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Have you ever wondered why the fear you felt as an unknowable beast stalks through the shadows of your mind is so real? Have you ever wondered why you wake up sweating as if you had just sprinted from the jaws of a powerful and ancient predator? Have you wondered why so many simply go to sleep and never wake up?
It is because sometimes we wander too far in our dreams, often unknowing of the consequences of our actions, if we are even aware of that much. Sometimes the creatures on the other side do the same, though often with deliberate purpose.
We instinctively know to fear the places these creatures from another existence congregate in. We feel cold and hunted for they remind us of our own limited existence and how swiftly it could be ended during our moments of vulnerability every day. We catch glimpses of shadows out of the corner of our eyes. Often we call these places haunted.
I know this because I have seen what happens when one travels too far into these other realms.
I have been exploring the shallowest points of the “dream world” from such a young age that I can’t remember my earliest travels. I can, however, remember the moment when it all changed, and the moment when my already unstable mind began to unhinge with what I had found there.

i think it's best if you do not seek answers.

When I opened my eyes it took me several moments to fully realize I had done so. There was no light to show me the difference. The air was hot and oppressive. It carried the smell of rotting flesh, making it even more difficult to attempt to breath in the sticky, stale air. Slowly I pulled myself to my feet and began to walk forward as quietly as I could. I still had no idea where I was, but instinct was telling me it was not a place I wanted to be.

The area around me seemed to be uneven and made of exposed bedrock. I tripped over a small rise in the floor and found out rather painfully that there were also stalactites. Rather sharp ones as my bleeding shoulder proved. I decided I must be underground, but from the heat and humidity quite likely still near the surface.

I carefully made my way in the darkness, my eyes began to adjust. While I still couldn’t see, I could make out vague shapes and a dim light far ahead of me. I made my way towards it, hoping the light was from the surface.

When I drew closer I noticed the light didn’t seem quite natural, it was a strange shade of green, which I can’t recall ever having seen before. When I finally approached the source of the light I could see why the light was so unfamiliar, it was coming from a patch of what seemed to be a fungus or slime mold growing along the walls from one central source.
I held my breath for a few moments to keep from yelling out when I noticed what the central source of this growth was feeding off of. Staring up at me with eerily glowing eye sockets was a skull. I tried to tell myself it was an ape skull, but knew better than that. Especially after I looked further ahead of me and say the remains of at least a dozen more individuals being leeched upon by the glowing substance.

I became aware of the sound of metal scraping against stone. In such silence the sound was odd and did not seem to belong. The strangeness of the sound made me hesitate and my skin began to crawl as I pondered returning to the darkness to hide. The images brought about by this idea were worse, as I would eventually succumb to the fungus as it spread further into the cave, or have a run in with whatever was leaving these bodies in the cave to rot. So I crept quietly from one stalactite to the next, occasionally stopping to look over the top for the most expedient route to escape.

I don’t know exactly how long I went on, carefully trying to hide my presence, but it became tiring before I had made much progress I stopped to rest and take stock of the information I had. The air ahead was becoming fresher and smelled of something other than mould and dead men. I was drawing closer to my escape.

Unfortunately, I was also drawing closer to the scraping noise, and quite possibly the one responsible for the corpses I left behind me. Leaving the cave would likely mean a confrontation.

I grabbed a nearby stone, the sharp tip of a broken stalagmite above. Whatever was here was dangerous, as it had killed many before me. But I was intent on making it pay dearly for my life, should it try to take it.

I pressed on again, and soon came to the opening into the earth I was buried under. And sitting just at the very edge of the light was a darkened mass staring in my direction with glowing half open eyes. Whatever it was, it was quite well aware of my presence and had long since grown bored with waiting for me.

At its feet was a human skeleton picked clean of any meat. A long, terribly clawed hand from the creature scratched lazily along the ribcage, as if playing a ghastly instrument. Once it was fully satisfied that I was quite well aware of my impending doom it prepared to attack.
Drawing itself up to its full height the creature loomed nearly to the roof of the cave, almost 10 feet by my estimation. It then leaned over and began walking on what I could assume was all fours. The creature darted faster than I could see, but only over short distances. It was obviously playing with me as I posed so little of a threat.

I felt my only hope was to draw it into the light that lay beyond. The darkness was its home, here it had the advantage. I, admittedly, feel much more at home in the darkness as well, but if taken into the light I could at least see the monsters attacks coming. I had no plans of fighting the creature now that I had seen it. All thoughts were for escape.
Unfortunately as soon as the adrenaline kicked in, all thoughts vanished from my head, and I began working purely by instinct.

My grip tightened around the stalagmite I had found and my body charged my foe almost of its own accord. Taken back by behavior it likely didn’t often see the monster hesitated and even stumbled back a little, like a cat dealing with an unusually aggressive mouse.

The creature didn’t hesitate for long, however. Much like the previously mentioned cat it quickly realized that it could kill me with one well placed swipe. It was on me before I had even made it more than a few steps.
I managed to dive to the ground and roll onto my back just in time to avoid a fatal slash to the back of the neck, but not in time to avoid the creature all together, as it knocked me to the ground with the bulk of its weight and pinned me under its rear claws, nearly crushing my rib cage.
The creature reached a hand like claw slowly towards me, getting ready to peel my skin off slowly. It had failed to notice that my arms were still free though, and when it did this, it left its side wade open for an attack. I desperately jammed my makeshift dagger into its torso, striking through a location the diaphragm would be on a human.

