Chapter 4 - Polly

Someone else is here in my dream.

Scratch that - some thing else is here in my dream.

I peer out of my glass-case coffin, past my dream-man, to see a silhouette at an entranceway I hadn't noticed before. It's an odd, bulky shape and definitely not human. The thing takes a step forward. " Sweee-t -" it starts, gurgling.

" Stay back , scum," dream-man snarls, turning his back on me to face this new nightmare-monster. On his back there is something black. At first, I think it's a cape of some sort, but then I realize it is a pair of huge drooping wings. And… There's a tail flicking this way and that, too.

Ok, I want to wake up now. This is getting too weird.

The monster comes closer, hissing something through yellow teeth. It has a smile made for horror movies and seems to be missing an eye - although, the one it has left is terrifying enough.

"I don't like this," I murmur to myself. That thing is hideous. "I really don't like this."

Frantically, I begin pinching the skin on my forearm - hard .

It's not fucking working.

I'm still in this box. There's still a hot guy out there, and for some reason he has wings and a tail. And he's apparently about to fight something that just crawled out of a mad scientist's monster lab.

" I want to wake up now !"

The winged man reaches for some sort of glowing knife. "You cannot have her," he growls as they face one another, the man never leaving his stance in front of where I'm trapped in here.

I slam my palm, and then my fist on the inside of the glass, the water that's up to my chest sloshing with the movement. " Hey! Get me out of here! I don't like this dream anymore!"

More of the hideous creatures appear and my panic begins to spike right through the roof. I start pinching all over; my arms, stomach rolls, cheeks, neck - whatever I can reach. " Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck !" I think there's five of them out there now and they are huge .

One leaps onto the back of my dream guy but promptly gets thrown off, landing in a pile on the dark floor. Next, another approaches, hissing and gurgling. That one gets a swift stab in the chest and crumples to the ground screaming. Horrified, I watch as two of the monsters turn on their own now that it's on the floor, taking the still screeching creature and… and pulling its limbs from its body before they begin eating the flesh of their fellow ‘mimic-ah' .

I think I'm going to be sick.

I'm still trying to process what's happening when the original one - the one with only one eye steps forward. " I want to wake up now !" it says to my dream guy. Except… it said it using my voice . A chill races down my spine.

My dream-man raises the glowing blade, pointing it at the creature. "Don't you dare echo my Polly's voice!" he snarls before leaping forward.

And all hell breaks loose.

All I see is limbs and wings and chaos. I can hear cries of pain, whooping and hollering - all nearly drowned out by my own screams. I nearly jump right out of my skin when one of those monsters is suddenly right in front of me, its eyes bugging out of its horrifying face as it smiles an evil smile and bangs on the glass, trying to reach me.

In an instant, my dream-man is there. He has more blood splattered on his handsome face as he locks the monster's head with his powerful arms. In one swift jerk, he snaps its neck with a sickening crunch sound before shoving the now lifeless body away. I'm frozen in place as I watch him breathing hard, his muscled shoulders rising and falling as he stares back at me. Suddenly, a rock whizzes past him and hits the glass right by my face. I rear back but it hasn't done a ton of damage. There is a chink in the glass that wasn't there before though.

And then the creeping reach of a crack appears.

That horrible whooping sound that reminds me of excited apes cranks up again and suddenly there are black clawed hands, grabbing and scratching at my man. Another rock hits the glass, and the purple-eyed man looks more worried about that than the fact that there's monsters quite literally at his back.

Quickly, he lunges forward, gripping the sides of my glass coffin and it takes me a moment to realize that he's trying to shield me from those things . They screech, and whoop, and gurgle behind him, all while it looks like they're attacking his back, trying to yank him away from me, trying to pull those beautiful wings straight from his back.

The man grits his teeth and stares at me, grunting in pain, sweat beading his brow as he concentrates on holding his stance - his stance in protecting me from those creatures. His body jerks from how rough they are with him. His expression screws up in agony before he forces his eyes open again to look at me.

"What do I do?!" I plead, banging on the inside of the glass. " I don't know what to do !"

" Po - lly ," he grunts, steadfastly holding his protective stance over me.

"How can I help you?! I don't know what to do! I don't even know your fucking name !" I'm so beside myself, I think I'm starting to sob. "I want to remember your name when I wake up," I say hoarsely.

Briefly, the shadow of that smile of his flickers across his lips. It's wiped quickly away when one of those things starts yanking at his wing in earnest. The man jerks his shoulder, managing to make the ‘mimic-ah' lose its grip. He winces and groans, falling forward, resting his forehead against the glass in front of me. He's breathing heavily through his nostrils and he's covered in blood and sweat, but his eyelids slowly open to pierce me with those gorgeous purple eyes. His huge palm presses flat to the glass and I instantly raise my hand to meet it. "Aloryk," he huffs before hissing in more pain. "My name is Alor-"

He's yanked away again by another onslaught of the whooping and hollering monsters.

"Aloryk!" I scream, banging on the glass, the water in here sloshing with each thump. " Aloryk !"

The man turns with a loud roar and begins to fight the monsters again.

And…

And all the whooping and screeching suddenly dies. I squint into the darkness out there beyond my strange, nightmare glass box and see someone else has joined the fray.