"Hiro's Hero's" / "Future Hiro" - 10/22/2007 (Chain)

"Hiro's Heroes"

10/22/2007

Dream #1

(Part One)

I was Hiro Nakamura, a time-manipulating character from the TV show "Heroes," and was in Feudal Japan. I was training with Kensei and was completely whooping his ass. Mostly playing the defensive, though, I spent most of time dodging and blocking his sword, as he swung it at me. He began getting really pissed, because nothing that he did was having any sort of effect on me, no matter how hard he tried.

After a short while, my perspective switched to a disembodied observer, and I was now following a young girl, from another village. She seemed like a really nice girl, at first, but then, she suited up in a ninja dogi. Obviously, she was taught that the "Heroes" and I were evil, and she was on a mission to kill us. Still just an "observer," my perspective followed her, as she ran through the plains and toward our camp.

Now (coming back into myself, as Hiro), Kensei, Ted, and at least two other "Heroes" characters were training - outside, at this point, instead of inside. I was swordfighting with Ted, and Kensei stood by, watching. I kept beating Ted, but he wasn't doing too badly, and this was making Kensei even more pissed.

Finally, Kensei came in and wanted another shot at me, being really arrogant about it. I started swordfighting him and, again, just had him completely outclassed. I blocked everything he threw at me, with hardly even the slightest effort. At one point, I spun around, parrying one of his strikes and, in the same motion, I dove in toward him, landing on the ground with the side of my body and swiping my sword, catching him in the shin. (We were using wooden swords to practice with.) When I stood up, he was so mad that, being only about three feet away, he threw his sword at me as hard as he could, hilt first. I simply shifted my upperbody, turning my left shoulder out of the way with an almost super-human speed, without the slighest expression of concern, and the sword flew right passed me.

My perspective then switched, again, and showed the ninja girl rushing into our village. She came upon one of the village gaurds and took him out with this badass twisting, backflip-kick. Upon landing, she pulled out a bow and grabbed a huge handful of arrows, stringing them all in the quiver, at once. She released them into the village and her arrows rained down over the people that were outside. The massacre looked more like a cartoon or anime, than anything else, though.

Realizing that this girl was killing everyone, we ran to intercept her, and she and I started fighting. After fighting for a couple of moments, the last thing I remember is some disembodied voice starting a song-number ridiculing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her family. (Where that came from, I don't know, but I don't remember anything after that.)

***

"Future Hiro"

Dream #1

(Part Two)

I was still Hiro from Heroes, but this was a time-period before I'd learned to control my powers. I remember riding in an elevator with some strange guy that kinda reminded me of Jack Black. All of a sudden, the elevator stopped, and the doors open. Future Hiro (in essense: myself) was standing in front of us, and he handed me a large, silver case. He said something, that was likely important, but I forgot what it was. However, whatever it was, it had let the stranger know that the man before us was me, from the future. Future Hiro, then, left. The doors closed, and the elevator starting up, again. The whole time, while I continued holding onto this case, the guy beside me was completely flipping out, due to the knowledge that we'd both just met my future self.

"Police Omnipresence" - 11/13/2019 (Lucid + Chain + FA)

"Police Omnipresence"

11/13/2019

Dream #1(a)

(Lucid)

There is an early part of this dream, where I was with a bunch of kids, riding around on "Hoverboards." I remember getting on one of the Hoverboards and, instead of riding it in a forward-facing stance, I was able to ride it with my feet facing to one side, like a skateboard. The kids found it really cool, and I was doing a few tricks with it.

Later, I was skateboarding (now, with a normal skateboard) through some beach town, heading down toward the water. I came upon a largely-flooded area, as if the beach had surged inland. Having built up speed, I skimmed the board across the puddle, splashing water on my way through. There was a cop, walking up the street, in the opposite direction from me, and he immediately turned around and began harassing me for "playing in" the floodwater. He was completely overreacting, though, so, after some back-and-forth, I just waved him off and went about my way.

