by Antony M. McCartney

Created on: November 03, 2009

Janie lie there, silent as slow drifting snow. To the onlooker she appears serene, although if Janie could talk, or move, you would know she is anything but. Let us step inside her mind, tip toe into her dreams, and you will see for your self just how terrified Janie is. As this beautiful serene looking creature slumbers she is haunted by the most disturbing things you've never heard about on the news.

She hit the ground running. From where? To where? She doesn't know, and is too frightened to care. All she knows is that she needs to get away. Away from that thing, that indescribable horror. Janie felt as if the creature under the bed had melded with Charles Manson, and it was coming for her. She had just watched as it used and abused everyone she held dear, and it was coming for her.

I would go into detail as to what exactly this thing was capable of, but I don't have the heart. I cannot even begin, for Janie isn't the beast's only victim. All the disturbing happenstance of her dreams seem to be insignificant in comparison to what it did to me. I do not know what to call it, but it frightens me to the core. Its breath is the eerie sound that the cottage makes in the night. I feel its presence when I walk the dark streets at night, it compels me to glance over my shoulder.

I never see it, no one ever does. Only in dreams does it have form, yet even then it is indescribable. Although enigmatic, in dreams it is no longer the invisible presence or the unnerving sound. Nay, in dreams it is never the shadow flashing across the windowpane. It becomes the dark itself. In dreams the beast is everything and everywhere, it becomes the thing that scares you most with all the qualities of the things that scare you more.

Do not misunderstand my intentions, I do not mean to alarm you so that you can avoid the beast. I mean very much for you to comprehend the threat that is coming your way. For it will come for you in your dreams. It will take you to your darkest place, and it will remind you of what you fear most of all.

I tremble even as I write this warning, because I know this beast far too well. The creature will never leave my dreams for I am weak and it relishes in my unending torture. No woman's caress nor man's words of encouragement can defeat it. I will never escape its horrifying power, but you have been warned. It is coming for you next. You alone have a chance to face your worst nightmare. You alone have a chance to defeat this Phantom.

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