Dream Sequence Ch. 01

That woke me up. "Ow! Stop it!" The others that followed seemed bewildered at my words. Maybe they didn't understand me, either? I looked for their faces again, trying to find someone to help me, but all their face were blurred, hazy and swirling, like a dream. I turned back to find the creatures violet eyes burning into mine. I guess I was only supposed to see the important things. He turned my head sharply and I winced, but looked down.

It was like a pit. It seemed to be about two stories down. At the bottom were tons of them. Those creatures. They weren't quite like this one, they looked like normal people. But something about them exposed them . . . I just couldn't figure out what — He tapped my head and I looked closer. All of the bodies were twitching. They were all sick. Very, very sick.What the hell am I supposed to do about it? And who keeps their sick in a pit?I figured they must be contagious, but still . . .Where the fuck am I?I took in the sight of them writhing, and my gaze was drawn to one woman in the center who looked so pregnant I was afraid she might burst. She wasn't ill though, I could tell that much by looking at her. I didn't understand. I was just too tired. Through half lidded eyes, I watched as the woman caressed her large, veined belly. The people on the floor moved with her and I realized — with a sense of relief and fear — that they were not sick. Now it looked like some sort of ritual.Am I in a cult?

"Listen to me!" I pleaded with the thing who finally released my hair. I looked to him and had to keep looking up. He was very tall.

"Listen!" I started again, but he shook his head and yelled back in that strange language. He touched my head and the voices came back with a vengeance. They were ordering me to do something, but I had absolutely no idea what.

"I don't know what you want me to do!" No one ever listens to me. "I don't know what you all want!"

I was scared, I was cold, I was tired, and I wanted to go home — now. I felt the vein in my forehead throb under pressure. I poked his slight chest with my index finger, and he looked outraged.

"Take me home!" I was appalled that I'd started to cry.

I couldn't hear anything but my own tears, now. I felt his cool hands on my shoulders and he bent down to me, his face gentler. He said something to me but I didn't catch it. I started to close my eyes for sleep then, and I silently hoped someone would catch me. He placed his frigid hand over my eyes this time as he hauled me back down the hallway.

Help us,was all I heard before I was startled awake by someone knocking on my window.

My head snapped up and I groaned at the stiffness in my neck. My hand reached out and came in contact with the dashboard of my tiny car.What?I was confused again. I still heard the voices, they still made no sense, but I was back in my car. I looked down to see that I had my clothes, too. My cell phone was in my hand and I had eleven missed calls. I flipped it open: ten from Chloe, the latest from an unknown number. I closed it just as it dinged, telling me I had a new voice-mail. The knocking was sharp against my window again, and I swiveled my head to meet one stressed-out, tired Chloe. I opened to door and she attacked.

"Where have you been?!" She screeched after she jumped on me, crushing me in a hug. I felt something warm and wet on my shoulder. She was crying?

"I went to get my phone from my car when I couldn't find you around two. I was gonna call and . . ." I couldn't explain it to her. "I guess I fell asleep." I finished lamely. No one would believe me, anyway.

"It's almost five in the morning! I was so worried. I called you a bagillion times!" She hugged me closer.

"I know, I know. I'm so sorry." I was awake now, refreshed. I just wanted to get home and get the voices out of my head. I shifted over to the driver's side and buckled in. "Seatbelt," I reminded her with a calm I did not feel.

She smiled at me through her tears. "OhgoshMimiIwassoworried!" She gushed out in one breath. She leaned over to kiss me and I laughed.

"I'm fine, Clo. Really." I wiped her mascara-riddled face with my thumbs and paused.

I brought my hand closer to my own face for further inspection. "Strange," I muttered to myself as Chloe put on her seatbelt, absorbed in her own thoughts. There was a black swirl on my thumb. I followed it with my eyes to the palm of my hand and was surprised to see some kind of design on my skin. It didn't look like a tattoo. It looked like it was part of my skin . . . it look embedded there, and that scared me. I scrunched my eyebrows together. "Weird," I said under my breath again.

"What's weird?" Chloe asked me, her hazel eyes still slightly worried but curious, too.

"Nothing," I told her, and I started up my car. We drove down the block and I made a U-Turn at the end. The hair on the back of my neck stood tall. We were being watched. I looked over at Chloe and I could tell she felt it, too.

"You feel that? Who's that?" She whispered; her doe eyes wide and nervous.

"More likewhat," I said under my breath. "I don't know, Clo," I told her. "Weird, huh?"

She giggled. "Yeah, we're just being silly." She turned up my stereo's volume and pressed play on the CD I'd put in earlier.

". . . I may be going to hell in a bucket, babe, but at least I'm enjoying the ride. .." We sang along to the old band, and I was surprised that Chloe knew the words.Enough surprises, already, I thought sarcastically. But it did bring my . . . uhm . . . dream of sorts . . . to my attention again. It didn't make any sense. The more I thought about it, the more I felt eyes on me. I sped my car up, eager to go back home to our dorm.

". . . and it's not like I'm leaving you lonely, 'cause I wouldn't know where to begin. Well I know that you think of me only when the snakes come marching in . ."

I sang louder and tried not to think of anything else. But they wouldn't be ignored. The voices got louder, to the point where I had to stop singing in order to concentrate on not swerving off the road.

I don't understand you!Screamed in my head, and their loud, whispery voice became even more frantic if that was possible.What are you telling me?!The voices lulled, then rose again only this time speaking together, as one. Their words were muffled, like they were speaking through cloth. Regardless, the foreign language was still a barrier.English, dammit! What do you want from me?I was definitely loosing it. Maybe I should just drop myself off at the insane asylum. I turned up the volume again, trying to get lost in the tunes of Grateful Dead. Chloe looked at me inquisitively, the guitar melody was wobbling the car's small frame, but I just smiled at her. I brought my hand up to my head and massaged it, as if I could physically force the screaming from my mind.

"You okay?" She asked me, still worried it seemed.

"Fine. Just a little headache." It was true, in a sense.

I stepped a little harder than necessary on the gas and the street lamps streaked by at an alarming pace. The eyes still watched me and the voices still called to me.What does everyone want with me?Both of my hands clutched at the steering wheel now, trying even harder to ignore the chorus of pleas that echoed around in my head. It was getting clearer, though, and their message was haunting as I drove us through the dark streets.

Help us, help us, helps us, help us.It was a chant, over and over. I could understand them, and they were relentless. I tried to leave them behind with the dark road as it flew away beneath my tires.