Dark Dreams

“Dormant power, dark dreams, fragments long forgotten... return, return, return to me, child…”

“Ugg, huh, hooo,” Black eyes piercing me seemed to be burned into my brain. Awaking in cold sweats and confusion just before my alarm, to the real nightmare I return.

Long were the days of my life in the city. A sickness seemed to grow within me, crawling through my skin as if it were taking control. The mundane and repetitious days had been enough for what felt be an eternity. A life lost, who am I, a functional zombie on a wheel to power my overlords and oppressors. I had to escape, I had to get away, I would desert this hellish existence.

Sitting at my desk, from within it crawled to my brain, standing up I took my leave. Having desired a farmhouse in the country for a time. A way to strike out on my own, be self-sufficient and live as those who had come before me. A way to reset my life, an opportunity to shed the skin I was in. With funds I had saved for such, I left my studio with what I could fit in my car and took off to start my new life.

Holes in the walls of the farmhouse, a barn with a corral, and plenty of land to be free of whisperings and creeping eyes. The late spring was in fruition and the breezy home seemed perfect. I began repairs on this abandoned site. Why no one would be interested in this estate I couldn’t gather. The people of the town were wary of the place along with me being an outsider, they left me be.

It was fine, for the first time I felt at home, the crawling under my skin seemed to have left and I felt free, I was happy. The quiet night with the howl of the coyotes and the chirping of crickets was a calming welcome sound. However, there was one sound I would hear, a screeching, something that would make me sit up in a sweat. From what I could gather it came from the barn, but I dared not venture out in the dark, even on my own property. Yet it seemed to intrigue me, almost as if calling… ever calling.

After weeks of resisting and coming closer, I determined I would follow the call. Whatever it was, it had not manifested in the daylight as I worked. Dressing for a walk on such a midsummer night I walked to the barn by the light of the moonlight, the screeching continued enough to guide me to a tree in the corral. I had tried to breathe life back into the dead thing, but it seemed to be long gone, but I couldn’t seem to bring myself to take it down. As my feet stepped off the grass onto the dirt that surrounded the tree from neither the tree nor the ground around it seemed to take life. A presence seemed to appear, I felt it crawl up my spine.

Quickly turning in a fright there it sat. Perched and staring at me. “It is good you are here.” Something seemed to whisper within my mind. Now with trembling sweat and a quivering in my spine I looked quickly to the left and the right as if to see someone, or something, “Ha ha ha, HERE!” My eyes were drawn back slowly toward the owl as if controlled. Dragging me into its soulless depths, enslaved to the dark power its black eyes pierced me.

A red light came from beneath me and heat seemed to rise from the ground. My left arm rising to its eye, it reached to pull out my eye, trying to overpower myself with my right arm I gripped with my strength to stop what was out of my control, but it was no use. “Aaaaggghhhh!” falling to my knees as I extracted my own eye and cast it to the ground, in a ring that seemed to have been formed on the ground. My eye was gripped by the earth itself and pulled below.

“Sacrifices to be made! Skin crawling led to a man crawling. Your summoning has been long planned, you shall see soon.” My fear and pain seemed to dissipate in the darkness sweeping through me. “The time of reckoning has come; this world needs to be purged and reminded of the darkness the once ruled and consumed it. The owl took on its true form, “Child, long has this been within you, and a bringer of doom you shall be again. This barn has been a protected place for my hiding. A barn owl here awaiting time for your return. Surviving on the blood of those I could lure to this place. The others must be found, reminded of duty, long have we hidden in such forms. Powers have begun to dwindle. Take up your amulet” Extending a hand I took it.” This shall awaken the others to their duty long forgotten.”

“It shall be done,” I said as though something within me awoke. As I took the amulet the crawling returned and burned markings into my skin. “ACKK!!” Collapsing into dark dreams I was sapped of all strength.

As I awoke memory fragments returned, having nearly forgotten who I had been, I was home, I remembered. Caught up in memories I guided myself to the house. I stopped; forgotten secrets returned to me… the cellar! My eyes now opened I crept down the steps there I could see what had remained of days gone. Thankfully my tome of such things remained. Flipping through its pages I felt the holes in my mind…” a battle… flashes of light…. shouting in a haze… what had happened? why was it here? why can’t I remember?” Dropping the tome and clenching my head with my hands in great pain “Ah!... Ackk, argg... That malevolent BITCH!!!!” Though the clarity was gone, her face was seared into my mind.

Much to remember, much to be done.