Disclaimer-The following story is a work of fiction merely written with a first-person narrative technique of writing and has nothing to do with me or incidences that have happened to me..

Strange Places

I was walking through a narrow road when all of a sudden, a strange sight popped right in front of me. It was a woman. Slowly, she looked down at me, hanging upside down, her long hair drooping towards the earth and a misty darkness surrounding her. She seemed to personify all the darkness in the world. Yet, something about her made her seem not to be scary at all. In the same vein, she still looked menacing. Fearfully, I jerked backwards. She blinked slowly and then just stared blankly at me, her white fangs glistening. I half expected her to attempt to grab or attack me, yet she didn’t even move an inch.

‘Why aren’t you trying to hurt me?', I asked with a wavering voice.

She blinked once more and without emotion replied, 'I’m not the one you should be afraid of, he is'. She stretched out her thin bony arm and pointed behind me.

I looked behind me and gasped in shock as a slender and faceless man dashed towards me, tentacles protruding from out of his back and stretching out towards my face. I turned back and saw that the strange woman had gone. It was just me and the tentacled-man now. He was coming nearer and nearer. In fear, I staggered backwards, tripped and then fell to the ground. It took me a while to get back on my feet and even when I finally did, it seemed there was little or nothing I could do to get away from him

---

I tried to run but my feet were turning to dust.
I tried to scream but not a single sound.
Seeing that all hope was lost,
And my hopelessness was abound

---

I closed my eyes

The scariest nightmares are the ones you have while awake. . . .

I opened my eyes and found myself in bed. I had had yet another one of my scary nightmares. The previous night, I had dreamt about being stuck in sinking ship and that hadn’t gone well either. As I walked into my bathroom, I began to wonder what manner of nightmare I would have next. Nightmares were not so scary to me. I had gotten used to them a long time ago. It was my daydreams that scared me more, dreams of getting out of this stupid small town and heading out into the city to fulfill my dreams of becoming somebody in life.

Yes, somebody in life. It wasn’t a specific ambition. Somebody in life meant having a better life than my father’s. But it scared me that I would never achieve those dreams. It scared me that I would end up like him, a poor peasant farmer in a small town who had worked hard for years but with nothing to show for it. I pitied my father and wanted to be nothing like him. But in the end my life was spiraling down that lane, wheeling down the same road his did. I was through with High School but there was no money to send me to College.

I paused for a second and looked myself in the mirror before I resumed thinking. I had no way of going to College, a sick father and a family that depended on me. I was now a farm boy and would likely end up as a farmer just like my father. It was my worst nightmare, worse than any I had ever in my sleep had and now it was coming to pass.

But I guess all my nightmares always boiled down to the same thing. It seemed they were metaphors for my worst fear, being helpless in life. My nightmares always happened to have something to do with me being hopeless and helpless. That was my life! I was being plunged into the black abyss of nothingness and could not salvage myself. I was watching myself morph into my father and yet I could do absolutely nothing about it. I was not in charge of my life. I had lost the wheels to some force of sorts that now decided my fate as it deemed fit.

Feeling in no way relieved by the cold shower, I headed out of the bathroom and in a matter of minutes I was all dressed up and in the dining room eating breakfast as my Mum complained about something my sisters had done. I had always been very close to mum and now that Dad was very down with an illness, it seemed she was turning me to her husband rather than her son. I certainly didn’t like it but I couldn’t blame her, I pitied her.

Pity was what I felt for everyone around me, including myself. We all had it rough in life, after all.As soon as I was done with my bacon and eggs, I pecked my mother on the forehead and whispered in her ears ‘It’s alright’ as I headed out to my father’s farm for another day of hard work in the sun.

I was going to do some harrowing work and hopefully do some ridges too today. I didn’t feel up to the work, but I had to do it if I was going to plant anything and if my family was going to have another chance as survival. I walked through the almost deserted street of my hometown, greeting almost every single person I met along the road. It was that kind of town where everyone knew everyone any the family or where they came from. Within a matter of minutes `I was in my Dad’s farm. Yes, my dad’s farm. Well I wouldn’t call it mine, would I? I wore my farm clothes, got into the tractor and began working. After several hours of work, I was already tired, a soft song ringing in my ears

---

La la, the lullaby
Goes la la la, la la la
I’m just a passerby
In this world, ha ha, ha ha ha

---

I closed my eyes

It was like one of my nightmares, only that this was reality and not a dream I could easily wake up from.

