Screaming, crying, fire, amber colored eyes wide with fear shot forward then back again, back into the darkness where even worst horrors lurked. A sudden flash made me jump, another scream, but this scream was different. It was higher pitched and it was silenced quickly, “too quickly,” I thought to myself.

“You really thought you could save her, didn’t you? How amusing.”

It was him, the worst of my horrors, his voice was a low guttural noise and it alone made my blood freeze and my spine ache. I whirled around, nothing, nothing but darkness. Wait….was, was it moving? Yes, a figure tall and broad shouldered was stalking towards me with a bloody sword in his right hand and something I couldn’t make out in his left. I felt my throat tighten with terror as I watched the pulsing creature come towards me. His eyes were an acid green color, his mouth only a thin line on his dark face. Then, it smiled; the thin line became a gash with jagged teeth and dark red gums. As I stared at him he slowly raised his left hand to show me what he was hiding, the blood curdling smile still on his lips. I tried to let out a shriek of sheer and absolute anguish at the sight but felt my throat tighten violently. “But why?” I thought, it was then that I realized fear was only part of the reason. The other major part was that somehow the creature’s hands were around my throat! I struggled, he laughed, struggle, laugh, struggle. His face drawing closer, sword beginning to raise, his laugh becoming louder and louder and louder and……….

I leapt into the air then fell on something hard that felt cool underneath my stomach. I lurched my eyes open, blinked a few times and realized I was safely in my room and……well…..on the floor. I sat up slowly and observed the area, there were no people screaming except for the rock ‘n’ roll posters on my wall, no crazy guy trying to attack me and my attacker’s booming laugh was only the rumbling of the subway that passed near by. I shook my head and stood up, “just another bad dream,” I said to myself. But it was always the same one, the only difference is that sometimes tall, dark, and psychotic doesn’t show up. The mere thought of him makes my body go numb, “why am I so afraid of this guy?” I thought. I ponder on that question while I fixed up my futon and planned the events of the day to myself. After I was done I decided to take a quick, but very hot, shower to get my mind off the horrible dream and come back to reality.

I was towel drying my hair when I stopped because I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror. My body was muscular, but not pumped up like my friend Phenton’s, and my face was chiseled and the complete package that showed I was some German/American hybrid. Although, now that I think about it, my appearance definitely wouldn’t have put my name on the top of Mr. Adolf Hitler’s list for being the superior race of the world. My dark hair resembled a raven’s wings, while my eyes gave off a light sapphire shine that my mother called “crystal eyes.” In other words, my parent’s genes ran smoothly together when they decided that it was time for me to enter the world and be apart of it just like they were. But what really set my appearance straight was the ever so noticeable X on my left cheek, that made people know who I was and what I am apart of, more on that later. I withdrew from the mirror and threw on a pair of black jeans and a MSI sweatshirt and rushed downstairs where my family waited. What I didn’t know was that something else was waiting for me, a piece of paper, just a normal piece of

notebook paper that would turn my life upside down and change it forever.