Hellmervic

Susan slowly opened her eyes. She was surrounded by darkness and even when she tried to squint, all she could see was the blackness around her. She heard the wind begin to howl and a blast of air hit her in the face. It felt icy against her skin and it took her breath away. For a moment she could not breathe. It took only a moment, but she was able to regain her breath. She could feel the rocks on the ground below her digging into her bare feet and when she shifted she could feel a ledge under her. Her eyes slowly became adjusted to the darkness around her and she was able to make out the ground beneath her feet and what lay beyond. She was on a narrow cliff that was adjacent to the side of a mountain.  As she peered over the side she realized that it seemed to go on forever into a vast nothingness. Panic came over her and her mind began to race. How had she got here? She remembered being at a party with Eric. He had invited her to one of those frat parties and, at first, she did not want to go. He had insisted that she go and would not leave her alone till she went. She thought about the party. She refused any drinks then left early. She had heard about these parties and knew that they could get out of hand. She remembers walking back to her dorm room, changing into her nightgown, then getting into bed. Did someone slip into her room after she was asleep and bring her here? She frantically looked around to see if she could move. The edge where she was standing was about three feet on both sides and only about two and half feet in front of her. There was nowhere to go.  When she tried to turn around to look up the side of the mountain, she slipped and almost lost her balance. A feeling of dread came over her and she was stricken with fear. Feeling that she could fall at any moment, she  pressed her back against the mountain behind her, digging her fingers into the soft dirt, desperately trying not to fall. There were sharp rocks in the mountain that dug into her back, causing an immense amount of pain. She could feel a warm fluid trickling down her back, knowing that she must be bleeding.  Off in the distance she heard a strange noise. She strained to hear the sound. It reminded her of the sounds that  birds make when they are flapping their wings in flight, only this sounded much bigger.   Another gust of wind hit her face, but it was warm and smelled strong of sulfur. It reminded her of a chemistry class she had taken. The stench burned her nostrils and she held her breath. A large claw reached out from the darkness and grabbed her face. It felt like scales against her skin, as if it was a giant lizard. The claw had huge sharp talons that dug into the sides of her face. She tried to let out a scream and couldn’t. As she tried to struggle to free herself,  the talons dug deeper into her skin as it clenched tighter. She reached up to grab it, wanting to pull it from her face. As she did, the claw clutched even tighter, digging deeper into her face.  Blood began to flow from her face as she tried to free herself. She could feel one of the large talons break through her cheek and into her mouth. She heard something like bones cracking and felt  her jaw give way under the pressure. A tremendous jolt of pain rushed through her body, she could feel her head being ripped from side to side as the large talon began to tear her head away from her body.  She closed her eyes, she could not believe that this was how she was going to die. She tried to scream again, but it was useless, only a muffled sound came from her throat as her bones cracked again. She could taste her own blood, as her mouth began to fill with the warm liquid, her heart pounding ferociously.  For only a second she could see her body, blood spewing from her severed neck, as it fell from the cliff to the rocks below.  She opened her eyes again, she saw she was in her room, sweat pouring from her forehead. She sat up and clasped her hands around her throat. Realizing that her head was still intact, she heaved a huge sigh of relief. Her heart was still racing, her stomach still cramping in pain. It was only a dream, she thought, a stupid nightmare.  She glanced at the alarm clock that sat on the nightstand next to her bed. It read 4:30 am. This had to be a coincidence, she thought. She had a nightmare the night before and it woke her at the same time, 4:30 on the dot. She glanced over at the bed on the opposite side of her to make sure her scream didn’t wake her roommate. She saw that she was still sound asleep. A bomb could go off next to her head and she wouldn’t wake, she thought. She laid back down and stared at the ceiling. She tried to close her eyes, but all she could see was the image of that claw from her dream.  