels, he ran towards the sound, turning around a corner, expecting to find-

Julie’s car egged? Staring in disbelief, he stood dumbfounded, relieved beyond belief, but also confused beyond that point as well. Her car had swerved off into a streetlight, front wrinkled and bent, completely covered in the slimy gleam of eggs and a sprinkling of shell. Julie sat, arms held up in disgust and disbelief, dismayed and deeply hurt, though she had not a scratch on her body.

Sam suddenly felt of wave of anger, at himself and who ever had done this to Julie. If there were ever a person who did not deserve this what so ever, it was she. And he felt that he had abandoned her to have this happen to her when she was totally alone and vulnerable, though he knew he couldn’t protect her. Secondly, he felt perplexed. What was with the vision of her burnt up and lookin’ like she’d walked through hell? Then finding her car egged…?

Then he found the source of the egging, or rather, it found him.

“Hey, Worm! ‘Cha gonna do, huh? Save your little girlfriend or cry to ya dead mommy?”

Jason Alderblat. The school bully. At a hulking 200 pounds, six foot two, he was a force to be reckoned with. He wore a torn, black sleeveless shirt over his barrel-like chest, reading ‘Bone Breaker’, and baggy jeans that scraped the ground. He had a small chain around his neck, with a steel cross-bones pendant attached to it. His own black hair(it was dyed) was slicked back with grease, the sides of his head shaved to a grey stubble. He grinned as he said this, showing two crooked rows of yellowed teeth.

He had a gang of two others with him.

“Sam!” It was Julia’s voice

Almost instinctively Sam just spun around and began running down the street, already hearing the pounding of the three thugs behind him, and the pulse of his heart. Knowing what to do, having done this a few times before already, he swerved off to the side, leaping a fence and running through the yard, the world blurring past him, just concentrating on trying to get away from the three behind him. Leaping over a few more fences easily, his long legs carrying him at a breakneck speed, hair streaming back as the wind whipped past him.

“You won’t get away, Greene! You won’t get away!”

He could hear how tired they were, and he could feel how heavy the pack was feeling as well. He knew he’d be fine though, as long as he could get into the school, just as fast as he could. He could lose them. He had before. He could do this now.

Suddenly, he leapt over one last chain link fence, the sharp, whipping brush of tree branches hit him, and he knew he was in the forest. He felt the cool, chilled air of the darkened forest around him, and heard the soft rustle of leaves and the forest floor beneath him, the packed earth of the forest path, and the fresh, green smell of the trees.

He heard them behind him as well.

“Saammyyy! Come on, keep on running, we’ll get you, oh, we will!”

They sounded like a pack of hyenas.

Gritting his teeth, he ran faster, dodging trees and trying not to trip, trying to keep going. His legs ached, his ears rang, and his chest hurt form his heart pounding hard at its cage of bone.

Finally, he burst out from the dense tree trunks, running over black pavement.

The school grounds.

Suddenly, he could barely move, feeling as if he were trying to wade through water, everything seeming to move in slow motion. The quick, resilient pounding of his heart slowed down to a slow, bass-like beat, seeming to drum out his death sentence. Everything seemed so slow, but his mind seemed to race all the faster.

He’s catching up on you, he thought. He’s going to kill you. I am going to die.

The logic of the waking world abandoned him to this nightmare.

“I’ll gut you alive, Sammy Boy! I swear I’ll gut you alive and tear out your heart!” More maniacal, screaming laughter.

He heard more far off screaming… Except it wasn’t Jason’s.

It was his own.

Two hands suddenly grabbed his shoulders. Jason’s hands! He was going to die, he was going to be gutted and die!

“LET ME GO! LET ME GO! DON’T KILL ME! LET-ME-GO!”

He fell to the floor of the school. Breathing hard, he turned over, staring up at blurry round circles, far off echoes reaching his ears. His vision suddenly cleared, as his glasses were placed onto his ears. The first thing he saw were Julie’s eyes.

He kissed her.

“Son!” His father was there.

The next thing he knew he was hugging him, shaking, crying, confused and dazed. Blinking he stuttered.

“What… What am I doing here?”

“You came running in, screaming your head off then just blacked out in the middle of the commons!” Julie.

“That Jason fella’s been arrested. Oh, Dear Lord, what’s happened to you? You’re covered in scratches, are you okay? Sam, talk to me…”

“I’m fine, dad… I’m fine…”