Young Writers Society

This is the first chapter of my Nano this year: Seer Of Dreams
Tell me what you think.




“Consider yourself warned Ms. Phantoma. You only have four days left on this earth, spend them wisely.”

My eyes pop open! My body coated in a layer of sweat, shaking violently. I have no idea why, it was a voice, only a voice. Telling me I will die in four days, I do wonder what brought this one on. How many of my dreams have come true already? At least the last ten have.

No, I cannot think like that, my mind cannot physically take my life. I try to put on a little music and go back to sleep, after about an hour of lying there in fear of my own subconscious I get up and walk into the kitchen. A glass of milk and then back to bed, I think. So I drink the milk, it soothes my throat, I must have been screaming while I was still asleep because of that stupid, never mind.

I slowly get up out of the chair and walk back to the bed in a daze and collapse on top of it. I crawl under the warm covers and try to clear my mind so I can get some Zzzzz’s.
I have never lain in bed like this before, absolutely still. Wanting sleep so badly, but wide awake. After another half hour of lying in this bed staring at the same spot I decide that it isn’t going to do me any good. I stand up, and walk into the bathroom for a shower to clear my head. I jump as the cold water splashes against my hot skin; I just stand there for a while. Finally I regain my senses and lather up, rinse, and repeat.

Maybe this will just be a sleepless night, I decide feeling exactly the same as I turn off the ice cold water and grab a towel from the rack. As I dry off I try to think of things a girl can do without waking anyone else in the household to get her mind off of things. The only thing I ever do when I’m stressed is vent, mostly on poor Axel, my little nerd (and best friend) he never seems to tire of listening to me.
That’s what I’ll do, if I have to stay up all night he can as well. I walk over to get my phone and move to back of my walk-in closet; it is the only place I found gives me real privacy from prying ears in the entire house. I dial his number.

“What?” He says, obviously still in a sleeping state.

“Axel, wake up!” I shout as quietly as I can.

“It’s you. What do you need at 3 a.m.?” He asks me, slightly more aware of this conversation than a moment before.

“I woke up a couple of hours ago, my body was coated in a layer of sticky sweat, I was screaming, and shaking. Do you have a minute?” I ask him, already knowing his answer.

“I have until time for school, go on. What was the dream about this time?” He says, hiding the concern in his voice well, for him.

“This one was nothing like the others, it was simply a voice. Its exact words were: Consider yourself warned Ms. Phantoma. You only have four days left on this earth, spend them wisely.” I tell him.

“Where were you? Who gave the threat?” He asks in such a rush the words come out completely backwards. Reminding me of Yoda from Star Wars. Instantly a smile comes across my face.

“It was a man, but other than that I have no idea. I wasn’t really there, it was all black and the only thing I could hear was that loud, booming voice of his. Whoever he is, honestly I don’t know why it scared me so much.” I say, feeling a little weird being shaken this much by a voice.

“Mhmm... What have you been doing sense?” He replies.

“I stared at the same spot on the wall for over a half an hour wanting so desperately to go back to sleep, but fearing it just as much, if that tells you anything.” I tell him, shaking now.

“I see. I would suggest, like always we change topics. I was having a wonderful dream about being able morph my body into a bouncy-ball and squish people.” He says with a satisfied tone.

“Really?” I ask.

“No, but did you smile?” He asks me.

“A little.” I reply.

“That’s what I was going for. Anyway, what else has been happening at the Phantoma house lately?” Asks the guy who seems to be full of questions tonight.

“Nothing much, we watched soul surfer last night. It was actually pretty good, despite my fear and hatred of sharks.” I say, shaking a little less now that we are off the subject.

“Never seen it and I can’t say I have any desire to. Just out of curiosity, how many bags of popcorn did you guys put away in in less than two hours?” He asks with a sleepy laugh.

Apparently my family eats way more popcorn that most others and my friend here gets a kick out of it.

“We didn’t eat more than three bags, thank you very much!” I say a little louder than I should have, hearing movement across the hall I quiet down to a whisper.

“Axel I knew a conversation with you about popcorn would help me go to sleep, that's exactly why I called. I have to go though. I’m afraid I’m going to wake my parents, that would be a nightmare but what’s even worse is that I’d have to tell them why I cannot possibly go back to sleep.” I tell him between yawns.

