The Sorry Tale Of Nightmare Cooth

Chapter Two

After cleaning my ear out with the 45 caliber, I suddenly felt warm...

It took me a second to realize that the room wasn't dark, but my eyes were closed. When I opened them, I saw the scene from a different angle.

The broken rope, the ritual, the candles morbidly put out by a splatter of blood...

And me.

I was directly looking at my own assumably dead body. I fucking hope it was dead, since I was fucking staring at it.

But if it is dead, that means I'm dead, and no matter how much I know this was coming, it still shocked me to look at it from an outsiders perspective.

I notice as I'm looking around that the book has an odd aura around it.

I reach down and touch it, and it feels cold and moves a bit.

That's weird, how can I touch it? I'm dead...

I reach to pick it up and instead of the whole book coming up with me, it's as if I had picked up the spirit of the book. The shell of it staying on the ground.

I attempt to open it and see the pages have changed completely.

These are different spells for the dead to cast. I didn't know the dead COULD cast spells...

Then at some pont I realized that those weren't spells... they were explanations of powers for an entity called a nightmare.

"Cooth evergreen." A voice caught my attention, but I didn't jump. Somehow I know he was there.

"Who are you." I asked.

"I'm your guide." The other said. "My name is Orion." He said.

"What happened, Orion? What's going on?"

"You brought back an old tradition." He said. "Or better yet, you didn't bring it back, more like... became a new starting point for it." He said.

"This book promised me a start over." I said. This didn't look like a start over. It looked like a suicide. I wanted answers.

"You'll get your start over, but you must work for it." Orion said.

"Nobody told me that. I was lead to believe this was a new starting point for me." I said.

"Nothing in this world comes without a little pain, Cooth." He said. "Everything either costs, pain, money, or work. It's the same with rituals. You can have a new life, but you must give something to get something."

"What do I have to do." I asked.

Orion straightens himself. "Cooth. You are now what is known as a nightmare." He begins.

I feel the warmth start to dissipate and my emotions beginning to flee my psyche, all but one... hatred.

"Listen carefully, if you don't you'll have to re read this info again in that book. Do not loose that book. That is your lifeline to understanding everything about who you are, what you are, and what you can do." Orion said.

I looked down at the little thing in my hand. "This is a guide to me?"

"To what you are now and your goals to getting your new life." Orion said. "I won't be around to help you. That book will."

"Where will you be." I asked.

"Orientating other Nightmares." Orion said.

"I'm not the only one?" He asked.

"This is an old tradition started many generations ago by a coven of gazers. I was part of that coven and have devoted my existence to keep it alive." Orion said. "It gives people a second chance at life even if it isn't over yet. A reset button."