Charlie's Nightmares: The Invasion of Fire

Charles woke up with his face in the cool damp dirt. The musty smell of earth flooded his nostrils as he inhaled. He rolled over, not entirely certain of where he was or how he had gotten there. He looked towards the sky and saw the full moon above but didn't see any stars. That struck him as a bit odd. The soft light of the moon reflected off the clouds around it creating the effect of a soft halo in the cloudy night sky. 

“It's just clouds,” Charles sighed as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Now where am I?”

He looked to his left and his right as he attempted to get his bearings. He looked across an empty field that was riddled with corn stubble and chaff. The clouded moonlight was just enough for him to see that there was nothing there for him. 

The hairs on the back of his neck bristled as he felt an unnatural warmth spread across his back like the breath of an unknown creature of terror. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply as he attempted to gain the courage to turn around and face what fear stood behind him. His jaw clenched as he ground his teeth in fearful apprehension. He shook a chill from his spine and turned slowly towards the pasture behind him. What he saw before him took him completely by surprise.

He recognized the pasture before him but everything was different than he knew it should be. The barbed wire that denoted the border of the pasture was gnarled and twisted and there was too much wire for the fence. The wooden fence posts were crooked and cracked. Some of them were completely uprooted from the ground, held in place only be the wire attached to them. He looked over the fence into the pasture. The trees were twisted and sickly and completely barren of leaves. The trunks of the trees were completely concealed within the wild brier bushes that had grown around the trees and had dug their parasitic roots and thorns into the bark of the struggling trees. 

The ground should have been covered in green grass and blooming clover. Instead, it was completely barren as if it had been scorched by some incredible fire. Charles looked for the creek that he knew should be trickling lazily through the pasture. Instead, all he saw was a harsh orange glow through a thick covering of strange grayish black fog. He gingerly made his way over to the fence, inspecting the tangled wire in front of him for a safe way through. He walked along the fence until he found a void in the tangled wire that was big enough for him to crawl through. He got down on his hands and knees and carefully made his way through the hole in the fence.

“Ouch!” he muttered under his breath as the barbed wire dug into his forearm. “That hurts.”

He stood up and walked cautiously towards the creek. As he stepped into the fog, he inhaled and was thrown into a coughing fit. The grayish black fog wasn't fog at all. It was smoke. He pulled his t-shirt up over nose and mouth in an attempt to filter his breaths and continued towards the glowing creek. The closer he got to the creek, the warmer the air around him became. He reached the bank just as a brisk breeze blew across the pasture. The smoke cleared away revealing the creek. The creek was the source of the glow.

At that time of year, the creek should have been pushing the limits of it's banks with water from the spring rains. The creek was pushing the limits of it's banks, but the contents were not what the teenager expected. Instead of clear cool water, the creek was flowing with molten lava. The orange mass flowed slowly within the banks of the pasture creek scorching what little foliage remained. Every so often, the creeping mass of liquid rock would come across a tree branch and engulf it in a burst of yellow flame. Sweat beaded down Charles' face and his heart raced as he watched the lava roll under itself as it pushed beyond the banks of the creek. In a strange sort of erosion, rocks and dirt fell away from the pasture and disappeared into the growing river of fire. Much to the young man's dismay, the lava creek seemed to be taking over the surrounding area in agonizing slow motion.

Charles just stood in front of the molten river and stared, completely taken aback by what he was witnessing. The heat from the lava was almost unbearable, but he couldn't turn away. Only when he smelled his own arm hair as it began to singe did he take a couple of steps back. He looked east where the gentle incline of the pasture steepened quickly into a sheer embankment. It was obvious that the embankment was the source of the fiery river. A gaping hole in the steep bank frothed molten lava like the mouth of a rabid animal. Large chunks of earth and rock fell away from the hill and violently splashed into the lava below. 

“What is going on here?” Charles asked in a voice fraught with confusion. “This is one of my favorite places in the world and it's turning into hell.”

His musings were interrupted by a sudden movement in his peripherals. He jerked his head to the left and the right and just caught a glimpse of a shadow as it slipped behind a smoking tree trunk. He didn't know what it was, but it was immediately evident that it didn't belong here.

“Maybe it does belong here,” Charles muttered under his breath. “I'm beginning to think that I don't belong here anymore.”

With that comment, the teenager turned on his heel and made a brisk beeline for the western border of the pasture. As soon as he turned his back on the source of the lava, he heard a terrifying symphony of cracking twigs and rustling underbrush. Charles turned sharply to look behind him just in time to see a dozen or more shadowy figures disappear into the darkness of the trees and thorn bushes. The young man's heart pounded in his chest as turned his back on the shadows and started running towards the pasture fence. The sounds of pursuit plagued the young man as he fled. He frantically searched the mangled fence line before him searching for an opening and desperately hoping to find one before he reached the fence. Unable to find an opening, Charles aimed for a large stump about two feet from the fence. He launched himself at full speed from the top of the stump and dove over the top of the fence. He tucked his head into his chest and rolled head over heels into the rough corn stubble.

He slid to a stop a few yards away away from the tangled wire that now appeared to keep the shadows at bay. They stood just on the other side of the fence, no longer attempting to hide from the young man. They shifted their weight, if it could be said that they had weight, from one foot to the other as they snarled in the general direction of the disoriented teenager. They had staked their claim and they would not allow Charles to threaten their territory with his presence.

