MORBID DREAMSCAPE

Ann Margarette Boco

I opened my eyes and once again I drifted into the dark attic. I tried to look around to see if she’s
here, slowly blinking, afraid of what I might find for company. “Calm yourself please”, I mentally begged
myself that I need to get down from here before it’s too late. I tried to stand slowly, steadying myself
while trying to take in my surrounding. “Creak….”, the sound of the rusty floorboards made me stop. I
need to keep quite or else she’ll know I’m here again. I started walking slowly, silently as I can while my
heart hammered loudly against my chest. I stepped on the wrong floor and it grunted loudly, I stilled.
Stopping me from my tracks trying to hear from the eerie silence that followed. “Pop, snap, snap…” the
sound of familiar bones snapping! There’s no mistaking it, she’s here. As the sound of bones bending
and popping got louder, I sprinted to a nearby table covered in white cloth. I hid under as I waited,
peeking where the cloth ended just a few inches from the floor. As the sound grew more ominous, I
covered my mouth to catch a sob before it escaped from me. “SNAP, POP, SNAP”, and there she was
entering the room on all fours. Her bones contorting in every direction like her limbs are permanently
dislodged from every joint of her body. I tried to swallow my scream as I saw her limbs dislocating,
breaking as if they can’t support her own weight as she crawls forward. She stopped in the middle then
suddenly her head snapped to the direction I was hiding, her eerie stare lingering too long before it
slowly rotated to a full circle, skin stretching as her head twisted around. I closed my eyes, feeling my
pulse erratic beating like drums on my ears. Then a loud clatter distracted her from downstairs, followed
by the sounds of screaming children, children in agony and horror, and finally she hurriedly crawled to
where it came from.

I descended from the attic unhurriedly. As I arrived at the landing, the smell of rot hit me
accompanied by a loud rhythmic sound of something hitting or pounding. Treading the hallway, I peered
into the first room. I saw the burly man with stitched skin of different ethnicity. Face of that with a
missing nose, smooth skin where the eye sockets were supposed to be, and a gnarly mouth slitting up to
where the jaw ends, full of protruding teeth. Banging his machete into a child’s arm, blood pooling all
over the floor.

A small hand with missing fingers crept up to my shoulder. Turning wildly, I saw one of the kids
of this room staring at me. His face was missing some chunks of it. His upper body and face were
skinned to flesh showing the angry reds of his muscle, the ones that are still hanging and intact. I
swallowed the nausea rising form my throat as I stared in agony of this child. And then a barely audible
sound from where his mouth should have been escape, “RUN”. The panic on his eyes alerted me before
I heard the familiar breaking of bones behind him. I stared at the horror that has now laid eyes on me,
leaving me with cold dread and panic. She has seen me and is making her way to us. The mangled kid
whispered again, “run’. And without any thought I ran maniacally down the hallway. I risked looking
back to see her distorting body nearer and nearer, skin awash in gray, her wet hair sticking to her skin
while her mouth rapidly bites like a mechanical nutcracker – hers in a spine-chilling way.

Her broken hand straightened to reach out nearly catching my elbow. I saw the next room and
rushed to it, risking another look, she was dangerously close now. And then I stumbled, falling flat on
the floor. I can see her fast approaching grabbing my foot and dragging me to her. I kicked, hitting her
face and she wailed an eerie howl while I scrambled off the floor and started gunning to the room. I

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closed the door and locked it pushing my heaving self against it to keep it closed. She banged frantically
and then it suddenly stopped. I knew I could access my bedroom from here because it was a joint room
with my sister. As I turned around, I found myself looking into multiple set of eyes staring hungrily at
me. They were dressed on old clothes like what you’d see in old photos in history books. The most
disturbing part was that their whole body were full of holes, that similarly to a honeycomb and some of
the holes housed some botflies or worms. I screamed loudly and as if on cue, they stood, crowding me
instantly. I can smell the rot and I was trying hard not to gag because every time I opened my mouth, I
tasted the rotten sour smell surrounding me.

I shoved passed and beelined to my room. And there I was, sleeping with sweat all over. I locked
my door and frantically rocked my body to wake up, tears ran down my face freely. The banging on the
door got harder, rattling the hinges keeping it closed. And the with a final loud thump, the door opened.
As it swung slowly showcasing the beings on the other side, I felt the familiar pull of drowsiness as I got
sucked back into my body. The last thing I saw was them scampering towards me.

I finally woke up, breathing heavily as I stared into the familiar ceiling. Feeling exhausted I tried
to close my eyes but found it hard to sleep. Then this creeping sense of wrongness hit me, I tried to face
the other side of the bed and she was there on the edge of it. I screamed and everything went dark.

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