Infectious...

I remembered waking up with sweat completely covering me. I was breathing heavily, as I had tried to run away from... What was it? Some deep primal fear of all living? Or was it the slightest shadows of madness that was crawling at my mind, as the stress of school built up? I remembered laughing at this absurd notion - school doesn't give you nightmares that had you salvaging what remained of your sanity.

"Leave us alone!" Did I shout that? Or was it the thing in front of me?

I had looked at the alarm clock. I swore quietly. It was only 6:00, another 50 minutes before the it should have rang. It was far too early for this. I didn't need a scare before starting school (as if school was already daunting enough). I sank back into my pillow, as me breath began to slow down again. Closing my eyes, I tried to recall some of the horrors that had plagued me. Like any sane human, I tried to start at the beginning...

That smile again. And that glow.

My eyes snapped open again. It was that girl. I frowned - it was a strange coincidence that she would have been in my dreams. Dreams, for me, rarely repeat themselves again.

That swaying tree next to a stone building. Nearby was another building, only it was cleaner... more modern. Other people in a dull green uniform milled about, talking and constantly moving.

I snorted here. I was dreaming of school. Give me a break... I've already seen enough of it for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. And sometimes longer now that I'm in Year 12. So... that dream girl had came to the same school as me. What possible interpretations can I possibly gleam from that? It sure would be literally a dream come true... if it was true.

We were walking quietly along a familiar pathway. Faces that were seen everyday were content in their usual business. The girl and I were talking...

...about what? I stared at the darkened ceiling, hoping to glean something from it. What had made us both laugh so happily? So freely...

We rounded to corner to the PAC - the performing arts centre. It was a large building - formerly a gym as my wood teacher had told me once upon a time. Now, it was the hangout of the drama kids. I rolled my eyes at some of their antics as we passed by. Surely throwing random stuff at each other for the thousandth time should have gotten hold. And yet...

Nice dodge, I thought smirking, as a classmate called Raf managed to avoid a sandwich that was thrown from near point-blank range. This thought-by-thought process was taking longer than I anticipated. Everything was familiar. Nothing to suggest why I woke up with such a scare.

The path back to the canteen was once again the same. The same kids. The same chairs. Even the same sense of sheer boredom that was somehow ignored as I was pulled in by the mystery of the girl next to me. More talking. I looked casually to the right and saw the wood room glaring back.

Surely the wood room can't be the source of my nightmares. A madman running out with a chainsaw would be almost comical, if not outright normal (ok, I'm lying - I would be shitting myself, but my friends have already made up too much conspiracies about the wood room for anything to truly surprise me in Dream world). Ah Year 7, good times...

We were at the canteen now. And yet we kept moving. We turned right, passing the toilets and its eternal stench. We were moving back to the common room - where everybody else awaited. Something ancient stirred inside me... and indescribable fear began to strangle me.

The common room... what was so scary about it? Surely there can't be anything worse than the stains inside the microwave (I've seriously got to stop this joking). That's it... it had been too quiet. Especially given how ridiculously loud we Year 12's are.

My hand hesitated on the door handle.
"Is something wrong?" the girl asked. Not wanting to disappoint her, I shook my head and put on an assuring smile before opening the door to the realms of nightmare.
We both froze in terror as everything in the room turned to us as we walked in. Everybody was now nightmare incarnate. Bloodied eyes that were nothing more than gaping red holes in their face. Mouths that were unnaturally big, each threatening to consume anything and everything, eternally held in a terrible grin. Claws had replaced hands... claws that threatened to tear a person's soul out, souls that were soon ripe for consummation.
A person rose out of their chair. In their hands were a sharpened cleaver that still held the blood of its last victim.
"Join us..." the creature breathed.

The rate of my breathing increased again. I felt blood rushing to my legs, carrying vital supplies of oxygen that would allow me to get the fuck out of my mind.
"It's all fake," I repeated in a mantra to myself. "It's all fake."
I got up and turned on the light. Looking into the mirror, I saw a pale faced person staring back. In his eyes, the dream continued...

"Leave us alone!" I shouted. Everybody in the room mimicked me, creating an eerie chorus that grated on my ears. Grabbing the girl's arm, we turned around... only to see there was no door. Then an explosion of pain came.
I fell to the floor, paralyzed. A syringe dropped next to me. A paralyzer... got to give these creatures credit for that, if I wasn't absolutely hoping this would all go away. The creatures rolled me over, as the lead creature stoked its cleaver, its grin never wavering. It moved the sharp side of the blade closer... and closer... to my eyes. I struggled to no avail. Then... the blade descended.

Colours. Never thought I would appreciate them so much. The nightmare had ended. For now.