Hi, well this is kinda long, short story, i know it says only 2000 words maximum here, and i did a word count and this is like 2640!
so um if i'm not aloud to post it here just tell me. yeah thanks, but read if you like, i think its a pretty okay story, but i wrote it, so you could think differently. well here it is
Genuine Nightmare
Trees flashed past as she ran through the jungle, tripping on vines growing over the ground. The wind blew her hair across her face; only the long, soft, golden brown locks weren’t enough to keep the branches from cutting her face. The moon blazed blood red above her in the dark sky that seemed to go on for ever, and its light made everything she saw seem evil. It wasn’t far behind; soon it would be upon her, its revolting, warm breath breathing down her neck. Where would she go? All around her there was only jungle, enormous trees, oddly shaped ferns, no where to hide.
Her heart was pounding in her chest, she could here it in her ears even. Soon she would trip and not get up again, it would fall down on top of her and claim her for its dinner for sure. Tears leaked from the corner of her eyes now, acrid tears that burnt holes in the grassy jungle floor. What was happening to her? What had she become?
And then it happened, her foot caught in a vine that looped itself around her ankle, dragging her to the floor. She screamed and reached out ahead of her, but it was too late now. She’d never see him again.
He pulled his large white jumper over his head as he walked down the street, aware of the angry voices yelling at him for not looking where he was going.
“Watch it looser!” “Idiot!” “Look out!”
Then a calm, sweet voice drifted softly towards him, and he knew who it was before he had even seen her.
“Hello, Luke.” Her hands clasped the sides of his jumper and pulled it all the way down over his head, her smiling face came into view. Her golden brown curls cascaded down her shoulders, her clear blue eyes sparkled at him.
“Hey, Hailey.” He said and pulled her into his arms.
“Let’s get lunch!”
“Good idea!”
They walked hand in hand along the busy street, every now and then jumping out of the way of the bicycles. Motor cars had gone out of fashion long ago, when Luke was just a baby, there was no longer enough oil in the world for people to have cars, and only the rich people used solar ones.
“What happened to your face?” he asked her, only just noticing the tiny scars.
“I dunno. I just woke up and they were there, I think I might have scratch myself during my sleep again.” She often had this problem; her nightmares were frequent, and always incredibly scary. He was used to the bruises and scars she seemed to always have.
“What was it about this time?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, let’s just put it this way, it wasn’t nice.” Hailey said and smiled up at him.
“Oh.” They reached the café where they always ate lunch, and walked through the tables to their usual spot.
“Hey Hailes, hey Luke, what can I get you today?”
It was Kelly, Hailey’s best friend, Luke ordered his regular lunch, the BLT burger and a large coke, and Hailey ordered a pineapple juice. Kelly stalked away.
There was music playing over the radio, and Hailey and Luke stopped to listen:
Cause I’m broken when I’m lonesome
And I don’t feel right when you’re gone away
“Hey,” Luke said, “They’re playing our song!” and so they were, it was an old song, by the name of
broken, but it had been playing the first time Hailey and Luke had danced together.
“Yeah!” she smiled at him, “So what did you do last night?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing. Stayed home, watched TV, wished you were with me.”
She laughed, and suddenly noticed something on her boyfriend’s face that made her look twice. It was a strange brown colour – mud, a small smear of it just on the bottom of his chin.
“Come here, messy,” she said, “didn’t you have a shower this morning?”
“Nope!” he grinned, “Why, do I smell?”
“No, you have mud on your chin.” He frowned at her. “Come here.” She said again.
He lent forward and she poured some water from a bottle on the table onto a serviette, and then rubbed at the smear of mud. It changed colour ever so slightly as it mixed with water, a dull red colour.
“Hmm.” She said as he lent back.
“What?”
“I don’t think that’s mud, did you cut yourself, it looks more like blood.”
He looked nervously at the serviette, but she was to busy examining it herself to notice.
“Dunno.” He said quickly. “Look, I gotta go, I just remembered I had to go see Jake, I’m sorry babe.” He got up and pushed the chair back in after him, Hailey put the serviette down, her interest in the smear of blood gone.
“See you tomorrow! Love you!” he bent down and kissed her on the cheek, then turned to rush off down the street again.
