Fragments of a Dream

I've seen him before--I have since I was young--but I've never truly met him. 
The man from the nightmares, the man that speaks
yet has no mouth.
He held my mind hostage every time a dared to drift to sleep,
greeting me with another one of his games. 
Making me a victim in my own mind, 
and warped every dream into a world of his image.
Chasing, never far behind
sending me high, 
sending me low.
Falling, crashing, ambushing,
waiting.
Scratches and bruises greeted me when I awoke,
along with a pair of worried parents.
Even now, he's still haunting me,
not through the dreams,
but through the memories.

The prescription tablets made him go away,
slowly, but surely.
And it was so quiet, lonely even.
Drifting to sleep to silence,
To awaken in silence.
I stopped taking them long ago, 
and he greeted me once again
as he did in my youth.
We talked restlessly until the sun rises over the trees.