WestFiction- "The Nightmare" by Sue

stories

readers

authors zone

character call form

authors

www

home

THE NIGHTMARE

by Sue

Mark opened his eyes and looked at the clock. It was 3a.m. He rolled over and put the pillow over his head. He tried to breath evenly and deeply, willing sleep to come. It was no good. Everytime he went to bed he either had no sleep at all or had this awful nightmare.

He got up and went to the bathroom. He washed his face and looked in the mirror. His eyes stared back at him. They were red-rimmed and bloodshot from lack of sleep. Dark shadows sat beneath them and his face was pale.

He returned to the bed and sat down. He thought about the nightmare that had plagued him for a week. It was the same every time except that it got worse as the days went on.

He was alone in Hazelwoods walking along the shore of the lake. Suddenly a huge bird appears from nowhere and flaps his wings at Mark. He freezes, the sweat pouring off him. The bird comes nearer and nearer. He tries to run but the bird catches him and pins him to the ground with its large talons. He screams as the bird pecks at his face.

This is where he usually wakes to find himself bathed in sweat and trembling.

He’d thought about telling the others but they would probably laugh. They knew how he felt about birds!

Mark sighed and laid down. Please God, he prayed, just a few hours sleep!

He dozed off about half an hour later. The nightmare came again. Mark screamed as he woke and shot off the bed breathing heavily.

The door opened and Shane came in.

“Mark?” he said sleepily. “You o.k.?”

Mark didn’t reply. He tried to calm his trembling body. Shane came over to him.

“Hey, you’re shaking” said Shane in concern. “What’s wrong?”

Mark sat on the bed and put his head in his hands.

“Oh God Shane” he said. “I don’t know what to do. I’m so tired. I keep having this awful dream.”

Shane sat beside Mark and Mark told him about it. When he had finished Shane put his arm round him.

“Oh Mark” he said. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Mark looked up.

“Cos you’d have laughed at me” he said.

Shane dropped his gaze to the floor. It was true. They often teased Mark about his bird phobia. He looked back at Mark and saw how exhaused he looked. He was still trembling. Shane mentally kicked himself. Why hadn’t he noticed before how bloodshot Mark’s eyes were? How pale he was? He felt guilty.

“I’m sorry Mark” he said. “I don’t know what else to say.”

“Sorry for what?” asked Mark.

“Well, you know, for not being there for you when all this started. I feel bad that you couldn’t tell me in case I laughed.”

“It’s o.k.” said Mark sighing deeply. “I feel a bit better now that you know. This nightmare scares the hell out of me.”

Shane hugged him.

“Would you like me to stay with you ?” he asked.

Mark nodded and layed down on the bed. Shane pulled the covers over him and then went to the armchair in the corner. He pulled it close to the bed and sat down putting a spare blanket over himself.

“Right” he said. “Let’s try and get some sleep shall we? Do you want the t.v on?

“No thanks”said Mark. “I’m so tired I don’t think I’ll need it.”

He closed his eyes and tried to relax. After about 20 minutes Shane heard Mark’s soft snores. He closed his own eyes and drifted off to sleep.

He was awoken about an hour later by Mark. He was tangled up in the covers and was desperately trying to escape. His forehead was dripping with sweat and his face was flushed.

“No!” he cried “Please, leave me alone!”

Shane shot out of the chair and grabbed Mark by the shoulders. He shook him hard to try and wake him.

“Mark, Mark,”he said “Come on mate, wake up, please!”

Mark struggled to break free. His eyes were tightly closed. Shane was shocked to see how distressed Mark was. He reached for a bottle of water from the bedside table. He opened it and poured the water over Mark’s face. Mark’s eyes opened wide with shock and he sat up gasping for breath. Shane put his arms round him and tried to calm him down. Slowly Mark’s breathing returned to normal and he sagged against Shane. He was shivering. Shane let go with one hand and grabbed his blanket. He draped it round Mark and held him tight.

“Shane?” Mark whispered. “I don’t want to go to sleep again.”

“I know Mark” replied Shane. “It’s alright, we’ll stay awake o.k?”

Mark shifted slightly so he could look at Shane.

“You don’t have to stay with me” he said.

“I don’t mind” replied Shane. “At least it gets me away from Nicky’s loud snoring!”

He laughed and was relieved to see Mark smile.

