Chapter 61: Terror Returns
For the longest time, Emily had been a stranger to the land of sweet dreams. But after years of being locked outside, she was finally allowed in. She had no idea how she had managed it, but somehow the trip out of the city had seemed to have given her the gift of being able to sleep, terror free.
That was the final thought that she’d had before falling asleep, and her subconscious mind had carried it over to the land of dreams.
Emily was not afraid, not looking over her shoulder for a monster. There was absolutely no need for her to be wary, this was a good dream.
She walked through a field full of sunflowers. The giant flower heads turning with her, following her wherever she moved. It should have been spooky, but Emily only smiled, waving at them, she was their sun afterall, it was only right that they follow her.
She moved along the flowers running her hands over the green stems. Off in the distance, she saw something that did not belong in the fields of yellow and green, a flash of red.
No! Her mind screamed. Look away! Look away! But Emily could not look away, a single glimpse was all that it took to get her hooked. She had to see it again, she had to find out why there was red in a place filled with so much yellow, she had to find out how it had come to be.
"Bad! Bad! Bad! It is all bad there, all the bad," The wind sang, trying to pull her away. But Emily no longer had control of her own body, it pushed against the force of the wind, cutting through it and moving her closer to the red thing that she was supposed to stay away from. The closer that she got, the more sunflowers around her died. Some on them becoming petrified where they stood, the stems crumbling and mixing with the dirt. Others turned to ash without a single flame touching them. Others just to lose the will to live, shrivelling up and dying on the spot. And with each death, the red thing got brighter and brighter. It was so pretty, and just seeing its beauty made Emily get closer and closer.
When she finally reached it, she realized that it was a ribbon. It was not even tied to anything, it was just simply floating in place, coiling and uncoiling like a living serpent instead of a piece of cloth.
Her brain shrieked that she should get away, and her heart thundered in her ears, trying to beat its way out of her chest.