as the nightmares have not gotten graphic yet.
[in a Rod Serlingesque voice over]
Two girls. Two best friends. They have always had their differences, but it was their similarities that were shocking.
It had started the year before. Each girl had a graphic nightmare, that as they told each other about, sent shivers down their spine. Both girls had the same unseen monster lurking in their dreams. This creature thrived in the darkness, making each girl fear the darkness.
Though both girls still loved the night, they became uncomfortable going outside in the dark. The older girl refused to show her fear, and continued to face the darkness, though inside she flinched at every flickering street lamp. As she would walk down the street at night, she noticed the lamps flickered more and more often.
The younger girl did not venture out alone at night as much, her nightmares came closer together, and grew more graphic and frightening, using her joys to scare her. She frequently awoke feeling as though something was pulling her away from her body in the most violent ways and there was little but her own will keeping her grounded.
The girls took measures to protect themselves, with symbols and chants, with prayer, and with pure determination. They found that they would absolutely not allow this dream, this Nightmare, to use the men they loved as their weaknesses any longer.
Until the Winter of the following year, things seemed as though they had gone back to normal. The older girl became comfortable in the night air again, and did not pause before stepping under unlit lamps anymore. The nightmares had stopped for her when she had confessed them to her boyfriend, and he had not thought she was crazy.
The younger girl had at some point mentioned that the nightmares had stopped for the most part, that the bad dreams she had weren't the same, not as intense and not as horrifying.
One morning they met online as they often did, and the younger girl mentioned a bad dream she had recently. The older girl paused, she had a very frightening dream a few nights before, but had not had the courage to tell anyone about it yet. She speedily typed out the nightmare that had awoken her that weekend, and how the fear had reduced her to what she used to do as a child when she had a bad dream.
The younger girl mentioned that she hadn't had a nightmare like that in a long while, but she remembered how it felt. Her remark had triggered the memory of another dream the older girl had that weekend, where one of her fantasy heroes had tried to hurt her.
The younger girl confessed to having a similar dream about the same hero, in the same type of place.
They knew that it was all about to start again...
