Nightmare On My Street

It was late and way past my bedtime. The stresses of the week had my mind overloaded. All I wanted at this moment was for the Sandman to come put me into a restful slumber. I tried all the tricks including just lying in bed counting sheep. Finally my eyes started to close. The Sandman had heard my plea. As a lie drifting off the room was still and dark, a rare happening indeed for there are always noises a plenty in my house, but this night was an exception. My body and mind became as still as the air around me. I felt numb...

After a while the numbness increased to encompass my entire being. The stillness of my room began to lift and I started feeling an uneasiness, but a numbing uneasiness. I tried to get up, I felt like I needed to run, but my mind would not allow that. My eyes popped open. Out of the corner I saw something that instilled a great fear. A train was barreling through my bedroom. It wasn't a typical train that you find on the train tracks, it was a train of letters...words...all in black. The first letter of the alphabet, then the second, third, fourth, it raced toward me. I tried to move, but I felt trapped. I felt like the damsel in distress in an old black and white silent film. As the train was right upon me words circled my head. Big, bold, black words. Things like district, Highway, October, Oldham, no, Kentucky, and the list goes on and on. I wanted to run. I wanted to get away. I wanted to escape the "word train". I tried to wake up. I begged and pleaded to the Sandman to wake me up. I needed to wake up. WAKE UP!

I could not wake up. The words turned into mass pages with words abound circling my room. They whizzed pass my ears, teasing me as they flew by. I fought and fought and fought and finally I bolted up right in my bed. The sheets of printed madness turned into shapes as they choo choo'd through my room. There were many different shapes. I was able to turn my head, slowly and deliberately at first. I watched the crazy shapes dart toward me, missing my face by pure millimeters. As soon as I was able to move my head at a quicker pace my arms and hands became free of the trance like state they were in. I began swatting at these crazy black and white pages.

The words became angry, so angry...It was like they needed my undivided attention, free from all other distractions. I was transfixed upon their sheets as they transformed into paper airplanes. There were no more near misses at my face or body. My arms were free and I tried so hard to swat at these dangerously sharp paper airplanes. One dug into my cheek, another cut into the palms of my hands, then another on my cheek and another. My white sheets were now tinged with red. Ha! I thought to myself, these pages need some color! Each time the paper airplanes dug into my skin I stained them with my blood. They were thirsty, like a newborn vampire, they wanted more and could not be satisfied.

I could feel my legs twitching underneath me. The trance of the black and white words were wearing off. I could move them now. I jumped out of the bed and headed for the door of my bedroom. This angered the pages with the words now tinged with my blood. No more were the paper airplanes. Daggers were next on the menu. The door swung shut and locked itself. I pulled on the door, harder each time. The door would not budge. The words were making their way off the pages, circling around the room. The blank white pages, shaped as daggers, all at once slammed into the door behind me. I stood breathless as the once lively white sheets shriveled up and faded away.

Light was coming into my room now. The words broke apart into single letters. They escaped under my door. I walked slowly back to my bed where this turmoil all began. Lying in the middle of my clean white sheets were some leftover words, not black text like before but green, that simply said "are we having fun yet?"