It was a rainy night, Daniel twists and twirls in his bed. It is midnight and he can't fall asleep. To most that is a bad thing but to Daniel it is great. Every few nights Daniel experiences nightmares, terrifying nightmares that cause him a lack of sleep. But to him, the sleep wasn't the problem, the terrifying things he experienced were worse.

As he lay in his bed, silent but awake, he heard a deafening crash outside his window. He jolted out of bed and peeked outside his window. The large tree in his backyard had been stuck by lightning and a large branch fell. He sighed in relief. Daniel thought to himself, silently comprehending what had happened, it took his sleepy brain a minute to understand and another for him to get back into bed. Daniel endured a few more restless hours. Fortunately, morning came soon, and he was forced to endure another type of torture, high school.

After Daniel set foot on his school grounds the bell rang and Daniel was late once again. He walked swiftly to his class and slipped in as silently as possible while his homeroom teacher wasn't looking. This was a rare occasion, Daniel knew this as he tip-toed in as the rest of his class were chatting to each other, etc. But his quickly faded just like it began and his teacher turned around and he was caught. She stared at him for a brief moment before turning away, Daniel took this as a sign he was being let off, but he was wrong. She had turned to the chalkboard in the corner and ran her fingernails down it, the deafening sound caused everyone to shut up.

Everyone’s head snapped toward their teacher whilst silently giving a glare to Daniel. Daniel’s teacher looked at Daniel too, with an evil smile before saying that she had done this because Daniel was late, once again. With this everyone sent another look, more like a glare actually, a menacing glare. Daniel hung his head down in embarrassment as he quickly slid into his seat as his teacher called attendance.

The school day went by pretty quickly and smoothly in Daniel’s opinion, apart from the morning attendance and a few more menacing glares throughout the day because of it. Daniel was walking home, down by the alleyway he saw an old man curled up in a ball, coughing every now and again. Daniel took a glance at the man and… continued walking along the street but after a few more steps, before pity and sympathy sunk into his mind. He turned around and walked back before heading down into the alleyway and asked the old man if he needed anything or if he could help.

The old man asked if Daniel could help him up. Daniel grabbed the old man’s hand but just as he did that he felt a strange shock and pricked feeling. Daniel instinctively pulled his hand away from the old man. The old man then began laughing hysterically and jumped with joy. Daniel didn't understand what was happening so he asked the old man what was going on. The old man in a gleeful voice said he was free, Daniel passed it off as he the old man being crazy walked out of the alley and back onto the street.

I'm a new writer on this platform and am still in high school. I worked really hard on this chapter I hope you like the story so far, even though there isn't much to it. But thank you to everyone who does end up reading this, you have my greatest gratitude.

After Daniel reached home, he began thinking about what the old man had said. About how he was free, Daniel still couldn't make sense of it. So he stumbled into his room and flopped onto his bed. Daniel felt tired, but he still had stuff to do. Daniel got up and lazily walked to his bathroom to change into his soccer gear because later that evening Daniel had to practise.

A few hours later Daniel arrived back at his house and walked into the kitchen to his mum making dinner. Daniel decided against having dinner tonight because he was already too tired. Despite his mum’s requests he just flopped into bed and went to sleep. Daniel thought since last night he had nightmares he wouldn't get them tonight and he could enjoy a restful sleep.

But unfortunately, he was wrong. However, only later would he realise that and by then it would be too late to back out. Daniel’s dreams were soon flooded with scenes of unspeakable things, monsters, demons, ghosts, you name his nightmares have got it.

Daniel suddenly woke up to the sounds of terrified screams, and even more mortifying growls of what seemed like beasts from movies. However, Daniel could recognise those roars as he had just heard them. He got out of bed and stared out the window only to see flames burning rumble crashing and monsters running amok. Daniel in disbelief rubbed his eyes thoroughly and checked again. He then heard a familiar voice however it was filled with indescribable terror.

He rushed to the voice, and there he saw his mother holding a frying pan, waving it at a beast who was growling at her. She looked at Daniel and gave him a fearful glance and mouthed for him to step away quietly. Daniel turned tail and began tip-toeing back however he was struck with a mountain of guilt, how could he leave his mother there Daniel thought. He turned around once again and picked up his soccer cleats which were lying by the door and held them as a weapon with the studs facing out.

He gathered his courage snuck behind the beast and with one big swing, slammed the beast in the head. However, the is only stunned by the beast giving just enough time for Daniel’s mother to get past and to Daniel. They rushed into Daniel’s room and barricaded the door with whatever furniture they could find. This seemed like the dawn of the apocalypse. Daniel checked outside through the window again and all he could see was chaos. These beasts had an uncanny resemblance to his nightmares.

A few hours later

Daniel and his mother were still in his room barricaded up. Daniel explained to his mother what he had thought about the resemblance between his nightmares and the situation they are in right now. However deafening crash interrupted their conversation, it came from outside. They peeked outside with caution only to see what seemed to be a sea of blood in the sky…