Nightmare: Just Wake Up

(We've all heard of Jeff the killer and his story, but there was another boy who shared the same fate.)

Michael and his family had just moved into a new neighborhood. His dad had gotten a promotion at work, and they thought it would be best to live in one of those "fancy" neighborhoods. Michael and his sister Lauren couldn't complain though. A new, better house. What was not to love? As they were getting unpacked, one of their neighbors came by.

"Hello," she said, "I'm Marline; I live across the street from you. Well, I just wanted to introduce my self and to introduce my son." She turns around and calls her son over. "Robert, these are our new neighbors." Robert said hi and ran back to play in his yard.

"Well," said Michael's mom, "I'm Angie, and this is my husband Bill, my son, Michael and my daughter Lauren." They each introduced themselves, and then Marline invited them to her son's birthday. Michael and his sister were about to object, when their mother said that they would love to. When Michael and his family are done packing, Michael went up to his mom.

"Mom, why would you invite us to some kid's party? If you haven't noticed, I'm not some dumb kid."

"Michael," said his mother, "We just moved here; we should show that we want to spend time with our neighbors. Now, we're going to that party, and that's final." Michael started to talk, but stopped himself, knowing that he couldn't do anything. Whenever his mom said something, it was final. He walked up to his room and plopped down on his bed. He sat there looking at his ceiling when suddenly, he got a weird feeling. Not so much a pain, but... a weird feeling. He dismissed it as just some random feeling. He heard his mother call him down to get his stuff, and he walked down to get it.

The next day, Michael walked down stairs to get breakfast and got ready for school. As he sat there, eating his breakfast, he once again got that feeling. This time it was stronger. It gave him a slight tugging pain, but he once again dismissed it. As he and Lauren finished breakfast, they walked down to the bus stop. They sat there waiting for the bus, and then, all of a sudden, some kid on a skateboard jumped over them, only inches above their laps. They both jumped back in surprise. "Hey, what the hell?"

The kid landed and turned back to them. He kicked his skate board up and caught it with his hands. The kid seems to be about fifteen; one year younger than Michael. He wears a Gap shirt and ripped blue jeans.

"Well, well, well. It looks like we got some new meat." Suddenly, two other kids appeared. One was super skinny and the other was huge. "Well, since you're new here, I'd like to introduce ourselves, over there is Kevin." Michael and Lauren looked over to the skinny kid. He had a dopey face that you would expect a sidekick to have. "And he's John." They looked over at the fat kid. Talk about a tub of lard. This kid looked like he hadn't exercised since he was crawling.

"And I," said the first kid, "am Donavan. Now, for all the kids in this neighborhood there is a small price for bus fare, if you catch my drift." Lauren stood up, ready to punch the lights out of the kid's eyes when one of his friends pulled a knife on her. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, I had hoped you would be more cooperative, but it seems we must do this the hard way." John walked up behind Lauren and grabbed her arms as Donavan walked up to her with a perverted smile on his face. Michael got that feeling again. Now, it was truly strong; a burning sensation. He stood up, but Lauren gestured him to sit down. Michael ignored him and walked up to the kid.

"Listen here you little punk, give back my sister's wallet or else." Donavan let go and pulled out his own knife.

"Oh? And what will you do?" Just as he finished the sentence, Michael popped the kid in the nose. As Donavan reached for his face, Michael grabbed the kid's wrist and broke it. Donavan screamed and Michael grabbed the knife from his hand. John and Kevin rushed Michael, but Michael was too quick. He threw Randy to the ground. Keith lashed out at him, but Jeff ducked and stabbed him in the arm. Keith dropped his knife and fell to the ground screaming. John rushed him too, but Michael didn't even need the knife. He just punched John straight in the stomach and John went down. As he fell, he puked all over. Lauren could do nothing but look in amazement at Michael.

"Michael how'd you?" that was all he said. They saw the bus coming and knew they'd be blamed for the whole thing. So they started running as fast as they could. As they ran, they looked back and saw the bus driver rushing over to Donavan and the others. As Michael and Lauren made it to school, they didn't dare tell what happened. All they did was sit and listen. Lauren just thought of that as her brother beating up a few kids, but Michael knew it was more. It was something, scary. As he got that feeling he felt how powerful it was, the urge to just, hurt someone. He didn't like how it sounded, but he couldn't help feeling happy. He felt that strange feeling go away, and stay away for the entire day of school. Even as he walked home due to the whole thing near the bus stop, and how now he probably wouldn't be taking the bus anymore, he felt happy. When he got home his parents asked him how his day was, and he said, in a somewhat ominous voice, "It was a wonderful day." Next morning, he heard a knock at his front door. He walked down to find two police officers at the door, his mother looking back at him with an angry look.

