It was all black. It was a void and I was floating upwards like a string pulling me by my head. My feet were on a solid surface but I was unable to move. One by one as if poured by paint all the boys from the sleepover ten years ago started circling around me. Once all twelve stood around me then one by one they all burst into flames. I was then surrounded by burning piles of ash and again as if they liquid they pooled all back to the position in front of me then started filling in another shape from the bottom up. I quickly recognized my father. I wish I could say something. Anything.
He looked defeated. As the image of him was completed he pulled out a gun and put it next to this head. I wish I could yell or shout or stop him. Then he pulled the trigger. All the viscera, gore, and bones exploded out of him but started pulling the image of him. It was like a hose spraying. And where all the gore and the rest of him landed started to form another image from the bottom to the top. It was my mother. She abandoned me and gave me to Rita. Was it for her safety? Was the cross too heavy for her? She looked panicked and disheveled. Her long brown hair was matted with leaves and twigs. The flowers on her dress were stained with mud. Her knees looked scuffed and bruised. I saw her running then every so often changing direction. She was being chased by something. Or someone.
My mother stopped. Someone had grabbed her hair and was pulling it upwards. A small slice appeared on her forehead then with surgical precision it went all the way around. A yank and her scalp and the thick layer of skin came off revealing a skull with blood pooling all around. Her eyes turned jet black as she fell to her knees. With a huge blunt impact the unseen force cracked into her skull cracking it like a watermelon. Bits of skull fragments floated softly into the void. She slumped over into a heap. Again as if she was liquid her image was being sucked from the bottom to the top of her. Once she was a torso laying slumped over I could see worms being poured out from her skull. A single. A couple. A dozen. Then it was a mass of wriggling worms wriggling next to my mother’s face all soaked in blood and brain matter. It was as if they were absorbing all the paint, all the colors, all the beauty from her. Then like everyone else in this nightmare she was gone. All that remained was a pile of pulsating worms.
The worms formed two separate piles and began growing upwards. Shifting and moving they began forming legs. And once legs began forming clothes began forming over that and I immediately recognized Grandma Rita. When they reached the waist I noticed a crack of light beginning to form where the torso should be. A slight shudder in the void and the legs paused briefly while forming. They continued forming Rita going up but as they reach the midsection the crack became larger. The headless body of Grandma Rita began branching away from the light. It was a misshapen tree growing around a gravestone. The body tried becoming a cage around the crack and connected up to a neck. I felt my whole being and essence being pulled. Then a firm hand grasped my shoulder and I was suddenly real within this nothingness.
“You will never. I will give you the sleep you’ve always wanted.” a familiar voice cajoling me to stay.
I heard something different from Sleep’s voice. It’s always been a beautiful cathedral choir of warmth snaking it’s way through my eyes. Now there is a thin layer of panic. Concern. I’m feeling more grounded as I’m staring at this abomination in front of me. The crack is growing larger but it’s still inside this birdcage of Grandma Rita. Far into the distance I’m seeing something different. Something grounded in more reality then what I’m experiencing. I see William. I could barely make out anything else because the images were coming at me like a cartoon flip book. My focus began moving forward into the images but the hand on my shoulder began tightening. Sleep didn’t want me to go towards William. I need to figure out how to move. I focus on where my feet are planted. One step. Two steps. Three steps. Ankle flexion. Extension. Muscles need to work. I felt a strange dream induced momentum followed by a simultaneous pulling and pushing. The center of my chest was being pulled into the light. Then my legs. Then my free shoulder. My face. The long slender fingers began shaking on my other shoulder. In a brief instant I lifted both hands up and grabbed what I could of Sleep’s hand and arm. A pop and I fell into the passenger seat of William’s car.
William screamed as he saw me come to. We were in a car barreling down a pitch black highway. The car clock read 3:00am.
“What the! What happened! What’s that?”
I wiggled my extremities and noticed I was clutching onto something. A long slender arm still attached to a chunk of shoulder. My eyes widened in fear. William kept shouting. I felt the car drifting from side to side.
“Slow down! Focus on the road!” I screamed back at him.
The car began righting itself and William started to slowdown.
“I dragged you to my car. You just crumpled. I’m trying to get as far away as possible. We are almost to the next state over. I don’t know what to do except the ritual. I don’t know…”
William shouted faster then the speed of his car. He didn’t finish his train of thought because the arm in my lap leapt towards the wheel and sharply pulled it to the right. Immediately we drove off the road and began rolling. Our bodies became the victim of gravity as we were thrown around violently. I was thrown through the windshield and hit the ground hard. It was all hazy but I don’t remember what happened to William. I must have been knocked out for sometime because I woke up in a concussed daze. The car was ablaze. I opened my eyes and stared up at the night sky. The fire crackled and danced around me. My head pounded. Thump. Thump thump. I felt like there was a huge puddle collecting my chest. I couldn’t move my right arm, so, very gingerly I took my left hand and touched it. It was cold and sticky. I’m going to die. Sleep promised me the sleep I’ve always wanted. I closed my eyes and was at peace with the universe.
My eyes shot open. I heard sirens. Footsteps. Shouting.
“Sir! Sir! Are you okay? Can you hear me?” a man’s voice boomed over me. It rang over me shaking me to alertness.
Something compelled me to sit up. The pain had left my body. From the sitting position I rose to standing. The medic froze mere feet from me.
“Sir! You need to lay back down. You have been in a terrible accident. You are at risk of injuring yourself further.
I felt something was wrong. Something was off. My right arm acting on it’s own volition shot forward and grasped the man by his throat. The fingers wrapped so easily around his neck. I couldn’t feel it. In the glow of the siren lights I could tell there was something wrong. It was pure black. Slender fingers. I looked down at my right side and screamed. One arm lay still but there was another attached to my shoulder. I heard more shouting and screaming from the other medics.
“I am Sleep. I now walk the Earthly realm.”