She wished she was home. Why did she let her brother talk her into coming to this college? It was so far away from home. It was true that she wanted to study archaeology and maybe even go to places like Egypt or Rome, somewhere that she could explore ancient ruins. But that was only a pipe dream after all, and being in her first year at Vale University, she did not believe that her dream would come true. Not only that, it was on the side of the country, her home was in Baker Falls, Oregon, and that was New York, as far away from Oregon as she could get. She let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes again. She still could not sleep, and the horrible nightmare kept replaying in her mind. She threw back the covers on her bed and swept her feet over the side to sit up.  She slipped on some clothes and grabbed her chemistry book. Something that she loved more than archeology was chemistry. She had studied it all through high school and when she decided that she was going to college, chemistry was going to a minor, with archeology her major. Once she decided that she wanted to be a teacher or professor herself, she would make a choice about what she wanted to teach. This was going to be a tough decision, but she knew she had several years to make that choice.  This time of the morning, the only place she could go to study without anyone bothering her was the dining room in the downstairs hall of the dorm. As she quietly opened the door to her dorm room, she glanced back at her roommate to make sure she did not wake her. She was still sleeping, so she quietly slipped out of the room and carefully closed the door. The lights were always on in the main hallway of the dorm rooms and Susan walked softly down the hall, not wanting to wake any of her neighbors.  When she reached the dining room, she opened the door and turned on the light. Susan sat at the far end of one of the three large tables that sat in the middle of the room. Here she could sit and study at this time of the morning and not disturb anyone else who lived in the dorm room. She opened her book to page sixty and tried to read when the door from the kitchen opened and a strange man stood there. Susan looked up at him. He was a rather large man, standing about six feet four inches. He was wearing a black trench coat and dark sunglasses. She did not recognize the man. She could not believe this. Where he had come from, she thought. “Hello.” she said, but the man just stood there staring at her.  “Can I help you?” she asked as pleasantly as possible.  There was no answer. She wondered what he could be doing here. No one was up, and there shouldn’t be any delivery men here at this early hour. He stood there for a moment just staring at her. With one swift motion, he pulled a large double-barrelled shotgun from underneath his coat. He pulled back the trigger and then pointed it at her. Susan jumped up from the chair, knocking her book to the floor. The man took careful aim and shot at her. The  shot echoed in the large empty room and Susan covered her ears from the blast.  She looked to her left and to her right. There was no place to run to. The only exit was behind the man with the shotgun. Susan closed her eyes, she knew that she was going to die. The first blast was close, almost hitting her. She started to run to the other side of the table, but no matter where she went, the man trained the barrel on her. The man smiled and laughed in a gruff voice as he slowly squeezed the trigger.  There was another loud boom. She jumped up and heard the  sound of her alarm clock going off. She shot straight up like a rocket and realized she  was still in her bed, her heart was beating a mile a minute. She clutched her chest and realized that she had not been shot. She looked over at her clock, it read six thirty. The alarm was still going off and she quickly clicked the switch to shut it off.  She shook her head and thought for a moment, had all of this been a dream, a horrible nightmare? She looked over and her roommate, Sara, was sitting on the edge of her bed.  “What in the hell were you dreaming about?” Sara asked, with concern in her voice, “You were screaming and yelling at the top of your lungs, bout gave me a heart attack!”  Susan loved Sara’s southern drawl, she was from Mississippi and this was also her first year of college. “God, you sounded like someone was tearing your head off? Are you alright?” Susan slowly shook her head. “That is two nights in a row that you have had bad dreams like that, girl, you had best see someone about those dreams you are having before you start waking up the whole dorm.”   She stood up from her bed and left Susan alone in their dorm room. Susan sat there a moment longer. Had she gone back to sleep, or had she had a dream within a dream, she wasn’t sure and was pondering that thought when her cell phone began to vibrate on her nightstand. She did not want to answer it, she knew it would be her brother, but reluctantly she picked up her phone and swiped the answer button. She put the phone up to her ear and wearily said “hello.”  It was Phillip on the other end, “Good morning Susan,” he said happily, “I have the most fantastic news I need to tell you. I talked with mom today and she is flying out here next week for Spring Break, isn’t that wonderful?”  