Common Nightmare

I wake with a jolt, my eyes slamming open.  My heart is racing, and I can still smell the stink of my own fear.  I roll over and stare at the clock, feeling the cold sweat on my brow.  Again?  When would it ever end?

It was the same one as normal.  I was running, not stopping for breath.  The same old nightmare...running, hiding, flying.  It was my old neighborhood, with the convoluted maze of houses.  I ran with her breath on my neck, hiding in house after house.  I would knock on the doors, trying to find shelter from my past.  

Inevitably, I would find my wings, but it was short lived.  Something always brought me back to earth with a scream.  Every night, the nightmare would end with me screaming as she found the apartment building that I was hiding in.

I blink at the numbers on the clock, wondering how they had changed so quickly.  How long had I been laying there remembering?  Long enough apparently.  Sighing, I get up.  No use trying to sleep now.

When would it stop?  When would I stop living in fear?  I'm haunted by the past, and at night, it swallows me whole.