Suddenly she remembered, “Wait! Jake is on holiday! He’s a thousand miles from here!”
But he was gone. She sighed and stood up from the table, there was no point in staying anymore. She waved to Kelly, standing at a table a few metres from hers, and then walked slowly from the café.
The serviette fell to the ground and blew along down the street, forgotten.
“No!” Hailey woke from her sleep hot and sweaty, her arms and legs tangled up in her sheets. She jumped out of bed and ran to the door, she was sure it was the door slamming that had woke her.
She tore it opened and ran out into the hall in her pj’s a small leaf falling from her knotted hair.
“Come back!” she screamed to the empty hallway, the light on the elevator flickered out. Three floors below someone pushed open the glass doors of Apartment Block X70, and walked out into the cold dark night.
Back up on floor three Hailey looked up and down the hall, then turned and slowly walked back into her room. She didn’t notice the leaf on the floor.
She sat at the café the next day, waiting for Luke to show up, but he never did.
Her legs hurt from running, but she couldn’t stop, it would get her, she knew there was no way out of it this time. Again her foot catches in a vine and she falls to the floor. Reaching out in front of her she feels its breath on her neck, smells its stench.
“Heeellllpp!” she screams, pain seers through her body and she feels a cold trickle of something on her back. Sharp claws cut deep into her skin, but something had distracted it, surely the blow was meant to tear her insides out. She hears a cry and a loud thud.
Get up! Move! She thinks to herself, but she can’t, it’s as though she’s glued to the floor. Slowly she lifts her head from the wet grass and turns to see what is going on. A hand grabs hold of her arm, its human, there is blood dripping from a scar that reaches from the tip of the middle finger to the wrist, the person turns her over but her vision is blurring. He, for it was defiantly a male, pulls her sleeve back and puts a needle to her arm, she feels the drug enter her blood.
She tries to scream again but she cant, suddenly everything’s black, she sees nothing, hears nothing, there is nothing.
Hailey screams in her sleep and bolts up in her bed, her back is throbbing. Climbing out of bed she can hardly feel her legs, she heads towards the tiny bathroom.
“Hey you, back in bed.” A familiar voice says. Luke takes her by her shoulders and directs her back to the bed.
“Luke?” her speech sounds fuzzy. “Isthatyou? Whathappenedtome?”
He tucked her into the bed, and Hailey notices the large bandaid starting at his middle finger and finishing at his wrist.
“Luke! Whathappenedtoyou?!”
“Don’t talk now, Hailes, just rest, it will all be better soon.”
Her vision is blurring again, his face is blurring, she realises now – it was Luke in the jungle. A look of recognition crosses her face before she blacks out again.
She knows, thinks Luke.
A week passes, Hailey hasn’t seen Luke since. But what was so bad about that? She thinks, he’s a murderer, he tried to kill me! She was secretly scared; she hadn’t left her room in Apartment Block X70 since she last saw him. She kept her door locked, and only ever let Kelly in, and even then Kelly had to wait outside five minutes before Hailey was sure it was her.
“What’s going on, Hailes, I haven’t seen Luke for days now, and you! You haven’t left this room!” Kelly was concerned, she had been to visit Hailey ever single day, brought her food, and took her dirty clothes to be washed. She was a good friend, she understood that something was wrong.
“I cant tell you, I don’t even know for sure my self!” Hailey said on the seventh day locked away in her room, she was rocking back and forth in her bed, her body hidden beneath the covers.
Kelly’s eyebrows creased together, she was starting to get scared herself now.
Suddenly Hailey reached out and grabbed Kelly’s arm, her hand was cold, and as she moved Kelly noticed the back of her pj’s were ripped.
“If you see Luke… run!” she let go of Kelly’s arms, ducked down back down into the bed and pulled the sheets up above her head.
Kelly was unable to pull the sheets down, and after ten minutes of trying to get Hailey to come out, left.
“Heeelpp!” she screamed running through the jungle yet again. Her golden brown curls flew behind her, and whipped across her face as she turned to see how far behind he was now. But she couldn’t see, she could only hear him, footsteps loud and heavy. A fleeting thought went through her mind, she had heard Luke run before – his footsteps were soft and light. But the thought was suddenly gone as she tripped, it was happening again.