“Shall we watch t.v. or play cards?” he asked.

“Cards” said Mark. “I need to win back some of my money from you!”

Shane grinned and went to fetch the cards. They made themselves comfortable and the card playing began.

When the clock reached 7a.m Shane stretched and put down his cards.

“Well” he said “I think it’s time I went back to my room and got showered and stuff.”

“Yeah” said Mark yawning. “I guess so.”

The boys parted company and Mark went for a shower while Shane returned to the room he shared with Nicky. Shane opened the door and was surprised to see that Nicky was already awake.

“Shane “ said Nicky. “Where were you?”

Shane sat on his bed and rubbed his eyes.

“With Mark” he said We’ve got a bit of a problem Nix.”

He gave Nicky a summary of last night’s events. Nicky too felt bad.

“Mark is good at hiding things” he said.

“Yeah” replied Shane “I wish I knew what to do.”

“First thing is to tell Bryan and Kian” said Nicky. “That way they won’t say anything to upset Mark.”

“You’re right” agreed Shane.”I’ll go and tell them now. You go and find Anto o.k?”

Nicky nodded and got out of bed. He dressed quickly and went in search of Anto. Shane went to tell the others.

Mark arrived first at the breakfast table and sat down to wait for the others. They arrived chatting noisily but fell silent when they saw that Mark was already there. Mark looked at them and his gaze settled on Shane.

“You told them didn’t you?” he said sadly.

“I had to Mark” Shane said. “You can’t cope with this alone.We all want to help.”

“How can you help?” Mark asked his voice shaking. “You can’t stop my dreams!”

He began to cry softly. It broke their hearts to see him so sad. Bryan put his hand on Mark’s shoulder.

“Please don’t cry Marky” he said. “I’m not sure how we can help but we’ll try our best.”

Mark looked at them his vision blurry from his tears.

“I’m sorry for being so weak” he said “I know it’s only a dream but it seems so real.”

Anto sat beside him.

“Right” he sais positively.”When exactly did this start? Maybe there was a trigger or something.”

Mark took a deep breath.

“I had the first dream on Monday” he said. “Each time I have it it gets worse. Last night the bird pecked my eyes out.” He shuddered and Anto put a reassuring hand on his arm.

“O.k” said Anto “What did we do on Monday?”

The boys thought hard.

“Well” said Shane “We had a radio interview in the morning.”

“Yeah” said Bryan “Then we had lunch at that Italian place.”

They looked at him. Trust Bryan to remember eating!

“We had rehearsals in the afternoon” continued Kian.

“We came back to the hotel after that “ sais Shane. “We all went to our rooms.”

“O.k. What did you do then Mark?” asked Anto.

Mark thought back to Monday evening.

“I watched a bit of t.v. until dinner time” said Mark.

“We had dinner about 8p.m.” said Bryan “Come to think of it Mark you were very quiet at the table”

The others agreed. Something must have happened before dinner.

“Wait!” cried Kian “I came to your room and you weren’t there. It was about 6:30”

The others looked at Mark.

“Oh yeah” he said remembering “I went for a walk.”

“Mark ya deutz, how could you forget about going out?”

Mark’s eyes filled with tears.

“ I don’t know” he said “I really did forget about it. I can’t even remember where I went.”

“Try and remember Mark” said Anto “It could be important.”

“I remember going out of the hotel” he said wrinkling his brow. “I walked towards the sea. Everything after that is a blank”

Anto stood up.

“Right “ he said “After breakfast we’ll all go and retrace your steps.”

The others nodded in agreement and sat down to eat.

20 minutes later they were all in the lobby.

“O.k. Mark” said Kian “Lead on.”

Mark took a deep breath and walked out of the hotel. He began walking towards the sea and the others followed. After 5mins he stopped.

“I can’t go any further” he said.

“Why?” asked Bryan.

“I don’t know” said Mark his eyes filling with tears again. “Please, can we go back?”

“No” said Anto. “There must be a reason why you can’t go on.”

Mark began to shake and his face was pale. He felt dizzy. Bryan saw his distress and put his arm round him and led him to a bench to sit down.

“Come on mate” said Bryan “You want this to stop don’t you?”

Mark nodded but didn’t move.

“Bryan, you stay with Mark” said Anto. “We’ll go on for a bit.”

