Chapter 2: Nightmare

*Gabriel's broken sleep was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and slamming shut. He got up quickly and put on the same rugged shoes that he had worn before he went to bed.

He did his best to silently walk towards his bedroom door, which was open as usual. Just before he could step into the hallway he could hear loud footsteps that were running through the hallway towards his father's bedroom and before he could even question who or what it was, he was thrown onto the floor by a tremendous force that was created from the door being shoved closed in his face.

He hesitantly got up on his feet and once again walked towards his bedroom door that appeared to have a crack in it from when it was slammed closed. As he cautiously pushed down on it the handle just broke off effortlessly and the door swung open at a steady pace, it seemed to have been more damaged than he had previously thought.

Just before he placed his left foot into the hallway a pitch-black rug that was long enough to cover the entire hallway had unrolled itself out of nowhere. The rug had this dark and sinister smoke that made Gabriel feel a sense of evil within himself, like a dark spirit dwelled within him and controlled his every desire and thought. This feeling got even stronger as he stepped onto the rug. When he looked down at his feet his shoes suddenly turned to ash and this dark smoke had spread over his feet and it was making its way higher and higher up his body until he noticed his arms getting blacker and blacker with the dark smoke surrounding it. He stares into the mirror that was in the middle of the hallway and all that he could see was a dark and sinister figure standing in a cold and dark barren icy wasteland that was melting slowly and turning to water. His attention moved straight towards the figure that was standing there, staring back at him.

The thing that he saw in the mirror was even blacker than what the rug was and its eyes had a blinding white light emitting from them, almost as if it was an angelic soul/being that was surrounded and trapped by darkness. Further down towards its torso were three large scratches dripping with blood.

This experience in the mirror felt so real it sent shivers down his spine. He turned around just to make sure that he was still staring into the mirror.

As he faced the opposite direction the world around him barely existed and it eventually faded to nothing.

He turned back towards the mirror and all the ice around him melted down to an ocean. All that was left was one single block of ice which was sinking under the water. It sunk so deep that he could feel the water creeping up his neck until he was completely submerged in the water.

Gabriel then realised that he couldn't see the figure in the reflection of the mirror anymore, instead, it was him trapped under the water, being able to breathe peacefully until all the water around him turned red. He looked down and saw the three red scars on his torso getting bigger and bigger until his entire torso was blood red all over.

When he looked up again he saw his father's body just floating there in front of him, full of bruises and scars. He couldn't scream for him or anything, the only thing he could do was watch his father just float there.

He suddenly got startled when his father got a sudden burst of energy and screamed something inaudible when he was under the water.*

Gabriel woke up a second time, this time in much more of a panic than before. He was so frightened from the nightmare that he got up to find the mirror where he saw the dark figure. Once he found it, he just stood there, receiving this cold and distant look from his reflection.

After a couple of minutes, some form of rage suddenly took control of him and he ran back to his room and started hitting his punching bag with all of his might. Hit after hit he was tirelessly punching and kicking this bag like it was his arch-enemy, himself.

He then moved on to his bed and threw all of the pillows all around his room and suddenly slowed down.

His rage had died down to this depressive state where he was just beneath his duvet, hiding from the rest of the world.

*After he aimlessly sat there under the protection of his blankets he decided to go and get a glass of water since his throat felt dry.

As soon as he lifted the duvet off of himself and stepped on the floor next to his bed, Gabriel heard a loud bang coming from his father's room. After this, he became very cautious and was thinking of the worst possible scenario, or thing, that could possibly be in his father's room. He felt that there was some sort of presence with him in the room and had a very foreboding feeling and started moving uncontrollably towards the hallway. As soon as he opened his bedroom door, once again, he stepped onto the dark black rug that stretched throughout the hallway with a sinister dark smoke emitting from it. He was moving so slow, it's almost as if something was watching him and indirectly pulling him back towards his bedroom, where it's 'safe'.

Even with this almost supernatural resistance Gabriel still fights his temptation to go back and just moves down the hallway, towards his father's bedroom. As he slowly walked down the hallway he started to feel the ground beneath him shake violently but he was confused because nothing around him was neither moving nor breaking.

He got closer and closer to his father's bedroom door but as he reaches for the handle the door moves a couple of meters away from him. The second time he approached the door and tried to open it the door swung open in the opposite direction that it was supposed to and hit him hard which causes him to get knocked off of his feet once again. *

As he hits the ground he finds himself screaming himself awake and finds that that was all just another nightmare.

He felt terrified, insecure, and unsafe for the rest of the time that he was awake and only managed to check the time long after he woke up screaming because he felt like he was paralysed from the fear that he felt after that experience, the time was 4:00 a.m. and he stayed in that one position under his blankets for another two hours until his alarm went off for school at 6:00 am. Even at this moment, Gabriel didn't want to move out of his bed. His mind was too occupied with the events in his dream.

It was only a few minutes after his alarm went off when his sanity returned to 'normal' but he knew that he would never be the same because of what happened to him in the past few days. He finally started to think about school and where his father might be. After he got up he first made himself breakfast. He poured his cereal into the bowl and then added some milk. After breakfast, he decided to go and brush his teeth and take a cold shower after that for a small energy boost. As he got out of the shower he got dressed in his school uniform and he then headed down the stairs towards the entrance hall, where he had left his school bag. As he picked up his bag he looked at his watch, the time was 7:02. He was on time as he usually is and so he went out the front door and walked to school, which was about 2 blocks away from where he lived. He arrived at the school gate at 7:22, the trip usually takes ten to fifteen minutes but he took his time this morning because of all the thoughts running through his head. He was also very tired from being awake for so long whilst being bound by what felt like an invisible rope that was crafted from fear and uncertainty.

