The following is a dream I had last night. Looking back on it now, I think I have the workings of an awesomely B-rated slasher movie. So Wes Craven, if I see this thrown in my face next Halloween I will come for you. And I will cut you. This, I think, would be so poetic it makes me heart hurt.
I shall piece this together from foggy dream memory. It kind of makes me wish I had just written it all down in my post-dream, delirious state at 4:00 this morning.
So it begins like this:
I’m in a room. Pretty nondescript. Four walls, maybe a window, but probably not because it was really dark. There was a small lamp on an end table sitting in one of the corners. Instead of a door there is a curtain. I’m standing in this room with a younger woman. Black, frizzy hair. I’m holding a large lamp in my two hands. It isn’t plugged in to any outlet.
The young woman is talking to me, though I can’t really understand what she’s saying. She’s panicked. From under the curtain I can see two brown paws suddenly flutter by. I hold up my lamp, ready to swipe at the paws the next time they come by. The woman begs me not to do it. She says something like: “He’ll kill us. Don’t do this, he’ll kill us, he’ll kill us! Don’t mess with the dog”.
Naturally I don’t listen and, when the creature (a dog I guess) comes shifting by, I strike out with the bottom of the lamp and knock it off its paws. It whimpers and whines as I continue to strike out. The woman is screaming and I’m screaming and the dog is wailing and I just don’t stop. I continue to lash out at this dog. The woman is striking me with her hands, begging me to stop because we’re all now going to die and it’s all my fault.
The scene suddenly shifts to six or seven of us, black frizzy haired girl included, to an open room. It’s a very comfortable room. High vaulted ceilings, plush furniture. Windows. One of us, a young guy with blonde hair, light eyes and a killer smile is talking about this guy who goes around at night and selects three people. These three people are taken to his place of business and locked into rooms. There, they experience untold horrors. He grabs three people every night until his place is filled with 27 people.
He tells this story from the couch while sitting next to an equally attractive blonde girl with wavy hair. She looks skeptical, but I don’t really care about her look. I continue to pay attention to the guy telling this obviously ridiculous story.
So he gets 27 people. Once they are all collected, he forces them into a large room (“Like this one here,” he says which I am sure if merely for added horror effect). After they have all been corralled into the room, they are forced to select one among them to die. They must come to a consensus as to which one of them will die. And once they’ve voted, the unlucky person would then be lead off by the man and killed. The others would be set free and it would be as if nothing happened.
The blonde girl sitting next to him laughs. I can tell by the way the guy is looking at her that they are most assuredly fucking. Disappointing. He insists the whole thing is true and to be careful tonight when we all go to sleep.
The scene suddenly changes to three of us in a closed room with a pair of bunk beds, a small window and a lamp. It’s me, a red-haired girl who looks very unsettled and an Asian guy. The red-head is freaking out and rocking back and forth on her heels that “we’ve been taken, we’ve been taken, oh my God we’re going to die”.
I’m looking around, trying to remember how we even got into this place, but I’m drawing up blank. The room is damp and I finally notice that the paint (color I cannot tell because the lighting isn’t all that great) is peeling off in various places. The floor is hard and cold cement. There is no door visible.
The scene switches then to the girl on the lower bunk, still mumbling about dying. The Asian is nowhere to be seen, but then again, I’m not looking for him. I’m lying on the top bunk, watching the ceiling shift and move like some throbbing organ getting ready to burst. And then the girl screams.
I bring my head over the side of the bunk in time to see a giant form wrapped in a massive brown coat move atop her. His hands are a mass of fat fingers and they’re around her neck because I can hear her start to choke and thrash below me. And then it’s just one hand around her because his other has reached into his jacket or coat and pulled out a gleaming blade. And then it’s being stabbed into this poor girl and I can hear it slide so easily into her flesh and then there’s ripping noises and
The scene shifts. I’m walking down a small flight of stairs toward a glass door. Behind me a voice demands that I stop. I’m almost to the door and a hand grasps my shoulder. I swing around and a guy with nappy, horrid brown hair is yelling and demanding that I return to the room with everyone else.
