Stuff of Nightmares
Dodging another claw-swipe, Alec Tomlin checked his digital wrist watch. The first time he’d been sucked into the world of nightmares terror had prevented him from doing anything except hide and gibber until the night was over but familiarly made even awful bedfellows seem bland. He’d learned that while judging time spent in the nightmare was impossible using his internal clock – minutes often seemed as hours – his wrist-watch was miraculously unaffected. Though the second hand ticked at an alarmingly variable rate, when the hour hand hit eight and the minute hand struck noon his time in the darkly mirrored world would always end.
The beast in front of him charged, preventing Alec from getting a good look at the time on his watch. Instead of moving out of the way he stood his ground, arms wide, and the creature grinned in hideous triumph. Though he knew it came from cobbled-together pieces of his own imagination, it was hard to believe that the greenish-purple thing could even move, let alone charge and attack owing to spindly legs and head larger than the body that carried it. As the bulky monster struck him Alec cursed himself for a fool – the world of nightmares was not subject to laws of physical reality; even at ten times the size of its body the creature could have not only walked but talked or danced if it chose.
Locking both arms around its thick neck Alec began to squeeze, summoning phantom strength only available when he was in tune with the blackened landscape around him. It was not something he could explain, but the longer he was forced to endure the punishment meted out by his created hell the better he became at exerting control. Underneath him the beast screamed, a howl of anger mixed with fear. Without warning it slipped from his grasp, head shrinking and body expanding as if water had poured from one to the other. With a bellow of rage and saliva the creature turned and fled into twisted jungle trees, calling out a warning to others of its kind.
Alec felt strength drain out of him and strained to stay upright. Bringing his watch back up he forced himself to focus, frowning as the obvious came clear – a large crack ran down the middle of its glass face, the second hand stopped at the breaking point and struggling to move, unable to turn past the thirty-second mark.
“Dammit!” He screamed into fading twilight, an echo rebounding from dark mountain peaks to mock his anger. There was a twist to the reflected sound, an added slap of uncertainty that sent a shiver up his spine. Something was not right in the world of his nightmares, and the fact that he was familiar enough with the place to know a change had taken place made him more than a little frightened.
With no watch to gauge his time left, Alec saw no point in hiding. The bushes he sometimes used were full of stinging needles and crawling bugs; though they allowed him to endure a night without meeting new horrors, their constant itch and bite wore him down.
It took an effort to even look at the dark castle that sat atop a rugged hill. The squat building was always in front of him, no matter which way he turned in the nightmare but Alec had always avoided it – there was something unspeakably evil dripping from its sliding black walls, something horrible and yet familiar.
Straightening, Alec set his sights on the castle’s main gate and began walking, stride determined. Slices of time unknown moved in fits and starts but the castle came no closer and when Alec finally came to halt it appeared further away than when he had begun. He cursed – yet another thing in the nightmare sought to fight him.
A notion came, quick and certain and Alec closed his eyes. What lay around him was a creation of his own mind, at least in part, and conscious thought seemed to shape its form, push it away when he went looking for answers. Walking forward with a sure stride, Alec tried to keep his mind unfocused, letting it drift over thoughts of his first few days in the nightmare. Sudden wariness flared and he opened his eyes; the castle door lay only two steps away.
“I wouldn’t do that,” a hard-edged voice said as he stepped forward, and Alec spun on his heel. “You really don’t want to know what’s inside.”
The figure in front of him was familiar, though Alec had never considered the possibility of wearing all leather from boot to shoulder - and his doppelganger was not so unattractive as the clothing would ordinarily imply. The man was also bulkier than Alec, with broader shoulders and a more angular face.
“I’ve heard you in the hills,” he said softly, “your laughter doesn’t sound quite like my own.”
“Clever!” The not-quite-him said. “I knew we had it in us, but you’re not exactly the bright one of our pairing.”
Alec ignored the jab. “Is there something in particular you want, or are you just here to throw around empty words?”
“Empty?” His doppelganger laughed. “You really don’t understand, do you? With your watch broken, how do you expect to leave this place?”
“I have no idea,” Alec said calmly, but inside he seethed. He hadn’t considered that the watch was his only link to the real world, but it was possible the created man in front of him was lying. “though I expect I’ll find answers in the castle you seem so frightened about.”
“Go!” The double-Alec said with a smirk. “Go and meet her – see what she has to say. Perhaps she will even let you leave.”
“She?” A new terror began to rise, one that Alec had not felt in a dozen years.
His almost-mirror nodded. “Did you really think her end came so easily? That all this was just your bad luck?”
“No…” Alec began, but couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.
“SON!” A screeching voice rang out from the castle parapets. “Your mother waits!” Beasts and twisted lands were nothing; the true stuff of nightmares had emerged.
- D
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