"Michael, these officers tell me that you attacked three kids. That it wasn't regular fighting, and that they were stabbed. Stabbed, son!" Michael's gaze fell to the floor, showing his mother that it was true.

"Mom, they were the ones who pulled the knives on me and Lauren."

"Son," said one of the cops," We found three kids, two stabbed, one having a bruise on his stomach, and we have witnesses proving that you fled the scene. Now, what does that tell us?" Michael knew it was no use. He could say him and Lauren had been attacked, but then there was no proof it was not them who attacked first. They couldn't say that they weren't fleeing, because truth be told they were. So Michael couldn't defend himself or Lauren.

"Son, call down your brother." Michael couldn't do it, since it was him who beat up all the kids.

"Sir, it...it was me. I was the one who beat up the kids. Lauren tried to hold me back, but she couldn't stop me." The cop looked at his partner and they both nod.

"Well son, looks like a year in Juvy..."

"Wait!" says Lauren. They all looked up to see her holding a knife. The officers pulled their guns and locked them on Lauren.

"It was me, I beat up those little punks. Have the marks to prove it." She lifted up his sleeves to reveal cuts and bruises, as if she was in a struggle.

"Miss, just put the knife down," said the officer. Lauren held up the knife and dropped it to the ground. she put her hands up and walked over to the cops.

"No Lauren, it was me! I did it!" Michael had tears running down his face.

"Huh, poor bro. Trying to take the blame for what I did. Well, take me away." The police led Lauren out to the patrol car.

"Lauren, tell them it was me! Tell them! I was the one who beat up those kids!" Michael's mother put her hands on his shoulders.

"Michael please, you don't have to lie. We know it's Lauren, you can stop." Michael watched helplessly as the cop car speeds off with Lauren inside. A few minutes later Michael's dad pulled into the driveway, seeing Michael's face and knowing something was wrong.

"Son, son what is it?" Michael couldn't answer. His vocal cords were strained from crying. Instead, Michael's mother walked his father inside to break the bad news to him as Michael wept in the driveway. After an hour or so Michael walked back in to the house, seeing that his parents were both shocked, sad, and disappointed. He couldn't look at them. He couldn't see how they thought of Lauren when it was his fault. He just went to sleep, trying to get the whole thing off his mind. Two days went by, with no word from Lauren at JDC. No friends to hang out with. Nothing but sadness and guilt. That is until Saturday, when Michael is woke up by his mother, with a happy, sunshiny face.

"Michael, it's the day." she said as she opened up the curtains and let light flood into his room.

"What, what's today?" asked Michael as he stirs awake.

"Why, it's Robert's party." He was now fully awake.

"Mom, you're joking, right? You don't expect me to go to some kid's party after..." There was a long pause.

"Michael, we both know what happened. I think this party could be the thing that brightens up the past days. Now, get dressed." Michael's mother walked out of the room and downstairs to get ready herself. He fought himself to get up. He picked out a black shirt and pair of rugged pants and walked down stairs. He saw his mother and father all dressed up; his mother in a dress and his father in a suit. He thought "why they would ever wear such fancy clothes to a kid's party?"

"Son, is that all you're going to wear?" said Michael's mom.

"Better than wearing too much." he said. His mother pushed down the feeling to yell at him and hid it with a smile.

"Now Michael, we might be over-dressed, but this is how you go if you want to make an impression." said his father. Michael grunted and went back up to his room.

"I don't have any fancy clothes!" he yelled down stairs.

"Just pick out something." called his mother. He looked around in his closet for what he would call fancy. He found a pair of black sweatpants and kept the black shirt on. Finally, he found a black hoodie and put it on.

"You're wearing that?" they both said. His mother looked at her watch. "Oh, no time to change. Let's just go." She said as she herded Jeff and his father out the door. They crossed the street over to Marline and Robert's house. They knocked on the door and at it appeared that Marline, just like his parents, way over-dressed. As they walked inside all Michael could see were adults, no kids.

"The kids are out in the yard. Michael, how about you go and meet some of them?" said Marline.

Michael walked outside to a yard full of kids. They were running around in weird cowboy costumes and shooting each other with plastic guns. He might as well be standing in a Toys R Us. Suddenly a kid came up to him and handed him a toy gun and hat.

"Hey. Wanna pway?" he said.