“Thank goodness, I need sleep too, you know. Why don’t you want to tell them?” He asks me.

“They would call me crazy and sign me up for a shrink somewhere; you know my mom is all ways looking for the signs, as she calls them. She’s hoping I won’t end up like my grandmother. You know I think she could use a shrink herself, but I gotta go. I hear mom turning over in her bed above me. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face at 2 a.m. in the morning. Bye!” I say in a hushed tone and quickly hang up the phone before he can answer me and I hop into the bed, laying my phone on the nightstand so mom will see that I’m not using it under the covers.

I lay there and await her quiet footsteps across the hall way and into my room. She never does come, maybe, hopefully, I didn’t wake her completely. I think as I, surprisingly enough, drift off to a dreamless sleep.

I wake up, lick my chapped lips and taste something awful on them. Must be drool, I think as I begin to get up to wash it off. I scream a little bit when, in the mirror I see puke all over my tee shirt and then the smell, the awful bitter smell reaches my nose. I feel tears welling up in my eyes, stress tears, the only kind that I ever let form. They make their way down my cheeks as I strip off my stained clothes, put them inside a dirty towel, and throw them down the laundry chute. I then proceed to turn on the bathroom fan, hoping to the get rid of the dreadful stench, and step into the shower.


My eyes flutter open; I look around only to realize I have absolutely no idea where I am. Then I see my father’s face, asleep in a chair beside my bed. I am in the hospital, no doubt my mother’s doing. How did I get here though? The last thing I remember is scrubbing my face with the hot water in the shower, trying to get all the dried puke off. I wonder where she is? I do hate to do this but sense she is gone this would be the perfect time to ask daddy what is going on, but I’ll have to wake him.

“Dad? Daddy wake up!” I say as reach out for his arm, he is just about an inch away from my fingertips.

“DADDY WHERE AM I?” I say louder.

“What? Oh, Aislyn! You’re awake. We are at Thomas Memorial, honey. Your mother found you unconscious this morning, lying in the shower. She wrapped you up and I carried you to the couch, thinking you had just over heated or something. You never came around so we brought you to the emergency room. It is 7 p.m., you have been unconscious for 12 hours at the least.” He explains.

“I have? What happened to me? Have they told you anything? Where’s my mother?” I ask.

“They haven’t figured out what went wrong just yet, your mom is out finding my dinner.” He says back.

I fall back asleep listening to daddy talk; mom hasn’t come back with dinner yet.

Day Two

I wake up screaming, pushing, kicking, trying to escape what I soon realize is nothing. I throw the remote against the wall in frustration, then my cup of water, then I shove the table on wheels across the room and it hits the door with a loud bang! On that note, a bunch of nurses rush in. One must have given me an immediate sedative, some of the others held me down until I passed out, and I guess the others cleaned up my mess.

Day Three

This morning I wake up to my father’s smiling face. This day is going to be better, I want out of here so I have to show signs of improvement.

“Good morning Daddy.” I say with a forced smile.

“Morning my love. How are you feeling?” He says back.

“A lot better!” I say with somewhat fake enthusiasm.

As I get up to go to the bathroom I trip over all the cords and land on the floor, flat on my face. I put my hands in front of me to push myself up and that's when I notice how sticky they are. Once again the smell of dried puke reaches my nostrils and the tears form in my eyes. All I can think is why as I curl up in a little ball on the floor, never wanting to move again. My dad picks me up, and wipes off my face. Mom comes in to change my gown and she puts me back in bed and I go back to sleep.

Day Four

“Where’s my little girl? Aislyn Phantoma, where is she? Why didn’t anyone inform me that she has been moved?” Dawn Phantoma asks the nearest nurse in her current state of panic.

“Phantoma, one moment let me look her up.” Replies the nurse.

Dawn grows quite impatient and eventually yells, “This is my daughter I am talking about can someone just tell me where she is!”

“Mam, I think your husband should be the one to inform you of the news. He’s in her old room, go ahead in.” The nurse tells her.

Dawn walks in and one look at her husband tells her everything. “She’s gone isn’t she?”

“I’m afraid so, I don’t know what happened; it was so fast, I…”

Dawn walks over to her husband and lets him wrap his arms around her, carelessly soaking his shirt with her tears.