The Endless Nightmare

The Endless Nightmare

By R.A. Fries

Carly saw herself hiking alone through the woods at twilight. The crickets in the grass chirped in harmony and insects buzzed in the oak trees. “Where is everybody? Why am I out here alone?” she wondered. “The last thing I remember was Jake driving too fast. We were all anxious to get here before dark, but it didn’t make sense to risk our lives to do so. Why can’t I remember arriving and setting up camp? And why isn’t someone walking with me? I told my friends that I didn’t want to be alone in this forest...not in this forest!”

The teen began to shiver as damp air descended on the path. She zipped up her jacket and raised the hood to cover her dark curly hair. “I guess I should turn around and walk back to camp,” she thought. Irritated with her three friends’ failure to accompany her, Carly stomped along the path. She slowed when she noticed a meadow off to her right. Looking up, Carly saw the Milky Way. It was stunning; a sapphire blue sky surrounded by a chalky white cloud that was likely composed of millions of stars. At the boundary, the sky turned into a black fabric with more stars sprinkled on top. As she stared, Carly realized one light was moving erratically. It was coming closer, getting larger, and moving faster.

“Is that a meteor?” Carly questioned. “It looks like it’s coming this way. Wait a minute, it looks like a spaceship of some kind. I’ve got to get out of here!” she thought, breaking out into a cold sweat.

Seconds later, the UFO landed softly in the weeds. It was a large, silver oval with some type of clear dome on top. Around the periphery of the craft, white and blue lights flashed, at first. The white lights then terminated abruptly, and the blue lights rotated toward the ground as it landed.

Carly crouched down in the grass. “I hope they haven’t seen me,” she thought.

Two creatures appeared outside the spacecraft. They were floating above the ground and seemed to be searching for something in the weeds. As Carly watched for an opportunity to run, the aliens flushed a group of rabbits from their warren. Seconds later, the rabbits were obliterated by a yellow ray.

“Now’s my chance,” Carly thought. The minute she moved, the aliens were upon her. For the first time, she could see them clearly. They were greyish blue with crocodilian-like skin covering their heads and arms. Slits opened and closed on both sides of their face, just below their eyes. They had no mouths. Their eyes glowed neon orange with green, diamond-shaped pupils.

The aliens communicated directly to Carly’s brain. “Follow us,” they commanded. When Carly rose from the grass she lost all control of her body. She realized she wasn’t walking behind the creatures; she was floating.

Once close enough to the spacecraft, her body dematerialized and rematerialized on board the ship. The aliens guided her to a large room with silver walls. What resembled an examination bed was sitting in the middle. Carly failed to recognize the strange looking pieces of equipment in the room but did notice the strong smell of antiseptic. A brilliant light illumined the area above the bed.

“Take off your clothes,” the aliens communicated, momentarily releasing control of her body.

“Lay down on the bed.” Carly did as she was told.

The two creatures who had led her to the room exited, and three new aliens entered dressed in flowing, purple gowns.

“Close your eyes,” one of them told her.

Carly could feel someone scrubbing her entire head with an ice-cold liquid. When they finished, a high-pitched buzzing sound blasted in her ears and the examination table rocked back and forth, side to side and up and down. She tried to close her eyes, hoping to quell the vertigo and nausea. Bile rose in her throat but she was unable to vomit.

The buzzing finally stopped and Carly’s eyes were propped open with a shiny metal device. Copper-colored probes were inserted into the center of each eye. The throbbing was intense. It felt as though they were cutting tissue from inside the eye. Afterwards, the aliens pulled out several of her eyelashes.

Next, a rod was slowly inserted into one of her nostrils. Carly could feel the cold steel as it was pushed through her nasal passage. When they reached her skull, they must have extended some type of drill to break through the bone. It sounded like a dentist’s drill and caused severe pain. When they removed the rod, Carly uttered a sigh of relief, until they began to probe the other nostril. The rod was advanced so far that Carly thought it might pop through the top of her head.

Her mouth was an orifice of great interest. The aliens spent what seemed like hours examining her mouth and pushing an instrument down her throat. They poked, prodded and cut. When Carly thought the worst was over, they used a tool to pull out one of her teeth. Her green eyes revealed the terror she felt, but she was unable to scream. Carly fainted. When she recovered, she was back in the meadow. The spacecraft was gone. Eyes wild, Carly got up and began to run back the way she had come.