Time skipped, and I was at home with my girlfriend, J, and an unknown guy-friend. Unprompted, my stereo came on, by itself. A voice came through the speakers, and I could tell that it was the cop from my earlier encounter. The room was already dark, and his voice was booming and ominous. He started going off about the reason he was such a jerk, earlier, being that he and I had history. He said that I was involved in wrongdoing which led to someone in his family being maimed or killed. For this reason, he considered me to be something of a "nemesis" to him, and that he wasn't going to rest until he got even. Strangely enough, my dream "self," seemed to know what he was talking about. I was immediately remorseful, and attempted to voice my sorrow for what had happened. I told him that it was an accident, and that the whole situation was largely misunderstood. (Though, I didn't think it was strange that I was talking to him through an mic-less radio.)

Just then, the bedroom window, beside me, lit up in a hazy, gray bit of "television static," as if the glass, itself, was a giant monitor. Though the cop's face never showed, I could hear his voice, coming from the window-turned-TV screen.

He said "It would be just horrible, if it happened to someone you loved...."

Another time-skip, and it was a new day. J and I were sitting out on a back porch. There was an older woman at the far side of the porch, and a small boy, beside her. They looked to be doing some sort of work, like tending to the vegetation on the deck, or something. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and the innocent woman dropped to the ground, dead. Shocked I looked toward the direction from which I heard the shot and, through the spaces in the fence, I could see the cop glaring back at me, grinning, teasingly.

Immediately, J and I ran after him, Jumping over the fence and chasing him through a grassy area between houses. Suddenly, a large dog came around a nearby corner, charging between us and the officer and moving in to attack me. Initially, I fought the dog off with my hands, but it was eventually able to chomp down on one of my hands, and I noticed that it didn't really hurt. The dog held on, though, long enough for me to figure out how this insane scenario came about. I suspected that I had to be dreaming. With the dog still clamped on to my hand, I reached out with my other one and pet the dog on the head, calmly, willing it to settle down...and it did, loosening its jaws and sitting down in front of me.

We, then, turned to the officer, who seemed ready for a fight. J, though, didn't seem to acknowledge my lucidity. She was apprehensive about just confronting him, outright, knowing that he had a gun. I, however, was already convinced that I was dreaming. I raised a hand toward the cop and tried to use telekinesis on him. J was startled by the gesture and yelled "what are you doing??" I told her that it's fine, because this was just a dream. Obviously not believing me, she practically face-palmed and said "Oh, my God. NO," suggesting that she thought I was going to get myself killed, by convincing myself that this was just a dream. (Lol.) Things were very vivid, at this point, and the first few attempts did not work. The cop approached me and squared up. After exchanging a few swings, I was able to "force push" him away from me, completely proving my theory right - that I was dreaming and had some level of control.

The fight went on, mixing telekinesis with hand-to-hand blows, though I don't remember too many of the details. In the middle of the fight, though, I instantly "woke up," into what I would soon discover was a false awakening.

Dream #1(b)

(False Awakening)

(Chain)

(Lucid)

Immediately upon "waking up" in my bed, I found myself flailing from the previous fight, and inadvertently launching a fist out and punching my girlfriend - as she lay next to me - square in the boob. (Haha.) She woke, clutching her chest and asking me something along the lines of "what the hell is wrong with you??" Embarrassed, I told her about the dream I'd had. In the end, she thought it was funny and forgave me.

Next thing I knew, it was daylight, again. J and I, along with the same guy-friend from the previous dream, were walking down a dirt road. (Apparently, my notion of the previous events being "just a dream," had faded.) I was telling both of them about the "incident," the cop had been referencing, expressing how it was all a mistake and that what happened was an accident. I remember referencing that the victim had been the cop's son or nephew or something, and there was a series of events that led to his death. J said that she didn't want to hear any gory details, which is pretty consistent with her character.

Clearing a wooded area near the road, we came upon a small, run-down house. As we got closer to it, the front door opened and a young woman walked out. She was dressed as a zombie, and sort of taking on a zombie gait to her walk, but I was never concerned that she was an actual ghoul. She was just dressed like one, as if for a cosplay or Halloween costume. She walked right passed us, without saying a thing, and after watching her walk by, finding the encounter to be a bit odd, we all turned back toward the house, just in time to see the cop, from earlier, come sauntering out the front door, grinning at us.

