“Nightmare Within a Nightmare” By Ashley F.

    

            “Ouch.” I woke up rubbing my head on the cold hard ground, scared and confused. “ I don’t remember falling asleep here? Where am I?” I thought to myself. Uncertain to where I was or why I was here, I stand up to find a cuff on my ankle, which was attached to the wall. Struggling, pulling, and fighting to get the cuff off my ankle and a familiar size shadow covers the light over me. “Nick!” I said as if I had never been so excited to see my sisters high school friend before. Not saying a word , he unlocks my cuff and stands there and looks at me for a minute. “Nick please help…” before I could finish , he reaches for my legs and drags me across the concrete, where I bump my head on a cement stair putting me back into a unconscious nightmare.

​Suddenly, I was back in my house sitting on my couch around the people who loved me. Dad, sitting in his faded brown chair that has been in the same spot for as long as I could remember. My sister Jordynn, laughing next to nick just like old times. Timmy, mixing his protein shake ready to hit the gym, for the third time today.  I heard a familiar voice from my right. “Ashley!! Smile!!!” said my best friend  Lauren while raising her slightly cracked iPhone , ready to capture this perfect moment. She lifts her phone at an angle to capture both of us in the picture, she looks recognizable , but me not so much. Within the picture , I see blood dripping  down my forehead. "What ?" I say softly to myself. Then , a familiar pain arises in my head. All at once , everything looks different, everyone disappearing into a black abyss.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! I feel every cement stair my body hits as I woke up from my dream feeling as if I was still in a nightmare. I was being pulled into a room of people I just not yet met. Unconsciously opening my eyes , these people looked familiar. "Dad?" I say questioning whether or not that is him. He turns around , and all I see are cuts and bruises from the stairs that lead us into this nightmare. "DADDY!" I scream trying to run toward him, while I see I am restricted to the same chain and cuff that I had see before. Crying , i find myself in the same position, trying to break free of this nightmare. "THEYRE COMING!", Jordynn , who I had not seen in the room, yelled. "Please someone tell me what going on." I yelled, frantically tugging on the chain , feeling as if I were only making it worse.

Four shadows emerged down that set of cement stairs, all dressed in white. Lauren, my best friend. Nick, My sisters friend who had put me in this misery. Tim, my brothers best friend , who ironically share the same name. Last in line , with the door shutting behind her, my own mom. I couldn't put together why they were all just standing there while it was obvious my family and I need serious attention. They all lined up in front of us, while my mom began to say. "We have all brought you here, for our own separate reasons. Each of us has decided to kill one of you." I began to cry. I couldn't imagine what my family and I could have done to deserve this. "What ?" I said softly to myself hoping no one could hear me.

Immediately after I had spoken, each of them had pulls out the weapon of their choice, and proceeded to walk toward us. Lauren walked toward me , holding a gun. I tensed up , contemplating whether our friendship was real or not. She pulled the trigger. CLICK.

Frantically gasping for air and wiping the sweat from my forehead , I checked the clock near my beside table to find that it was 2:00 in the morning. Still heavily breathing , I was relieved to say for what felt like the millionth time since my existence, " Oh thank goodness, it was only a dream."