The next night, Carly was waiting for her friends by a small waterfall in the woods. “Where are they? They promised to meet me here,” she thought. The camping trip had been fun up until this moment. Singing around the campfire, making smores and roasting hot dogs for dinner, and just hanging out together. The boys even told some unnerving ghost stories. It was getting dark and she didn’t like being in the woods by herself. Especially these woods.

Goosebumps rose on her bare arms. “Why didn’t I bring a jacket?” she wondered. She sat down on a stump at the side of the trail to wait for the others. That’s when she saw her friend, Kendra, walking towards her. “Why is she wearing a long white dress?” Carly thought. “Those aren’t appropriate camping clothes!”

It was then that the figure turned and began to slowly walk in the other directions. “Kendra, wait up,” Carly called, but the white figure continued to walk away. Carly started to run.

When she reached the woman in white, she realized it wasn’t Kendra. This woman was semi-transparent! “Must be a trick of the light,” Carly thought.

The woman’s long hair flowed gently about her shoulders even though there was no breeze in the woods. Her dress fell to her ankles, and the bodice was tightly tied. She had no shoes. She looked at Carly and smiled.

“I’ve been waiting for you to arrive,” the woman said.

Carly’s eyes grew wide, and she began to shiver. Should she run away?

“I mean you no harm! There is something I want to show you,” the apparition said.

Carly shook her head no, but curiosity held her in place.

“Don’t worry Carly, you are safe with me! In life, I was a healer.”

“How does she know my name?” Carly wondered. But set the question aside for the moment.

“I knew you would come here someday,” the spirit said. “Before death, I was told a woman would come to me, and I would reveal my healing secrets to her. I’ve been waiting a long time for you.”

The more the woman spoke, the more Carly was drawn to her. The ghost’s voice was melodic and hypnotic. Carly felt peaceful and serene. Her reptilian brain was still telling her to run, but her subconscious brain reasoned that a ghost can’t hurt you. “How wonderful to learn lost healing secrets,” Carly thought. “Maybe there would even be a cure for cancer!”

Carly followed the spirit as she diverted onto a narrow side trail. It was darker here and felt ominous. The tree branches hung low, and the bushes seemed to close the path after the two women had passed. Several times, Carly felt her clothes snag on thorned bushes, almost as if they were trying to grab her. The woman stopped in a small clearing. In the middle was a mound of dirt with a single red rose on top.

“This is where they buried me,” the ghost said. “In my day, there was a thriving town nearby. When people abandoned the town, they took the headstones with them but had no simple method of moving the bodies. So, they left them here.”

“Rather creepy, but understandable,” Carly said.

“I’m so glad you found me, Carly,” the spirit cooed in her soothing voice. “I have so much medical knowledge to transfer to you. The only way I can do this is to have you get as close as you can to what is left of my physical body. I know it sounds odd, but if you lie on my grave, I can perform the transference.”

“How will you deliver your wisdom to me?” Carly asked.

“I will utter an incantation and then the knowledge in my brain will transfer to your brain.”

“Will it hurt?”

“No, not at all. If you are ready, have a seat here and lay back.”

Carly obeyed.

“Close your eyes and lay absolutely still,” the spirit instructed and began the incantation. Carly couldn’t understand any of the words, but they soothed her.

Slowly, the damp soil began to rise, and Carly began to sink. Startled, she tried to escape the mound, but something was holding her there. It felt like vines, and they were as strong as ropes. She began to struggle, and the spirit laughed.

“Too late now,” the ghost cackled.

Carly’s eyes opened wide, and she watched multiple layers of soil pass over her. She could see worms and insects squirming and scurrying through the dirt. Her body slowed down for a second when she hit something hard. It was a wood coffin, and her body sank right through it. As she entered the coffin, she could see the feet of a corpse exiting.

“Foolish girl, trusting someone you don’t even know!” The ghost chortled harshly. “I was hung for witchcraft many years ago in this very forest. The townspeople buried me where you are buried now. Thank you for returning my body!”

Carly screamed! She could feel the insects and worms crawling all over her. “No, No, No,” she shrieked using what little oxygen was left in the coffin. She began to gasp for air.

The next day, Carly found herself walking on the forest path. She was alone. She knew she had been camping with her friends yet couldn’t remember anything about the experience. In fact, she couldn’t remember seeing her friends at all. It was all quite puzzling.

