In the Dream State

The clouds were big and bulging hiding inside them some sort of villainous demon ready to burst out, almost like a Pandora’s Box prepared to release its evil unto the innocent of the world.1

The field was enormous and spread for hundred of miles in each direction; in the distance, black construction-paper mountains bordered the doomed valley.2

She huddled in the very center, her pajamas a weak cover against the wind, though for now it only blew warm air at her. She bent her head down and closed her eyes, dreading the moment when the clouds would burst and—3

A thunderclap boomed a deep sound through the air and she could hear the rain begin to fall. She braced herself and the rain shattered the warmness she thought she’d felt. She was drenched in pure coldness, soaking her skin and creeping deeper down into her bones. She pulled herself out of the huddle and stared around, trying to see through the fog. She forced herself to her feet and tried to search for a shelter, but there was nothing in the emptiness. Nothing, nothing, nothing…nothing…4

She used her un-manicured claws to dig through the very dirt below her, and dirt flew left and right as she dug frantically like a dog. She had to get out of the rain, she had to, and if this was the only way then so be it, so be it—5

Her dirt enclosure was dry. She looked around at where she’d dug herself into and found her that she was at work, entirely dry though still feeling ice in her bones, and in a man’s suit. There were no workers in the building but it still felt comfortable and pleasant, as if this was the way it should be. She breathed a shaky and still anxious sigh of relief.6

She called out for anyone and waited for a response. A child’s voice mumbled something and she tensed up, her heartbeat skyrocketing, but soon it was replaced by a man’s voice and the child disappeared. Get away, she yelled to him but she knew he was there, about to turn the corner. She backed up and as she did, he turned the corner. She knew who he was. He was the devil – no, not really the devil. He was a coworker. He was her devil. She saw his face and her stomach turned. A grin was spread from ear to ear and he seemed almost cartoony in his elegant movements. She yelled at him to stay away again but he didn’t care to listen. She wanted to run but simultaneously knew that she did not. She stopped for a moment, puzzled by the absurd desire to stay – her momentary delay was a fatal error. Her arms and legs were chained on a slanted table and all she could do was watch as he neared her. She called for her husband to help but he just went about his business, heedless of her calls.7

All at once, she was violated – she didn’t see it, didn’t feel it, but knew it had happened. It was over. She screamed silent screams and cried dry tears and no one listened. She crushed her eyes together in an attempt to make it all end and found the chains vanished, the table disappeared and slowly felt the world begin to move, then faster, then faster, and faster and faster. Her eyes flew open and she was falling through a void. The ground must be somewhere below her, she was sure – her conscious somehow managed to send the logical message to her subconscious that it had to be – but the ground seemed too far away to be a burden. Yet she knew it must be there. Somewhere.8

She caught a glimpse of something as she fell but she could not see it. Then another something appeared in the emptiness and she tried to make it out, but it was too vague for her to tell. Then something else. And more things. All were faceless, all were shapeless, all vanished at the moment she tried to decipher what they were. They were after her. Whatever they were, they were after her.9

More and more appeared around her and she tried to find solid ground so she could run. The black, shapeless demons were ready to take her under and she knew herself well enough to know that she didn’t have what it took to fight back. So she ran, or tried to. She pumped one foot after the other but found that she could not find a foothold, and her feet were too sluggish to move. She screamed at herself to go, to do anything to get away, but she hardly moved a yard – and they were upon her.10

She screamed for help, for mercy, for anything at all but they did not listen. No one listened. They tore her clothes away and the tatters disappeared into the gravity-less void and dug their sharp dagger-claws into her stomach, ripping her to pieces. They tore out her liver, her intestines, her blood, her heart – they were thrown away and she could feel the life ripping away with each blow.11

Wake up, she screamed at herself. Wake up, wake up, wake up, god please please please wake up!12

She woke up.13

Her room warmly enclosed her and she felt the solace of her comforting blankets, but she couldn’t shake the coldness that stayed with her. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep again but could not. The dream was still too close with her. Insomnia was upon her. Tired, she sat up and looked lazily down at her hands. And screamed.14

Greenish flesh clung to the bones of her hands and dripped off onto her lap. Moving her skeletal fingers was nearly impossible and she found that the rotting things creaked if she dared try to flex them. They were useless, devoured things and she prayed that they would not fall off in a crumbled disaster. She tore her eyes away from the image and before her sat her young, innocent toddler son. Skin was falling off of his face, revealing the bloody muscle beneath, and he looked miserable and frightened.15

My son, she thought in despair. Oh, what have I done to my son?16

She reached out her skeleton hand to hug him but he scampered away. She saw bruises all over his skin giving him a purple-ish, blue-ish, green-ish appearance, his clothes in broken tatters and he seemed to her to almost be a zombie.17

Anger broke over her like cold sweat and she threw out a hand to hurt his little body and before she could even touch him he let out a banshee scream that pierced her deeper than the cold rain had. As he screamed in terror and agony, his skin melted off, his bones cracked and he melted away in a bloody disaster, fading into the abysmal emptiness around her.18

God, what have I done, she wondered. She cried. She cried for her son, she cried for her husband, but most of all she cried for herself. Tears sped down her cheeks and burned her flesh away, slowly eating out her body. She cried and cried and cried and felt her being disappear slowly, piece by agonizing piece, until there was nothing, nothing at all left. Soon, she was the emptiness itself.