The Nightmare
A red ball of energy fires at your foot as you’re trying to run away. “Dammit, I really regret not taking training so seriously,” you pant out as you get back up to continue on. Another one comes whizzing past your head, luckily you’re able to dodge this one. Otherwise you’re certain your brains would be painting the store window you had run past.
You were running away from something in an empty city. You really weren’t sure where you were or how you got there. Just that you had to keep running. Going as fast as you could with the injuries you had sustained from a fight. What fight, with who? You didn’t know. All you know was there was more blood on your body than there ever has been before. You want to open a portal to get yourself somewhere safer but you couldn’t. Why not? Did you lose your sling ring? You hate dreams like these where everything goes wrong and you can’t do anything to help yourself or the others in it.
Finding it hard to keep going you make your way into a narrow alleyway. You zip through it and go through a few more before you can finally stop. Leaning against the wall you try to catch your breath and assess your injuries. There was a large gash on one thigh and another on one of your shins. With that gash, you could see bone. You shut your eyes and dig your teeth into your bottom lip as you hold back the involuntary noises of pain. It was already hard enough to control your breathing. Why was the area so empty? Where were all of the people? Sure, it was dark out but there wasn’t a single person out? No one that’s homeless or just out late? Anyone that could help you hide the noises that were coming from only you.
There wasn’t time to waste, so you glance around to see if what was chasing after you still was. When you think the coast is clear, you stand up and prepare yourself to start running again. Just as you turn to go through the darkness, a distorted figure appears out of thin air in front of you causing you to scream in fear. She hardly looked human. Her skin was gray, decaying, dead. Her eyes were glowing red and her teeth were razor sharp. What did this creature want with you?
You fall to the ground and try to crawl away but the ground under your hands disappears and it feels like you are falling into nothing. She was in your head. You tried to fight against her visions but she was much stronger than you. Why did her abilities feel so familiar to you? “Why are you doing this?” You shouted as you continued to fall. Suddenly you stop falling. You clench your eyes shut as you wait for the impact to break you but nothing happens.
Opening your eyes, you find yourself floating above the tallest building in the rundown city. Wanda stands on the roof as she holds you up in the air. You’re shocked to see her there. Her appearance is no longer as gruesome and horrifying. She appeared to be normal, except for the disappointed look in her eyes that you weren’t familiar with. Who was she really? This wasn’t the Wanda that you knew. It had to be someone posing as her. Why was this happening? What caused this?
“You’re not the one I need,” she says as she pulls you closer to her. “Shame, you put up a good fight. I had hope for you.” She clicks her teeth and tilts her head to the side. The fresh skin on her face melts away as her eyes glow red again and her razor sharp teeth grow out of the normal teeth she had before. Her mouth opens and you’re afraid of what she might do.
“Please,” you gasp out. “I h-have people who n-need me.”
She stops and her face returns to normal. “Begging for your life,” she seemed impressed. Other versions of you had cursed her out just as she consumed them for the amount of power they did have. “I’ll tell you what, I won’t rip you limb for limb. No, I won’t do that.” She sets you down on the roof, a little distance just before the ledge. “And I’ll let you live,” she approaches you slowly, taking the moment of relief that you had. With a sinister smile she says, “If you survive this fall.” Before you can ask what she means she flips you so that you can watch the ground get closer as she pushes you off of the building.
“Ahh!” You shoot up in a cold sweat, panting heavily.
“What’s happened?” A voice asks just as startled. You jump at her touch. Had she not just tried to kill you? “Baby, talk to me. What’s happening? Are the nightmares about Thanos back?” She asks as she tries to hold your face. You were frantically trying to pull away from her but she kept you steady. You couldn’t be in this bed. She threw you off a building. She tried to kill you. She hates you. The lights turn on by themselves and you shut your eyes. You didn’t want to look at her. Too afraid to see that zombie face again. “Y/n,” she calls softly. “What happened? What did you see?”
Her voice is soothing and you allow her to comfort you as you begin to settle down and gain control over your breathing again. She does the breathing exercises that normally help you in this state and you follow along with her as you start to ground yourself to reality. You weren’t dead. She wasn’t chasing you down the street. She is here, holding onto you as she helps you calm down.
You remember a time, so many years ago, when you had a dream that you were flying. Everything had been great, the cold wind blowing in your face as you cut through the few humid clouds over a city you didn't know, with skyscrapers mixed with colorful buildings that, if you were honest, seemed to defy the law of physics. And it was at that moment, looking at the structures below you, that you realized you were, indeed, flying. And everything went wrong.
Nowadays, after all that had happened to you and all that your body had been subjected to, flying is one of your most ordinary activities. Back then, however, to be gliding around, with your feet off the ground and no logical way to keep yourself in the air... It made your brain become aware that something was wrong. And when you realized that you couldn't really fly, you started to fall, at full speed, down from the blue mid-afternoon sky onto the hard concrete or whatever it was that covered the roads of that strange city.
And that made you very angry, how could it not? You were flying seconds before, why couldn't you fly now? You flap your arms as if they were wings in a rather ridiculous attempt to go back to flying. You would try to force your mind to stay in the sky, because you can do anything that you put your mind to or whatever nonsense coaches tell people to try to convince them to buy their courses. None of it worked, though, and you fell to the ground, your stomach churning with anxiety for an impact that never came, because you woke up seconds before you hit the asphalt.
That old dream, however, was nothing like the one you had tonight. This one seemed real, so real you could still feel the pain in your body, the taste of blood in your mouth - the same blood that bathed your clothes completely. And you could still feel her in your head, and the icy wind of that ghost town as your body hit the ground after she had pushed you.
But whatever they were, regardless of the similarities and differences between the two of them, they were just that. Nightmares. Nothing to be concerned about. Dreams couldn't hurt you during your waking hours. So you keep taking deep breaths, and trying to focus on what really matters: your wife's sweet voice, the gentle touch of her fingers on your face, soft as the finest of cottons. You are all right. You are safe. You are with her. The real her.
“I’m sorry,” you say once you open your eyes to meet hers. There was love, worry, and kindness in her eyes. Those were the eyes you knew. This is real, she is real. “You were chasing after me and then you killed me. In my dream. That’s what I saw,” you explain.
“Wow,” Wanda slumps away from you a little. “Do you know why?” You shake your head. There wasn’t much information in the nightmare and most of the details started to slip away the more you woke up. “Huh, that’s so strange. Well, did you cheat on me in your dream and I found out about it?” She offers lightly, making you chuckle a bit.
“No, I don’t think that’s what happened,” you say. “Also you would like, turn yourself into some sort of zombie or something. It was really freaky.”
Wanda shakes her head, “That explains it!” You look at her confused and she has the television in the room turn on to the last thing you watched last night. “I told you not to watch that damn zombie movie before bed!” She exclaims. “Honestly, I think we need to just get rid of the tv in here. It does you no good having it in here. I read somewhere that it's bad for sleep habits.”
You look at the zombie on the screen and rub your face with your hands as you shake your head. You felt ridiculous. “Yeah, I guess you were right.”
“Of course I am. I’m your wife. When are you ever going to learn that I’m always right?” She kisses your cheek. The television and lights shut off. “Come on, we have a couple more hours. You’re going to need them,” she gently tugs you down so that she can hold you. Willingly, you tangle your body with hers as you relax into the mattress. She gives you another kiss on the cheek as she whispers that she loves you. It spreads a comforting warmth through you and you return the words as you thank her for taking care of you.