My First Nightmare

It was a normal day in Eliza’s house. The family was gathered in the kitchen, sitting around a table and enjoying their lunch. The room was filled with chatter as the five family members discussed various topics. Eliza’s parents and her older sister talked about some strange grown-up thing that Eliza wasn’t all that interested in. She and her younger brother were playing this strange variation of tag in which they pretended to be interested in the grown-up talk, but every few minutes, one would poke the other. Each poke generally caused the person being poked to squirm around to avoid being tagged while still staying on the seat. It never really worked and, when poked, a fit of giggles would erupt from both participants, much to the annoyance of the rest of the family.
“Eliza, Jake, stop poking each other and eat your lunch.” Eliza’s mother said crossly after a particularly desperate attempt from Eliza to get away which led to her falling off of her chair. Thankfully, her bowl had remained on the table and no food had been dropped.
“Jake started it.” Eliza complained. In rebuttal, Jake stuck his tongue out at Eliza who promptly stuck her tongue out back at him. She quickly finished the rest of her lunch and then left to go to her room, leaving the grownups to their boring talk and Jake to silently endure the boring talks.
As soon as she entered her room, Eliza flopped down on her bed and stared out the window at the bright blue sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight and the sun shone merrily. She closed her eyes and because of a lack of better things to do, decided to see if she could make out what her family was discussing, even though their voices were considerably muddled on the second floor. After a few seconds of fruitless concentration, Eliza was about to give up when she heard something. It wasn’t very human by the sound of it. She tried to remember if she had ever heard that noise before and after a while, she decided that in all the seven and a half years of her life, she had never heard that sound even once. Suddenly, she heard the sound again, a little closer this time. It sounded a bit like…a roar. Eliza was very curious indeed and as she stared out the window in confusion, she saw a small black dot in the bright blue sky. She got off of her bed and squinted her eyes against the sunlight.
The black dot slowly grew larger until it turned into a thin, black squiggle, almost like that baby worm Eliza had found in the playground one day after it had rained. Eliza ran down to the kitchen and shouted to everybody, “There’s this weird worm thingy in the sky!” Eliza’s sister got up from her seat and looked out the sliding door that was right behind her and led to the backyard.
“I don’t see anything.” She said.
“Look harder Michelle.” Eliza responded. Michelle raised an eyebrow at her seven year old sister. Michelle had turned sixteen last month and as such, was less interested in the strange creatures that her sister invented. However, after her mother nodded at the backyard door, Michelle decided to amuse her sister this time. Stepping out into the middle of the backyard, to her surprise, she found that she did see something right beside the sun. The thing was most definitely alive as it seemed to be wriggling about, much like a worm.
“Mom, Dad, there’s something up there!” Michelle cried.
“I told you.” Eliza cried as she rushed out after her parents and Jake. When she looked out, she realized how much bigger the wriggling line was and how very fast it was heading towards them.
“Everybody, back inside.” Eliza’s father shouted as he realized what the figure was.
“Why? What is it?” Eliza’s mother asked.
“Dragon.” Her husband responded.
Eliza gasped as she paused outside while the rest of her family rushed back home, to look at the black line with renewed interest. Now, the line began to look faintly like a dragon. Eliza could vaguely make out four legs, and a head. It didn’t even look black anymore, more of a dark green colour.
“Eliza! Hurry in!” Eliza’s mother called out anxiously. Eliza took one last lingering glance at the dragon before rushing inside. Michelle immediately closed the door and then shut the curtains. Eliza could hear her parents rushing around the house making sure the windows and curtains were closed.
“Why are they doing that?” Eliza wondered out loud.
“To get the dragon off our scent,” Michelle answered as she began pulling Eliza to the middle of the house, “Dragons are dangerous and can kill people. Closing the windows and curtains will help mask the smell of tasty human, but it’s not enough. Our best bet is to go underground. The garage is the most dangerous, but the second floor is almost just as bad. The more exposed we are to air, a dragon’s natural territory, the more vulnerable we are. Now hurry and help secure everything.”
Eliza ran upstairs and to her room. The curtains were all closed, casting the room into a darkness that was deeper and far more sinister than the darkness that came at night. It was still day out and the usually pale green curtains glowed in such a way that reminded Eliza of a witch’s cauldron. A figure on the other side cast a shadow on the curtains.
Eliza felt her breathing quicken until she was almost panting and it felt as if her heart was trying to beat out of her chest. She longed to run out the door, to run away from that unknown figure that was outside her window, but she found that her feet were taking steps towards what she so wanted to escape from. Reluctantly, she raised her hand, not surprised to see that it was shaking, and she drew back the curtain just a crack. Looking out, she saw the fearsome yellow eyes of a dragon looking back at her with malicious intention. It was while she was under the scrutiny of the dragon, was Eliza released of whatever strange hypnosis she was under. She let go of the curtain and ran. She had not taken two steps when the windows shattered with a loud smash. She screamed as loud as she could, tears running down her cheeks, while sprinting towards the stairs where at the bottom, she could hear her parents yelling at her to come down. Eliza could feel the air behind her heating up and just narrowly avoided her clothes catching on fire from the dragon’s inflamed breath.
Eliza nearly tripped several times as she ran down the stairs in her haste and when she reached the main floor, she was met by her very anxious mother.
“Eliza! What have you done? Quickly now, everyone is already in the basement,” she cried as she pushed Eliza to the stairs that led down. Eliza turned left which was the stairs that led to the basement, but she felt her mother pause behind her. Looking back, Eliza saw her mother turn right, going to the door that led to the garage.
“MUM!” Eliza cried as she grabbed onto her mother’s arm and pulled with all her might, “What are you doing, don’t go there!”
“My socks, Eliza, I left my socks to dry in the garage,” Eliza’s mother pulled free of her daughters grasp and opened the door to the garage. Frantic, Eliza ran after her mother but skidded to a stop at the doorway. The garage doors were open and the dragon’s large head took up almost half the garage. He was staring right at them. The dragon opened his large mouth and all Eliza could see was an endless tunnel of black. It became larger and larger until it was all Eliza could see.

Bolting upright, Eliza woke from her nightmare, her own screams and her mother’s screams still echoed in her mind. Eliza looked around, she was in her room and the darkness was the familiar darkness that she saw every night. She realized to her surprise that she was shaking and sweating. When she put her hands to her face, she found that her cheeks were wet with tears. Quickly wiping her eyes, she climbed out of bed and slowly opened her door. Looking at the hallway, the shadows seemed to move on their own. It was just a nightmare, Eliza told herself, it was just a nightmare. She took a deep breath and ran as quickly as she could to her parent’s bedroom. She opened the door as was greeted with the familiar sight of her parent’s sleeping figures. She quietly walked to the side of the bed where her mother slept.
“Mom,” she whispered as she shook her mother’s shoulder.
“What is it?” her mother murmured sleepily.
“I had a bad dream,” Eliza said, “I want to sleep with you.” Sighing, her mother scooted over and made room for Eliza who quickly crawled into bed. She asked her mother, “Mom, do you really like socks that much?” But her mother’s snores told her that she was already asleep. Closing her eyes, Eliza soon followed suit.