Dreams

By Robert Chauncey

 

Chapter 1

            The only thing he heard was the constant pounding of the rain on the metal roof and the sound of his own heavy breathing. His eyes strained to see the room in the dark, but all he could make out were vague shapes that looked like something out of a horror movie than what they actually were..

            He then heard a voice in the distance, that was slowly coming closer to his door. He cringed underneath his covers. He did not want them to find him. He prayed to a God that he, himself, did not believe in, as the voice, an angry voice, got closer. He saw a shadow appear in the space between the floor and the door. He curled up into a ball and continued to pray. His prayers were not answered as he heard a loud knock on his door. Actually it wasn’t really a knock. It was more of someone punching the door. The knock came again and again. The walls to the room shook with every knock. His toy figures, which were placed so neatly on the shelves, began to fall. He started to cry, softly at first, but it soon became a loud weep as the pounding became louder and faster.

            He put his hands over his ears trying to drive out the sound. He was not successful as he continued to hear the constant pounding. Then he heard the voice he had come to fear so many times before.

            “Let me in!” The angry voice shouted inbetween the horrid knocks.

            He wanted to scream in terror or shout out for help, but the only thing that he could do was lay in his bed and weep. He finally willed himself to sit up in his bed. He pulled his pillow around and held it tightly in his arms. He imagined that by squeezing his pillow, he would actually be squeezing  the source of the angry voice. The voice came again.

            “Let me in!”

            He cringed once again as he slid under his covers. He used them to cover his entire body. He hoped that by covering is entire body, he would some how become invisible to everyone. Suddenly the pounding stopped and the angry voice began to move away from the door. He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that it was all over. He was wrong.

            “I’ll be right back!” The voice said in a tone that could not be described.

            He sat up in bed and threw his legs over the side of the bed. His legs were almost completely black and blue. He stood up. His legs wobbled, as if they had not been used in a while. He walked over to where several figures had fallen off one of the shelfs. He bent down and picked up one of his many Batman figures. He smiled as he imagined Batman saving the day and stopping the voice once and for all, but his smile stopped. Batman couldn’t save the day. He wasn’t real. He was just something out of a comic book.

            He put the Batman figure back on the shelf and then began to pick up the other figures that had fallen. He put them back on the shelves one by one. They were all superheroes: Wolverine, Superman, Spiderman, Spawn. He had all the figures. He had them fight the evil villians: Mr. Freeze, Apocalypse, Doomsday, Venom, Violator. The battles were long and hard, but, in the end, the good guys would always win. He wished that life was like a comic book. The good guys would always win, and the bad guys, like the voice, would always lose.

            Suddenly he heard the voice again. It was right outside his door. He jumped backwards, almost falling over his bookbag.

            “I’m back!”

            He jumped back into bed and drew the covers quickly over his head. He curled up into a ball, hoping that the voice would just stop and leave him alone. It didn’t. Instead of begining to pound again, the voice just laughed.

            “I have a key, little one. I have a key.”

            The voice continued to laugh as he heard something being inserted into his door lock. Once again he wanted to scream and shout for help, but he couldn’t. He knew that it was useless. No one would help him. Heroes don’t exist in real life. He heard as the door became unlocked. He heard the voice give a triumph laugh. He began to cry. The door flew open and hit one of his shelves. The entire shelf fell to the ground, being knocked off its supports.

            “Thought you could hide,” the voice said nearing his bed. “You actually thought you would be able to keep me away.”

            He began to cry out loud as he saw the shadow of the voice through his covers.

            “I’ll give you something to cry about, you little baby,” the voice said directly over him.

            The voice through the covers off of him. The voice grabbed his right arm and pulled him to his knees. He sobbed loudly. The voice balled up his fist and hit him, hard, across his face. He felt his nose start to bleed. Then the voice punched him in the stomach. He doubled over and began to vomit. While he was bent over, the voice raised his hand and began to bring it down hard onto his back. With every blow, he slipped in and out of conscienseness. He forced his body to go limp, hoping that it would make the voice stop. It didn’t though. The voice picked him up. His feet dangled in the air.

            “Look at me!” The voice said as its hot breath blew on his face.

            He opened his eyes and looked into the voice’s dark and soulless eyes. Then he saw the voice’s mouth form into a smile.

            “There that wasn’t so bad, now was it?” The voice said in an almost calm tone. He couldn’t think of anything else to do, he just shook his head in agreement. The voice then laughed in outrage. “Then this will be!”

            He threw him across the room. He crashed hard into a picture of himself, in his pee wee baseball uniform, that was hanging on the wall. The glass covering the picture shattered, and he felt one of the shards slice into his back. He fell to the floor. He slumped forward, because if he sat against the wall, the shard of glass would go into his back further.

            The voice moved to him, once again. He grabbed him by his throat and lifted him up, off the ground. He couldn’t breathe. He began to struggle in the voice’s grip. This brought the voice’s other hand hard across his face, drawing more blood. He stopped struggling and just hung there. He had heard, somewhere, that your life flashes before your eyes right before you die. He wondered if that was true. He tried to scream, but he couldn’t. He began to black-out. In the instant before he blacked out, he felt the grip ease and he fell hard to the floor.

 

 

Chapter 2

            He stood up from the pile of rubble that was once a building. He brushed some dirt off of his shoulder. He wasn’t hurt. Well not exactly. He had been through worse. He wondered where the one known only as the Evil One had gone.

            “He must have gone back to the city,” he said walking away from the pile of debris as his cape waved in the wind behind him. “I must stop him.” He took off into the air toward the skyscrapers of the city.

            He saw the form of the Evil One in the distance. It was almost pure black, and had ooze dripping from almost every pore in his body. The Evil One was in the process of destroying another building. Then the Evil One turned and saw him flying towards it.

            “Ah, so the hero returns,” the Evil One said in a lispy voice.

            “That’s right, Evil One,” he said landing in front of the Evil One. “I’m going to put you away once and for all.”

            “Ooo...I’m so scared,” the Evil One said as his eyes began to glow red. Without any warning, the Evil One tried to punch him.

            “Don’t think so,” he said as he dodged the Evil One’s punch. “Let’s see how you like it.” He threw a punch, connecting with the Evil One’s jaw. The Evil One staggered backwards. Before it could retaliate, he kicked it hard in the stomach. The Evil One flew backwards, crashing hard into a building wall.

            “You’ll pay for that, hero!” The Evil One said as the black ooze covering its body began to drip off onto the street below. With each drop, the Evil One laughed harder. Suddenly the ooze droppings began to grow. They soon had the appearance of a smaller version of the Evil One. They all laughed in unison along with the Evil One.