Capítulo 177: Chapter 177
The first snow fell early in November, covering the roads and roofs of the town with a thick layer of white. In the bleak Russian winter, there wasn't much to keep people busy. The dark days stretched long and endless, the cold creeping into every corner of the house. It wasn't much different from any other winter, except for one thing: the demon.
The town, once filled with life, now had only a handful of people. At the start, there were close to fifty souls who called it home. But that was before the dreams began. The first victim had been Ivan. He was a young man, just a few years older than the others in town. One morning, his parents found him dead in his bed, his face twisted in fear, his hands clutching the blanket as if he could have fought it off. But there was nothing to fight. Ivan had fallen asleep, and the demon had come.
The demon had no name, no history. It was born from the dark recesses of dreams and nightmares. Every night, it would enter the dreams of the people in the town. It wasn't just any nightmare. No, this was something worse.
The demon took the form of a tall, thin man, dressed in a tattered coat and a mask that looked like the twisted face of a corpse. But that wasn't the worst part. It carried an axe, a massive axe, rusted and covered in blood. It didn't speak, didn't make a sound as it slowly walked toward its victims, its axe raised high. Then, the axe would come down, and the dreams would end.
But it wasn't just a dream. The demon killed them. Every time they slept, they died. Their bodies were found cold and lifeless, their faces frozen in terror, the last moments of their lives spent running from the nightmare. And no one knew how to stop it.
At first, the survivors tried to escape. They packed up their belongings, tried to leave, but the snowstorm blocked the roads. The town was isolated, cut off from the rest of the world. The government did not respond. No one came to help. And so, they were left with only one option: stay awake.
But it wasn't as simple as it sounded. Staying awake was exhausting. Every day, the fear grew. Each night, the thought of sleep grew heavier. What if they fell asleep? What if they didn't wake up? The idea of an eternal wakefulness gnawed at their sanity, but they couldn't risk it. Every hour, someone's eyes drooped, their body begging for rest. And yet, they couldn't sleep.
Ten people remained now. Only ten. The others had all fallen to the demon. Mikhail, the oldest, sat in his chair, staring out the window. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin pale. He hadn't slept in days. He didn't want to, couldn't afford to. His fingers twitched as he reached for the half-empty bottle of vodka on the table. He didn't drink much anymore. He didn't have the energy. But he needed something to numb the terror that clawed at his chest.
Yulia was next to him, her face pale with exhaustion. She didn't speak much. She hadn't spoken much since her husband died. She had been the one to find him, his body cold, his eyes wide open, his mouth frozen in a scream. She hadn't stopped shaking since.
"We can't keep doing this," she muttered, her voice hollow.
Mikhail didn't answer. He couldn't. What was there to say? There was no way out. The roads were blocked. No one was coming to help them. And soon, there would be no one left to fight the demon.
Across the room, Aleksei was pacing. He had been a soldier before all this. He had seen death, had killed. But this… this was different. He didn't know how to fight something that lived inside your mind. He didn't know how to kill something that didn't need a body to kill you.
"We need to leave," Aleksei said. His voice cracked. "We can't just stay here and wait to die. We need to leave, now."
"There's nowhere to go," Mikhail said. He spoke slowly, as if his words didn't matter anymore. "The roads are blocked. We can't leave."
"I don't care," Aleksei said, slamming his fist on the table. "We're dying here. One by one, we're all going to die if we don't do something."
"We don't have a choice," Yulia said, her voice flat. "We have to stay awake. We have to keep fighting. It's the only chance we have."
Aleksei didn't answer. He didn't know what to say anymore. He didn't know if there was anything left to say. He had heard the others whisper about the demon, about how it would eventually come for them all. There was no escape. No way to fight it. It would find them, one by one, and when it did, it would be the end.
That night, when the snow fell heavier and the wind howled outside, Aleksei couldn't keep his eyes open. He had fought sleep for hours, but eventually, it crept up on him. His eyelids grew heavier, his mind foggy. He tried to shake it off, but it was useless. His head sagged. His body trembled. His arms and legs felt like stone. He needed sleep. He needed to close his eyes, if only for a moment.
He didn't want to fall asleep. He knew what would happen. He knew the demon would come. But his body betrayed him, and sleep took him.
The dream was the same as it had always been. The demon stood there, axe in hand, its face hidden behind the mask. Its steps were slow, deliberate. Aleksei's breath came in shallow gasps as he tried to run, but his legs wouldn't move. He screamed, but no sound came out. The axe swung down, and Aleksei knew it was over.
But it wasn't just the axe that killed him. It was the realization that it had all been in vain. That there was no escape. That the fear, the terror, was never going to stop.
When he woke up, it wasn't relief. There was no relief. The fear, the panic, still gripped his chest. But worse than that, his body felt wrong. He didn't move. His arms didn't respond when he tried to lift them. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't scream.
Aleksei was paralyzed. His body was dead, but his mind was awake, trapped in the nightmare. He was still in the dream, still in the grip of the demon. He couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't even die.
Hours passed, or maybe it was days. He didn't know. All he could do was lie there, unable to escape. The others had stopped talking. They had stopped trying to fight. They had stopped pretending that there was hope.
One by one, they fell. The last of them, Yulia, was the hardest to watch. She tried so hard to stay awake. She couldn't. Her body couldn't fight it anymore. She closed her eyes, and when she woke, it was too late.
There was no one left in the town. Only the demon. Only the nightmare.
And then, the demon stood in the snow, axe in hand. Waiting for the next dreamer to come.
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