Nightmare

Where am I? Everything is so dimly lit the walls are just barely visible. My breath is coming in rapid gasps as I look around. I can hear someone coming the footsteps are getting louder, fear clouds my mind and I begin to run. The footsteps are slow, and I was outrunning them, the twists and turns of these hallways are similar to a maze. I slow down to a walk to catch my breath, but never ceasing to move along. I don’t want to find out what was following me, I just need to leave and go back home. My footsteps echo off the walls, and as I walk I get closer to a terrible feeling, but, I can’t turn back. I walk until I reach this door, it’s made of wood. I rush forward and open the door running through. On the other side is a forest. It’s completely dark with the acceptation of the moon. I run between the trees and around rocks, the feeling of being hunted never leaving me for a moment. My breath is short gasps as I continue on. I glance over my shoulder to see a terrifying creature, it’s slimy and completely black, as though it’s made of shadows. Long black hair cascades down in front of its face, and on its hands are five long glistening claws. The hair slightly parts to reveal a sharp toothed smirk as it gains on me. I turn my head back forward and run, though no matter how fast I go it still creeps closer. It teases me. I come to a stop as I see a large rock cliff looming in front of me, cornered. I try to climb it only to fall right back down. The creature is right in front of me, it pins me down to the dirt. Its long claws on either side of my head. It leans its face down towards me as I struggle to escape its rancid breath blowing in my face it raises the other hand and slowly sinks one of its slimy claws in to my heart. A scream erupts from my throat.
I let out a scream as I jolted awake. My hand over my heart, cold sweat rolling down my back, my breathing coming in loud gasps. My lover jolts awake and looks at me, worry lacing his features. His eyes soften and he wraps me in a loving embrace. I begin to shake and weep into his chest, clutching his shirt as sobs rake my body. He rubs soothing circles into my back, and whispers sweet nothings into my ear. As I clam down into a sniffling mess, he wipes the remaining tears from my cheeks. He plants a loving kiss on my forehead and takes me by the hand and leads me down the hallway. We end up in the kitchen. He goes to the cupboard and pulls out a glass, then to the refrigerator and brings out the milk. He pours some in the glass and hands it to me. As he puts the milk back he asks gently, “Did you have a nightmare? Do you want to talk about it?”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” I say quietly, my grip tightening around the glass.
“Alright,” he smiles. I finish off the milk and put the glass in the sink, we return to our shared bedroom and lay back down under the covers. He wraps his arms tightly around me and pulls me close to him. He places a light kiss on my lips before whispering, “Sweet dreams, my love.”