Midnight Dream – Chapter 1
I heard the door push open, but I was too sleepy to see who it was. In my mind, I thought it was my mother doing her usual routine check.
Then I felt it.
Something holding me down. At first, I thought it was just the dream I was having, but it started to get more aggressive. My eyes felt paralyzed, heavy, refusing to open.
"Shh... I pay good money for this," the voice said.
I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. I wanted to fight, but I couldn't. He held me tighter, consuming me like a man in the desert starving for water.
Finally, I found the strength to open my eyes just a little. What I saw was worse than anything I could imagine, like a mother killing her own child.
When he was finished, I couldn't move for four hours. The bed was drenched in blood. How could it not be? I was a virgin, and I was eighteen.
I relive that nightmare every day. How could I not, when it stands before me like the black shadows I see every time I close my eyes?
Hi. My name is Midnight Dream.
And that was seven years ago.
Now I'm older, and some would say wiser, but I still play with the demons in my head just to seem sane. I grew up in a small town called Greytown with my mother and my older sister, Moonlight. I called her that because she was my light through every dark nightmare.
We were close once.
Until she went away for college.
After that, it felt like she became a ghost, still there, but not really.
In families like mine, there's always a golden child. My sister was the one. I was the disgrace, the black sheep, the reason, in my mother's eyes, that Papa left us for dead.
He found another woman, married her, and had three boys. What a cliché, right? But that was my reality. He wasn't a good man to my mother. He cheated. He abused her. But she never left. How could she, when she went through the same thing growing up.
The sad part is, she was sexually abused by her own father, who taught her that this was love.
Yes, Mama is twisted. But I remember the good days. They were few, but they existed. And I love Mama. I just wish she loved me back.
My sister moved on with her life. She met a man in college and married him. He would come over often, especially on weekends, meeting Mama and keeping her happy.
He came from money, and that was all Mama needed.
You would have thought he was her husband the way she praised him.
He spoiled my sister, gave her everything she ever wanted, renovated the house we lived in, turned it into a mansion, bought her a car, gave her a life Mama always dreamed of.
But the finest things in life always come with a price.
My sister became a housewife. All those years in college, gone. A slave to a man and to Mama's dreams. They loved him, and Mama most of all. His presence kept her smiling and kept her out of my way.
As for me, I chose differently.
I worked. I studied. I didn't beg a man to love me.
I graduated with a degree in software engineering and left everything behind. I moved out of state where they couldn't find me. I chose the mountains, a place far away from everything that tried to destroy me.
I now live in a small town called Gloomyfogs.
My house is everything I built from nothing.
From the outside, it's black and dark grey. Cold. Uninviting. But inside, it's white and grey. Calm. Controlled.
I created illusion windows so that from the outside, it looks like a normal home, like a family sitting together watching TV. But inside, it's just me.
Everything is advanced. Sensors detect movement. If someone even breathes too close to my property, I know. There are over fifty cameras. I see everything.
I built this house to protect myself.
To protect my demons from the demons that walk freely in this world.
My family thinks I'm nothing. A lost cause. A disgrace.
And I let them believe it.
It was 4:30 a.m. when my alarm went off. I got up and went straight to the gym I built downstairs. Two hours later, I was getting ready for work.
I don't like being around people, but it pays the bills, so I fake the smiles and play the part.
On my way to work, my car lit up with an incoming call.
"Monster."
My mother.
My car is fully customized, advanced, and designed by me. Jet black on the outside, grey on the inside. It responds to my voice, scans my eyes, and moves like it has a mind of its own.
"Princess, start," I said.
The engine came to life.
I answered the call.
"Well, if you're dying, I could really care less," I said.
She laughed. "I know that's your biggest dream, baby, but I'll let you go first."
"What do you want, Mother?"
"If it were up to me, I'd leave you exactly where you belong," she said. "But your sister begged me to call you, so I swallowed my pride and did it."
I stayed quiet.
"She's hosting a family event," she continued. "And you're invited."
"Why?"
"My thoughts exactly," she snapped. "Why invite you when the invitation clearly says family?"
I smirked.
"It's in three months," she went on. "That should give you enough time to clean yourself up. And please don't bring that victim mentality. This is a high-class event. His family will be there. Important people."
She paused.
"Don't embarrass us."
The call ended.
I laughed.
Not because it was funny, but because I had already left that life behind.
And I don't bring the past into the future I'm building.
Especially when the past is full of demons I never invited.