Anto and the others walked on leaving Bryan to look after Mark.

A couple of minutes later Shane stopped.

“Look, over there” he said pointing to where there was some sort of zoo. They quickly went in and looked round. Fairly near the entrance there was a large cage. Sitting on a branch in the middle of it was the most enormous bird they had ever seen. Scattered all round it on the floor were the remains of several creatures, most of them were torn to shreds and bloodsoaked. They turned away their stomachs heaving.

Anto looked around and saw one of the zoo workers. He went up to him and was relieved to find that he spoke english.

“Please”he said “Can you tell me about that bird over there?”

The man scratched his head.

“That one’s evil” he said “He is a hunter and they feed him live animals. They put the poor little things in the cage and they run about like mad. The bird swoops down and grabs them. Then he tears them apart. He particulaly likes to peck out their eyes. People like to watch, well, those with a strong stomach do!”

Anto swallowd hard.

“What time is he fed?” he asked an idea forming in his mind.

“About 6:30” said the man.

Anto thanked him and returned to the others. He told them what the man had said about the bird.

“Yuk!” said Kian “That’s disgusting!”

“Yeah, it is” said Anto “and I’m betting that’s what Mark saw. It would have been especially horrible for him, the way he feels about birds. I think he was so shocked that he has blanked out the whole incident.”

“Except in his dreams” said Nicky. “He must think he’s like one of those poor things being hunted and caught.”

“I think Anto is right” said Shane. “But what do we do about it?”

Anto was quiet for a minute.

“I don’t know if it is the right thing to do but we could bring him here so he can confront the bird in some way.”

“I get it “ said Shane “Make him see that the bird can’t get him!”

“It could work” said Kian hopefully.

“What if he freaks out?” said Nicky.

“We’ll all be with him” said Shane

“O.k” said Anto “Lets do it.”

They returned to Mark and Bryan and quickly explained their plan. Mark stood up.

“No!” he said. “I don’t want to go there.”

Anto looked at Mark’s terrified face.

“Mark please” he said “If we are right and this is the cause of your nightmare then you have to face it.”

Mark looked like he was about to run. Sensing this Kian grabbed his arm.

“Please Mark, we’ll all be with you “ he pleaded. “We won’t let anything happen o.k?”

Mark looked at them and they all nidded encouragingly.

“O.k” he said quietly “I’ll go”

Relieved they set off for the zoo. They went in and approached the cage. Mark stopped.

“I don’t think I can do this” he said starting to shake again.

“Sure you can” said Bryan “See, it’s in a strong cage. It can’t get you “

Mark looked at Bryan and then at the bird. Slowly he inched forward. The others held their breaths. Mark reached the cage and forced himself to look at the bloody remains. He felt sick and dizzy. Images from his nightmare flashed before him. Sweat poured down his face as the memory of his previous visit resurfaced. He held on to the bars and forced himself to look at the bird. The bird seemed to be staring at him! He held it’s gaze, trying not to pass out. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the bird looked away. Mark let out his breath and slumped to the floor. The others rushed up to him.

“Mark!” said Kian “Are you alright?”

Mark lifted his head and looked at them all.

“I think so” he replied “Just don’t ask me to do that again!”

Anto rounded them all up.

“Come on “ he said “Let’s get back to the hotel. I think someone has some sleeping to do!”

They all laughed and made their way to the hotel. Once in his room Mark looked at his inviting bed. He took off his shoes and layed down. As soon as his head hit the pillow he was out like a light. When Shane checked on him a couple of hours later he was still sleeping peacefully.

Mark finally woke up late in the afternoon. He got up feeling much better. He went to look for the others. They were all in Shane and Nicky’s room watching a film.

“Hey sleepyhead” grinned Shane.

“How did you sleep?”asked Kian.

“Like a log” said Mark. “No nightmares! What are you watching?” he asked sitting down.

“Oh just some Alfred Hitchcock film” said Nicky.

“I don’t think you had better watch it Mark” said Bryan “We don’t want any more bad dreams!”

“Why?” asked Mark “What’s it called?”

“The Birds” said Shane and they all burst out laughing as Mark’s face fell and he ran out of the room!

“Oh well” said Nicky “I guess it was too much to hope for a complete cure!”

sign Sue's Feedback Page find out more about Susan email Susan Mark stories- main page