10:00 - 2003-09-14
Hypnoscope
It's all dreams today.
I was with my mother, sister, and her friend who frequently goes with us on outings. We were headed to some large fancy museum in downtown Dallas to see something animal-related. We got in an elevator to go up to the right floor. But something happened and I fell out of the elevator on top of a stone structure seperated this elevator and the one next to it. The structure backed up into a concrete corner, having a flat top where I was, and the front of it sloped down at about a 70 degree angle. The diagonal slop was artistically decorated with ridges like the tread on a tank. And I was now stuck on top of this thing, two floors up.
Below there was a man and his elementary school class who were examining the architecture. They saw me and tried to help me down, one little black girl (whose skin was light for a black person's) even going so far as to climb up, using the "treads" as hand holds, and showing me the way down. I was backed up into a concrete corner, ridiculously frightened of the prospect of falling or climbing down. But I decided I might b able to SLIDE two stories down on these tile-covered ridges. It really didn't look as uncomfortable as it sounds. So I held my breath and launched myself down the slope, sliding, but suddenly I fell off the edge of the stone structure and fell for about 20 seconds, landing on my feet, just fine, but breathing frantically, eyes as big as an anime character's. The smart-alec teacher dude, who'd tried to help me down asked if I might wanna do it again. I laughed frantically in his face and frantically told him to shove it.
Then I got back on the elevator hoping to catch up with my party. Turns out this was a really cool museum: the exhibit had exotic breeds of puppy running randomly around, but NOT PEEING! Haha! Pure genius! And after my traumatic instant, I was very prepared to play with puppies. Also, there were cages, with a wide range of zoo animals: snakes, hedgehogs, anteaters, which were very friendly and cute, and would lick your fingers through the wires, even though the snotty zoo people didn't want you to. There were pens with deer and alligators and stuff in them, and a lot of huge fish tanks with everything from tropical fish, to gigantic sting rays, to yes, orca whales in them. These were some HUGE tanks. I was in heaven.
Then I realized that the little kids were getting to do something. They'd sit on some stairs that went down into a sort of wide pit, and various animals would wander around among them. Goats, you know. I figured the kids were enjoying that, but I was having more fun with this white samoyed puppy, one of which I'd not seen before. Oh, he was so cute.
Then I go back by the "kid pit" and notice that the kids are getting to play with baby bears. Hey, I think, what about me? I can't even pet the anteater, what's this all about? So I stand nearby to see what else they're gonna get to do. Next it's parrots, then pigs, I go do something else and come back to find the pit filled with water about four feet deep, and the kids playing with stingrays and sharks! WHOA. I rub my eyes at this one, puppy standing next to me. I go up to the pit, and say to myself, screw the age restrictions, this is too much to pass up. I'll follow the rules when all I'm missing is the tubeland at Mickey D's.
By this time, they filled the pit up a bit more and Shamu's in there with the kids. I climb aboard the gravy train and am really enjoying this, of course, yt the time I get in, the tour lady starts teaching the kids about whales and not letting them pet the whale. During this time, I play with my nails and monitor my earwax levels. Then we get a moment to play with Shamu, and then she hoists him up in one of those whale harnesses like on Free Willy and dumps him back into his little tank.
I go to the lady, and find out that her other job is coaching volleyball, though I'm not quite sure I cared much. But I asked when she'd be doing this tour again, and if I could come. She was ticked off because I wasn't listening during the educational part, but she said there wasn't an age restriction and that she'd try to do another showing in a couple of minutes. But I had to wake up.
I try to condense this next one, but there's no guarantees.
I am someone (it is unclear whether I am male or female in the dream) living in a very large house along with a young boy and girl, who are both hispanic, and are very lovely, sweet children. With us also are a man and his wife. Despite their presence, I seem to be the owner of the house.
Earlier on in my life I was taken prisoner by the members of an underground cult, the basis of which appeared to be Egyptian, and forced me to take part in one of their horrible rituals. Apparently I am the reincarnation of some powerful diety or official. They tied me down upon a block of gold and shone an evil light upon me as the priestess raised her arms and spoke an incantation. But I squirm out of the way of the light, and somehow manage to kick the priestess and escape.
Now, some years later, they've come after me again, when I least expect them.
One night they sneak around the house as I am outside, and shoot darts at me that have been dipped in something either poisonous or sleep-inducing. I rush around and just make it through the first door I find. The others, having no idea what's going on, are ovbiously very frightened, but still go to work locking the rest of the doors in the house. We have a sort of Rivendell-ish balcony that has five doors on it alone, to give you an idea how big the place is.
After this ordeal I hunt down my landlord, who is also my good friend from way back, to see what I should do and to ask him what he knows about the land. He is imminently more than he seems, and he only reassures me saying that Yugei, Mendalson, and about five other lawyers have given me this house and that it is my own.
I find this to be very crummy advice, and go back to the house, not really telling why, but explaining to everyone that someone is trying to get inside the house at any cost.
