The Dreamstealer

This is my first post, and my first short story. Please leave comments to show me what you think and to tell me if there was anything you think could be better.

I didn't dream last night. Or the night before. Or the one before that. Now for most people, that's not a worry, they just get up in the morning and hurry on with their lives. But not me. I lie there in bed staring at the ceiling wondering why everything has changed. Because you see, I used to dream a lot, every night in fact. I would have all sorts of odd dreams with everything from purple pen monsters to failing exams. They were the most weird and wonderful dreams about things that the ordinary person cannot even imagine. And now they're gone. And I think it might have something to do with the last dream I ever had.

I was walking down a long corridor. I knew there was danger just through the door at the end, but for reasons unknown I could not turn around. I just kept walking down the corridor with its cold dank walls and that smell, the smell that always reminds you of death. I was moving unwillingly, desperately trying to turn around but my feet somehow put themselves in front of each other as I was pulled closer to the dark metal door at the end, the door behind which there was doom, death and destruction.

And suddenly I was there.

The door creaked open all by itself and I crept through, my eyes closed so that I wouldn't have to see the room at the end of all things. What came was worse than any sight that can be seen by human eyes. A pair of ice cold hands grabbed my throat, their grip as strong as iron. I opened my eyes in shock but only saw a blur of grey stone and metal, bright white lights and deep black shadows, as I was thrown across the room. I landed hard in a cold metal chair, a bit like the one at the dentist's, only this was much scary than any filling I'd ever had. Bands of hard cold steel wrapped themselves around me and I just sat there trying to breath.

I found myself in a room full of metal instruments, the purpose of which I had no idea. The walls were made of a smooth dark grey stone that was dripping cold fetid water and smelled of mould. I could hear something moving around out of sight, in one of the shadows. Everything was black and white, like I had fallen into an old horror movie. My heart was racing with fear and I was breathing hard. But the scariest part was the pain. I thought dreams weren't supposed to hurt? Yet I hurt so much, the pain in my back from hitting the chair and the steel bands were tight, digging into me. The pain made it feel real. It made it impossible.

The thing in the corner moved. To my surprise, a man stood up and walked over to me. He wore a black lab coat and had dark hair but very pale white skin, black on white again. He looked almost normal, nearly safe. But something wasn't right. He didn't seem... human.

"Don't worry child, you're only here to help me with a little task, and then you can go" he said. His voice was reassuring but I was even more scared. What was this mysterious task? I had a horrible feeling it wasn't going to be fun.

Then my world was filled with light. Not the good warm light that reminds you of bonfires and sunny summers. It was the cold harsh light that everyone sees at some time in their life. Just before they die. The room, the smell, even the pain vanished. All that was left was the blinding light that I couldn't blink away and his cold sinister voice.

"You see I cannot survive on the solid diet you humans crave. I eat something a little more... interesting." Then it began. The horrible, heart wrenching pain. If I could have screamed I would have.  It felt like a part of me was being ripped away. Being eaten. The last thing I heard was a whisper, but it was all around me.

"And you're such a good dreamer..."

And then I woke up. Now I look back it's not really that scary. It was only a dream. And what can a dream do to me?

But I didn't dream last night.