“White”, everything around me was white. The non-existent white walls stretched into the horizon. The milky white sky looks so close yet so far. You apparently can’t judge distance very well when your whole vision is flooded with one colour.

I would sometimes be able to see other colours but when I try to focus on it, white takes its place. I already forgot how many times I’ve had this dream. Being naked, sitting on a crudely made stool which was also white in this grand expanse of pure WHITE.

I’ve had it so many times that I know that it’s a dream. Do you want to know what gave it away? No, I can assure you it wasn’t the whiteness. It was the sweat that covered my body, sticking my shirt to my bare skin every night I woke up from this dream. It was the cacophonous screams that my family has shrugged off as me not being right in the head. It’s the salty tastes of tears that never fails to find my lips every night. Because of this bloody dream, I have this irrational fear of white. Every time I see this goddamn colour. Nausea hits me faster than a bullet reaching its mark. I can feel my insides travelling up my windpipe, trying its best to exit from its entrance and the only thing keeping it in was my pearly white teeth. The irony.

“Plop”. The sound ended my monologue

it’s starting. The nightmare I mean.

A drop of crimson liquid fell from the top of this white domain. It will never deviate from its mark which is my left cheek. It will always hit there first. What followed was a rain of it. A rain of crimson pouring as far as I can see. The crimson melded quite nicely with the pure white making it the colour of pink roses. Yet the heavy smell of iron will always bring me back to this reality.

This bloody crimson liquid was blood. It will rain for the time that it takes for the sea of blood to reach my ankles then it will stop. For now, I look up at the torrential rain of red. No clouds in sight, I was never able to figure out where the rain came from. It always looked it was conjured up out of thin air.

“Sigh”. A sigh escaped my lips. I closed my eyes noting the feeling of rain cascading my face dying my body red. The feeling lasted for a few minutes till it abruptly stopped. I reluctantly opened my eyes. And that same gaze greeted me, sending shivers through my spine. What stood in front of me was a boy. He was probably around 5 years old. The kind of boy you would see in kindergartens running around playing tag or sliding down slides.

He had a bowl cut. His fringes covering a large part of his forehead. His plump cheeks would look cute on any other boy his age but his pale skin just made it creepy. He had sunken eyes and would have looked normal if not for the holes on his body. The hole on his left chest revealed his white rib cage. Two bones horizontally placed in front of his heart. A lump of black and yellow meat. Yellow outlining his heart chambers and black being the heart. It was thumping rhythmically. Sending blood to his mangled pieces of flesh. White maggots burrowed in and out of the heart. Nibbling on the decayed flesh. His skin pale to the point that you can see his nerve endings. It looked like black lines thinly tattooed on his rotten skin. And his eyes. FUCK.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Tears start forming at the corner of my eyes, Fear creeping through every part of my skin, immobilizing me. I can hear my on deafening heartbeat. Thumping faster as if to tell me that I should run but my feet was already numb.

His eyes were white, everything was white in that socket except for his pupils. It was black. On his right eyeball, “Qalice” was carved in red. It looked like somebody took a needle and carved those words on his bare eyes. His left eye had the word “DIE”.

The boy moved, fleshy feet taking small strides to me and all I could do was look at him. My internal clock screaming, ticking down the time he will finally reach me. A few moments passed and he was upon me. His callused hands held my legs, propping himself up so that he was sitting on my lap. His deathly white eyes staring into mine.

At this point, my face was already covered in tears. They were flooding down my cheeks like how rivers flood valleys. My lips trembled. I wanted to close my eyes but something was stopping me. He raised his small grubby hands and caressed my left cheek. His fingers trailed down my jaw till it reached my neck. It just hovers there for a while before his fingers tighten. Force unbefitting his age assaulted my neck, crushing my windpipe. My chest rose trying its best to inhale oxygen but the taste of air never came. My eyes widen and my pupils dilate, staring into his white eyes as my body struggled futilely. This would be the end of this nightmare. It has always been like that except today. Today’s nightmare was different. Today’s nightmare was the last.

The boys lip parted and his raspy voice entered my ears. My eyes went wide with shock but before I could respond, I fell unconscious.

I woke up to two firm hands holding onto me. My dad was trying to calm me while my mother was whispering words into my ears. My whole face was drenched with tears and even after waking up they just won’t stop. Especially after I heard what he said in that last second before I fainted.

He said “I’ve found you, Qalice”.