“You’re going to fucking stay and we’re going to make a decision and if you don’t then I will convince everyone to select you and then YOU will die and we’ll live. Get back in that goddamn room!”
I look at this dirty guy. He’s got his hand on my shoulder and trying to pull me back into the room and I grab his hand and say: “It doesn’t matter. We’re all dead anyway. I’m not going back in there to condemn someone to death. Not gonna do it. Not gonna do it. We can all walk now. The door’s open.”
The scene shifts. I’m running around the room. The floor is slick with blood and the red-head is still on the bottom bunk, shaking with her hand held out. Her eyes are glazed over and she’s choking and coughing up blood. The Asian guy tells me to calm down. All I see is this girl, bleeding on a mattress, choking on her own blood and vomit and there’s nothing I can do.
The scene shifts. I’m running toward a shoreline of big rocks and boulders. On the other side of the wide expanse of water is where I am supposed to be meeting people. People who can help me figure out how to take care of this guy and his murderous ways. I don’t know if he’s behind me or not and I don’t care. I run like my feet are on fire. And soon I’m on the rocks. The tide is serious and crashes into the smooth, water-worn surface of the rocks with a vengeance. Cold water splashes over me, leaving no inch of my skin dry. And then it pulls back and I feel myself being thrown into the rocks. I cry out and stumble forward, along the side of the rocks, heading toward a small path that will take me across the water. I realize I have to time everything just perfectly, otherwise I’ll end up being pulled out into the sea and I’ll never be able to get to
Scene shifts. I’m wet and slowly drying in the afternoon sun as I enter into the outdoor market area. The place is awash with moving bodies and faceless strangers. I’m panting when I notice them all seated at a wooden table. They’re sipping on sodas and munching French fries. I wave. He waves back.
Blonde Guy With Killer Smile cocks his head to side as I approach, clearly taken back with my appearance. “Where have you been dude?” Girl He Fucks With Wavy Blonde Hair passes her eyes over me and arches a brow. I collapse onto a bench, panting.
“It’s true,” I finally say. “It’s all true. He came for me.”
And then Black Frizzy Hair gasps and looks around, as if to make sure I hadn’t been followed. Killer Smile nods and says, in a manner of fact way, “Yes, I know. I told you.” I just stare up at him, unable to find the energy to move my head. “I know how to stop him.”
Scene shifts. The dog, if it was a dog, has escaped by brutal attack. In its wake is a trail of black liquid I can only guess to be its blood. I can hear its whimpers getting softer and softer as it pulls itself further down a hallway. Black Frizzy Hair is crying, head shaking back and forth as she mumbles through convulsing sobs. “You sick bastard, why? Why’d you do that?”
I open my mouth to explain that it was all apart of the plan. It would surely lure the man out and we’d then strike. We would end his life and his reign of terror on everyone else. I never got to say these things because the curtain is suddenly pulled open.
Large hands grab my throat and I am violently yanked forward, out of the room. I can still hear the girl sobbing and then I hear the crash of glass and know that the lamp that had been providing light in that room had been knocked over. I’m not even struggling. I’m too surprised that I can’t even begin to comprehend what is even going on.
When I open my eyes, I’m in the middle of a large, open room. Killer Smile and Blonde Wavy Hair are there, all serious faced and grim. Hobo At The Door is grinning. Even the Asian is there. Killer Smile steps forward.
“So it’s you. You’ve been chosen.” I swallow, hard and audible and look around. I can’t count them all because I just can’t bring my mind to focus on reality. It’s gone on some wild vacation somewhere, leaving me doomed. There are, I’m sure, 27 people in this room, including myself. I open my mouth to say something, but Hobo At The Door steps in.
“I told you fucker. I fucking TOLD you this is what would happen. And you know what? It’s you. It’s fucking you!” And he laughs something crazy.
And then there is another. The 28th person. And I know, as those large hands descend on me again, that I will be dead.
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