"The Loneliest Ghost You Know" - 11/19/2013

"The Loneliest Ghost You Know"
11/19/2013

I had befriended a young boy, in this dream, who was probably around 10 or 11 years old. He told me that he was constantly bullied, and just didn't seem like he had any friends, so I was as nice as possible to him and found out that he actually had a lot of character. After hanging around for a while, I agreed to help the boy find friends, in order to show him that bullies didn't dictate whether or not he was worthy of friendship.

The dream skipped ahead, and I had arranged something of a party at the boy's house. There were a bunch of my friends hanging out, playing video games with him. Apparently, the kid was loaded, because the house looked like a mansion, and he had pretty much every video game system known to man. The TVs were so large that they took up almost entire walls. Gaming went on for a while before we actually realized that the boy's parents were nowhere to be found. When I asked about them, the kid let us in on the fact that he was an orphan and there was no one to watch over him (which, I guess, just kinda 'made sense', in the dream).

C (someone I know in waking life) was there, and we got into a conversation about the future of gaming, virtual reality, and the Oculus Rift. We then began to play a Nightmare on Elm Street game (which was a game that I loved, back on the original Nintendo. This one, though, was 3D, completely immersive and had incredible graphics). I commented on how I wondered what that game would be like, in VR and, before I knew it, I was inside the game. It was a survival horror game, and Freddy was constantly popping up around corners and disappearing into the darkness and whatnot. I had quite a few encounters with him, and it was getting so intense that I was beginning to feel myself being cut by his fingernails when he attacked...and he was relentless. As much as I tried, I was just never able to escape him. He just kept finding me and slashing/stabbing me. It was becoming more than I could bear.

Before long, I was back outside the game and everyone else had gone home. The boy was really appreciative that I had not alienated him and actually made him feel like he had friends. He told me that he wanted to show me something and began heading through the house. I followed him, curious as to what it would be, and it was then that I noticed exactly how enormous this house was. To say it was a mansion would not have done it justice. The further into the house we went, the more I realized that, without the boy, I could have been lost in this place forever. Soon, we were travelling through the dark recesses of the house; climbing over stones and wooden beams, and through crawl-spaces that were getting increasingly too small for me. I almost got stuck a few times. I don't remember if we were heading up toward and attic, or down into the earth beneath the home. All I know was that this place was seeming less like a swanky, multi-million dollar mansion, and more like the dank dungeons of an ancient, deserted castle.

We arrived at an old room, which, at first glance, looked as if it could have once been a large living room. It was still rather dark, but I could tell that the room had aged in ways the rest of the house hadn't. Obviously, no one had set foot in this room in a very, very long time. Upon one wall, I could make out a fireplace, and the closer I got to it, the more I could see large clumps of material laying about the floor. After a few moments, I was able to make out what they were. They were bodies. Human bodies. At least a dozen of them. They had long since rotted away and were little more than clothed skeletons by now. The clothing they wore suggested that they had been royalty - jewels; crowns; the whole works. This room was one big, royal tomb.

The boy began to tell me about the family - his family - and about his past. I don't remember a lot of the story, but only the main element, which had to do with him, specifically. He told me about how he'd once had a very close friend; a little girl. They were inseparable, he said, and her friendship was apparently the dearest thing to him. As he told me about her, my point-of-view changed, and I was actually witnessing the story as if I had been there. I saw the outside of his house, and realized that it actually was a castle. One day, long ago, the little girl had fallen into the moat, which ran around the perimeter of the building (which I don't recall seeing, earlier in the dream). Unfortunately, the little girl could not swim. Her friend - the boy telling the story - saw it happen, and immediately jumped in to save her, knowing that he, himself, also didn't know how to swim. (Apparently, this kid's parents were just never around!)

I watched, disembodied, as the two kids struggled to get back to the surface, but it was no use. The little girl was the first to drown. When she stopped fighting, the boy looked over to her and I could see the pain on his face. He no longer seemed to care about even saving his own life, refusing to abandon her. He only floated there, staring into her eyes and cupping her face in his hands. The boy then leaned in, placed a kiss on the little girl's lips and submitted himself to drowning with her, without even so much as gasping for air. He simply gave up.

After the story, I was back in my body. The boy brought me to a corner of the room, where he showed me one of the bodies. It was his own, and it was no bigger than he was now. My new friend, I finally realized, was a ghost. He had been haunting this place ever since then, but sometimes wandered out into the rest world. It seemed that he was flesh and blood, since everyone could see him, but he was definitely dead, and he proved it by showing off a number of 'powers' he had as a ghost. (I don't remember much of that part, but I know he had the ability to move stuff with his mind and turn himself invisible, for starters.) I asked him about the bullying he mentioned, and he explained that he was constantly being picked on by others, and it made him more and more withdrawn from the world. He felt that he was better off alone. I told him that, with the powers he had, he had no reason to allow others to bully him. The things he could do commanded respect from even the toughest of bullies. He was to be feared, if he only had the confidence to apply himself. He liked the idea, and by the time we were done with our conversation, I could tell that he had a new sense of pride to him.

We walked back out of the castle (which I believe was now an actual castle, with a drawbridge at the entrance), and there were two teenage boys walking up toward us. They were apparently no strangers to the young boy, because they began hurling all kinds of insults and curses at him. I simply laughed and tried to tell the kids to get lost, because they were asking for trouble that they didn't want any part of. They, however, kept on pushing and pushing, trying to egg the younger boy into a fight. Finally, the little ghost had had enough. He threw up his hands and hundreds of bright strands, of some sort, flew out toward the larger one of the bullies. The strands snaked around the bully's body, wrapping him from head to toe before solidifying into what looked like white bandages. The ghost had just mummified the bully in front of my eyes. There was an astonished silence, as neither I nor the other bully could believe what we just saw. Suddenly, there was a violent burst of energy from the 'mummy', and a steam-like mist sprang out from between the bandages and landed in front of us. The mist gained shape and mass, and we were soon looking, again, at the larger bully, who had escaped the bandages through some sort of magic of his own.

Grinning, the bully revealed to us that he was also a ghost, and that the younger boy had no power over him.

I woke up immediately after this.