"Ah, sorry kid. I'm way too old for this stuff." The kid looked at him with that weird puppydog face.

"Pwease?" said the kid. Michael sighs "Fine." He put on the hat and started to pretend shoot at the kids. At first he thought it was totally ridiculous, but then he started to actually have fun. It might not have been super cool, but it was the first time he had done something that took his mind off of Liu. So he played with the kids for a while, until he heard a noise. A weird rolling noise. Then it hit him. Donavan, John, and Kevin all jumped over the fence on their skateboards. Jeff dropped the fake gun and ripped off the hat. Donavan looked at Michael with a burning hatred.

"Hello, Mike, is it?" he said. "We have some unfinished business." Michael saw his bruised nose." I think we're even. I beat the crap out of you, and you get my brother sent to JDC."

Donavan got an angry look in his eyes. "Oh no, I don't go for even, I go for winning. You may have kicked our asses that one day, but not today." As he said that Donavan rushed at Michael. They both fell to the ground. Donavan punched Michael in the nose, and Michael grabbed him by the ears and head butted him. Michael pushed Donavan off of him and both rose to their feet. Kids were screaming and parents were running out of the house. John and Kevin both pulled guns out of their pockets.

"No one interrupts or guts will fly!" they said. Donavan pulled a knife on Michael and stabbed it into his shoulder.

Michael screamed and fell to his knees. Donavan started kicking him in the face. After three kicks Michael loses it. Michael grabs Donavan's foot and twists it, causing Donavan to fall to the ground. Jeff stood up and walked towards the back door. Troy grabbed him.

"Need some help?" He picks Michael up by the back of the collar and throws him through the patio door. As Michael tries to stand he is kicked down to the ground. Donavan repeatedly starts kicking Michael, until he starts to cough up blood.

"Come on Michael, fight me!" He picks Michael up and throws him into the kitchen. Donavan sees a bottle of vodka on the counter and smashes it on top of Michael's head.

"Fight!" He throws Michael back into the living room.

"Come on Mike, look at me!" Michael glances up, his face riddled with blood. "I was the one who got your sister sent to JDC! And now you're just gonna sit here and let her rot in there for a whole year! You should be ashamed!" Michael starts to get up.

"Oh, finally! you stand and fight!" Michael is now to his feet, blood on his face. Once again he gets that strange feeling, the one in which he hasn't felt for a while. "Finally. He's up!" says Donavan as he runs at Michael. That's when it happens. Something inside Michael snaps. His psyche is destroyed, all rational thinking is gone, all he can do, is kill. He smiles "my turn", Michael grabs Donavan and pile drives him to the ground. He gets on top of him and punches him straight in the heart. The punch causes Donavan's heart to stop. As Donavan gasps for breath. Michael hammers down on him. Punch after punch, blood gushes from Donavan's body, until he takes one final breath, and dies. "Oh well" Michael says smiling, "playtime's over".

Everyone is looking at Michael now. The parents, the crying kids, even John and Kevin. Although they easily break from their gaze and point their guns at Michael. Michael see's the guns trained on him and runs for the stairs. "Try to catch me!" he says. As he runs John and Kevin let out fire on him, each shot missing. Michael runs up the stairs. He hears John and Kevin follow up behind. As they let out their final rounds of bullets Michael ducks into the bathroom. He grabs the towel rack and rips it off the wall. John and Kevin race in, knives ready.

John swings his knife at Michael, who backs away and bangs the towel rack into John's face. John goes down hard and now all that's left is Kevin. He is more agile than John though, and ducks when Michael swings the towel rack. He dropped the knife and kicked Michael into the wall. A thing of bleach fell down on top of him from the top shelf. It burnt both of them and they both started to scream. Michael wiped his eyes as best as he could. He pulled back the towel rack and swung it straight into Kevin's head. As he lay there, bleeding to death, he let out an ominous smile.

"What's so funny?" asked Michael. Kevin pulled out a lighter and switched it on. "What's funny," he said, "Is that you're covered in bleach and alcohol." Michael's eyes widened as Kevin threw the lighter at him. As soon as the flame made contact with him, the flames ignited the alcohol in the vodka. While the alcohol burned his skin. Michael let out a terrible screech as half his face went in flames. He tried to roll out the fire but it was no use, the alcohol had made him a walking inferno. He ran down the hall, and fell down the stairs. Everybody started screaming as they saw Michael, now a man on fire, drop to the ground, nearly dead. The last thing Michael saw was his mother and the other parents trying to extinguish the flame. That's when he fainted.

