Just A Dream

You're scared. 

Admit it. 

You're fearful of many things, most of them bleeding into your regrets and hardships. 

Just say it. 

No regrets, right? 

They lurk in corners of your vision, seep through small holes that dot your vision. They control you. The fear controls you. 

It's the truth, and you know it. 

There are many things you don't know though. Many things that line along the thin lines of reality just waiting to be discovered. 

Does that scare you? 

Well, it should. 

Look around you and maybe you'll see them. 

The things lurking in the dark. 

The terrible, terrible truths you long for. 

Open your eyes and just look. 

Actually, don't.

I need you like this.

Dreary eyes and tired as you lie there. 

Sound asleep.

Dreams encasing you unconsciousness, tumbling in and out like some type of stray wind.

But they're not there.

The dreams, I mean.

Don't believe me?

Then look.

Don't open your eyes! Just look. Yes, with your eyes closed. 

What do you mean that doesn't make sense? Wake your subconscious mind. Look with closed eyes. Feel and paint a picture in your mind.

I can feel you trying. I assume that will have to do.

You rise from your spot on a well-quilted bed. Your window is slightly ajar and is pouring moonlight into the small childhood bedroom you’ve had since you were four. Stuffed animals line the windowsill above the large wooden desk that belonged to your father. Across the ways from that, on the far wall, are two bookshelves lining a closet. Adjacent to that are two doors, one leads to your bathroom and the other to the upstairs hallway in your two-story home.

At this point, you’re still asleep. Your not necessarily sleepwalking. Or, I suppose you are. But not in the traditional sense.

You walk with a defined purpose, as you do every night. You don’t remember these things. You’re not supposed too. Yet sometimes your nightlong journeys awaken your subconscious mind and give way to both dreams and nightmares.

They all come from the same place, fears, and dreams and hopes, and such. You discover them all in the night. 

It’s a scary place, but you journey there anyway,

You pull open the window that you accidentally left open before falling into a dreamless sleep. It feels cold under clammy skin and calloused hands. Yet you do not feel it.

Why you may ask?

Because you're asleep of course. You people really need to gain some common sense.

Lose the ignorance, please.

“But I can feel things In my sleep?” You tell me, eyes wandering from word to word swimming around the page. Painting pictures in your mind of happily ever afters and horrors yet to come.

Yes, I know you can feel things in your sleep. But that is of the natural things around you.

“So when I’m sleeping, part of me is here and the other isn’t?”

No, of course not. Wait, yes. In a way I suppose. Your subconscious mind wanders, taking your mindful body along with it. You are only drawn back when the natural world calls to you.

“But other people can see me sleeping?”

That is because their minds are too. Underdeveloped to understand what is going on around them, so their minds only choose to focus on the things they can understand.

“But it can’t understand it?”

No, of course not. Now stop interrupting me. It’s rude. Save your questions for the end.

Cold winds bite at your shoulders and toss your hair in the wind. Yet again, you do not feel it,

You are immune to feeling, thought, and emotion.

“Why?”

Because you are asleep you fool! Now shut up and save your nosy little questions.

There’s a long, winding path that starts perpendicular to your driveway beneath your window and leads into the woods you played in as a kid. You walk there, pine needles and dirt sticking to your heels as the wind ferociously knocks your hair into your eyes. You don’t brush it out of your face. You do not feel anything.

The woods is a cool place. Filled with droplets of dew and animals and such. You see a dead skunk and the stench reaches your nose and lips. You ignore it and keep walking.

You keep walking as thick fog envelopes you. You don’t remember but you do this every night. The fog obscures your vision until about forty yards. Where you turn around to walk back home.

“Why am I walking straight back home? Didn’t I have somewhere to be?”

Yes, yes, yes. I’m getting to that part. Now, just up.

Before you can get home though, a small mist sprinkles down from the clouds, soaking you in rainwater. This happens every night, like clockwork really.

The rain soaks you and would have sent shivers down your spine if you could feel it. It slowly shifts into torrential rain, pelting you and everything around it with raindrops. But you continue to walk.

You reach the same spot as you did yesterday and many days before that when you start to take form. You're in view of the house, but not quite. You’re soaked through, more water than you are human when the water and powerful rains finally push through and turn you into a droplet into the storm as well.

“Wh-“

Before you ask, yes I mean a literal droplet of water. In a rainstorm. You do know what that is, don’t you?

“Yes, but-“

Hush.