I opened my eyes and found myself on the ground. I had dosed off in the moving tractor and then fallen on my back. I tried to get up but couldn’t. I couldn’t really explain how I had dosed off while working or how I had fallen happened but it had happened one way or the other and here I was in the aftermath, too weak the get up. I had never been in control of my life and my frequent nightmares showed I wasn’t in control of my mind.

But right now, I was feeling something entirely different. I had lost control of my body. Panting heavily, feeling weak and drowsy, I looked around hoping someone would show up though I knew quite well nobody would. That was why I didn’t bother to call for help. I knew nobody would help. I looked down and caught sight of blood. I was bleeding. How come I couldn’t feel anything? The blood seemed to keep gushing out and I started feeling weaker and weaker.

---

My eyes became bleary
My heart weary
This was the end
I was now to ascend

---

I closed my eyes

Nightmares seem like reality until you wake up.

I opened my eyes and found myself on a hospital bed. A strange woman was seated next to me, holding my hands. I didn’t know who she was but her grip felt nice and warm so I didn’t pull my hands away. I had always been a pervert anyway and this lady was really pretty. She saw me move and looked at me.

“Donald?”, she smiled. I wondered who the hell this woman was and who Donald was.

She tightened her grip on my hand and slowly bent her head to his it. I felt a slight erection pop up beneath me.

‘Where am I?’

‘We’re in the hospital. You’ve been here for a year now. It’s a miracle’ she smiled.

‘A year?’ I asked. ‘Has it really been that long?’

‘Yes. You were involved in a car accident about a year ago and had a surgery then coma and . . .’

‘Yeah. Well, I wouldn’t call it a car’, I smiled at her and she looked at me funny.

‘Well, it was a tractor’, I tried to explain.

‘Tractor?’

‘Yes, a tractor. I was on the farm and I fell off a tractor’

‘I don’t know what you’re saying but I’m just glad you’re okay. The doctor saw you twitch yesterday and called me. I came because I wanted to be here when you woke up. I’ve missed you. Donald’, she sobbed.

‘And who are you?’ I asked, removing my hand from her grip. I was weirded out by this strange woman.

‘You really don't remember anything, Donald?’

‘I’m not Donald and who the hell are you?’

‘You really don’t remember me?’ She asked. I stared at her blankly.

Then she said, more too herself than to me ‘It must be the drugs working; you’re having amnesia or something. Donald, you’re. . .’

‘I said I’m not Donald!’ I shouted hysterically. I had had enough.

She moved closer and held my held. I jerked backwards.

‘Don’t you dare touch me,” I yelled, now struggling to get off the bed.

Freaking out, she pressed a button on my bed and yelled ‘Doctor!’

I ignored her, still trying to remove the drip lined to my wrist when I felt a needle go through my arm.

---

The fan whirling
My head reeling
A little slow mo
A soft gentle flow

---

I closed my eyes

I opened my eyes and found myself in a room. Not the hospital bed. I sighed and figured I was at home. Perhaps it had all been a nightmare and I had now woken up. I tried to stand up but couldn’t.

A nightmare could be a dream come true.

I opened my eyes and smiled at Bessie who was in bed, next to me. Last night had been a blast, just like every other night before then. Yeah, we’ve been sleeping together for a month now. I know you’re probably wondering who Bessie is and why I’m having sex with her. Well, she’s the strange woman from the hospital. I mean, she was the strange woman from the hospital. Turns out I’m Donald and we had been married for two years before my car accident.

I had gone into coma for a year before I finally woken up. I didn’t understand how all that had was possible, but I had chosen to accept it as my new reality, though it wasn’t that hard a decision to make. I now had the life of my dreams. I was living in a big city with a sexy wife and a job at a corporate firm. I didn’t understand it but I loved it.

For a split second, I thought I heard my mother call me but then shrugged it off. Nah, I was hearing things. But still, I wondered what happened to mama, my papa and my sisters. I wonder if they’re okay. Again, I could hear my mother’s voice calling me, ‘Mark, Mark. . .' only louder this time. From just a voice in my head, it was transforming into a voice in the air, becoming harder and harder to ignore. Bessie heard it too and looked up. She then began fading away.

---

And the voice kept getting louder
Everything kept fading away
Bessie was floating father
But a single word I couldn’t say

---

I closed my eyes.

Reality is the scariest thing.

I opened my eyes and saw a big head all up in my face

‘Mark?’

It was my mother.

‘You’ve got to get going to the farm if you’re gonna do the harrowing today, you know?’ she said walking out.

‘Holy shit’ I thought to myself ’it was all a dream’

---

---

THE END

All images drawn by me except the first image which i made using a cover photo app on my mobile phone

With love,
@ajremy (the teen with steam for steam)

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