Chapter Text
Sweat streamed down Ethan’s forehead as he reached out and felt around in the pitch black. His heart hammered in his chest as he struggled to piece together what, where, why, how. But he couldn’t pin down a single thought spinning through his mind. With an outstretched hand he felt ridged metal. He gasped and drew his hand back when he felt the radiating heat from whatever he touched. He scrambled backwards and felt the flat of his back hit a cement wall. Frantically he felt his way with both hands along the wall, feeling the perimeter of some sort of industrial dank room. Shuffling around, Ethan’s socked feet dragged through something wet and sent a terrible shiver down his spine.
A high pitched scraping somewhere near stabbed through Ethan’s eardrums. He squeezed his palms over his ears, wincing in pain. He desperately looked around to find the source of the sound but it was no use in the dark. The scraping sounded again, getting closer. He whipped his head over to the sound, shrinking more into himself. A laugh from the darkness curdled Ethan’s blood, a deep taunting laugh unlike any he’s heard before.
He shook with fear. “Who are you?? What do you want!” Ethan yelled out to his aggressor. He felt ten individual pinpricks on his chest as the man in the dark ambushed him and threw him against the cement wall. Ethan screamed, unable to move as he was held in place. The pinpricks moved up to his chin, but only five this time. The man held his face roughly and Ethan could feel (and smell) his hot breath on his face as he leaned in to whisper, “I’m your worst nightmare, Ethan .”
The man giggled and guffawed, enjoying the fear oozing off of the boy. He pushed Ethan to the side and disappeared suddenly. Alone on the ground Ethan tried to compose himself, still shrouded in darkness and fearful of what millions of bad things could happen to him. One thing stood out to him, how did this guy know him, know his name?
Lights far into the distance flickered on, illuminating a long hallway that connected to the room Ethan was in. Fog settled close to the ground and made the huge cement and metal place look as sweaty and hot as it felt. After a quick look around Ethan knew the only way out was through the door at the end of the ominous hallway. He felt like he couldn’t move, feet planted to the spot in fear. The wetness of his socks had seeped into his skin. His stomach dropped in horror as he looked down to see his socks drenched in a deep red. He followed the drippy red footsteps he left all the way back to their source. His best friends; Benny, Sarah, Rory, Erica. All of them lay dead on the cold cement. Tears welled in Ethan’s eyes at the sight.
He had to go NOW.
He ran down the dimly lit hallway, his blue and green pajamas swishing with the effort. As he ran he looked over his shoulder. The man was there behind him, down the hall a ways standing still. The hat he wore shrouded his face in black and the dim fluorescent lights backlit his tall and skinny figure. He held out his arms in what seemed like a gesture for a hug, both hands splayed out suspiciously long and pointy fingers. Ethan ran faster, legs pumping harder. The closer he got to the rusted door the more the door got further away, just out of his reach.
“NO!” He yelled.
“Yessss!” The other man hissed. When Ethan looked over his shoulder again the man was getting closer without moving his legs. With every step Ethan took the man inched closer and closer, gliding over the floor.
Ethan stopped in his tracks and whipped around to face the man. The man stopped too, leaving some space between the two. His face was still obscured but now he was close enough that Ethan could see his piercing red eyes under the brim of his hat. “You monster! You killed my friends!! What do you want from me?”
If he could see the man’s face he’d think that his mouth had curled into a smile. “Your fear. Are you afraid Ethan Morgan?”
A nervous sort of laughter bubbled to the surface. “It’d be hard not to be! Have you seen yourself?”
The man barked a laugh back. He appeared right in front of Ethan, crowding into his space. Ethan struggled as the man held him still with hands on both of his shoulders. “How’d you like to quit seeing me?” He said as he raised a pointed finger a centimeter away from Ethan’s eye. The light glinted off the “finger”, revealing it to be a huge curved knife. “You wouldn’t be much of a seer without one of these, hm?”
Ethan fought against the man as the knife curled closer to his pupil. “Get off me!!” He yelled as he wrenched a hand free and grabbed the knifed hand to push the man away. He yelped as the knife cut into the palm of his hand and-
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Ethan sat up sharply in bed. The sun shined bright in his childhood bedroom, and he was safe laying on his Star Trek sheets. He huffed a sigh of relief, that was just a really wicked nightmare. Still, he couldn’t shake the image of that mystery man and his poor friends. He’d never had a nightmare or vision that bad before. He reached up and swiped the sweat off his forehead and unstuck his bangs that were glued to his face. He winced slightly. He glanced down at his palm and saw the gash that covered it. Weird.
The alarm on his bedside table buzzed; 7:30 AM. He stood up and stretched, he had to hurry and shower before school. Sarah couldn’t see his hair like this! He hit the alarm’s off button and padded off to the bathroom.
As he got his stuff together for a shower he wiped the blood from his cut off on his blue and green pajamas. He had to remember to patch that up before he went to school. Did he still have those Doug Falconhawk bandaids?