When Michael woke he had a cast wrapped around his face. It took him awhile to find out where he was, but he felt a cast on his shoulder, and stitches all over his body. He tried to stand up, but he realized that there was some tube in his arm, and when he tried to get up it fell out, and a nurse rushed in.

"I don't think you can get out of bed just yet." she said as she put him back in his bed and re-inserted the tube. Michael sat there, wondering where he was. Finally, after hours, he heard his mother.

"Honey, are you okay?" she asked. Michael was silent. "Oh honey, I have great news. After all the witnesses told the police that Donavan confessed of trying to attack you, they decided to let Lauren go." This made Michael almost bolt up, stopping halfway, remembering the tube coming out of his arm. "He'll be out by tomorrow, and then you two will be able to be together again."

Michael's mother hugs Michael and says her goodbyes. The next couple of weeks were those where Michael was visited by his family. Then came the day where his bandages were to be removed. His family were all there to see it, what he would look like. As the doctors unwrapped the bandages from Michael's face everyone was on the edge of their seats. They waited until the last bandage holding the cover over his face was almost removed.

"Let's hope for the best," said the doctor. He quickly pulls the cloth; letting the rest fall from Michael's face.

Michael's mother screams at the sight of his face. Lauren and Michael's dad stare awe-struck at his face.

"What? What happened to my face?" Michael said. He rushed out of bed and ran to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror and saw the cause of the distress. His face. It... it's horrible. Half of his face was turned to leather, his left eye was boiled and his hair singed from brown to black. He slowly put his hand to the left side of his face. It had a sort of smooth feel to it now. He looked back at his family then back at the mirror.

"Michael," said Lauren, "It's not that bad..."

"Not that bad?" said Michael," It's perfect!" His family was equally surprised. Michael started laughing uncontrollably His parents noticed that his left, dead eye and hand were twitching.

"Uh... Mike, are you okay?"

"Okay? I've never felt more happy! Ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa, look at me. This face goes perfectly with me!" He couldn't stop laughing. He stroked his face feeling it. Looking at it in the mirror, asking himself

"what caused this?" Well, you may recall that when Michael was fighting Donavan something in his mind, his sanity, snapped. Now he was left as a crazy killing machine, that is, his parents didn't know.

"Doctor," said Michael's mom, "Is my son... alright, you know. In the head?"

"Oh yes, this behavior is typical for patients that have taken very large amounts of pain killers. If his behavior doesn't change in a few weeks, bring him back here, and we'll give him a psychological test."

"Oh thank you doctor." Michael's mother went over to Michael. "Mike, sweetie. It's time to go."

Michael looks away from the mirror, his face still formed into a crazy smile. "yes mother, ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaa!" his mother took him by the shoulder and took him to get his clothes.

"This is what came in," said the lady at the desk. Michael's mom looked down to see the black sweatpants and black hoodie her son wore. Now they were clean of blood and now stitched together. Michael's mother led him to his room and made him put his clothes on. Then they left, not knowing that this was their final day of life.

Later that night, Michael's mother woke to a sound coming from the bathroom. It sounded as if someone was groaning. She slowly walked over to see what it was. When she looked into the bathroom she saw a horrendous sight. Michael had taken a heated knife and carved a strange symbol on his cheek.

"Michael, what are you doing?" asked his mother.

Michael looked over to his mother. "My name is not Michael" he said "it's Nightmare" Michael smiled as he his accepted his new name.

"I wanted to fix my face." Nightmare explained "It hurt after awhile. But with this symbol I can now live forever." His right eye started twitching, Michael's mother looked noticed one of his eyes was missing.

"Michael, your eye!" His left eye was removed.

"I couldn't see out of my left eye... so I popped it out; as if it would matter." Michael's mother slowly started to back away, seeing that her son was going insane. "What's wrong mother? Aren't I handsome?

"Yes son," she said, "Yes you are. L-let me go get daddy, so he can see your face." She ran into the room and shook Michael's dad from his sleep. "Honey, get the gun we..." She stopped as she saw Nightmare in the doorway, holding a machete.

"Liar!" That's the last thing they hear as Nightmare rushes them with the machete, gutting both of them.

His sister Lauren woke up, startled by some noise. She didn't hear anything else, so she just shut her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. As she was on the border of slumber, she got the strangest feeling that someone was watching her. She looked up, before Nightmare's hand covered her mouth. He slowly raised the machete ready to plunge it into Lauren. Lauren thrashed here and there trying to escape Nightmare's grip.

"Shhhhhhh," Nightmare said. "Just wake up."

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