The irritating beep beep beep of the alarm woke her. She rolled over- almost right off the bed- and managed to smack it into silence after a few tries. Struggling from sleep was like trying to crawl out of quicksand this morning. The harder she tried to wake, the more it seemed she was returning to the world of dreams (or in this particular instance, of nightmares)... Dozing off again, her body began to toss and turn, and she began to make small unhappy sounds in her sleep. Why couldn't she just wake up, she thought, what was this awful nightmare that just would not let her escape it? It had been the same every night this last week. Terrifying images, just a handful of bits and pieces that she could remember once she was awake, had haunted her for days now. Allison did all that she could to keep thoughts of her night terrors out of her mind throughout the days. Honestly, it was the last thing she needed. Not enough sleep, and panic attacks during her waking hours over the things she saw in her dreams. It was bad enough that she'd had to move, give up her dream home, watch her marriage crumble... She was starting over, in a new town, a new house (not exactly the type she always pictured herself in- this one was older, in the historic district of the small town she now called home), a new job, and far away from her ex-husband. Allison had married young (she was just nineteen then), and she'd been with him for three years already. She wasn't the type to date around, or do anything wild, even in her teen years. He was the second man she'd ever dated or been with intimately. When they found out she was pregnant, he told her he'd already planned on spending the rest of his life with her, and they might as well get married now. Sadly, she lost the baby just before she hit the second trimester. He went to work the next day, and she lay in bed suffering the pain and depression alone. Eventually she moved on, was even able to talk about it. Sadly, that miscarriage had caused her more problems that she had known, and they were never able to have a child together. Years passed, and their marriage grew more and more strained. He was co-dependent, to sexually aggressive (and not just toward her, if she were being honest with herself- her female friends slowly disappeared as he continued to make them increasingly uncomfortable with his flirting), not emotionally available when she needed him. She struggled with depression, but was not able to admit that her marriage was unhealthy, that it was slowly killing her. It took nine more very long years for her to finally be so miserable, that she knew if she didn't leave she was likely to end up killing herself just to make the pain go away. She'd packed her things, moved out. He'd tried to get her to come home, tried to bargain and blackmail her into returning. It took almost a year to get the divorce finalized. Now she was starting fresh, some place that no one knew her, that was not tainted by unpleasant memories... Things were going well, until she began to have these dreams. When she woke, mostly she only recalled the impression of terror, her heart pounding, feeling like something horrible had just occurred but no clue what that thing might be... Even though she wasn't supersticious, Allison was very nearly ready to go out and purchase a cross, some sage, and anything else she could find to keep evil away.

Ever since she'd been a little girl, Allison had been afraid... not of the dark exactly, but of things that might be in the dark. She controlled her fear, and managed it well, just knowing she was able to flip a switch and make there be light. One of her worst fears was to wake in darkness, and know something evil was present, and then not be able to turn on the light. In her nightmares, she was always alone- except for the thing in the dark- and all the light bulbs in the house were dead. She would run from room to room, flipping switches, but there was never any light... and always, the thing in the dark followed her, laughing, and waiting for her to truly understand her how doomed her situation was. The thing was different sometimes. Usually it was just some unknown creature of darkness, but sometimes it was a demon, or a some kind of hideous alien being, or even just a human serial killer. Sometimes it wasn't exactly a thing, but the house she was in itself. What the thing was didn't truly matter to Allison, what mattered to her was the darkness, being trapped in it, surrounded on all sides by this horrible blackness, with no way to make it stop.  Ever since she'd moved into the house, the nightmares of being trapped in the darkness had been becoming more frequent. She'd even gone to a doctor, who had prescribed her sleeping pills and something for the anxiety... but all the pills did was make it so much harder to wake, and make the dreams so much more lifelike. At her wits end, she decided to look up ways to cleanse a house of evil, thinking that maybe her subconscious would get the message, and the dreams would end. She didn't really believe in such things, but she was willing to give it a try if it meant getting a few nights of restful sleep and not waking up so terrified all the time.

As it turned out, going to sleep wearing a cross about her neck, with her home smelling of sage and salt on all her doorways and window sills, did nothing to stop the dreams. If anything, they began to get worse. More frequent, and much more varied. Darkness was no longer the only thing that haunted her while she slept.

Allison had a different dream this night. Something new and horrible. In the dream, she cut her finger... just a little paper cut. It hurt, and itched, so her dream self picked at it a bit... and that was were things went wrong. Where the cut was, as she picked at her finger, it began to open. Slowly, bit by bit, a huge fleshly looking thing began to emerge from inside her skin. Things that resembled legs... more and more of them. At first she was confused, then upset, about this thing coming out of her finger. Finally the body emerged. Slowly her mind started to piece together what it was seeing. This disgusting and terrible spider-like creature, made out of human flesh... Spider. That was the word that kept circling about in her mind. Terror raced through her. It had to get out. It had to get out, RIGHT NOW. She grabbed her broom, and chased it, beating at it, until it was out the door. Allison fell to the floor, and began to shake. Next came sobs, great heaving ones, accompanied by a full blown panic attack. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think, there was just this horrible feeling taking her over. Slowly, the panic ebbed away. She got up and she bandaged the finger. She went and started a shower, as hot as she could stand it, trying to wash away the memory of that thing crawling on her hand. Her legs gave out, and she curled up on the tub floor, letting the water wash over her. Tears ran down her face, but they were covered by the stream of water from the shower. All she could think was- Nine more fingers... ten toes... where else might they be hiding? If she scratched herself, if her skin opened, would there be more? Would they pour out like blood? These thoughts brought her from slightly panicked to hysterical in moments.

Eventually she woke to the usual beeps of her alarm. All she could do was lay there and be thankful for the alarm for pulling her out of sleep.