Conscious Slumber Read online

  Slowly, Greg stirred back into somewhat of a conscious state. He tried opening his eyes and grunted at the pain that ensued in the effort. He felt as though his body weighed a thousand pounds, and when he tried to move his limbs to get some sort of feeing back in them, they burned and ached immensely. He was lying on his back, which rested on what felt like dry, uncomfortable vegetation. When he tried opening his eyes again, the new world that he had stumbled upon slowly came into focus for the first time.

  He was surrounded by large, dead tress that stretched as far he could see and further, none of which held a single leaf or showed any sign of life nearby. There was an orange haze throughout the land, with what seemed like flurries of dust slowly falling from the sky. In the distance, a girl screamed. Loudly. Greg could feel his stomach knot as he recognized the origin of the blood curdling shriek – the source was Mallory. Struggling, Greg sluggishly rose to his feet and staggered towards the sounds of horror that reverberated through the barren hills and leafless evergreens. His stomach clenched harder when he realized what might be happening. Don’t tell me – Ah shit, Mallory must be having a nightmare!! Of all the nights… The screams became louder, more intense, and he hurried forth, not knowing what to expect and dreading the worse.

  Greg made his way through the dense bramble of trees, which clawed at him as he progressed closer still to the sounds of the screams, now pleas of help. With a final shove, he forced his way into a small clearing, where he found a gruesome image awaiting him: There was Mallory, cowering just feet away from the most horrifying beast Greg had ever laid eyes upon. It stood on six black, rippled legs that could only be described as resembling a hairy version of a scorpion, tail and stinger included. The upper half of the beast could only have come from the deepest depths of Hell, a demon of its own rite. It stood no less than nine feet tall, and looked ready to dismantle Mallory.

  Mallory screamed again, and then turned her head and looked to where Greg was standing. As she did, the centaur demon slowly followed her gaze until it, too, stared directly at Greg with eyes made of souls. Without thinking, Greg charged the demon and at the same time yelled out to Mallory “RUN, get away from here!!”

  The demon caught Greg in midstride and made an example of him by ripping his left arm cleanly from his body. Greg squealed in pain, the shock disabling him from making any attempt to escape the demons rock solid grasp. With one of its long fingernails, it pierced through Greg’s shoulder and lifted him off the ground. Instead of running away, Mallory continued to tremble in fear and whimpered as she watched what the demon was doing to Greg. He cried out hoarsely as his other arm was ripped from its socket and flung into a large pile of bones and flesh. Pain shot through every part of Greg’s body and his blood could be seen smeared all over the white powdered grass that he once stood on. The demon flexed its muscles that swelled with power. The skin where the demon had pierced Greg began to turn black, and green veins started to form around the edges of the dying skin. With its other hand the demon drew an X right where Greg’s heart was located, an evil sneer painted on its animal face.

  Greg looked over at Mallory, praying that she would somehow realize that she was having a nightmare and do something about their situation, such as wake up into the real world. PLEASE MALLORY, PLEASE… As though she could read his thoughts, she looked at him inquisitively, her eyes smeared with black eye makeup, and dirt mixed with tears muddied up her face. Her brows furrowed in concentration and she blinked once, abruptly vanishing into thin air. As soon as she disappeared, the nightmare Greg was in froze, and silence washed over him. Greg took one last look at the demon before the universe retracted on itself and disappeared, leaving not a trace that it had ever existed at all.