You continue to float aimlessly until you are deposited into a milky white haze that engulfs the world around you. It slowly takes form into a titanium white box, and you’re trapped inside. You wait. Each and every night something different appears in the room. Last night it was a dragon, taking you high above the clifftops and soaring through vast rivers and valleys. Two nights ago you were bouncing a ball atop your neighbor's roof, laughing and giggling gleefully. Three nights ago you had a nightmare.

All these things really, truly happened. But the brain can’t seem to process them in a way that makes sense, hence dreams. Sometimes, the brain can’t process anything at all. Via the fact when some nights you don’t dream at all.

The same white door that appears every night appears in the same spot as it did yesterday and will appear for many years after. You put your hand on the knob, take a deep breath, and then step through.

You’re in an older house, it has a quaint look, powder blue furniture, and lime green walls. It looked like something out of a furniture magazine, everything fitting the shape of the room in perfect harmony. You brush your hand against the arm of a nearby love seat and it comes away with a layer of dust caked on your fingertips. You keep walking throughout the many rooms in the house.

You come to a small kitchen that connects to both the living room you just exited and the dining room which is to your right. The stairs are located to your right as well but are closer to you than the dining room. There are laughter and voices coming from the dining room so that is where your feet lead you. A dark sensation slowly creeps into your veins.

You step inside a well-lit dining room to find creme colored walls and glass dining table. Three people are sitting there and an extra chair as well. All three of the people have their heads angled downward. You can’t see two of the people, their backs are to you. But the other person that is facing you appears to be a teenage girl. Her hair covers a majority of her face and her blunt brunette bangs cover her eyes. Beside her is the empty chair, which already has a place set up as if somebody was supposed to be eating there. The food on the plate in front of the chair is untouched.

“We’ve been waiting for you.” The girl with the blunt bang says. She gestures for you to sit down in the empty chair beside her. You begrudgingly and unwillingly move your feet towards it and sit down.

You now have a clear view of the two people in front of you. One is a middle-aged man with a faded haircut and sunglasses that cover his eyes. This is strange because you are inside. 

The other person appears to be a middle-aged woman with long black hair that hands down in front of her face and masks her features. All but her mouth

Everybody smiled at her, there lips giving way perfectly white pointed teeth.

You look down at the plate and see its a strange red soup. You know that you have to take a bite and can’t resist not to.

You pick up your spoon and watch it fill with the strange red liquid. You bring it up to your lips and swallow the strange liquid. You know it tastes funny, yet you can not taste anything. For as in reality you are still asleep. You look down at the strange liquid and notice now the strange chucks of something floating in the soup.

“How is it?” The man with the sunglasses asks, his smirk progressively growing wider.

You look back down at the soup. You know what you just ate, it’s on the tip of your tongue, just out of reach. “Good?” You respond, still greatly confused.

“Good.” The woman responds, flicking some of her hair out of her eyes. You gasp in horror as you realize she has no eyes. You look back down at your soup and see small bits and flakes of warm brown eyes floating in the soup. You scream and abruptly stand up.

Everybody in the room stands up and gives you the strangest, most inquisitive of looks. Each one brushes there hair out of there eyes and you’re greeted by black sockets, each one trickling the smallest bit of blood.

“Where are you going? Dinner isn’t over yet.” The girl with the blunt bang says. She licks her lips playfully and giggles.

You dash to your left, finding yourself back in the living room. You consider going back to your right, into the kitchen, and up the stairs, but figure the front door would be a better option.

You hear your bling captors stumbling around, searching for you. You run towards the front door and shake the doorknob. It’s locked. You look for something to unlock it and then realize that it’ requires a key to unlock it. You check our pockets and realize you don’t have any keys. Rookie mistake.

You dash towards the stairs, your only means of escape now. You hear the captors stumbling around downstairs as you choose a place to hide. There’s a room to the left of the stairs. You dash inside and lock the door. It’s dark and you hear nothing.

You hear footsteps on the stairs. They’re coming. They stumble around for a bit before reaching your door and pounding on it. They’re screaming incomprehensible words. All three of them are there now. You’re scared that might break down the door.

You stumble backward and your spine slams into a bed. Pain courses through your veins as if it belongs there. You slowly inch away from the door, pushing yourself nearer and nearer to the opposite wall.

You scream as part of the door comes flying off toward you. Adrenaline and pure terror floods through your veins as you look into the eyeless face of the man. Everybody laughs gleefully as they rip through the hole in the wall.

You wake up before they reach you. It’s nine A.M and you have no clue what happened to you last night. You smile as you stretch and yawn. The scariest thing is though, everything that happened to you last night wasn’t just a dream. In fact, its just a harsh reality we’re yet to experience.