Immediately, upon recognizing him, I knew I was dreaming. I said something like "ugh, here we go again," while the cop stalked toward me as if he wanted to go another round. Now, fully aware of the situation, I was ready to have some more fun. I threw my hands out to the side, and yelled "rrraaaaaahh!!" trying to pull off a DBZ-style power-up (which I've had some success with, before). Nothing happened, though, and he just ran in and started his attack. I drew upon telekinesis, again, and started throwing him around, all over the yard, with my mind. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the zombie-girl come back onto the scene. Behind her, though, I saw an enormous werewolf also show up, snarling as if it was about to get into the fray. As it walked toward my fight with the cop, I could see that it was far too large to be just "someone in costume," and that I was about to have to battle this random werewolf, too.

It was in the chaos of the ensuing battle, that I woke up.

"Elm Street Academy" - 04/09/2010 (Lucid + Dream Chain)

"Elm Street Academy"

04/09/2010

Dream One (a)

(Lucid)

I was a student at some enormous martial arts school. It was set up like a university. I was more of an outsider, in this school, and not treated very well by most of the other students. There was some really muscular kid who I started arguing with, across tables. I can't remember exactly what was said, but I completely tore him apart with wit. The entire room clearly respected me more, after that. The Master was going around, checking people's written work. There was a test or something we had to take around this time, and since I was somewhat newer than most the kids here, an Asian girl turned around and gave me a little bit of help.

Later, I was standing in a line with a bunch of other students. A gorgeous, Hispanic girl approached me. The moment she recognized my face, she started going off on me - just screaming and cursing me out and waving her hands around, all pissed. Apparently, I had hurt this girl, sometime in the past (though she was not someone I recognized, from waking life).

Shortly afterward, [another gorgeous, hispanic girl, who actually was an old, waking life friend of mine] walked by us. My eyes followed her, pretty hard, and then I heard the other girl mumble something in Spanish. Her mumbling turned into another tantrum directed at me. She started going off, and she just would not stop. I'd - long since - lost the ability to keep up with what she was saying. All her words were just running together, and she was getting more and more animated. No matter how many times I told her to keep it down, she wouldn't. She was making a scene, and I knew that we were going to get in trouble. It got to the point where I actually grabbed a hold of something, nearby (can't remember what it was) and literally shoved it into her mouth to keep her from talking. With her cheeks stuffed, she finally had no choice but to shut up.

There was one guy at the school who was really nice to me. He was Native American, I believe, and had long black hair. He was just a genuinely cool guy, and I remember meeting his family, at some point. Some time much later, the guy just up and disappeared. Rumors started going around the school that he had been mysteriously killed. We were never able to find out how, though.

Time passed, and I ended up having another run-in with the jock-ish guy, that I had argued with, earlier. It was more like an ambush, actually. I had been walking along the wall, outside the building, and he came out of nowhere and forced me into the nearby boiler room. He squared off, ready to fight me, and I told him that I didn't want trouble like that. Sure, he was a dick, but I really wasn't interested in fighting him on school property. He kept egging me on, though, and got in my face. His arms shot up and grabbed hold of my collar - and I was just about to defend myself - when some invisible force threw us apart from one another. I was thrown down on a table, back-first. The other guy was thrown against a wall or gate or something. This force was pressing down on my chest, and pinning me to the table, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't sit up or roll off the edge. Suddenly, my shirt began to tear. The quick slashes of a set of invisible blades whipped repeatedly across my chest and shredded my shirt, with each swipe passing just millimeters above my skin. I couldn't turn my head - let alone lift it - but I could hear the sound of the other guy screaming bloody murder. I took no comfort in the fact that whatever was happening to him sounded much worse than what was happening to me.

A wave of relief did come, though. Horrified as I was, I immediately realized I was having a nightmare. The unseen attack continued to slash violently across my shirt, over and over. I knew, without question, that this was Freddy's doing. Now lucid, I braced and tried as hard as I could to sit up straight, on the table. The force threw me back down, like an arm-wrestler getting his second wind. Again and again I struggled to counter the invisible demon who continued to shred my shirt, but to no avail. I just couldn't get the control. Still in a slight state of panic, I intentionally woke myself up.

