Chapitre 21: The Nightmare.
In the inky blackness of the nightmare realm, Abe awoke to the stifling confinement of an iron coffin. The air inside was thick, and the only sound he could hear was the ominous creaking as the vessel began its inexorable descent into the abyss.
Panic set in, and Abe frantically searched for a way out, his hands scraping against the cold metal walls.
As the coffin sank deeper, Abe's fear intensified. The darkness outside the coffin seemed to consume him, and he felt a suffocating pressure on his chest. Desperation clawed at him, and he screamed, but his cries were swallowed by the void.
Suddenly, a blinding light pierced through the darkness as the coffin abruptly halted its descent, it was slowly being pulled up.
Finally, It landed with a loud “thud” on a hard surface and the lid of the coffin was lifted.
Abe found himself face to face with a crew of grizzled pirates, their weathered faces bore scars of countless battles, and their eyes glinted with a ruthless cunning.
The strangest thing of all, was that they all have no hair on their heads.
"Look what we've got here, lads! A stowaway in an iron coffin," the pirate captain sneered, revealing a set of yellowed teeth.
The crew erupted in laughter, a cacophony that echoed through the nightmare realm.
Inexplicably, the pirates decided to spare Abe.
They hauled him aboard their ghostly ship, a vessel that seemed to materialise from the shadows.
As the pirates revelled in their unexpected find, Abe couldn't shake the feeling that this was not the end of his ordeal.
And just like that, days passed, or perhaps it was an eternity in the nightmare realm's timeless grasp.
Just as Abe began to convince himself that the nightmare had passed, the lid of the iron coffin slammed shut once more.
The descent recommended, the oppressive darkness closing in around him.
Once again, the coffin's descent came to an abrupt halt, this time Abe's heart pounded with a mixture of dread and grim anticipation as the lid was lifted.
“Look what we've got here lads! A stowaway in an iron coffin.” Yet again just as it had happened before, the crew burst into laughter.
The pirates, their faces twisted in grotesque grins, hoisted him onto the deck.
As the nightmare repeated itself, each rescue became more surreal.
Sometimes, the pirates appeared as spectral beings, their forms shifting and melting into the shadows. Other times, they emerged from the depths of a fog that seemed to materialise from nowhere.
With each rescue, the pirates' methods of murder became increasingly macabre.
They stabbed him with ghostly cutlasses, drowned him in ethereal waters, and even fed him to monstrous sea creatures that defied description. Each time, Abe felt the pain acutely before awakening once more in the confining darkness of the iron coffin.
The cycle continued, and Abe lost track of time in this nightmarish loop, he could no longer discern whether he was awake or trapped in the clutches of his own mind.
The pirates, now distorted spectres, continued to relish in their gruesome acts, their laughter echoing through the nightmare realm like a haunting melody.
In the midst of this surreal nightmare, Abe became consumed by an overwhelming sense of despair. The line between reality and dream blurred, and he questioned whether there was any escape from this perpetual torment.
One fateful descent, as the coffin sank into the abyss once more, a strange calm enveloped Abe. Instead of fear, a numb acceptance settled over him.
The lid was lifted, and the pirates, now indistinct shadows, seemed almost hesitant.
A realisation struck Abe, the nightmare's power lay in his fear, and the only way to break free was to confront it.
As the pirates moved towards him, he stood his ground, the spectral cutlasses passed through him harmlessly, and the pirates recoiled in confusion.
With newfound resolve, Abe faced the darkness surrounding him.
The nightmare realm seemed to lose its grip as he confronted the horrors that had imprisoned him. The pirates faded away, and the iron coffin disintegrated, freeing Abe from its metallic embrace.
Just as Abe was getting joyful about conquering the nightmare, he once again found himself drowning in the dark, creepy ocean.
This time around, he wasn't bound in a coffin but rather his legs were bound together with a chain attached to a large heavy box filled up with bricks.
As much as he tried to, it was of no use as he kept sinking, the dark water invading his body through his ear, nose and mouth.
Just as his consciousness was drifting away to eternal slumber, free of this pain, he felt a sharp sting in his stomach area.
The pain brought him back, at first he couldn't see the cause, but as he focused more, he saw little fish like creatures with sharp teeth tearing off the skin around his stomach area, he was being eaten alive.
The realisation hit him hard, the dream was never within his scope to comprehend, he was always going to suffer no matter what.
To make matters worse, they were beginning to swarm all over him, the pain hitting him all at once and strangely he was conscious still, until he was eaten till all that was left was bone.
He experienced this nightmare over and over again, he had lost count of how many times he died.
Then suddenly he found himself falling into a giant fog of brightness.
As the nightmare dissolved, Abe awoke in a cold sweat, gasping for air.
The memory of the nightmare lingered, but the oppressive weight that had haunted him for so long had lifted.
He was free from the perpetual sinking, the pirates, the nightmare creatures and the gruesome deaths.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone