Juliannas Nightmares

Juliana had been having these nightmares as long as she could remember. They started out when she was a little girl. She dreamed of this boy, not much older than she was, his dark eyes and bloodthirsty smile. She could only see him in her dream if she was looking in a mirror. Then the reflection was not her own, but his. He would torture creatures, ripping them apart with his bare hands. She often would wake herself up with her blood curdling screams. Her mom and dad were at a loss. Even the therapist they had her see, from time to time, for evaluations could seen no reason why a sweet, curious, and cautious girl, of such a tender age, could have such vivid and bone chilling dreams.

She had them all her life. As she grew up, so did the boy in her nightmares. She couldn't escape the dreams, either. She tried medicine, changing sleeping habits, not sleeping at all. Still, the dreams haunted her. Now in her twenties, and going to college, she dared not to sleep over at friend's houses or take naps in company. She kept to herself, lest her horrid secret got out and people thought she was a freak. Other than the nightmares, she was a normal young girl.

She was a gorgeous brunette, large eyes, thick hair, and a body all the girls envied. She had the brains and the brawn as well. With her tantalizing good looks, sweet nature, and easy-going manner, she made friends without even trying. Good grades came easy as well, and so did work, she was often offered more job positions that she could ever want.

As long as she kept the nightmares safe and secret, nobody would know. After all, her parents had even thought that they had stopped eons ago. She kept them very well hidden. Even though, they became more and more bizarre as she got older.

She did keep a record of them, every detail in her diary. She kept these diaries hidden, locked up. It became her obsession to keep the journaling of these bizarre and bone chilling dreams. It was equally important to keep them locked up. As soon as one 50 cent note book was filled up, she would take a special trip out of town to deposit it into a safe deposit box in another state. This was often; sometimes up to twice per week.

The young man who now haunted her dreams still had the bloodthirsty smile, only his victims were far worse, they were young women who looked like her. He would stalk them for days on end, and then on the anniversary date of her birth every month, the 25th, he would kidnap them. He then tortured them another whole month and killed them the night before capturing his next victim.

She couldn't keep the dreams out of her head either. Even if she stayed up all night and didn't sleep, the visions of the dream she should have had would haunt her. There was no escape. For many months this ritual kept on and she counted the diaries up, there were 5 years worth of journals in the box. Every single one with more gruesome details than the last.

She decided at spring break to go visit her grandparents who lived in a Savannah, Georgia. She was born there, but her parents had moved when she was too young to remember. She had lived all her life on the Oregon coast and decided to go to Julliard when she was just 5. Her wealthy grandparents footed every cost it took to fulfill her dream, even sending her for a summer to France to study with the masters. She adored her grandparents for more than that. They were the sweetest people she had ever known all her life. It was said by her relatives that she took after them in every respect.

She watched the procession of lights pass overhead as she covered lonely stretch of freeway after lonely stretch of freeway on the three day drive from New York to Georgia. The nightly dreams haunted her the whole way. She felt better if she drove at night and slept during the day. This way she could cover more road without all the traffic.

Even awake the dreams haunted her like visions. It had been long since that the boy had begun talking to her in the dreams. He kept blaming her for all his action, telling her to get out of his head and accusing her of replacing him in his reflections. He seemed familiar to her, even now, those big brown eyes and long thick lashes and hair. That gorgeous boyish face and dashing good looks. The only flaw was the bloodthirsty look in his eyes and that evil smile. That and sometimes when she would look in the mirror, he would wink.

As she spent the week with her grandparents, secrets began to unfold. Deep dark family secrets. She happened across some photos in an old family album of a young man who looked much like the boy in her dreams. Her grandmother finally explained that it was her father's twin brother. That he had lived most his life in an insane asylum, up until his suicide just before her mom found out she was pregnant.

Towards the end of her stay, she found some photographs in an old family album. It was her mom and she was huge. She saw the happy looks of her father, that special twinkle in his eye he had for his kids, and that rosy flush in her mom's face. She had seen it a couple times before, since she had two younger siblings. But never had her mom been so pregnant with them. She carefully slid the photo from the album and looked at the back. On the back was one simple phrase, "It's Twins!"

She looked at the date on the photo; it could only be from when her mom was pregnant with her. So, the next morning she decided to talk to her Gramma Rose about it.

"Yes, A tragedy really."

"Why's that Gramma?"

"There was an accident the night you were born, a few days after that photo was taken. I believe your
mom was about 7 ½ months along. Your brother didn't make it."

"Why has nobody told me?"

"Jules, it wasn't so easy, every since you were born you had those nightmares, and we thought you were too young. After a while, it just seemed more important to move on."

"Where was he buried?"

"The Hospital took care of that, actually. They said his sweet little body was so mutilated that it would not have been proper for a burial. They said they disposed of it."

"So nobody has ever seen him?"

"No, the accident happened so quickly, your parents were both in a drug induced coma, and we couldn't get there in time. When we arrived, your grandpa and I, you were already in the pediatric unit and the paperwork has already been taken care of."

Juliana said no more and quickly changed the subject. Grandma Rose didn't bring it up again. It made Juliana wonder, if nobody saw the baby, what happened to him? Could it be possible that the hospital lied? No, she was sure of it. Why would they lie about a baby? Somebody would have had to sign the death certificate or some kind of paperwork, after all. She decided to put it out of her mind for now.

Several days later, back in her apartment in New York, she decided to start seeing a therapist. She couldn't get the nightmares to go away and couldn't take medication now that she was at Julliard.

One day as she was walking home from the therapist, she caught the headlines from a newspaper stand, "Serial Killer Strikes New York." She picked up a paper and headed for home. After dinner she opened up the paper and began reading. It seemed that this male had been killing women for the past 5 years, one woman every month. The women had all been abducted on the 25th. It was presumed that he had killed them, even though no bodies had been recovered.

Fingerprints and DNA were found at several of the young women's apartments and they all pointed to a young man with dark brown hair. There was one eye witness, a young blonde girl about 14 who was a relative of one of the young women. No other evidence has been released and the FBI had no comment.

It shocked her. She could feel the blood draining from her veins.

She decided that this was it, this had to be it. Somehow she knew who he was and she was sure he was after her. The latest abductee was taken from an apartment a few blocks away. She decided to come forward, as bizarre as she knew it sounded, it all fit.

She took the long drive to Wisconsin that weekend, after all, he wouldn't strike for another three weeks. She picked up her diaries, which now filled her trunk, and headed home. She had Monday off as a holiday, so she would do it then.

Monday morning she called the local police department and simply stated that she had some evidence on the case and asked if she could meet with the FBI. A few hours later, a few agents arrived at her apartment. After a few hours of interviews and even after looking over a few of her journal entries, they were unconvinced that she knew anything. They chalked it up to pure coincidence.

Finally, after much insistence for a blood sample on her part, they decided to arrest her for impeding an investigation. They locked her up and ordered her medicated. She refused medication, and repeatedly requested a lawyer. After some time one was afforded her, however, he soon took the sides of the FBI and she soon found herself strapped to a gurney and watched the quick procession of lights dance down the hallway as she slowly dipped into unconsciousness...