The Wishers Pond

I dreamt I was lying on my back, surrounded by large slimy rats that trekked in dark smoky mud. Unable to move, I viewed a lifeless blackened sky hover above me. Flickers of tiny gunfire pierced through the rising smoke as grenade explosions outlined my motionless body. These explosions rocketed mud and rat carcasses high in the air, which rained back down upon me. Only then did I realize, I was paralyzed on a Vietnam battlefield, and war surrounded me.
                         Soldiers’ faces were of skeletal form, they were expressionless with deep hollowed lifeless eyes. Mammoth vultures began to appear, waiting to pounce on my incapacitated body. I tasted death on my tongue and ashes of burnt bone in my teeth. Then slowly from the smoky mud appeared a lady. She wore a spotless glowing white gown, and floated gracefully towards me.
                         Her gentle voice kept repeating, “Boo, have no fear, I’m coming for you.” The lady reached for my hand, pulling me from the mud and assisting me to my feet.
                         “Mom” I joyfully shuttered. “Yes dear, it is me, hold my hand and Mommy will take you home.” Upon contact we simply began to float away. The feeling I was experiencing was that of total relief and a never-ending gentle comfort. I felt safe and overwhelmingly content, that is until, mothers grip tightened.
                         “What are you doing, your squeezing to hard” as I tried to pull away. I looked down at nothing but darkness, fearing the never-ending fall I’d dreamt so many times before. “Mom please stop, you’re hurting me” flames roared in the distance while a nasty stench infested heat became apparent. Mother then began leading me to what I considered to be, Hell. “What are you doing, stop, please stop.”
                         Finally, using all my 13-year-old strength, I grabbed her wrist and tugged. As I looked down at her arm, it was no longer flesh. It had transformed to skeletal bone like that of the other soldiers. I quickly shifted my gaze to her face, it to had turned to a hollowed eyed skeleton. Instead of dog tags, my gold medallion flanked the soldiers’ neck and turned like a spun quarter. The skeleton stopped in mid flight with vultures swarming behind. Its breath was visible as it spoke in a deep hateful tone, “I am your bad soldier” he proclaimed obnoxiously proud.
                         “I am the ultimate fear of your every nightmare, I have come to take you home. For it is we, who own your mind. It is we, who own your body. It is we, who own your miserable misguided soul. We are your permanent thought forevermore.
                         “We wait for you at death, and will taunt you during life. If you run, you‘ll run to us. If you hide, we‘ll find you. We will silence any scream, and widen every wound. Give yourself to us now, avoid such prolonged inevitable agony. For I am your soldier, and sooner or later, we will claim your soul.”                                                        
                         I began kicking and screaming, “no, no you won’t” flailing my arms wildly, but my punches were far too weak. Finally placing my hands around the soldiers boned neck, I managed to push off. As I fell backwards his grip released and I began the dreaded never ending fall I so feared. The moment I felt weightless my natural human instincts kicked in, and I reached for the skeleton to break my fall.
                         My hand scraped his boned face and slithered down quickly till it reached the soldiers neck. I grabbed for the medallion in hopes it would break my fall, instead, the chain snapped. While I fell into the never-ending darkness, the soldier screamed in a vengeful fury, “give it back” swooning fiercely closer in a fit of deadly rage. “Give….it….back. You cannot escape, your soul belongs to us, it belongs to the THROGS. We have been released, and this time, we will never go away. That medallion contains our destiny, our immortality, it is ours, give it back or you shall die.”