(I was only up for a moment or two, and fell right back asleep.)

Dream One (b)
(Lucid)
(Chain)

I was back at the school, walking around the perimeter of the building, once again. I came to the open door of the boiler room, and peered inside. The lights were out and everything was pitch black. A quick rush of recollection hit me and I remembered what happened, last time I'd went through the door; Freddy had attacked me, and I never found out what happened to the other boy. (Even though I realized this, I didn't become lucid again.) Some time later, the jock's girlfriend - who had been sitting at his table, when I verbally tore him a new one - caught up with me. She asked me if I'd seen or heard from him recently. I had no concept of time (specifically, how long after the boiler room incident it was), and I told her "no." I really wasn't all that sure about what happened. We felt we had to find out, though. More time passed and we had eventually come across an obituary. Thumbing through it, we came to a break in the neatly-typed font of a list of names. In this space, scrawled in out-of-place handwriting, was her boyfriend's name (which I can't remember). Beneath that, it said:

"Dead. 

Reason: He died for his father. (Whatever that meant)

Signed: AhaAHhAhaHAhAHAA!"

By the signed laughter, I immediately knew it was Freddy's doing. Time skipped ahead again, after this.

It was now night time. I was in the back seat of a car, with a couple of friends in the front. We were driving down a street and saw a figure walking up the sidewalk, the other way. From a distance, we could tell it was the jock dude that had just been declared dead. Shocked, we drove over to toward him, to ask him just what the hell had happened to him. Just as we were about to come upon him, another car drove up, from the other way, placing itself between us and the guy walking down the sidewalk. Then things got really strange. When we looked in the car, we could see that the person driving was actually the same kid that was walking down the street! There were two of them! The one that was driving got the other one's attention, and called him over to the car. The one that had been walking, curious, walked closer to the car, looked  inside, and then got in. Still a few dozen feet away, and still in our car, we all screamed "NO!!! NO!! What are you doing?!? Don't go with him!!!" knowing that things were just not right. I told the driver to hurry up and get in their way, so we could keep them from taking off. The passenger said "No. Forget it. He's already dead," dismissing the idea of going to rescue the 'dead' kid.

But I knew that things were all wrong, in this situation, and I wasn't convinced the kid was already dead. I said, to the passenger, "How do you know that?!" 

And then the passenger spun around in his chair, toward me. It was Freddy Krueger. He yelled in my face; "Because I said so!!!" and he lunged his clawed hand at me. I immediately realized I was dreaming and, in an instantaneous rush of lucidity, I reflexively woke myself up before he was able to connect with me.

"Momoa and the Old Schoolhouse" - 3/20/2019 (Lucid + Chain)

"Momoa and the Old Schoolhouse"

3/20/2019

(Lucid + Dream Chain)

PART ONE

I don't quite remember what was going on, in the very beginning of this dream. My earliest memory of it is being in what I believe was an office setting, and suspecting I was dreaming. Performing my most common reality check, I raised my hand over an object on a desk - something common, like a paperweight or computer mouse - and attempted to draw it to me with telekinesis. The object flew up off of the desk and into my hand, and confirmed to me that this was definitely a dream.

Walking outside of the building, I came to an elevated road, levitating off of my feet and flying up the incline, landing on the hill-top pavement and peering out, over a beautiful, expansive plains area. It was dusk, and the sky was a mixture of bright orange and a light, purple-ish tone. In the very center of this lush, green field, there was a large, old fashioned schoolhouse, set among a small patch of trees. Immediately, this reminded me of my previous intention, upon becoming lucid, which was to continue to search for the Dream World Academy. Not so much thinking that this might have actually been IT, I decided to search within it, to see if I could find my way into something that seemed a little more like what I had pictured. Flying over to the school, I Ianded in the front yard. The place was completely deserted, it seemed, and I stepped inside to have a look around.

