Unbanished Nightmare

Fandom: None - original

Title: Unbanished Nightmare

Author: Tiffany

E-mail: tmh359 at netzer dot net

Summary: Some anniversaries won't let you forget.

Rating: PG13

Archive: Yes.

Claimers: The characters and story are original and copywrited to me. Please ask before using.

Note: Hi all. A short one. Warning - not a happy story.

Unbanished Nightmare
by Tiffany

I am trapped. I don't know how long I have been here. I don't even remember getting to this awful place.

I am in a cold metal cage in a drafty room made entirely of brick. There is barely enough room for me to sit up, and no room to stretch. I'm embarrassed to say that I'm naked, which only adds to my confusion.

Before me is a door made of brick. There is no light beneath it. I do not know what is on the other side, and I don't know if I want to know.

I manage to turn a bit in my cage. Behind me are two barred windows, the source of the draft and the meager light. The window on the left is rectangular, with four familiar people staring in at me. They are laughing at me. A terrible cackle from four old throats, taking extreme pleasure in my situation. I call out to them anyway. I scream at them to help me. Their malicious laughter only increases.

The window on the right is small and circular, merely a hole in the wall. A hole with a skull resting in it. I shiver at the sight. I have never liked skeletons, even as a kid. Not fake ones, not painted ones, not cheesy Halloween ones. The skull is wearing a clown's hat, off kilter, the tip covering one of the vacant eye sockets.

I turn away from the manic grin, and try to ignore the vicious laughter. I can't bear to look at them. They are going to drive me crazy. Unless I am already crazy. That would explain things. The notion doesn't make me feel any better, but it would explain things. Trouble is, I don't feel crazy. Just scared, confused, and for some reason, very sad. What's crazy is that I half expect, at any moment, to hear an enigmatic voice, complete with eerie music, tell me I had just entered the Twilight Zone.

My fear increases as I notice my wife's locket on the floor outside my tiny cell. She's had that locket since she was a child, a gift from her father. She never took it off. She said it reminded her of "long ago dreams". Dreams. My wife always had a way of making dreams come true, and banishing the nightmares that plague my sleep.

Something clicks behind me. I turn in my tiny cage, and immediately wish I hadn't.

The head of the skeleton had moved. Its eye sockets are pointed at me now; the tip of the clown hat is no where near the empty sockets. The jaw is moving, clicking. A familiar voice emanates from it, calls to me, calling my name, telling me to wake up?

It takes me a moment to sort things out; to figure out what had happened. It's Halloween night, and ghosts, demons and the bogeyman had been playing in my dreams. Probably the result of that cup of spiked punch (I have never been good with alcohol) and too many sweets.

I am at the Halloween party my neighbors throw every year, complete with costumes, candy, and all the favors. My wife woke me up. I had fallen asleep on the lawn chair. Even through the happy-face clown costume, and that ridiculous hat, I can tell she is not pleased.

I stretch and sit up; my hands brushing against bushes. I hit my head on a low hanging branch. I am sitting in a confining little alcove. With a sigh of relief, I look around myself. I recognize most of the people, despite the silly costumes. A crowd of adults acting like children. What a wonderful sight.

On the other side of the pool from where I sit, making a horrible noise with their drunken laughter, stand two couples. The faces from my fading dream. One set of people are my party loving neighbors, the others are friends of ours who had obviously hit it off with our neighbors.

My shiver is only partially from remembered fright. It was after dark when the party started; I would not be surprised if it were past midnight by now. And it's gotten cold. Of course, the Roman style toga I'm wearing, making me feel utterly naked, doesn't help any.

My wife suggests leaving. I whole-heartedly agree. We make our way to the sub-party of four, going around the pool and many costumed people. Just as we were about to take our leave I trip over something and fall into the pool. A better way to wake up, I suppose, than the nightmare I'd just had. I surface to laughter from every one in the party, including myself. My wife tries to help pull me out of the pool, and succeeds only in slipping on the wet cement and falling in with me. That creates an even louder uproar.

It takes me a few minutes to get out of the pool. Shivering, I turn to help my wife out. But I don't see her. I look out over the pool, and find only the clown hat floating several feet away. The cold I suddenly feel has nothing to do with being wet in the middle of the night.

The laughter had died down to a few giggles here and there, then fades out altogether. For a moment, there is silence. I try to call out my wife's name, but all that comes out is a croak through chattering teeth.

I start to get to my feet with the intention of diving back in after her, when the pool starts to bubble. Stunned, I fall back. Before my eyes, a bleached white skeleton floats up and drifts near the clown hat. It's wearing my wife's clown suit.

I try to scream, I honestly do. My mouth is open, but I can't get my voice to work. Everyone around me starts to laugh eerily.

I can't take my eyes off of it. My wife's necklace dangles from the neck bones. I try to scream again; it sounds more like a squeak. The laughter becomes doubly louder, more frenzied, adding to my horror.

I somehow manage to yell out the only denial my numbed mind can come up with. "No!"

The sound of my cry wakes me.

Again confused, I look around myself. I'm sitting up in bed in our bedroom. I am soaked with sweat from the nightmare, and I only have a sheet on. The windows are open, letting in a cool breeze, chilling me. The neighbors are still at it with the Halloween party. I can see vague outlines of the bricks that make up our home from the street light.

I pull the sheet up, and wrestle some of the blankets from the knot on my wife's side of the bed. I lay down again to try to rest. The laughter and party sounds from next door, though innocuous, tears at me. I turn to my side, pulling the pillow over my ears. And see my wife's locket on the nightstand.

I wish she were here to work her magic with my dreams. But I can't expect my wife to banish my nightmares, when my worst nightmare exists even during the day. She's little more than bones, by now, you see. Drowned after she fell into the pool at a Halloween party. Her death is my waking nightmare, compared to which, these night terrors are nothing.