Nightmares

The werewolf stands. Her head tilts to the left, her smile baring every tooth in her skull. Her skin is pale white, and her mouth reaches her eyes. Her back peeks out from behind her huge head, ugly, hairy and grey. She stands at the height of Big Ben. I am soaked in my own sweat and tears, her upper lip rises and she growls, revealing her fangs. Her blood thirsty mouth envelopes around my body and I scream.

I wake up panting. Sweat is sticking to my bony shanks. It's Saturday. I scarcely make it to the kitchen without toppling over. “Katara? You’re as pale as a ghost! My poor child” Mum guides me to a water glass. I take a sip. “I’m pale?” “You're more than pale...you’re white...” I start to feel dizzy. I ask Mum if I can go back to bed. She nods. Then I notice bristly hairs on my fingers that weren't there before. Suddenly I'm in pain all over as I leap onto my bed. My back evolves into a hairy arch, my legs stretch longer and longer until my head brushes the ceiling. I am covered in fur. My teeth fall out my mouth and land in a heap of blood on the floor. Fangs replace them. My jaw widens, to fit more rows of teeth. I scream, the pain is excruciating. Claws erupt from underneath my grey, hairy, long fingers. Until I realize what I have become, I have become the werewolf from my vision.

I smash through my door, and fall onto my hands and feet. Growling, why am I growling? It confuses me. “Katara? Is everything alright?” Mum turns the hallway and screeches in terror as she stares at me. I run to her, she will know it's me! Of course she will! I swipe out my hand to catch and reassure her, but I forgot my sharp claws. I can do nothing but regret as they slice through my mothers face and stomach. She screams in pain. Blood pours from her face and side, scarring her for life. I did that. I race out of the house, and run in the opposite direction.

A shadowy night is upon me. I am cocooned in a ball of my own warmth. Hiding behind a grand oak tree, its presence stands in a vast park. Why, oh why shall it be I? The one soaked in the rain which falls in droplets from the starry night sky, the one whose family thinks that I have been eaten morsel by morsel by a werewolf. My eyes fall shut.

I am standing in a white room. Small. No corners, appears round. In the center of this peculiar room is a short wooden stool. Sitting on the stool….is…..my mother? The woman turns. It is Mum! But immediately her head shakes furiously from side to side and her neck shrivels into the width of a pencil. Until her entire body shrinks and in a poof, the place where my mother once stood was a doll. With braided black hair and a dirty smile. Sitting on the stool, with wide innocent eyes. “Where is my Mum?” I growl. A little stunned at the fact that I can speak. The dolls round eyes look at me. And I wonder, ‘if looks could kill.’ the doll giggles. “You killed her, remember? And looks can’t kill stupid” she laughs.

Tears run down my cheeks. “You can read my mind?” I say. My voice cracking. “I don't believe that we have been properly acquainted, my name is Suzie” Suzie grins. “ I don't really care!” I shout. “Oh, how I loathe violence” she sighs. “What can I do? Anything? To be normal again?” I plead. She chuckles, “you want to bring her back do you?” I growl and bare my fangs. I have the sudden urge to eat her up. “Of course” I grumble. “I'm not sure you would like what you must do,” she sneers. “You can control my growing abilities?” I cry, alarmed. “You can take my place. As a doll. And all of this will be forgotten” “Yes! What do I do?” I leap to her side. Only hearing the ‘and all of this will be forgotten’ bit. “Just say, yes” and she takes my paw. “Yes” I say.

I never realized that I would become the doll. Waiting for someone like me, only living with one parent, and vulnerable. To have a nightmare.

Written By: Estelle Languette