The inside of the school seemed more like the interior of a home, and only sometimes matched the outdated look of the outside. I went from room to room, opening doors with the intention of kinda "creating" a D.W.A. environment, upon opening each new section of the schoolhouse. There was very little light in the home, and I had to fight the creepy feeling that was washing over me, as the atmosphere seemed very "Resident Evil," in that everything felt dim and still. Sounds echoed and shadows covered most of the walkways. (I have started playing the Resident Evil 2 remake, lately.) Most of the rooms remained normal, however, aside from one door I opened, where I could only see a large eye, peering out from a black substance that totally encompassed the inner door frame. Immediately, I closed the door and continue exploring, still trying to ignore the idea that my subconscious was inevitably going to mess with me, in this type of environment.

Moving on, through the house, I opened a new door, to a small bedroom. There was just a little sunlight coming in, through the window, and I could see that there were two, twin-sized beds inside. The room was small enough that they took up almost the whole area, and though the beds were made, I could see that there were figures beneath the covers - seemingly human-shaped - and those figures were moving. Reaching out to the covers of one of the beds, I tried to push all thoughts of 'scary things' out of my mind, hoping not to get ambushed with any selection of my worst nightmares. Ripping the covers off of the bed, I was surprised to see absolutely nothing, in what was, clearly, an occupied space, just seconds ago. I walked over to the second bed, watching the covers writhe about, as if a restless person was tossing about, beneath. Still trying not to let myself be intimidated, I yanked the covers of this one back, as well. Relieved, I was greeted by two or three small dogs, who were just playfully rolling around with each other on the bedspread.

After taking a moment to pet the doggos, I walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, which, again, resembled more a home kitchen than that of an old school. Unexpectedly, I was greeted by another dog, this one not quite as friendly as the ones I'd met in the bedroom. It snarled at me and kept trying to bite at me, and I continuously pushed it away. Getting annoyed, I tried to channel my inner Dragon Ball Z, clenched my fists and yelled, "Raaaaaaah!!!" A blast of energy exploded out of my body, pushing outward in all directions, and shaking the objects around me. The dog backed off, for only a moment, though, and the moment my energy dissipated, the dog rushed back in and chomped down on my hand. It didn't really hurt much, but once attached, I simply could not get the dog off of me, no matter how hard I pushed.

Eventually growing tired of the dog, and simply trying to ignore it, I walked out of the kitchen and toward the back of the house, with the dog still latched, tenaciously, onto my hand. I stepped out onto a rear deck, looking out over the plains area, which broke into mountains and valleys in the distance. Still frustrated with this dog, which remained locked onto my hand like a steak suspended above the ground, I thought about slinging my arm as far as I could, and chucking the dog into the deepest end of the valley. I rush of guilt came over me, though, and I decided against it. Instead, I gave one more hard shake, slinging the dog off of me and immediately launching myself into the air, away from it. I flew off, toward the mountains, simply trying to see what else I could explore.

It didn't take too long, though, before I began to see large structures in the sky, coming more into focus and out of the light haze before me. As I flew closer, I could see that these seemed to be gigantic tentacles - or tendrils, of some sort. They covered practically the whole sky, quickly overwhelming my field of view. I could not see from where they were originating, and I was growing more and more sure that I didn't want to know. Given their size, I did not even want to begin to imagine what they belonged to.

I don't remember whether I intentionally pulled myself out of this dream or not, but this dream scene ended shortly afterward.

PART TWO

(Dream Chain)

This dream seemed to already be in progress, upon my earliest memory of it. I was back in my old, Lake Mary home and, for some random reason, I was hanging out with Jason Momoa. (Lol.) We were just shooting the sh*t and hanging around the house. It all had a very chill, weekend sort of vibe. I remember us going to one of the windows and yelling back and forth, playfully, to one of the nearby neighbors as they walked their dog. At some point, I remember telling him about my previous lucid dream, trying to recall all of the details.

He ended up crashing at my place (as if any of this was, at all, just 'normal'), and the dream ended just as I went to sleep.

PART THREE

(Dream Chain)

In what some may consider a "dream within a dream," I suddenly found myself in some unfamiliar building. There were a bunch of DCs around, and the atmosphere was feeling kind of hostile. Feeling uncomfortable, my mind flipped back to what had previously been going on, I remembered that I was just hanging out with Jason Momoa, and that this had to be a dream. I was lucid, again.