Charles backed away from the pasture, watching the shadows that guarded it as he walked. The shadows made no move to follow him so he turned away and started jogging, watching the dimly-lit ground before him for obstacles. As he approached the edge of the field, the glanced over his shoulder, expecting to see the pasture fence and trees silhouetted against the orange glow of the lava. Instead, he saw nothing. The smoke of the smoldering grassland had completely engulfed the pasture and the tangled mass of barbed wire that surrounded it.

“If I didn't know any better, I'd say the pasture didn't even exist,” he muttered to himself. “I hope that I'm the only one out here tonight. I would hate for someone else to wander into that mess.”

Charlie walked briskly down the hill towards the driveway. The crinkle of the dry cornstalks collapsing under the teenagers feet punctuated each step as the young man hurried away from the pasture. The sound of his steps changed to a crunch as he stepped from the field onto the gravel driveway. He shook his head in confusion as he watched the ground pass under his feet. He couldn't understand the change that had taken place in the pasture. 

Nobody fixed fence like that. Pastures were supposed to be contained by straight horizontal fencing, not a tangled mass of barbed wire. He wondered where the lava had come from. He wasn't aware of any volcanic activity in the area, not that he had really looked into the possibility. Neither of those items bothered him nearly as much as the shadows that had sent him running. They didn't belong there. Charles knew that well. However, they had somehow made him feel that he was the one who didn't belong. Despite everything he had experienced, that was the most disturbing thing of all.

The driveway that Charles was walking on was perched on the top of a small dam that acted as the south barrier of a small pond. The pond was to the young man's right. To his left was a single wire fence and a sloped bank that dropped ten feet into a marshy pasture that served as a dissipation field for the lake's overflow. 

Charles wiped his brow and was surprised to find that his hand came back wet from his own perspiration. 

Why am I sweating? He asked himself silently.

He stopped in mid-stride and looked at his arms. He left arm was basically dry which was what he had expected to find. His right arm was a different story altogether. Sweat ran from every pore and had soaked his entire pant leg. Wait, it wasn't only his arm that was sweating. The entire right side of his body was sweating as if he was exposed to an unknown heat source that existed only on one side of his body. His heart rate quickened as he considered the possibilities. Given his experience up to that point, he had a pretty good idea of what was going on.

He slowly turned towards the pond on the north side of the driveway fully expecting to find something terrifying. At first, he didn't see anything at all. Except for a soft yellow glow emanating from the bottom, the lake was completely empty. Charles took a tentative step towards the empty pond. The glow from the bottom sharpened and shifted in color an intensity. He took another step and paused. He stretched his neck as far as he could to get a glimpse of the pond without getting too close.

“Where is all the water?” he muttered under his breath as he took one more step.

He finally saw what he feared was waiting for you. In the bottom of the water-less pond cavity was a small pool of lava. The pool slowly widened as the level rose up the lake walls. The glow intensified along with the heat that rose from the pool. Sweat poured from every inch of the young man's face. His breathing quickened as he fought mentally against the reality before him. He fished in this pond on a regular basis. Now it didn't contain a single living thing. He shook his head in confusion and anguish. Despite the near unbearable nature of the heat, he took two more steps and stood on the edge of the earthen dam. 

 

He stood there waiting for the scene before him to return to what he knew it should be, but that shift never happened. The sweat mingled with the blood from the cut on his arm and dripped onto the rocks embedded in the bank of the lake. The sweat sizzled and evaporated within seconds. 

 

How could this be? Where did this come from? What can I do? I don't underst...

His thoughts were interrupted by a screeching unearthly wail. A shadow of a creature, no, the creature itself, leaped from the lake before him and attacked the young man with a fury that took him completely by surprise. Charles fell backwards onto the gravel drive and rolled head over heels, feeling every rock and bump. He skidded to a stop within inches of the bank on the south side of the drive. He crouched in the gravel opposite his attacker. The creature stood as nothing more than a silhouette against the backdrop of the lava lake mirroring the young man's stance. 

 

The two opponents faced each other with equal parts determination and apprehension, each waiting to see what the other would do. The creature lost it's patience. It screamed with a vengeance and charged. Charles stood, clenching his fists in preparation for the pending battle. The creature jumped towards him, pivoting mid-air, and kicked it's young opponent square in the chest with both of it's crooked feet. Charles grunted against the pain as all the air was expelled violently from his lungs. He flew backwards over the fence and fell through the air towards the pasture below. He screamed silently as the shadow watched from the driveway above.

Charles sat up violently in his bunk bed, striking his head on the bunk above. He grunted in pain as he rubbed his sweaty forehead. He rolled out of bed and walked over to the east window. Looking between the branches of the large pine tree outside his bedroom, he could just make out the pasture on the far side of the corn field. Everything appeared to be normal. He looked north at the fishing pond and was relieved to find it in a state of normalcy as well. 

 

“It was just a dream,” he sighed with relief as he rubbed his forearm.

He felt a warm sticky substance on his arm and held out his palm. The morning sun cast a yellow light across the young man's hand but the substance on his hand was unmistakable. His hand and his forearm were both covered in blood.