Nightmares

Stab wounds

"Hey can I talk to you for a second?" The man asks gesturing me out of my sisters room. His blonde hair and light features became dark in the unlit hallway. "This way," he grabs my wrist and pulls me into the bathroom.

"What's up?" I ask as he turns the light on. He pulls out a box from his pocket. Tearing off the back revealing an orange handle.

"Grab this for me," he moves the box closer towards me. I grab it and he slides it out of the box. A knife with an angled tip sits on the end of the handle. "Come on, let's go," he grabs my wrist. In shock I don't move. I plant my feet onto the ground as he tries to pull me back to my sisters room. "I said," he pulls even harder moving me. "Let's go."

We fight for power down the hall. I can't talk, words won't come out. I can't move. My heart racing, pounding in my ears. 'Wake up!' I scream at myself. 'It's a nightmare!' I can't open my eyes though. I stand behind the man in the doorway, my sister just playing on her phone not noticing we've just walked in. He yanks me in front of him and raises my hand above my sister. Tears start to roll down my cheek as I fight to not hurt her. I fail and she doesn't get the worst of it. I drop the knife onto the floor. Sobbing I crawl to the corner. She's sitting there, staring at me, her eyes empty, blood dripping from her arm. I fought and only got her in the bicep.

"You ruined my plans," the man says wrapping the handle of the knife with a towel or something. "Suffer," he says lunging at me with the blade. I put my hands up in hopes to stop him. A sharp pain burns through my hand as I watch the blade come through the back of my hand. I can't open my throat, not allowing a scream to escape. More tears flowing down my face as he jams the blade into my thigh. I open my mouth in hopes to scream but nothing escapes. He smiles and plunges the blade into my abdomen. I couldn't see anymore with the tears clouding my vision, I couldn't feel anymore of the stabs. I sat there numb, sobbing as my sister sat there watching this man attack me. The man dropped the knife and left.

"Help," I weakly cry to my sister. Her eyes unmoving. I begin to crawl over to her. Her phone still clutched tightly in her hands. "Call the cops," I scream to her trying to lift myself up to her phone. She's frozen, like a statue.

I grab hold of the phone and dial the emergency number. "I need help," I say trying to stay awake. "My sister and I," I say weakly. "We've been attacked. I'm bleeding."

The paramedics arrive and rush me to the hospital, the bleeding finally coming to a stop. The coldness releasing my body. "I didn't do it," I cried on the way to the hospital. "It was the man."

I woke up in my truck, my abdomen and legs sore and tired, blood soaking through my shirt. They couldn't take me. They stopped the bleeding for a little while, told me I needed to go to class, but it's ten at night? I begin to drive, the sun blinding me through the windshield. I swear the light was green, but there was a man walking across the road.

The man who hurt us. I slammed on my breaks but slid through the intersection. Blue and red flashing lights behind me drew my attention to the intersection behind me. There was no man. No one for miles beside me and this cop.

"You realize that light was red right?" The lady officer asking as she looked into my truck.

I don't remember what I said, or how the conversation went. I only remember asking her if I wasn't going to get a ticket. In response. "Oh fuck no. You're getting a five hundred dollar fine," she smiled as she walked back to her cruiser.

My eyelids felt heavy, even in the dream. I woke up at the end of class. Walking back to the parking lot. I looked around in search of the truck I swear I parked right where I was. I turned around to see my tailgate. Confused I open the passenger door to find a water or something. Two men sit in my newly unlocked vehicle. "Can I help you?" I ask looking at the men.

"Yeah," one said as a group of people flooded around me and the open doors. (Suicide doors. Google how they open or whatever).

It became hard to hear the man, but I recognized the box. My heart began to race and my breathing stopped. I pushed the people away as I ran to the bed. I clutched my stomach and gasped. The pain in my abdomen growing stronger with every gasp.

"Help," I gasped weakly as the light flooded my eyes.

I sat up in my bed, my fiancé sitting laying besides me. I patted myself down before taking a deep breath.

It was all just a dream.

But where? I've seen that man before.

And that box. I can still see it if I close my eyes. Like the dumb plastic ones with the cardboard on the back that peels like horse shit. The bright orange box knife handle.

The way the heaviness in my chest lingers. It was just a nightmare. But what does it mean?

Who was that man? Why us?