Feeling much more relaxed, I was completely unfazed when one of the DCs started trying to antagonize me. I don't remember exactly what he said, but I remember just laughing him off, and telling him that this was just a dream, and I wasn't worried about him. He asked me to prove it, and I held up my hands, attempting to do the Finger-Through-Palm reality check. The dream was quite vivid, though, and my finger met waking-world resistance, refusing to phase through my other hand. Instead, I jumped into the air and tried to levitate, but I sank back to the ground, only slightly slower than real-time. The belligerent DC, unconvinced, told me that, if I could fly up and touch the high ceiling, he would believe me.

Not one to be shown up, by my own imagination, I jumped into the air and tried to fly to the ceiling. I couldn't quite reach it, though, feeling myself starting to sink back to the ground, after missing my mark by just a couple of feet. On the way do, though, I tried to forget about elevation, though, and simply tried to stop myself from touching down to the ground. Much to the shock of the DC - and those who had began to rally behind him - I found myself hovering in mid-air, about four feet off of the ground. Almost as expected, the DCs all took one look at my ability and ran away in terror. 

Satisfied, I then thought about my dream state, and since this dream had been a bit rowdy, I began to wonder whether I was acting out any of my actions, in the waking world. In an absolutely hilarious lapse of awareness, I remembered that Jason Momoa was still hanging out in my house, as I slept, and I thought about how embarrassing it might have been, if I was flailing around in my sleep, gesturing out my dream actions. With that ironic misconception in mind, I decided to wake myself up.

(I couldn't help but laugh at myself, when I woke up, for real, in my present home, with no one else around. Lol.)

(*Original Artwork based on Dream*)

==========================
Side Notes:

- I've had other "dreams within dreams," before, where I have "gone to sleep" in a dream, had another dream scenario play out, and then "woke back up," into the same scenario that I was having, previously. This is the first one, though, where - during a "second-level" dream, I remembered the previous scenario but mistook it for real life. I can't get over how funny that is.

- I had been watching a lot of movie news, lately, with Avengers Endgame being right around the corner. Even though I haven't yet seen Aquaman, there's been plenty of references to Momoa so, as random as it was, it's not all that surprising that he made a cameo in the dream.

"Deadpool Ruins Everything" - 01/24/2019 (Dream Chain)

"Deadpool Ruins Everything"

01/24/2019

(Dream Chain)

Part 1:

I was part of an organization set up in a tall office tower. It was night out, and we'd been tipped off that someone was planning to infiltrate our building and steal some of our weapons technology. We were devising a plan to catch the thieves, setting up a trap, in the CEO's head office, and we brought in Tom Cruise to be a stand-in for the CEO, fitting him with a ridiculous wig and setting him in the boss's chair, his back facing the door. The rest of us hid, out of sight, and waited for the attempted heist that we knew was coming.

Before long, a woman walked into the boss's office. Since my vantage point was mostly at her back, once she came in, I was unable to see her face. From what I could recall, though, she had short, black hair and was wearing what looked like a white lab coat. She walked up to the back-turned boss's chair and issued some kind of threat or demand to him. Then, the chair spun slowly around and Tom Cruise revealed himself as an impostor, and the trap was sprung, thwarting the attempted robbery.

Part 2:

(I don't believe I awoke, between this dream and the previous one, but the scenario was so different that I can only count this as being a completely different dream, and not a continuation of the first.)

I was at a house party, in a suburban area. It was an overcast day, and everyone was still inside when I walked out to the carport. While outside, I was approached by a guy that seemed to have wandered up from off the street. He was a scruffy, leather jacket-wearing white guy, who looked like he could have been part of a biker stereotypical biker gang. He stepped up to me, rather arrogantly, and started spouting off about something. I don't remember whether he was being racist or just had some sort of issue with me and my friends (I distinctly remember him using some kind of "us vs them" rhetoric), but he was certainly challenging me, and I could tell that he was looking for a fight.

