Patrick bolted upright in bed. The sudden action startled the cat and she leaped from the mattress and ran out the door.

  Images of darkness ran through his mind, and the sound of blood pumping in his ears roared at a deafening pitch.

  He fumbled around in the dark, desperately searching for the bedside lamp. He hesitated with his finger on the switch, afraid that he would turn on the light but only more darkness would come from it.

  With a click, light flooded the room.

  Bathed in the glow of the lamp, he sat forward in bed, hugging his legs to his chest.

  After a moment, the cat cautiously reappeared at the door.

  “It’s alright, Tara.”

  The reassurance in his voice gave her confidence. She jumped back onto the bed and pushed her way onto his lap, demanding comfort. He leaned down and buried his face in her fur, and the sound of her rumbling purr took the edge off his shattered nerves.

  He couldn’t remember the last time a dream had stayed with him so vividly on waking. Always his dreams had slipped from his conscious mind, never to be recalled. But this dream had seared itself onto his brain. He closed his eyes and could see the shadows spreading across the ground towards him, inching closer and closer.

  Even more frightening was that it had all felt so familiar, like a dream in which he remembered a fragment from another dream.

  “I can’t help it. It’s all going back!”

  He didn’t know why those words suddenly came to mind, but they sent a chill up his spine.

  There would be no return to sleep again this night. Even if he had never had a night of insomnia before in his life, the dream of living darkness would never have allowed him to go back to sleep now.

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  He gently lifted the cat from his lap and sat on the edge of his bed, trying to secure himself in the certainty of the waking world.

  The clock on his nightstand read 3:15 a.m.

  He got up and walked into the bathroom, where he rested his hands on either side of the sink and took a few deep, calming breaths.

  He looked up and studied himself in the mirror. His face was pale and his eyes were framed by dark circles that made them appear sunken. A sheen of sweat covered his forehead.

  He turned the tap on, filled his palms with water, and splashed it on his face. The chill was refreshing. He tried to imagine the cool water washing away his fears, but it could not rid him of the deep and unwavering anxiety.

  The dream ran through his mind again and again, a record stuck in a groove—a song whose tune had become lodged in his mind, repeating the same verse over and over again.

  He tried to think about something else, but there was no escaping it. He felt compelled to examine recent events, to pick them up and turn them over in his mind, trying to view them from every angle.

  Could he really have imagined that man coming towards him with a knife?

  It had been so real—the sound of the screams, the sight of the blood, so red and vibrant, glistening in the sun as it dripped to the ground, leaving a trail as the lunatic came closer with every step.

  And the dream. The inescapable dream.

  He paced up and down the hallway, moving his body to try and still his mind.

  He felt dazed, his thoughts vibrating at a sickening frequency.

  The disorientation was like being pulled apart. Something about it was familiar—he recognized the feeling, but he couldn’t place it.

  He had to do something to get away from his thoughts.

  He grabbed the car keys from the hall stand and walked out the door. He hit play on the car stereo and the CD picked up where it had left off.

  “Yeah, they’ve come to snuff the rooster, yeahhh! No, he ain’t gonna die.”

  He backed out of the driveway and headed down the street with the music turned up loud.

  He had no idea where he was going. He just had to drive—to concentrate on the road and forget everything else.

  The streets became a blur of light and shadow, of white lines on dark asphalt and reflective street signs against shadowy backgrounds. The lights seemed brighter and the shadows darker.

  Dawn was slowly making an appearance on the horizon. A faint tinge of fire caressed the clouds to the east, but the sky was still dark and scattered with stars.

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