The Incredible Hulk Nightmare (Updated 18/02/2014)

The Incredible Hulk Nightmare.

My name is Chris Harvey, I'm 13 years old.  I live in Peterborough with my single father Christian, and I am diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.  As with many children like me, I had my dreams.  Most of my dreams were good, but of course, there were the occasional bad ones too...particularly in the night.  You know that feeling when your mortal body falls asleep, but your mind is still wide awake?  Doesn't everybody sometimes wish that they could enter their own little dream world and never come back?  I suppose though, it depends on what kind of world you are thinking of.  In this case however, the dream world I was going to imagine, wasn't to be a good one.

~ ~ ~

Anyway.  There I was, snuggled up under the covers one Saturday at midnight.  The sky was pitch black, the moon was high, and there were no clouds.  I was dressed in my night garments under the covers, which consisted of a cotton red long-sleeved pyjama shirt and matching trousers.  My head was looking up towards the ceiling, my eyes were closed, and my body was completely motionless.

So here's the question I pose to you.
When you enter a dream world, what feelings do you get when your mind takes over from your body?  As my mortal body entered hibernation and I began to enter my dream world, I could feel my quilt and mattress vanishing into thin air.  My knees were beginning to bend, and I could feel some slight pressure on my buttocks, as if I was sitting on a chair, but yet I couldn't feel my feet touching the ground.
Sometimes when entering a dream world, not only does the environment change around you, but sometimes your clothes change as well...do you ever get that feeling?  It's like the clothes you are wearing in bed are melting off of your body and materialising into something else.  This happened to me, and it's a very tingling feeling.  The material my pyjamas were made of, soon began to feel different.  My shirt materialised into another long-sleeved cotton type with a red, white and blue checked pattern on it, so there wasn't much change there.  Real changes were felt with my trousers however.  The thin cotton material was changing into something thicker and warmer; namely, a pair of olive green cargo trousers, and a matching belt to go with it.  And the most notable change was my feet.  I had bare feet when I was under the covers, but as my mind took over, a pair of grey suede trainers materialized out of thin air, lacing themselves up as they covered my feet over.  And I also felt a sports watch materialise onto my right wrist.

Soon enough, my dream began...but it wasn't just a dream, it started as a memory.  It began when I was in my science lesson at school.  I was seated on a bar stool as the desks were high, and I was working at the one computer which was installed in the room.  I wasn't in any trouble, but I was the only student in the room.  The teacher had kept me back until the evening when the light was fading outside, because I was asked to research something on his behalf.  While I was working, the teacher said to me...

"Chris, I just need to speak to the headmaster, don't leave the classroom."

"Yes sir." I answered.

As the teacher walked out of the room and closed the door behind me, I kept on working on the computer like I was told.  But something seemed suspicious about the way my science teacher walked out of the classroom...while I couldn't see him, he had pulled an evil grin.  Just as the classroom door closed and I was left on my own, I took a moment to look over the clothes that I was wearing.  This is just what I did when I was actually in the classroom earlier that very same day, and I was wearing the very same clothes as in the dream I was experiencing.  But there were some differences.  I reached a finger between buttons on my shirt and touched my chest, which was bare underneath.  I usually wore a sleeveless undershirt with it so that it was more comfortable for me.  The next thing I did was I put my hand into my trousers and felt around; I couldn't feel a pair of underwear beneath my cargos, which began to worry me slightly, for I was not used to going commando.  When I took my hand out of my trousers, I reached the same hand down towards my feet, lifted up the seam of one trouser leg to see that I had a bare ankle.  It could have been possible that I was wearing trainer socks, which were usually invisible to the naked eye as they were tucked into my trainers.  But when I reached my fingers down inside the trainer, I tried to feel for the sole of my foot, and all I felt was the skin of it, not a sock.  All of this was quite curious to me indeed.  I always wore undergarments with all of my attires, but not in this case.

"No undergarments at all?"

It quickly occurred to me that this may not be just a memory, but quite possibly a bad dream.  Nevertheless, I continued to work on the computer, trying to forget about my lack of under-clothing.  Within seconds, a pop-up on the computer screen caught my attention...it was showing me pictures of my family and friends, all of whom seemed to wear evil grins on their faces.  I kept pressing delete on the keyboard numerous times, but the picture would not vanish.  It was at this point that I felt my heartbeat increase pace steadily.  I placed my hand on my heartbeat, and with a shaky voice, I could only wonder...

"What's happening to me?"

Suddenly, all the lights went out, leaving me in the dark in the science room...my heartbeat increased speed again.  There was just enough light outside to help me see the ground though, and myself.  The next thing I noticed, the heating system broke, and the room was getting cold and shivery around me.  Regardless of the cold air however, I began to perspire in fear, and I was feeling my whole body trembling.

"Where's my teacher?"

My teacher was nowhere to be seen or heard, all I could do in the cold dark room was shiver, sweat, shake, and eventually grit my teeth and close my eyes.  I was determined to keep myself calm, but to no avail.  And as if things couldn't get any worse, I could have sworn that I had just heard someone holler for help.
Feeling terrified and unable to keep still, I had no choice but to disobey my teacher.  I jumped out of my computer chair and headed hurriedly for the door...my heart was rate continually increasing, and my body continued to sweat and shake as I took a moment to look through the window.  As I began to hyperventilate in an attempt to calm down, albeit with little success, I opened the classroom door and peeked around the corner quickly to see where the hollering came from.  I walked fast to the end of the corridor, almost tripping over a mop and bucket at the side, and looked around both corners there, but nobody was to be found.

