Nightmare: Part 1

Ahmond kept a book of forbidden magics she checked out of the library with Rosod's library card. Yes, the wolf coyote intended to return it to the bipedal weasel, but sometimes it was hard to release something so valuable.

Since Baynana moved in, the cousins shared a bed. Both were still young enough it was considered acceptable in wolf society, even though they were old enough they needed privacy. It didn't help Ahmond's room was cramped enough already, barely having room for two people.

Ahmond rolled out of bed, onto all fours, and stretched with her little butt up in the air, her snout pointed at the sky, before she scratched the back of her ear with a foot. She had done a lot of reading, and felt like a midnight snack.

Ahmond opened the door, but it creaked even louder than usual. In the corners, shadows stretched and twisted all in a menacing way, and as Ahmond tiptoed as to not disturb anyone, she swore something made the dark feel alive.

Maybe it was just superstition, but this eerie feeling was amplified as she came down the stairs. Usually she didn't care about the sliding glass window exposing their house to the outside world, but now... She clung to the walls, sneaking along, and going down as low as she could so she wouldn't be seen past the windows.

Ahmond released a breath she had been holding in, almost ever since going down the stairs.

Never had she been so scared of the night, or all the monsters that lurked within it, until tonight. She felt a vague sense of unease, as if the outside world was dangerous, and the inside was her only safe bunker.

Ahmond hopped onto the counter, and opened the cabinet, putting one paw on the cabinet to stabilize herself. If she fell, she'd wake up the entire house. She rummaged for a bag of chips, bit down. The wolf coyote lowered herself...

She saw glowing eyes.

Ahmond blinked, and they eyes had disappeared, giving Ahmond a new sense of worry. Sweat collected above her brow, and she hopped off the counter with the chips in tow.

Ahmond didn't sneak along, as much as scurried back up the stairs.

She opened the door to her bedroom, but in the window, above the bed, yellow eyes glowed again.

Ahmond immediately shut the door, not caring how loud it was. After a few breaths, she rationalized she saw nothing, and opened the door slightly ajar. Nothing in one sliver of window... She almost swung the door open, but saw nothing amiss.

Ahmond went over to the book still on the bed. "Do you have anything to do with this?" she asked as she walked over, only for a hand to grab her ankle.

Not a false alert. A skeletal hand grabbed at her ankle, and she screamed. Baynana woke up and asked her, "What is going on?"

"Something's attacking me!" Ahmond said.

"Okay, but it's just a dream," Baynana said.

Ahmond blinked. Baynana grabbed her paws, and yanked her onto the bed. "Yeah, it's my dream."

"No, it's not a dream," Ahmond said, "and I don't remember doing a dream link."

Baynana said, "A lot of things think they don't exist during a dream-"

Ahmond slapped Baynana across the face, then asked, "Did that feel real enough for you?"

Baynana nodded numbly, before both realized something was underneath the bed. A writhing skeleton came out beneath the floorboards, and both threw the blanket over their heads.

"It must be this book!" Ahmond said as she flipped through the pages.

Knowing they had no time left, Baynana threw open the window, and both jumped from the second story.

Ahmond, as usual, fell on her head, while Baynana fell on her bottom. The skeleton creeped out the window, and clung to the wall on its eight legs. It twisted a square shaped head around, a single eye concentrating on the girls.

Ahmond saw the book had page five and six back, despite both having been torn out of the book when she got it.

Nightmare:

The long corrupted spirit of a pegasus now turned to an agent of dreams, who makes others escape their darkest dreams...

Ahmond didn't know if this was a dream, but only one way to find out. She did the summoning ritual, by biting down on her fingers, and bleeding. "Nightmare, Nightmare, Nightmare!"

The skeleton arranged its legs so it was upside down, but it stood and ran at them. However, she heard a clopping sound.

As the monster was about to attack, two diamond hard hooves smashed into its faces, breaking the skull into powder. The monster flew back, but rose up again. It got pierced in the heart with the horn of a unicorn.

The horn drilled, like a doctor's drill, into the chest of the monster. Vanquished, it fell with a shriek, while the pegasus flashed out two leathery wings.

"Come on!" Ahmond told Baynana, and both jumped onto her back, and brushed aside the black flowing mane. Ahmond patted Nightmare's neck. "Let's go."

Nightmare whinnied, and ascended into the air. Nightmare was the same color as space itself.

Nightmare flew up higher and higher into the air, towards the clouds, and back into the realm outside of dreams...

***

Ahmond didn't wake up, but found herself floating above her own body. The Nightmare stood in her room, despite being almost seven feet tall.

She saw Baynana floating around over her body as well.

The Nightmare went over to the physical bodies' heads, and began snacking on something. Actually, it seemed like she was chewing on their heads.

"What are you doing!" Ahmond said, but the horse finished eating, before floating through the windows.

Baynana swam over to the book, and said, "We don't have the fifth or sixth page anymore. Do you think she ate our memories of it?"

Ahmond knew very little of psychic magic, but she knew someone who'd be able to answer that question.

***

Eventually, their souls went back to their bodies, and Ahmond was able to ask her crimson friend, Rosod, what Nightmare did.

"Hey," Ahmond asked, while Rosod wrote a book report. Unfortunately, Rosod had to attend a "school" which her family paid for. As far as Ahmond was concerned, you'd learn everything you needed to know in life from your family. It worked well enough, since she could read, count, and also knew the city-states of Wysdom. But Rosod insisted on getting a proper education.

Rosod turned her head after finishing a full page, and asked Ahmond, "What is it?"

Ahmond said, "Do you know of any spells that could allow someone to, I don't know... eat someone's memory?"

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"While I've heard of it, it's particularly rare," Rosod said. "Magic cannot happen inside the body. That's why you can't heat up someone's body and melt them from the inside out."

"Yeah, yeah, I understand that part," Ahmond said as she looked over at the paper. How Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation... Zoning out after reading just the title, Ahmond decided to regale her previous experience.

"Baynana and I had a bad dream, and during it, we found the missing page of the Forbidden Spell Book, and we found out how to summon a Nightmare? I hadn't read the full thing, but after she carried us from the dream, she began chewing our heads."

Rosod said, "Hm, equines bite things."

"Yeah, but this wasn't a casual bite," Ahmond said. "It was almost like a deep, trying to break into my skull chew. And she was able to float out through physical matter, if that helps, so... What if she was trying to eat my brain? Or was eating my brain?"

Rosod said, "Psychic magic is the only magic that can drain someone's mental faculties. That being said, it's not actually able to alter the brain itself, so she wouldn't have been eating your brain. Besides, if it's just a dream, maybe it didn't even happen?"

Ahmond said, "But it did happen. We even floated over our own bodies, and watched her do it."

Rosod said, "Dreams can be weird. Anyway, what you're describing is an out of body experience. Now I don't fully know what I'd be able to tell you, besides that you also shouldn't summon demons without reading the contract."

"Baynana and I would have been attacked," Ahmond said, but Rosod shook her head. Of course Rosod wouldn't pay any attention to her.

Rosod said, "That's just what happens in dreams. Weird things happen, and you almost get attacked, but you can't just run from your nightmares or bad dreams. You have to confront your fears."

Ahmond thought how easy it was for Rosod to say, when she wasn't the one afraid of being attacked by a Nightmare again.

***

This time, Ahmond and Baynana decided they would sleep in shifts, to make sure the Nightmare didn't begin chewing on them.

Ahmond would sleep first. Except, she wouldn't, because she wasn't able to sleep.

Next, Baynana attempted to sleep, except, she also didn't because she wasn't able to sleep.

It wasn't until the crack of dawn, both girls were mostly brain dead, until they finally fell asleep together.

The alarm rang, and Ahmond and Baynana shot up.

Ahmond said, "Oh man, with our little experiment, we probably woke up late!" She rushed to the bathroom to get ready for the day, until she saw...

The spider skeleton.

Baynana went down to the living room, not bothering to get prepared or anything. She'd just eat something real quick, and get moving, only to see another one of the demons.

It ran up at her, and Baynana screamed as she ran up into the hallway, only to collide heads with Ahmond.

Both knocked each other onto their bottoms, as the skeletal beings came at them.

Ahmond and Baynana crawled away into their bedroom. The book was out, and flipped onto the fifth and sixth page again. Ahmond realized they were in a dream, and was about to grab the book, when a demon stomped on it.

Ahmond grit her teeth, and bit her finger to pop blood. "Nightmare, Nightmare, Nightmare!"

As the demons pounced, they both got bucked in the head. More of the spider beings lurked in from the walls, but Nightmare bit on them, or reared up and stomped on them.

Ahmond tried climbing all seven feet of horse along with Baynana, and they got on her back. Baynana admitted, "Would be nicer if I knew how to ride a horse."

They bit down onto her main, and squeezed their legs around her body, as she flew again.

Once again, they found themselves outside their bodies, but Nightmare went back to chewing on their heads. Luckily, Ahmond had grabbed the book. She smirked at Baynana and Baynana smirked back.

Ahmond was about to read when... They woke up in their own bodies.

"Well, that sucked," Ahmond said, and Baynana nodded.

They weren't able to do much work the next day, and when asked why, they just admitted to having sleep problems.

It wasn't until sleep problems advanced on for two more days they knew something was wrong.

While night reigned, Ahmond asked, "Do you think it's possible she ate our ability to sleep?"

Baynana wasn't sure if she believed that was possible, but... Well, anything WAS possible. The Nightmare had clearly eaten something, and had been chewing on their minds, so it stood to reason that the Nightmare may have eaten their sleep.

"What if it's something different than that?" Baynana asked. "What if she ate our dreams?"

Ahmond shivered, and both stayed down in their beds, just closing their eyes.

On the third day, Ahmond flipped open the book of spells. "That's it, there's got to be a sleep spell here somewhere."

"Ahmond, no!" Baynana said, "What if we get into a deeper mess?"