When Jake first suggested the camping trip to Carly, Kendra and Robert, the teens were excited. This forest was famous for reports of paranormal incidents, including ghost sightings and unidentified flying objects. Unfortunately, it had also been used as a dumping ground for murder victims. Carly was excited about the paranormal aspects of the trip but wavered when she thought of murderers roaming the woods.

“Oh Carly, no murderers are going to bother us as long as we stay together,” Jake had teased.

Carly had ridden to these woods in Jake’s car with her three friends. It seemed that Jake had failed to keep his promise about sticking together. As Carly walked, musty brown leaves snapped and crackled beneath her feet. A red sugar maple leaf fluttered down to the ground in front of her. She picked it up and inhaled deeply. She was surprised that it smelled rather sweet.

She continued until she reached a small crystalline stream which gurgled and splashed over the rocks. Sunshine peeked through the trees, warming the area. She sat down on a large boulder and considered dipping her toes in the water. “How long have I been walking?” Carly wondered. “Am I even walking in the right direction? One thing is for sure, I’m thirsty.” Carly rummaged around in her faded, jean jacket pocket and realized she hadn’t brought the filtering straw with her. The straw was supposed to filter bacteria and parasites from stream water, so it was safe to drink. “Damn,” she exclaimed.

Carly saw movement in the trees off to her right. “Must be a deer or some other forest dweller,” she thought. “Or maybe a bear!” She checked her jacket pockets again. No bear spray. “Dear God, I hope it isn’t a bear,” she thought, as drops of sweat ran down her face. The cracking sound grew fainter. Whatever it was, it was moving away from her. She let out the breath that she didn’t realize she was holding.

“Maybe I should turn around and walk the other way,” she reasoned.

Carly pivoted and her eyes grew wide. A man was walking on the path about twenty feet behind her. He was carrying something in a black garbage bag slung over his shoulder. When he saw her, he bolted off the path, the sound of rustling leaves and snapping branches following behind.

She began to run in the opposite direction. The trees blurred as she raced past them. Her foot caught an exposed tree root and she became airborne, landing on a rock beside the trail. Carly rolled to her side, trying to catch her breath.

When she rolled back, she saw the man standing close by. He was tall with long, brown, greasy hair. It hadn’t been shampooed in weeks. His scraggly beard still had crumbs in it from his last meal. Dirty jeans and a green plaid shirt completed his ensemble.

Carly opened her mouth to scream, but no sound emerged. She tried to scramble to her feet and run, but he grabbed her around the waist. She managed to turn slightly, just enough to hit his face with the back of her fist.

“Was that supposed to hurt me?” he laughed. His putrid breath made her gag. Carly stomped on his instep, and he let go. She threw her elbow into his nose and then ran down the path. It didn’t take long for him to catch up and throw her to the ground. She looked back at him; his nose was crooked and bleeding. She was pretty sure she had broken it.

“What the hell are you doing roaming around in these woods?” he asked. “Don’t you know this is where we dump bodies?” He pulled a knife from inside his shirt and held it up to her throat. “I’m not going to have any more trouble with you, am I? I wasn’t sure earlier if you could identify me, but now there’s no doubt. Geez, you can’t even dump a body in these woods anymore without running into someone,” he said shaking his head. “Guess it’s going to be a two-fer.”.

Carly tried to scream but couldn’t.

Carly’s parents sat down in chairs next to her hospital bed. Their daughter had been in a serious car accident a few days before. Jake’s car failed to make a turn and had plunged over the side of the ridge. Carly was the only survivor but remained in a coma.

“I knew this camping trip was a big mistake from the beginning,” Carly’s mom cried. “That damn Jake drives like a maniac.”

“Honey, please don’t speak ill of the dead,” Carly’s dad said. “Thank God our Carly is still alive.”

“Yes, our daughter is still alive, and for that I’m grateful. But you heard what the neurologist said this morning. It’s unlikely she will ever wake up.”

“Doctors aren’t always right about these things you know,” Carly’s dad said.

“What I don’t understand, is that her eyes move beneath her eyelids, like someone who is dreaming. Look, they are doing it now.”

“The doctor explained that honey. Carly’s imagination is still functioning and presents her with visions and stories. What we need to do is pray, not only for her recovery, but also that her visions are of wonderful and beautiful things.”

THE END