As I turned around to get back to the classroom, I tripped over the mop and bucket in the hallway and spilled the contents of the bucket onto the floor.  This time I did lose my footing when I slid across the puddle I had left behind as a result; but I managed to stay upright by grabbing a nearby window ledge.  Before long, I felt that my body was starting to inflate.  I was in great pain, and soon I noticed that my skin was changing to a different colour, there was a hint of green on my hands.  My hair was changing colour as well, and my eyes were turning from their soft blue to hard and bold yellow.  As the pain overtook me completely, I yelled out in uncontrollable agony.  The belt on my waist snapped in two and fell to the floor.  My watch broke off of my growing wrist, and I slid over to the other side of the corridor, grabbing the opposing window ledge.

The pain wouldn't stop, my clothes were feeling tight all over as my body continued to grow uncontrollably, restraining my blood flow.  I tried to shake the pain off, literally...then I heard the buttocks of my trousers straining.  The fact I wasn't wearing underwear didn't help at all, and the rubbing of the cotton material against my pelvic joints was unbearable.  As I tried to throw my body into a more comfortable position, one of my back pockets ripped open; it contained my wallet, which fell to the ground by my left foot.  That left foot was next.  As my foot filled the empty space in my trainer, it began to rub against the lining and crack the material, and with no socks on, the pressure was unbearable.  Soon enough, the tongue gradually split down to the toecap.  The laces were snapping one by one.  I wiggled my toes at the ends of my trainer until the toecaps gave way and popped open, making my foot bare as I stepped out of it.  I took one step with my right foot and brought it in front of my left, the trainer was still on my right foot for a moment, but it too was deteriorating.  I raised my right foot high, causing my knee to rip a hole in my trouser leg.  I then slammed my foot on the ground and slid my foot forwards; my right foot shredded easily through the material, now both my feet were bare.  The seams of my trousers ripped upwards, until I was left with shorts.  My shirt was still in tact, but only for a few more seconds.  When I thrust my right arm outwards, the sleeve tore off; my left arm soon followed in the same manner.  Then I leaned back as my torso puffed outwards.  From top to bottom the buttons on my shirt popped off of my bare chest one by one...each button lost caused my shirt to go out to the side, revealing more and more of my bare chest each time.  When the last button popped off, I leaned forward, and what remained of my shirt was shredded off of my back from the collar downwards.  My body continued to grow as I went out of control.  For the next several minutes, I started rampaging the corridors of the school, punching out windows and doors, breaking down the walls, and smashing all of the equipment in the school.  I was completely out of control, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Just as I was about to headbash one of the school computer desks, I awoke in my bedroom.  I sat up and gasped out loudly...my body was still perspiring, I was hyperventilated, and my heart rate was high.  Thankfully for me, my body was still at normal size, my skin, hair and eyes remained their normal colour, and I was still wearing my undamaged pyjamas.  I looked at the clock on my bedside table; a whole two hours had passed by so quickly when I was in 'having a nightmare' mode.  But I could not get back to sleep straightaway, as I was consumed by horror.  Luckily for me, my bedroom door was open, and my father was just passing by.  Hearing me gasp out loud, he came running in, turned the light on, and sat on the side of the bed next to me, looking me straight in the eyes.

"Chris.  Chris."

"Dad."

"Another Nightmare?"

Chris nodded slowly, then he started crying his eyes out.  Christian brought Chris closer to him, and allowed him to lean on his father's chest.

"Calm yourself down son.  I'm here for you."

Chris's father rubbed his back up and down, but the calming down wasn't going to happen for a while.  After a few seconds however, Chris slowly wrapped his arms around his father and embraced him.  The waterworks didn't stop, but Chris's whining changed to deep breathing.  As he began to regain his composure, Christian began to question his son.

"So what happened Chris?"

"I dreamt about when I was at school today.  My science teacher kept me back, because he wanted me to look up something for him.  But then, everything went pear-shaped.  The heating broke, the lights, the computer.  And I ended up becoming The Incredible Hulk."

"Goodness me!  The Incredible Hulk at school?  And from a young man like yourself?"

Chris slowly nodded in agreement to both questions.

"Oh boy, you really do get yourself some terrible nightmares don't you?"

"I wish I couldn't."

"Don't we all?"

Chris barely managed to pull a smile at the last words of his father, despite his continued feelings of deep fear.  When he eventually relinquished, he felt much more relaxed.  It was at this moment that Chris felt a tingling in the soles of his feet.  He threw the covers off of him, arched his knees up, reached towards his feet and rubbed the soles.  Christian couldn't help but wonder why.

"Itchy feet son?"

"It was strange in my dream dad.  When my mind took over from my body, I felt my pyjamas melting off of me and materialising into casual clothes.  Trainers too."

"Sometimes that can happen in a dream or a nightmare."

"Does it happen in cases where you don't have underwear or socks on?"

"Yes it can.  There's a million and one things that can happen to you in a nightmare.  Shrinking and growing.  Changing your language, or even not being able to speak at all."

"Transformation, warping environments, imminent fate."

"All of that is possible in a nightmare.  That's why when you have a good dream, you have control over what happens within it.  Whereas with a nightmare, it always controls you.  Unless your willpower is strong, and you can fight against your worst fears."

Chris's eyes widened.

"Can you?  Can you really fight against your nightmares?"

"Yes you can.  You just need to have that strong will power within you."

NOW, Chris smiled widely.

"Thanks dad."

"Attaboy!"

Chris wiped his tears quickly and embraced his father again.  Although he was happy on the outside, deep down, he didn't feel so sure.