As he walked through the main doors into the school building made his way to his register class. As Gabriel entered the classroom Miss Anders immediately rushes toward him "Gabriel, it's wonderful to see you here today. Is everything okay at home?"

"Yes ma'am," Gabriel responded in a low voice that had very little emotion in it, almost as if he had no motivation or meaning in life anymore. This two-word answer is a little concerning for Miss Anders. She remembers Gabriel's response from yesterday's interaction and decides to call the school psychologist once again.

"Ah, Mr. Wilmans. It's good to see you again. I just called you down here because Gabriel doesn't seem different from what he was like yesterday and so the first thing that I thought I should do was call you down."

"Well, thanks for thinking of calling me down Miss Anders, that certainly was a good idea. Now unfortunately I won't be able to accommodate Gabriel right now as I don't want him to miss out on too much of his school work and fall behind so I will allow him to see me after school, but only if he's up for it of course. But if he really can't seem to concentrate during class then I will gladly come and fetch him for another therapy session."

Miss Anders seems to be surprised at Mr. Wilmans response. "But surely if he can't seem to concentrate in registration then he won't be able to concentrate during class, right?"

"Miss Anders I understand where you're coming from but just trust me on this one, I've seen a similar situation before with another student, Chloë Turner, and it didn't end well." Miss Anders appears to have understood why Mr. Wilmans did what he did because she too remembers the story of Chloë Turner. "Okay, I understand, thank you so much for coming down again sir, I have no idea what the school would do without you," She said with a bright friendly smile that stretched out from one ear to the next.

After that conversation, the bell rings for the first period, and to both Gabriels and Miss Ander's luck, Gabriel had Geography in his first lesson with Miss Anders.

"Well isn't that nice Gabriel? We both see each other for the first lesson of the day," She said with a bright smile. Gabriel responded with a slight smirk, barely moving his facial features, "Yes, I'm so glad about that ma'am." Their 'conversation' is cut short by the other students that have arrived from other register classes, waiting for their first lesson to begin. "Come in everyone!" Miss Anders shouted. "Everyone please be seated and take out your workbooks and open up onto page 24. We are going to start this week with some Climatology."

That lesson felt like it took the entire day for Gabriel since his mind kept wondering about the same tormenting thoughts over and over again, all playing in some sort of cycle. The looks from the other students didn't exactly help him either.

He stared aimlessly at the board, pretending to understand what Miss Anders is teaching but only notices her mouth moving. He quickly snaps back to reality after Miss Anders calls out his name multiple times, "Gabriel? Gabriel?" After she attempted to call out his name she approached his desk and repeats the question that she asked earlier, "Gabriel how do you know when a Tropical cyclone is in the Southern Hemisphere?" Gabriel quickly snaps back to reality and responds with what he feels to be the right answer, "It moves in a clockwise direction."

"Very good Gabriel!" Miss Anders exclaims with a sense of pride in her voice.

As the bell rings for the end of the lesson Gabriel takes longer than usual to pack his books and stationary away back into his bag. As soon as no one else is in the class He is approached by Miss Anders, who talks to him with genuine concern. "Gabriel, do you think that you will be fine to concentrate during the day, or do you want to go speak to Mr. Wilmans again?"

"I think I'll be fine ma'am but thanks for asking," He responded, trying to hide his real feelings to avoid any 'inconvenience'. "Okay, that's fine. If you have any problems just let me know, okay?" "Okay, thanks ma'am." He responded.

As Gabriel went through the day, feeling rather tired from having almost no sleep because of his nightmares, the final lesson of the day finally arrived. Gabriel couldn't help but fall asleep during the lesson but by the time he woke up, it was already 15:10 and school had already finished at 14:00 that day. The subject that he had during that lesson was English and luckily the class didn't do much but as he woke up he found Miss Anders, Mr. Wilmans and Mr van der Merwe all standing around him looking very worried. Mr van der Merwe spoke up, "Is everything alright Gabriel? I tried to wake you when the bell rang but you hadn't responded at all."

"Oh, I... I'm so sorry sir, I didn't mean to ignore you," Gabriel said whilst being on the spot, being examined by three different staff members all looking like they just witnessed someone dying in front of them.

Miss Anders decided to speak up, "Gabriel we are all concerned about how you're doing, especially since you have been distant for the last two days, and distant would be an understatement. The fact of the matter is that we are all trying to figure out why you are acting the way you have been acting and we have come to a conclusion...

Correct us if we are wrong but we think that something tragic happened to you a few days ago. I would like to ask you a question once more and I want you to answer me truthfully this time, is that okay?" Gabriel doesn't have the energy to respond so he just ends up nodding whilst looking at the ground at the same time. His anxiety took control of him and his leg started shaking up and down quite excessively. He was so nervous to express how he truly felt at that moment. It felt like he was about to go against everything that he stood for. Miss Anders then proceeded with the question, "What's the problem, Gabriel?"

Gabriel let out a big sigh and started speaking, "Well..."

He was interrupted when he noticed the door move a little bit and he saw someone standing there, someone who looked like they have been through hell and back as well, just like him. The person spoke up, "I'm so sorry to disturb but I was just here to speak to Mr van der Merwe." Both the teachers and Mr. Wilmans look towards the person, all looking like a climax in a book or TV series that they have been reading and watching has just been ruined for them. Mr van der Merwe approaches and greets the person with a little confusion, "Oh Uhm... Luna? How can I help you?"