I found myself ascending the stairs of a house which I did not know. In fact, I had no recollection of entering the house. I couldn't even tell you what the rest of the house looked like. I just remember entering this one floor, a second or third story. The lighting was very dim, but enough moonlight spilled in through the windows to let me see where I was going. Everything was tilted to the side, as if the building was leaning in one direction. I found myself looking in drawers, searching for some unknown. All I knew was that I was somehow meant to find something.
The atmosphere of this floor was lonely and estranged. Like someone spent a lot of time here before they died and now it was a residential mausoleum. Strange, disconnected thoughts formed. I thought it was my uncle's house, even though later I knew this looked nothing like any house he lived in. Part of me also told me that this part of the house was off-limits, yet I had no reason as to why or who said it was. An eerie feeling crept over me, but I brushed it off as that guilty pange you get when you're doing something bad. Yet, if I had listened to my intuition more closely I would have felt that I wasn't truly alone there.
I searched more desperately, and soon drawers were open everywhere and I still didn't find my prize. I came upon a set of stairs that would lead to the attic, but the foreboding darkness told me to look somewhere else.
That was when I noticed a door in one room that I hadn't seen during my rummaging escapade. I flung it open, revealing a glass door. It was dark and I couldn't see beyond the door, and I never knew if it led to a patio or if it was just empty space that would aid me in falling to my death or dismemberment. All I had time to do was react when I saw her.
I gasped, seeing a blonde-headed woman who I did not know, yet there was a tinge of familiarity, like I'd seen her at the grocery store. She did not see me, facing the other way toward the stairs I had entered from.
"You scared me," I said softly after I caught my breath. It wasn't loud enough for her to hear, as she continued staring into the distance with a glassy, far-off look.
I turned, and now there was also a man sitting in a recliner with a glow upon his face as if he watched television, but there was no TV in the room. Not knowing what to do, I stared for a moment until my eyes registered something I didn't notice. At some point after I turned around, the blonde woman had turned towards me and was looking at me directly. At first, her expression was nothing less or more than vacuous. Once I locked eyes with her, the corners of her mouth slowly turned downward into a frown, and seconds later into a horrible scowl.
"What did I do?" I thought, trying to persuade my mouth to form the words aloud, but my body wouldn't obey. Her eyes bore into me, locking me into place even more as she slowly stood up from her chair. The frown was now getting bigger, an unnatural grimace of some otherworldly spirit. Now, the man had stood up and joined her, bearing the same hideous scowl. I couldn't move my body, but somehow my mind did something incredible....it reminded me that I was dreaming.
"You're not real," I said in short gasps. "You're not real because I'm dreaming." I've had lucid dreams before, and was able to transform anything I wanted by will alone. Yet for some reason, this was different. The man and woman did not go away. In fact, they slowly approached, hands balled and arms quivering as if holding back a quell of anger. The malice was radiating off in waves. It wouldn't be long before they reached me.
"Wake up, wake up," I said, but to no avail. "Cry out, get emotional...something!" While this sounded strange, there is reason to it. Once in a terrifying dream that my mother was possessed by a demon, I became upset. Instead of acting brave and trying to subdue the possessed, I began crying. That somehow made me wimper in reality, thus waking my wife who was able to rouse me from the dreaded nightmare.
"You're not real." I said, feeling a small well of tears building. If my thought of denying their existence didn't work, my strong emotional reaction would stir my physical body enough. The ghastly duo continued to approach, their arms almost grasping my throat.
"C'mon, Sarah wake up! Can't you hear me!" I said with hot tears and desperation. "You're not real, you're not real, you're not..."
And that was when they reached me...
ns 15.158.61.16da2
