Deadly Dream

"Look out!" the angel cried. "It’s a spear!"

It was the middle of the night, but Henry was not the least bit sleepy. He was in bed, cowering in the arms of an angel. He stared in horror as his closet door opened, and a skeleton slowly aimed a sharp spear at his bare chest.

A movement jerked Henry’s attention upward. He saw Death, pale and ghastly, smirking down at him from the canopy over the bed. A row of sickening black teeth gleamed from the huge skull.

The angel at Henry’s side lifted his face toward the wall near the small window. A half-naked man hung on a cross, and two circles of light shone on Henry as the man’s eyes became bigger and rounder.

At the foot of the bed, a dark figure was reaching into the huge treasure chest, searching for the gold coins hidden inside. As Silas’s fingers touched the precious metal, the lid slammed down and trapped his arm. He tried vainly to free it.

Henry watched Silas from the corner of his eye. He gasped sharply as a reptile he had never seen before slithered from underneath the bed and crawled in Silas’s direction. It opened its mouth, fangs dripping venom, and bit into his big toe. Silas sank to the floor, dead. The reptile slid back under the bed.

Henry swung his head toward the closet. He followed the skeleton’s movements as it drew its arm back, preparing to throw the spear.

"No, no!" Henry screamed. "Please do not kill me! The coins and papers are in the trunk. You can have everything I took from you. I truly am sorry about killing you." Tears flowed freely down his cheeks. The angel patted his shoulder to comfort him.

The skeleton lowered its arm but kept a firm grip on the spear.

Death began fading away, Henry noticed. The lifeless body of Silas disappeared also. The skeleton in the closet sank into the shadows. The spear clanged to the floor as the door shut itself.

Henry, still in the angel’s arms, relaxed. He let out a long, slow sigh. What an ordeal this nightmare had been. But now it was over, and he could sleep. He closed his eyes. The two beams of light illuminating his pale face intensified.

Suddenly, the closet door flew open. The skeleton reappeared, shouting, "You fiend! You killed me, your innocent elder brother. And for what? My inheritance of a few gold coins. Then you killed my friend Silas when he tried to get them back. Well, you can keep the money and whatever else you stole. Maybe you can buy your way out of the lake of fire."

With these words, the skeleton picked up the spear and hurled it at Henry. Death emitted a high-pitched, soul-wrenching laugh. The angel covered his face with his wings and wept, while the man on the cross closed his eyes, cutting off the lights, and slumped down as if dead.

In the morning the youngest brother John went to Henry’s room to awaken him. He opened the door and cried out in alarm and anguish at the sight that greeted him. Henry was lying in bed with a spear in his chest, a look of shear terror on his face. Blood had soaked the sheets and pooled on the floor.

John’s eldest brother and his brother’s friend Silas had been murdered by Henry, and now Henry had been mysteriously murdered in his bed while dreaming about it.

The End