No, she thought, that was not wonderful. Yes, she missed home, yes she missed her family, but she had plans for Spring Break and they did not include her mother.  “Yeah, sure.” she said, just as friendly as could be.  “What’s wrong? You sound like you have a hangover!” Her brother was always the big brother and it did not matter what was going on, he was big brother no matter what.  “No, Phillip, I had another nightmare.”  She really did not want to tell him, as he could or would do anything anyway. He would do his best to console her like always, but still, that was nothing.  “Was it the same thing, or did you dream something different this time?” He asked, in that big brother tone.  “It was the same, yet different.”  “The guy coming into the dining hall and shooting you?”  Susan thought for a moment, “No, it was different. I mean, yes it was the same, but there was something different.”  She sat there pondering the dream for a moment. Should she tell him about the claw ripping her head off? She thought about it again, and then answered him.  “I dreamt that I was on a cliff and a large creature of some kind grabbed my head and tore it off, but that is when the dream changed.”  “Go on.” he said, as if he really cared.  “I dreamt that I woke up and then went to the dining hall and that was when the guy came in and shot me.” She could almost feel the giant claw tearing at her head again. She shuddered.  “Listen Phillip, I need to get ready for class. If I don’t go now, I will be late.” And with that she hung up the phone.  She sat there on the edge of the bed pondering about her own sanity. Was she going crazy, she thought. Tears began to form in her eyes, two nights in a row she had the same dream. Was something bad going to happen to her? She started to sob as she thought about this when the door opened and Sara walked back in. She clutched the sleeves of her nightgown and wiped her eyes.  “Hey,” Sara asked, leaning almost into Susan’s face, “are you okay?”  She put her hand on her shoulder and rubbed her arm a little. Susan looked up and smiled, “Yes, I am just feeling it you know, not sleeping the greatest, and having that same nightmare.”  Sara stood back up and gave her a smile, “Maybe there is going to be a freak storm or something. They say things get really weird when there is a storm coming.” Susan smiled back at her. That was all she needed, she thought, a huge flipping storm.  The dorm room was small, there were two beds and two study desks that separated them. Above the desks was a window that looked out over the campus. Susan stood up and went to the window and peered out into the gloom. The sun was beaming down on the campus, yet it was still low enough in the sky that it cast large shadows of the buildings over the pathways between the dorms. It was early March and the air was still cool. Susan stood there for a moment or two, her eyes wandering over the campus, the shadows, and the sky beyond. What was causing those nightmares, she thought to herself. Was it that she was just missing home or was there something else going on inside of her? She picked up a brush from her study desk and began to run it through her long dark brown hair as she pondered over the feelings she was having. She was only a freshman and this was her first year here. Maybe it was catching up to her, the fact that she was so far from home and from her family, even though her brother was there. She sat the brush down and began to dress herself for the day. She did have a class in less than an hour, and she needed to get going. Maybe once she got to class, she could forget about her dreams and have a better day.  She grabbed her anthropology book as she was heading out the door. She actually loved this class. She majored in Archeology with a minor in Anthropology. She had loved this subject since she was a young child. She remembered all those adventure movies about archeologists discovering a Pharaoh's tomb, cursed treasures, or maybe a mummy coming back to life. But she knew that was all fantasy, made up for the entertainment of people. Still, she would love to discover an ancient tomb, a mummy's curse, treasure beyond her wildest dreams. Sure, that really was only in the movies, but who knows? She was grounded in reality though, and her dream was finding an ancient civilization so she could study it, find out what happened to them, where they went to, and why they left their ancient ruins behind. She also remembered a documentary she watched about the ancient city of Tiwanaku ¹. That was what really got her interested in archeology. In the back of her mind, she did not believe all the stories about an ancient alien civilization that colonized Peru, she believed that they had just up and moved from there. Maybe they were living in another part of the world now. As she walked along the path to the Union Hall where her class was about to begin, she smiled at herself. This current thought process had changed her thinking, and she no longer thought about her dream.