xxxholicnightmares

Copyright 2005, Mary Emily McCutcheon. All rights reserved.

New Document 1

xxxHolic

Nightmares

MK

Sometimes, Watanuki had nightmares. He had been having them forever, roughly- feverish, terrifying nightmares that made the shadows sinister when he woke up alone in a dark room. Other kids came to school and laughed, shuddered, and made jokes. "I had the worst dream last night! I dreamt Playstation 4 had been delayed forever!" The other kids laugh and groan and then huddle near to hear the details of the dream, which may or may not involve a killer sandwich.

Watanuki's nightmares are different, and he doesn't tell anyone about them. Can't tell anyone about them, not since that first time. So young he had wet the sheets, and sat shivering in it for long minutes, unable to leave his own filth, step down out of bed and across the carpet to the doorway, down the hall to his parent's room, because there is something sitting in the corner. 'Maybe I'm still dreaming,' his very young mind supplies helpfully. 'Maybe if I go back to sleep, it will be gone in the morning.'

But it's not gone. In the morning, Watanuki wakes up to sunlight and soaked sheets and a very nasty smell, and there is something sitting in the corner.

"Please," it croaks, lifting it's bulbous, malformed head to stare at him, "Please, you have to find meuuuurkglfffssst!"

By the time his parents make it into the room, Watanuki has been screaming so loudly and without pause that he passes out from lack of oxygen. Unconscious, he doesn't see his parents yell at the thing in the corner and shoo it out of the room, but when he wakes up he does have to help change his sheets. There are no kind words from his mother telling him that it was all just a dream, or advice from his father about turning on lights and reading something until he forgets a bad dream and can go back to sleep. Instead, he gets the talk.

The next week, his parents are no longer in the realm of the living, and Watanuki is shipped off to a relative's house, where he learns very quickly that no one else has nightmares like him. Not while they're up and about and walking around doing things. Not on their way to and from school, and certainly no one else can see the things that Watanuki can see, and wouldn't believe him anyway.

Watanuki has been having a nightmare since he was young enough to wet the bed, and he has yet to wake up from it.