First published 2011
Richard Sparke falls asleep easily enough. The problem starts when he closes his eyes. His dead mother appears in his nightmares. His infant daughter, who died years ago, returns to visit him. A figure dressed in black stalks through his dreams, attempting to murder him while he sleeps. Richard wants nothing more than an ordinary existence, but his nocturnal world refuses to cooperate. The nightmares begin bleeding into his waking hours. Reality and dream start to merge in ways that make it impossible to tell which world he inhabits. The boundaries between sleep and consciousness dissolve. Richard finds himself trapped between two realities, both of which seem determined to destroy any chance he has at the normal life he desperately seeks.
Genres: suspense, horror, supernatural, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: blurred-lines, unreliable-narrator
ebook · Smashwords Edition
Content warnings: death, mental-illness