Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ The Vampire Prince ❯ Nightmares ( Prologue )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

It's cold outside, and that's all I am able to feel. The cold biting into my skin as the rain pelts me, falling from the sky in mad torrents. My shirt is soaked and it clings to my skin as I run, and I struggle to keep my balance on the wet pavement as the rubber soles of my sneakers lose their grip. It's been a while since I've started running, my heart pounding painfully inside of my ribcage and the air burns my throat with each consecutive gasp I take. I don't even know why I'm even trying to run away. It's useless--they keep up with me effortlessly, and they are only laughing at my attempt to escape them. It won't be long now. They know it, and I know it. My knees are giving out as I run, and spots are dancing along the corners of my vision.

People give me odd looks as I pass them frantically down the streets, my limbs no longer coordinated. I'm swinging everything wildly, anything to give me momentum, to keep me going forward. I am about to pass out, and I stumble and do fall. My shins collide with the curb and I groan in pain before rolling onto my back. The ache rides my nerves and shocks me all the way to the tips of my fingers. The lack of oxygen makes me dizzy, and I am unable to focus as I hear loud whispers and yells as people begin to surround me. My pulse flutters uncontrollably and irregularly as I struggle for air, and then I am coughing. Coughing so hard that I can't breathe, and I start to black out. A fear washes over me then, and I struggle to hold on to consciousness. Something in the back of my mind tells me that I won't survive if I succumb to the darkness that is steadily pulling me under. You won't wake up, a voice whispers sadistically in my ear. They will find you.


A loud groan pulls me to consciousness and I lay very still in the darkness. My skin is covered in sweat, and my chest is heaving as if I've just run a marathon. Eyes opening, I turn wide-eyed to fix my gaze on the clock beside my bed. The pale green numbers glow 4:32 AM, and I sink back into the mattress with relief. It was just a dream. The same dream I have been having for the last month, but a dream none the less. I am safe, I am home. But I know I won't be able to sleep, so I swing my feet out from under my bed and sit up. Shakily, I run my fingers through my hair before fixing my eyes on the closed door to my room. I am awake but the dark atmosphere created by my dream still lingers. I hesitate, but eventually get up and make my way across the carpeted floor. Hand resting upon the doorknob, my fingers curl around the metal as if for re-assurance, and I turn the knob and give a good yank. It creaks open easily enough, and after peering out into the dark hall, I step out and head to the bathroom.

Childish you might say, for a seventeen year old boy to be afraid of the dark. But these nightmares feel so real to me, almost like I've experienced it before--or like I know what is coming but I can't quite place my finger on it. The brightness of the bathroom does little to comfort me, and it casts an eerie glow off of my pasty face, making me look sickly and malnourished. I cast my eyes away from my reflection and close the door, before stripping down and stepping into the shower. I turn the cold on as high as it will go, and stand there shivering under the freezing droplets. It is only a moment that I think about the dream--how similarly I feel now to when I was running in the rain--before jacking the heat and letting the scalding water burn away my fears for the day.