Hailey looked up, she saw a sign:
NATIONAL PARK
(500 meters to car park)
What? She was in a park? But this is a jungle? Suddenly she realised where she was, she was in the Reality National Park, where there were different sections of park. There was a jungle section, a bush section, a forest and lots more.
But how could she be here?!
Then she felt the warm breath on her neck, smelt the horrible smell, he was here now.
“Stop!” she screamed and tried to turn over, “Luke! Its me, Hailey!”
He grabbed her hair and pulled her head back further than she thought it would go.
“Please Luke!” she cried desperately, “please stop!” tears streamed down her face as the hair ripped from her scalp and pain shot down her neck.
She heard running feet, soft and light, someone else was coming, Luke loosened his grip on her hair and she yanked it away.
“Help! Help me, please!”
“Hailey!” It was Luke,
but how could that be, Luke was the monster, he was the one trying to kill her!
“Hailey, hold on I’m coming.” The thing behind her, Luke, or whoever it was, stood up and Hailey found she could turn over now.
There he was. Luke was standing with a burning torch in one hand and a sword in the other, the blade shining in the red moon light. He was pointing it a monster twice the size of himself with thick black fur, huge talons, scaly silver wings, and the face of a wolf.
Hailey screamed, and Luke looked down at her, thinking she was hurt. The monster lashed out, its talons slicing across Luke’s chest, blood spraying everywhere. He dropped the torch and Hailey watched in what seemed like slow motion as it turned end over end, falling to the floor. It hit the floor with a wosh and flames tore up into the air, spreading from tree to fern to tree.
“Luke!” she yelled as the monster took another swipe at her beloved boyfriend, but this time he staggered back just in time. The sword came flying through the air and there was another stream of blood spraying in every direction.
The monster laughed, if you could call it laughing, and looked down at its own huge chest. He looked back up at Luke, giving him a look that seemed to yell out “MISSED!”
But then it started to tip forward and a confused look passed over its face. The top of its body started to slide forward, and blood spilled to the floor forming a large puddle around its feet.
It screamed, an ear piercing scream that echoed through the jungle, then it was quiet as its two halfs fell to the floor. It was dead before it hit the grass.
Hailey was breathing hard as she stared down at the ugly dead monster on the floor, her heart beating in her ears again, and the sound of the flickering fires all around her was almost drowned out by it.
It was then that she heard the cough, someone, somewhere near, was gasping for their last few breaths.
“Luke!” she cried and new tears filled her eyes as she ran to his side. “Luke! Oh my baby, my baby, my baby.” She knelt beside him and he fell into her lap, his hands pressed tight to his bleeding chest.
He looked up at her, a sad smile on his young face, “I love you.” He whispered.
“I know, oh I know, baby.” She stroked his curly brown hair, then his tanned face, then kissed his cheek and felt his cold skin on her lips.
“There will be more,” he gasped, she could tell it was becoming hard for him to talk, “they will come for you, like they always have. But you know now, you can stop it.”
“What? What’s coming? Oh it doesn’t matter, try not to talk so much.”
“No, but it does matter, the monsters, I wont let them kill you, so you have to understand.” He pulled one of his shaking hands away from his chest and blood spurted into the air. Hailey cried out and place one of her hands on top of his other hand to try and stop the blood. Luke was pulling a piece of paper from his jeans pocket, he placed it in her hand.
“Read it,” he said, she nodded and tucked it safely into her pj’s pocket.
He was smiling again, his magnificent green eyes sparkled up at her, silent tears were streaming from her own eyes, but she tried to smile. He started to sing, between gasps for air:
“The worst is over now and we can breathe again
I wanna hold you high, you steal my pain away”
A trickle of blood ran from his mouth down his chin, “I love you, Hailey,” he said again, “don’t forget.”
“I love you too, Luke! Please don’t die, I love you!” she pulled him towards her and hugged his limp body, kissed his cold lips.
His eyes flickered and slowly closed, she felt his heart slow against her chest, until finally it no longer beat.
She screamed his name into the night, and hugged his cold, dead body.
Hailey put the letter down on the desk in her room and picked up the small photo of her and Luke. She kissed the picture of his smiling face, and put the photo back down.
“I understand now, Luke,” she whispered to the photo, “I understand.”
Okay, well if anyone actually read that... thanks! BYE
