A Little Character
Aka Manah the Nightmare come to life
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The nightmare slid from my sleeping mind and entered the waking world. Damn it. I hate it when that happens. Dreams are confusing enough as it is, nightmares twisting the brain into strung out knots during the night are weird and tiring and the unfortunate bed partner of slumber, but having a little piece of that world we fall into every sleep, slither and crawl it's way out into the conscious' domain....it's a waking nightmare...literally.
The Aka Manah inched it's way across my desk, pinning me in place with it's glistening black eyes that felt like they were devouring me with it's gaze. I couldn't have moved anyways, resisting the urge to vomit and pass out, just a little, split my focus so that running was the last thing I thought of doing.
The room seemed to dim, the creature humped and slid across the desk, leaving a trail of slime...I hoped it was slime, on the surface. It's mouth gaped wide revealing row upon row of gleaming yellowed teeth. I shuddered, darkness swam close to the edges of my vision. The room melted away as all of my attention centered on the creature, on the Aka Manah that moved steadily closer.
It was hungry, I could tell...but whether or not I was it's food, it's desired destination...I didn't want to find out. Now I thought of running but my feet seemed cemented to the floor, muscles cramped, from standing so rigidly so long...I gripped the edge of the desk, fingers white, knuckles protesting with little sparks of pain.
What to do...what to do...?
It had come from nightmares, from me but I'd be damned if I sent it back...I did not want that creature, the Aka Manah slithering around inside my head, churning my dreams into nightmares.
A sickly wet slurping sound assaulted my ears, the Aka Manah sucking at the air, hoping to latch it's suction cups on to something, anything, to suck the life from it's prey, to bite and chew and pull it inwards, drowning their victim in fear and pain and....
I yanked back. Realizing I had started slumping over the desk, the Aka Manah is incapable of smiling and yet I thought I saw the ghost of one flit across it's horrific face. The eyes remained un-blinking, un-wavering, drilling into me... I resisted their hypnotic pull...if this were a dream, I could easily defeat the little monster. In dreams I can fight, and more importantly win, zombie attacks, bare handed. In dreams I would pull a sword from no where and go about slicing and dicing my way through an avalanche of evil...in a dream....there are options...in real life I wondered vaguely if a mason jar could hold this beast....
Eventually I did the only thing I could think of...illogical...silly...but it was an action as soothing as cool balm for my brain. I put a box over it..and then a 5 lb weight on the box...
I heard it thumping and bumping against the sides...but I couldn't see it...and that made all the difference in the world. Funny how a nightmare is easier to face if you're not looking it in the eye.
It's still there...it's not like it had any place to go...at first I worried that it would eat through the cardboard but apparently 100%,post consumer use, recycled cardboard is repugnant to it's taste buds...lucky me...
Or maybe it's that the cardboard isn't soaked in fear and misery and worry...
Because the Aka Manah will eat paper...but it has to be newspaper...with the kind of horrifying stories that makes your fingers tremble as you cut them out...I drop them in through a small slit in the top of the box...feeding the nightmare....keeping it alive I suppose...until I figure out what to do with it....
What to do with it? The question plagues me....but in the mean time...an odd sort of thing has started happening...the Aka Manah, thriving from the fear I feed it...I feel....lighter....I told it my stresses, not imagining the words would be anything to a creature born from the unconscious mind..and it seemed to satiate it..for a while...so I fed it more....
It's not a pet. Certainly not one I'd cuddle up with on the sofa and laugh at sitcoms with on a Thursday evening. I have no illusions, it's a monster....but....it's my monster.
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