• chapter I



    I had fallen asleep just before dawn, my Beagle snuggled against my chin, I was ready to blissfully fall asleep... or so i had planned.

    The hallway was dim and dismal, the paint was cracked, the old persian rug was stained with unknown reds and browns. I walked down this curving hallway, with all its old paintings staring at me, with what seemed to be a shy "hello stranger" they were people you would see in those old castles, but these were dark and morbid.
    Around the next bend of the hallway, the pictures stopped saying hello, and they started telling me to stay, "please dont leave us here alone, you don't understand" they whispered without their mouths moving, "is this all a dream" I pondered, because it felt so real. THEN, there it was, the only beautiful thing in the whole winding hallway, a door. It was trimmed with white gold, birds and angels engraved along the mahagony wood, it was begging me to open it, begging to be touched. I gayly walked over, touched the knob, it felt warm as if it was alive, but it wouldn't turn. It needed a key.
    I peered through the key hole. The scene behind it was wonderous! My hopes, my dreams, everything I wanted. Pink cherry trees, lavender flowers, music, sweet green grass, blue birds and sparrows. The place was where my inspiration drifted to, i had locked it away... I needed that key. I turned away from the fresh view to smile at the dismal hallway I created, to tell the paintings it was okay, they won't be alone anymore. Turning down to the key hole again to peer through, it was still beautiful, until i saw it.

    In 5th grade our teacher had us write a acronym for what we loved,feared,and hated... I chose S.A.N, sinking afraid nightmare..... And thats what I saw. San had manifested into a dark creature, plump sickening black body dripping with muck, wilting my flowers, long gnarled twisted neck with afraid screaming pours trying to yell out "help", and finally one mad eye at the top of the head, that held my nightmares, from the horrible parents I had, to the days in the school yard, sitting alone, forever alone.

    San was killing my dreams, choking my head, making me dull, alone, and dead. I had to stop her, but how? if I opened the door she would haunt me, come after me and kill me in my sleep, in my own head. The pictures were crying now, they didnt want me to see how I was falling down, I needed strength, I needed... a barking dog? I awoke then to rain falling in the phoenix sky above, and my beagle barking at a cat outside my window. I knew I would fall asleep again, till then I had to find a way to beat San.