Ahmond said with a grin, "Well, this spell is called World of Nightmares. We cast it, and it puts us in a nightmare. Since we already know a scary dream is coming, we won't be as afraid, and even if we are, we'll be able to fool the Nightmare. We just do a loop of this, and as she eats our dreams, we make more dreams, and force her to eat those, and we're in a good loop. Sounds like a plan?"

Baynana whined, but said, "Yeah, I need some sleep by now. I can't even straight think."

Ahmond said, "Thinking round."

Both got the potion ready. It was a cup of warm milk, a drop of lavender, and a rose with blood on a thorn. The blood was easy to obtain since stealing a rose, via biting, tended to cause blood to come from the roof of the mouth.

Ahmond swirled the potion around with her claw and drank a swig. She handed it to Baynana, who stared down at the cup before downing the rest of it.

Both fell asleep.

When they awoke, Ahmond said, "Wait, we need to make sure this is actually a dream." Ahmond jumped... And landed on her head onto the wooden floor.

"Did that hurt?" Baynana asked.

Not only did it hurt, but Ahmond realized that meant they were actually awake. With a mixed expression, Ahmond said, "Either I'm really glad, or I'm really sad, or I'm really mad."

"There's not one for fear, is there?" Baynana asked. "Of the ads?"

"No, not really," Ahmond admitted. "Anyway, this is not a dream..." A skeletal being came from underneath the bed, but Ahmond said, "I guess it is a dream?"

Baynana said, "Yeah, besides, it can't actually hurt you, can it?"

It batted Ahmond away, and she smashed against a wall. After falling back down, Ahmond's eyes rolled around in her head. "Uh, never mind, it can hurt us."

It stared at Baynana, and Baynana screamed. As she retreated to a corner of her bed, Ahmond saw blood drip from a wound. With that, Ahmond realized she had enough to make the final call for "Nightmare, Nightmare, Nightmare."

Right before it slashed Baynana, Nightmare pounced upon the being.

Ahmond hopped onto Nightmare's back, as did Baynana, and Nightmare galloped away.

Out of the house, and into the field beyond their home. As the greenery floated by, the girls felt the rocky ride get a bit smoother. Almost as if they were becoming one with the horse herself, who they'd be with for a while.

"Guess that spell was dangerous," Baynana said. With a glare, she said, "How could you have gotten me into that mess?"

Ahmond shrugged. "It wasn't my idea. No, wait, it was... Uh..." She gave a small smile. "Anyway, when we can sleep again, we'll probably have no more bad dreams."

Ahmond told the Nightmare, "Thank you for all of your help, and more." While the Nightmare never seemed to talk, Ahmond felt she understood the message. "Guess getting your help is worth losing a few nights sleep if those nights would have sucked anyway."

Baynana showed Ahmond something. A book, the book of forbidden spells.

Ahmond grinned as she grabbed the book, and said, "Well, here we are. Nightmare."

Nightmare.

The long corrupted spirit of a pegasus now turned to an agent of dreams, who makes others escape their darkest dreams...

The Nightmare is a ghost and a demon, who exists in the plane of dreams. The Nightmare can attack bad dream causing demons who happen to use their powers to make the dream feel real, as all dreams are real, in the dream realm.

Summoning the Nightmare requires a blood offering as she is a demon, and to call her name as she is a ghost.

Upon finishing the ritual, the Nightmare will arrive to the rescue of the individuals, if the individuals need rescued.

Summoning her causes different consequences, as all demons need payment as part of the deal, and all wraiths must, upon summon, steal something from someone else, whether clawing out eyes, or ripping out hearts. In Nightmare's case, the Nightmare eats dreams.

After the first summon, the Nightmare will eat one day worth of dreams. After the second summon, the Nightmare eats one week worth of dreams. After the third and final summon, the Nightmare turns the summoners into Wights.

"Uh, come again?" Baynana asked after reading the part about Wights. "What exactly is a wight?"

Ahmond said, "A dream causing demon. Like the ones that attacked us."

"But she kills Wights?" Baynana asked.

Their eyes widened, and they tried to jump off her back, only to find they had fused to her spine like they a demented centaur. In fact, they sank lower and lower into her body, but Baynana kept a grip upon the book as she read.

Ahmond grabbed onto the horse's back, but that wasn't acknowledged.

Baynana read off a bit of the book very quickly. "Okay, it says the Nightmare is mostly unresponsive, no take backs, if you summon in a good dream you're still paying..."

Both fell deep inside the horse's body, before coming out through her stomach.

Baynana and Ahmond stood outside of their bodies again, but now they were literal skeletons of their former selves.

The Nightmare said, "Good, now we can finally speak demon to demon."

"But we're not demons!" Baynana said.

The Nightmare pointed out, "I beg to differ. If you weren't a demon, you wouldn't be speaking demon."

Baynana and Ahmond realized their speech had changed.

"Are you going to kill us as wights?" Baynana said.

"Repeatedly," the Nightmare told them. "You better get your stage act ready, we're going to be making our first bad dream, and I think one of your little friends would suffice, yes? Lilu?"