Nightmare (The First of a Series to Get You in the Mood for All Hallows)

I think I am dreaming. Please. Let me be dreaming.

Intolerable, all-encompassing pain forced me immediately awake. An endless blasted landscape under a murky yellow sky stretched all the way to the horizon. Unable to move my head or even my eyes, I saw through my peripheral vision that my arms had been lashed to a thick wooden board and my feet dangled inches above the rotted soil. I hung motionless in that hellish landscape, unable to do anything but stare straight ahead.

No! Not this! I’ve been crucified!

The pain became even more intense and I felt within my ragged clothes things crawling around and inside my body. Something small and black scampered across my face momentarily blocking my vision.

My head suddenly flopped down like a marionette with its strings cut. Looking past my undulating ragged and straw-covered clothing, I saw thousands of mice pouring out of my pants legs to drop to the ground below, spreading out over the landscape like a black plague.

Actual crucifixion would have been a mercy.

I am a scarecrow and the mice that inhabit my body left it to feed.

They are returning

Please. Let me be dreaming.