The creature fell back, surprised at the sudden pain I had inflicted. As it cried out I realized that I had missed my mark and failed to deliver a lethal strike to the creature. The monster was already a dangerous foe and now I had made it angry.

As soon as the creature began to reel from the surprise attack I kicked my legs into the air and rolled back and away from the monster, ending the movement on my feet and more than a yard away from my attacker. As I rolled backwards I made sure to kick the stone lodged in its side with as much force as I could to buy an extra moment to escape.

As I turned to run I stumbled over the grinning remains of a fellow traveler. I felt my hands grasp something and scrambled to me feet to keep running away, towards what safety the light might provide.
It pounced on me once more at the very mouth of the cave. I felt the claws dig into my right side just before the area went conspicuously numb. The creature had just broken several of my ribs. I barely had the time to react before I heard the sound of bone crunching, and the noise of sinew and cloth being shredded. The force of the attack knocked me sideways several feet, and I barely managed to curl up in time to use the force of the attack to allow me to somersault to my feet.

The beast turned to face me after it landed. The look of shocked confusion on its face would almost have been comical were it not also filled with such bloodlust. It quickly spat out the bony arm that had crumbled in its teeth. Were it capable the beast would likely be cursing.

I was actually trying to use the arm from the recent victim of the creature as a weapon, trying to stab the bones into the creature's throat. Fortunately for me, it had assumed the arm it had grabbed was my own.
Once I was out in the clearing I had little time to take in details. I was about seventy or so feet underground, the light was coming from what appeared to be a collapsed section of the roof above. I also noticed there was no way up out of the cave system from here unless I could climb an unstable inverted wall, or risk more encounters in the other openings leading away from this location. I also noticed the center of the grotto was a crater, with a great deal of rock from the roof.

Both the creature and I started running for the rubble. It was not entirely comfortable in the exposed light, and I had felt the need to hide from a creature that so far has proven to be stronger than me, but had failed to finish me off by little more than bad luck.

I leaned against a boulder about the size of myself to stop and catch a breather. The adrenaline was still surging through my blood, but my body could not keep up with the pace it was trying to set. My heart was beating too fast and my breathing made it difficult for me to hear. My foe on the other hand could hear me just fine, and would find me with little effort if I could not get my breathing under control.

Suddenly my enemy jumped down on me from above. I barely dodged out of the way in time to avoid being crushed.

The creature raised one clawed hand up and brought it down with a vicious swipe aimed at my chest. Trained reflexes took over. I had no chance to dodge out of the way of the attack, but I could still jump into the attack.
The claws that would have surely ripped through me and into my lungs instead found only air, the creatures paw striking hard into my ribs, possibly breaking a few more, and momentarily knocking the wind out of me.

I struck as hard as I could at the center of the creature with my elbow, doing little more than sending a shocking pain through it and my ribs. I then reach up with both hand and pulled its head down while jumping up and pushing my knee into where I hoped its jaw would be. This attack had little effect as well. Now that my feet were up off the ground the monster pushed me with both hands and sent me spinning backwards through the air.

I landed flat on my back against a boulder and began to slide down it to the ground. The pain in my body was beginning to break through, I forced my mind to ignore it for now, focusing instead on trying to locate my enemy. If I made it through this, I would definitely have some feelings of wishing I didn’t.

I fell into a heap at the foot of the stone that had broken my fall. I pulled myself slowly and took my surroundings in. While I was hoping to find something to hide in, I was more than willing to accept what I did find.
Standing before me was a scythe. One end was wedged deep in the ground, the other had a menacing blade with barbs that bent back upon themselves cruelly, making sure that a piercing strike would pull more flesh with it out than it sliced going in. It was most definitely not made for reaping grains.

I quickly ran up and grabbed it, barely able to lift it up to chest level with my broken body. Instantly I felt coldness rush up my arms and through the rest of my body. Before I could fully tell what happened I heard several rocks behind me tumble. I turned around to see the monster in mid air, ready to take my head off.

We both realized this was our last attack. One of us was going to die in this moment. Time almost seemed to slow down. I felt the creature's claws begin digging into my neck, bearing their way down to the carotid artery, preparing to spray my blood all over the surrounding walls. I felt the scythe breaking through bone and sliding through flesh. Then suddenly the claw relaxed and stopped digging any further. The creature began to howl in agony, and then suddenly folded in on itself, being pulled into the blade.
The threat over with, my body shut down the adrenaline fueling my blood before it killed me. My legs weakened and shook until my knees buckled and I fell. Adrenaline withdrawals are nasty, and aside from that I no longer had anything to distract my mind from the pain in my body. I leaned over and suddenly began to vomit, my back and ribs feeling a renewed sense of agony from this action.

Everything around me became blurry, spots began forming in front of my eyes and breathing became difficult thanks to my injuries. I realized just in time I was about to lose consciousness and managed to make myself collapse sideways rather than face down into my own vomit. I faintly remember hearing the voice of that b*****d teasing me. “Thought I trained you better than that boy! Fainting after a fight… what a girl.”

I like. There are a few hiccups in the narration, like how the creature never actualy seems to show up. One second he's not there the next he's strumming ribs, but I had to read it a few times to realize it was there.