Everything is red. Drowning in it. It's the same place, the same nightmare, pulling me back again and again, no matter how fast I run. I should've escaped by now—shouldn't I? But here I am, lost in this color. No, this isn't a color anymore. It's something worse, something that suffocates everything around me.
I try to move. I can't. My body is frozen, trapped, and the more I fight it, the heavier it feels. The silence here isn't normal—it's so thick, so unnatural, it presses against my ears like I'm underwater, drowning in the stillness. My heart pounds against my ribs like it knows something's coming. Like it's trying to warn me. And the whispers—they're just beyond reach, slipping into my mind like poison. Soft at first, then louder, crawling under my skin.
I want to scream, but the red has swallowed my voice. My head spins, and that's when I see it. A hand. It shouldn't be there. It's not human, at least not anymore. It's drenched in red—no, not just red. Blood. Dripping. Thick. Coating everything like a twisted shadow, reaching for me, pulling me in.
And then, that voice. Cold. Detached. A knife cutting through the silence.
"Carla It's time for you to rest."
The words hit me like a sledgehammer, and suddenly, I can move. My eyes snap open as I jolt upright, gasping for breath. My bed, my room—they all feel off, like I've dragged something sinister back with me from the nightmare. Something that refuses to let go.
I gulp down the dry, parched saliva in my throat, realizing I'd been holding my breath. I close my eyes for a moment, trying to convince myself it was just a dream, nothing more. But as soon as I open them, the room greets me with an unsettling odor—a putrid blend of damp garbage and a sickly-sweet deodorant that turns my stomach. It hangs in the air, making my throat constrict.
I take in the chaos around me: clothes scattered on the floor like a rebellion against the wardrobe. The darkness is thick, swallowing most of the room, but a sliver of light sneaks through the crack in the bathroom door. The window is wide open, allowing a chill to cut through the warmth of my sweat-soaked skin, sending shivers across my forehead.
With a sigh, I make my way to the balcony. The cold breeze brushes against me, mingling with the last remnants of the nightmare's grip. I look outside, seeking solace in the night, but the shadows seem to stretch endlessly, holding secrets I'm not sure I want to uncover. The world outside feels just as eerie, as if it's waiting for something—something I can't quite name.
I walked towards the balcony, needing to escape the stuffiness of my room. As I stepped into the calm of the night, a soothing peace settled over me, as it always does in the darkness. There's something special about being surrounded by the night. It's not just about seeing what's there but feeling it in a deeper way. The quiet and the chill of the night bring a strange comfort that's both beautiful and a little scary.
The darkness feels like a safe place, a refuge that eases my pain, even if I can't remember why I'm hurting. It's like the night wraps me in a blanket, making everything seem okay, even though I know it's not entirely true.
Still, as much as I love the dark, it also makes me uneasy. I can't shake the fear that something might be lurking in the shadows, waiting for me. The same darkness that calms me also makes me shiver, leaving me caught between comfort and fear.
But my brief moment of peace was shattered by a sudden blast of cold air hitting my face, pulling me back to reality. My eyes darted around, and then I spotted a figure standing in the distance behind a tree, catching my attention immediately. At 2 a.m., it was strange to see someone wandering around in the dark. Though it was too dark to see their face, it was clear they were looking in my direction.
I quickly moved to my study table, scrambling to find my glasses. Once I put them on, I rushed back to the balcony, hoping to get a better look at the mysterious figure. But by the time I reached the spot, the figure had disappeared without a trace. I looked around desperately, trying to spot any sign of movement, but there was nothing—no one in sight.
Maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me in the quiet of the night.