Just Another Nightmare.

Breathing. That was the main part, Jane thought. She bent over at the side of the road and

panted. Sweat stuck to her face. She wanted to call her best friend’s name, but who was near

her? Who was watching her? Perhaps some creep? She sprinted forward, trying to find some

sort of escape route. She knew this road like her best friend. The only question was, where

had Mikey gone? They had been taking a walk by the lake when she saw a police car and hid

in the underbrush. The next thing she knew, he was gone. She was all alone by the lake. Her

foot struck something.

The underground pipes!

She quickly took off the lid and jumped down onto the rusty ladder. Most of the

town citizens would never go into the pipe systems, but Jane had explored them well enough

with Mikey. It was her best chance of finding Mikey and staying safe. As far as they both

knew, no one had discovered anything about the pipe network that carried them into other

states and where there was an ancient painting hanging on one wall, where they figured

someone great before them had found the pipe system and used it to smuggle artifacts from

museums.

Jane didn’t realize how far her legs had carried her. She was standing at a fork in the

tunnels. Right, or left? She heard a cry. Mikey! She quickly grabbed an abandoned stone and

threw it into the right tunnel. It echoed, but she didn’t hear a cry. She threw another one and

into the left tunnel. Another cry. “Mikey!” She yelled, not caring if anyone heard her. Just

Mikey, just Mikey. She heard a muffled cry this time. “Mikey! I’m coming!” She breathed

heavily.

She ran, casually slipping from the dampness of the steel tunnels. Suddenly the crying

stopped, and she heard shallow moans. She only thought the worse. “No! Mikey, no!” She

screamed, her heart pounding against her ribcage. “I’m coming, Mikey!” She yelled, running

as fast as she could.

She came to a stop, there was a bright light and it was a room. A huge room in fact. It

was like a dome. She shook her head from her amazement and saw a body cuddled into a ball

in the middle of the floor. “Mikey! Mikey, it’s me! Jane!” She ran to him and she saw his face

was as white as a sheet of paper and his eyelids where shut. She gently lifted a lid, his eyes

were glazed over. She gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. “NO!” She screamed. She

shook him, and his mouth hung open. “WAKE UP! MIKEY WAKEUP!” She cried

hysterically.

She cradled her head in shame. If only she had been there earlier. If only she had

chosen the left pipe first. If only … if only she could have made it there in time. She sobbed

into her hands. “Poor Mikey.” She murmured into her hands. Poor, poor, Mikey. So young.

So helpless.

“What about, ‘Poor Mikey’?”

Her head snapped upwards. There, floating … pale as a sheet and as ghostly as a

haunted house, floated Mikey. Her best friend, her pal, her friend since birth. She was

speechless. His … ghost? His soul? What in the world was it? “Mikey?” She choked. She tried

to grab the material that was swaying behind his arms but she could not touch it.

“Yes, I am Mikey. Michael Ramsey. You were my best friend. Jane Emeralds.” He said

in a matter-of-factly way. He crossed his legs and rested his arms in the thin air. “And, there’s

no body to prove I was even on this earth.”

Jane stared in disbelief. “But you were here. You,” She looked over at where his body

had once lay. It had vanished. Like some magic act. Her mouth hung open.

Mikey’s ghost, or soul, or whatever, smiled. His eyes twinkled and he laughed. “I’ll

see you later Jane Emeralds.” He laughed again. “Much, much later. Later in life. Goodbye.”

He waved to her. Still smiling and waving, he slowly disappeared. It was almost realistic as

she watched his face slowly vanish.

Jane woke up. She felt as if she couldn’t breath. Her throat was sore from no water.

Almost as if she had been playing in the snow all day and couldn’t breath anymore. With

every deep breath she took, her chest heaved in and out and her hair and clothes stuck to her

body. Her bedroom was dark, the only light was from the moon through her blinds. She

quickly jumped out of her bed and picked up her cell phone from its charger. Pick up, she

thought as the dial tone kept on ringing.

“Hello?” A groggy voice croaked. “Jane? Is this you? What are you calling me for at

three o’clock in the morning? We have our finals tomorrow, I need sleep and so do you. Now

what do you want?” He asked impatiently.

Jane smiled to herself, falling back into her bed. “Hi Mikey. I just wanted to hear your

voice.” She said calmly, enjoying the wave of peacefulness that washed over her.

“Is that all? Nightmares again?” He asked quietly. She could hear himself shift on his

bed. “Was it the same one again, Jane? Was it frightful?”

Jane smiled to herself. “Another nightmare, yes. It was scary, too. But I think I’m

good. The nightmare didn’t stop when I saw the body. It wasn’t really a nightmare after all.”

She chuckled softly.

“So who was it? The body? And what happened after that?” He asked curiously. She

could hear the excitement in his voice. He had treated her recent series of nightmares as if

they were a horror movie.

She smiled again. “Nobody important. All that’s important is that I know he’s alive.

And happy. Trust me, Mikey. You already know him.” She giggled.

“But I won’t know who he is until you tell me.” He whined. He sounded like a little

kid. “I’m your best friend, you can trust me.”

“Goodnight, Mikey. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She laughed softly, ending the call and

dropping her phone onto the nightstand next to her bed. She laughed softly, and she opened

her eyes. She saw her bare white ceiling.

She thought about how great it was to know that nothing bad actually happened to

Mikey. She sighed contently. Her eyes were growing tired as the minutes turned into an

hour. She slowly shut her eyelids, but not before she thought she had seen a ghostly smiling

face that looked oh so familiar. She tried to force her eyelids back open, but they just

wouldn’t budge, she was too tired. “Probably just nothing, Jane.” She murmured into her

pillow as she fell asleep.

“Yes, just nothing, Jane.” The voice whispered into the chilly air in her bedroom. He

snickered as she rolled over onto her side. He disappeared from view and she tossed onto her

other side.

All was well.