It all began when I started digging into skin-walkers and other mythical creatures, and I started having unsettling nightmares. However, this particular one really takes the cake in terms of driving me to insomnia and restless nights. In this haunting nightmare, I am sitting in a depressing room, hunched back in obvious distress. The room in question is the only thing that falls into my range of sight. Everything outside is eerie and nothing but a void. The air surrounding my unfortunate self has a musty and putrid stench to it, reeking of decaying flesh and rotting bones. Along with the constant urge to throw up, my distraught self has to bear with these surreal yet unnerving shrieks emerging from the seemingly, everlasting abyss. Just as I started to process the fact that the situation at hand could not get any worse: It did! Which completely caught me off guard. The howls from outside have now reached a pitch so devastatingly high that my hands instinctively covered my bleeding ears. The footsteps of these entities could now be heard threateningly closing in on me. At this wholly, unanticipated turn of events, I begin to contemplate whether to confine myself to the now, somewhat familiar room or surrender to the dark unknown. Amidst this overwhelmingly fear-filled chaos and utter confusion, I can sense their intensifying urge to break in. They have now begun to viciously claw at the beyond futile windows of the room which show me nothing of the outside world but complete darkness. I begin to wonder.... Can they smell my blood? Can they sense my desperation and vulnerability as a defenseless inferior being? What is it that is driving them to do this? As my mind unwillingly absorbs this unfortunate turn of events while simultaneously envisioning a gruesome fate, completely oblivious to the non-existent reality of this dream, I enter into a frozen state instead of sporting a flight or fight mode, no different than a deer caught in headlights. As soon as I snap out of the frozen state of mind and body, I decide in favour of fleeing for my life! Adrenaline surging through my wimpy body, I crash open the almost unhinged door with full force and take off! Racing for dear life! Looking over my shoulders for the bloodthirsty skin-walkers was not even an option. But I could still sense them gaining on me as I caught displeasing glimpses of the immortal creatures. They were each tall enough to tower over the younger trees, with deformed faces, raw skin and gaping gashes throughout their bodies. Though emaciated, they appeared capable of devouring my wee self in the mere blink of an eye, if given the opportunity to do so. As I am almost snatched up and fed into the horrifyingly dreadful mouths of one of them, I awake in pure hysteria, drenched in a cold sweat. The stomachchurning feeling of someone constantly watching me has still not abated. I now gaze into the dimly lit hallway, adjacent to my room and the realization that I am staring straight at a grotesque, distorted frame of a skin-walker, silhouetted in the doorway, still dumbfounds my senses to this very moment.
Nashika Afridi Inter I
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