Awoke

All of a sudden he pushed himself off the desk, an uncontrolled reflex, and he sat there sweating all over as though he had been running for hours on end. In front of him lay an unfinished whirlpool of lost strokes and soulless colors. "shite" Fatigue had taken a toll on both his body and mind and slipped him into a dark chasm. It was dark, but still he could see shadows, blacker than pitch darkness, creeping closer and closer. "Hello? Who are you? Who's there?" But they just continued their silent approach toward him. The shadows had no face and the human shape was no reason to believe they were anything close to 'human'. With every closer step, his heart pounded harder and harder, and harder like someone was kicking a locked door open, but he couldn't move, his mind was a prisoner of his body, the realisation of this immobility struck him like a bolt of fear, even the luxury of screaming was robbed from him. Soon enough, the throbbing in his ears became deafening, he was standing in a crowd of black in black. He could feel breath from the crowd of shadows, but still he could see nothing. One shadow leaned over almost kissing his cheek and whispered into his ear "Upi str sapmr"- What did it mean? The language was most foreign but it had to mean something because he became white with fear, almost as if he was glowing in the dark and suddenly he was standing there in a pool of blood, his own, which gave up their vessels for panic to run in. (Drained of blood? I must be dead! But I'm still in my body?! Help!)

The messenger sealed the whisper with a kiss of blistering cold which left a sharp pain under his skull, and together with the others, turned away to return back into the black from which they were manifested from. "No! don't go! Please don't go! Come back!" Chad screamed, without even noticing the return of his voice. First he wanted to be nowhere near the shadows, and now he is begging them to stay. With each step farther, the throbbing became more overwhelming, the pain growing more unbearable,the veins along his temples started spreading across his face like a web trapping him from escaping a torture chamber- his own screaming echoed along with the throbbing into a single mass of insane noise and the pain pierced through his brain, ensuring the merciless massacre of body and mind. Upon reaching breaking point, the entire scene cracked like a blow to a television screen and shattered into a million pieces which formed back with the first blink he made, when he awoke at his desk. It was all a dream, a nightmare. There was still a pain in his head but now it was a mere headache from 'thinking too much'. His undried masterpiece became his temporary bed- he was covered in oils.

"What a nightmare" Chad said to himself as he showered the paints off his body. Being so tired he missed a patch on the left side of his face. He stood in front of his mirror to locate the stain, however, the moment his eyes met with his reflection, a full body of a black void walked out of the wall and kissed him, he began blinking madly and he was back. "It was only a dream, it was only a dream... a dream" It was clear the dream was far more tormenting than any other he had survived, but his self reassurance seemed to be enough, he began breathing normally, calmly again.

He only managed to wipe off half a smudge before he stopped breathing- his cheek was familiarly cold.