The next couple of days are tense. We catch glimpses of shadows and shapes in the bushes, and huge, cruel-looking dogs come sniffing around the house when stray dogs have never been seen before. And it is without a doubt that every external door has been tried from the outside.
Then one night, when all the adults are lounging or sleeping, when things have been calm and quiet, someone rings the doorbell. The day has been a peaceful one, so the young girl, whose name I infer to be Nina (also my cousin's name) sees no harm in answering it. A dark-skinned woman in Egyptian garb steps into the house, grinning at her. I awake to hear the voice of the young boy asking loudly what she is doing and who she is, not so much to the woman, but to the child. I jump up, and grab the first thing I can get my hands on: a coat rack.
So armed to the hilt, I slink into the den where the husband and wife are sleeping. I wake them quietly and give them my weapon, hurrying off to find somewhere to hide or attack. They immediately catch wind of what is going on, and head into the entry hall, jabbing the coat rack at the woman. She hisses and slowly takes a step back. Then in a sinister hoarse voice, she says, "There is no resisting this. Stand down and relinquish unto us the body."
I assume she means mine. My friend comes at her again with the rack and she glares at him. Suddenly her face begins to widen, her eyes narrow, her neck elongate. Her arms fall limp her her sides and her skin begins to ripple like goosebumps into green-black scales. Slowly her broad mouth opens in a hiss, revealing two awful yellow fangs and a thousand tiny needle teeth.
The husband stabs at her once again, and she steps back a few feet. And without warning I leap out from an alcove behind her, throwing a palstic bag over her hideous head and face, and tying it tight at the neck.
She struggles and hisses, her arms and hands completely useless. Eventually she stops and drops to the floor, suffocated. The children peak out over the top of the couch.
My heart beats wildly as I begin to drag the half-changed abomination to the back door, which is singular in the way that it opens to a sort of alley, leading to the garden. From this door I can be sure that nothing will be able to get to me without first coming up the tunnel and being in full view. I quickly open the door and as hard as I can, throw the lifeless body out onto the doorstep, slamming the door in my haste, for at the end of the tunnel, silhouettes had already been watching in the moonlight. Everything grows quiet as we all listen to the hollow steps growing closer on the other side of the door. A muffled dragging sound, like paper against smooth concrete, is heard. and I am certain, without even opening the dor, that if I did, there would be no body on the other side.
I return to the den, where the little girl is wimpering next to the wife. "I'm in trouble," she sobs.
"We all were for a moment there," I answer. "Listen, from this moment on, no one is to touch these doors or windows. The mail can wait, the paper, the trash, all of it. We cannot afford any risks that could possibly provide an entrance for anyone--or any thing--that should try to get inside this house."
After that it was all too clear how very watched we were out on that rural road. The crickets had stopped, there were glints of canine eyes reflecting the kitchen light. Door weres tried at all hours, some we heard, some we didn't. Paranoia climaxed as windows were softly tapped and hushed voices heard outside, even in the day. The mail piled up on the porch.
Then one morning, I entered a room to hear a new voice in the one opposite. A voice low in tibre, of average volume, that spoke to the husband and wife of the young girl residing with us.
Whoever it was, it was after her.
I rushed to the kitchen, taking from the drawer a potatoe pealer, a steak knife, and a long butchering blade, which were the first utensils I came by.
And I quickly headed for Nina's room, taking her to a storage room.
I thrust the potatoe pealer into her pocket, with some difficulty for she was standing at an awkward angle and there was nothing to keep it from falling out, then I handed her the steak cutter, telling her to hide and to defend herself if she must.
Then I took my butcher knife and went to the tiled sitting room where our "guest" was located.
I was surprised when I arrived to find the person to be female, looking to be 18 or so, hair pulled into a pontytale. Her face was very oval-shaped, and her eyes blue. I came slowly toward her with the knife.
My fellows seemed frightened, but I was sure if it was of her or of my behavior.
"Who are you?" I demanded. "Why are you here?"
She stared at me as though I was insane, which I must have looked. But there was no hiding her identity, I had heard such a voice in the bushes before. I was sure of it.
"Are you out of your mind?" the wife asked me. "She's just a college kid."
"Do you know what you're saying?" I demanded, hardly believing what I'd heard. "Haven't you noticed what's been happening? Why we haven't gone outside? She may not look it, but she was out there with the rest of them, every night, every day!"
An arguement would've broke out immediately, as the girl started to leave, her face masking what must have been fear of her discovery.
Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I wipped around. There stood my landlord.
"What are you doing? Don't you remember what I've told you? Yugei, Mendelson (then he listed the rest of the lawyers in their order) gave this house to you. It is your own."
And suddenly it occured to me like it hadn't before. Almost like I could literally control any form within these walls. Everything here was mine and mine alone and I could do with it what I pleased, be it human or otherwise. Perhaps I was a reincarted god or something.
That's when I woke up.
