StoryMask.com

The following piece of horror flash fiction was inspired by this picture. I used some elements found in some popular urban legends. Hope you enjoy it.

SandDream Magicks
Written by: Ben Marroquin
StoryMask.com

She hated her brother. She tired of his schemes. Always teasing her, pinching her, making her scream. I’ll show him she thought, “tonight, big brother will pay.”

Into her bedroom, she lit candles by three’s, turned off the lights and then calmly breathed. She unzipped her Kim Possible backpack (cheery and fun). Then pulled out a dark musty book titled The Sands of Bad Dreams. She had purchased it from a strange old shop she’d never seen before. It was the sign that called her in:

SandDream Magicks - Make Your Heart’s Dreams Come True.

She found what she was looking for on page 353. She whispered the words in a soft flowing chant: “Come to me sister sand, hear my heart’s dream. Let him taste what he‘s given, multiply it by three. Capture and wrap him, in sand dreams so dark. Teach him the lessons, which comes from my heart. With your name I invoke thee and so set you free.”

“Sandriel…”
“Sandriel…”
“Sandriel,” she breathed.

Tensely she waited for a sign it had worked, but nothing occurred. She closed the thick book and shoved it back in her pack. I should have known it was all just a scam.

But outside her brother’s slightly open window the breeze picked up. Gusts of wind began to swirl, creating a growing dust devil. Within, a figure began to take form. And then the wind died, but the dust did not fall. No, it was pulled to the center, became part of that living sand dream.

It drifted over to the window and sifted within, reformed. It stood over his bed, watching him sleep. Then she reached over, stroking his cheek. Something felt weird, something felt wrong, and he woke with a start. Brown eyes bulged as he took in the sight. Up from above him was a mutated human type thing.

“What in the heck?” he gasped, staring at it from it‘s head to her feet. She had three misshapen faces staring down on him through four terra cotta eyes. And she appeared to be made entirely of shifting sand. He open his mouth and screamed, but she stifled his cry as her sandy fingers pressed closed his lips. The only one to hear him, was sister Jenny.

She opened his door and froze from the sight.

“Ssshhhh,” Sandriel whispered to the terrified boy. “Not yet. I’m the keeper of sleepers and maker of dreams. I’ve been sent to collect you, so there’s no need to scream.”

And with that, one of her faces winked to his sister, with a soft smile on her third pair of lips. Then bent over and kissed him and swallowed him whole. With her job done, she exploded into a dust devil storm. She sifted out the window with her brother in tow, and took him to her dream world leaving Jenny alone.