After a brief pause, just when it seemed as if he was contemplating swinging the first punch, he suddenly reached into his jacket, drew out a pistol, and just started firing off rounds, at point-blank range, just as I lurched away in shock. At least two of the shots hit me, around my left shoulder. It was a dull feeling of pressure, rather than any sharp pain, but I could immediately tell that I'd shot. I rolled behind something, for cover, and drew my own pistol, popping back out of hiding - just as he was reloading - and pulling the trigger in his direction. I'd forgotten to flick the safety, and the gun didn't fire. Then, I clicked the safety with my thumb and tried again. Nothing. There was no round chambered, which was unusual. While I fumbled with the weapon, trying to chamber a round, the guy finishes reloading and actually starts monologuing, while raising his gun back up at me - talking about how his choice of firearm was superior to mine and that's why he won this gunfight and blah blah. Before he could finish, though, I got the round chamber and started firing away, at him. I could see that I hit him a couple of times before he disappeared around a corner and ran off.

Still injured (which was a general feeling of being drained, rather than - again - any actual pain), but not about to just let this dude get away, I immediately started chasing after him. I saw him jump into an old car and speed off. I jumped into mine, parked nearby and took off after him. Speeding through the neighborhood, we took a turn, at the end of the street, onto a main road. I pulled out my tactical flashlight and attempted to zero-in on his rear-view mirror, to see if I could mess with his vision, while driving, but I don't think it was very effective. (It's something that I've thought about having to use for self-defense, in waking life.) The light was uselessly dim, though, and I remember trying to plug it in to my car charger. Luckily, he was approaching a traffic jam and had to cut off of the road, and through someone's yard, dipping back into the neighborhood on a parallel street to the one that we were recently on.

Cutting the corner and following behind him, I watched him bail out of the car and run between some of the houses, jumping out of my own car and following. A few people poked their heads out of their homes, to see what was going on, and I finally saw him, close to where we started. Another short firefight broke out, and I was able to put maybe five or so shots in him, dropping him down in the grass, dead. Not wanting to just leave the body in the yard, I - rather illogically - decided to drag it over to my car, thinking the trunk would be 'too conspicuous' of a place to leave him and, instead, dumping him into the back seat. Immediately after closing the door, I called the police to report what happened, citing self-defense, and walked back to the party house, nearby.

Back inside, the party was ongoing. I was still feeling weak from the bullets I'd taken, as I was telling my girlfriend, and friends, about what had happened. The front door opened, and a parade of about a dozen cops, in tactical gear, filed into the house. They began to walk right passed me, so I got up and walked over to them, telling them that I was the one who called in, and that I could take them to where the body was. The followed me out the back side of the house, and we walked across the yard toward the house behind us, since my car was still parked on the next street over. It was now night-time, and the yards seemed to stretch out for about half a football field. It seemed strange, to me, and oddly familiar. (What I didn't realize, until later, was that the yard and morphed into the courtyard outside of the tall office building from my previous dream.)

Coming around to the next street, still in the suburban neighborhood, despite the short view of the metropolitan courtyard, I led them toward my car. Walking in that direction, I started to see bright flashes of light, coming from inside my car. It was as if a flare was burning, or someone had turned on a strobe light. All I could see was the light, and it bathed out anything and everything inside. Then, I could just barely make out a figure in the flashes. At first, I thought it was the man whom I'd shot, but when I got closer, I could see that it was Deadpool. He was making these really animated, cartoonish gestures in the back window, at us, between the flashes, and the first thought to enter my mind was that he was going to screw with the evidence and ruin my self-defense case.

Now running, frantically, toward the car, I actually yelled out: "No no no no...WHY IS DEADPOOL HERE?? WHY IS HE HERE??!" I reached out and tried to open the rear, driver's side door, but the door just burst open, throwing me back to the roadway. Deadpool instantly popped out, armed to the teeth. The squad of cops saw him and immediately engaged. An absolutely insane battle broke out, right there on the street, and Deadpool absolutely wrecked these police officers. Gunfire and swords and explosions and body parts were just flying about this tempestuous cloud of white smoke under the streetlights. Within the fray, it seemed like Deadpool actually had help, as there was clearly some other figure in the battle, helping him out. I was thinking it might have been Cable or Domino, but I never actually saw them.

Suddenly, the back of my car just exploded in the battle and was flung across the street, toward me. I was still halfway sitting on the ground, and I was so in shock at everything I was witnessing, that I didn't even bother to move. The whole trunk area of my car was about to slam into me with what could have only been lethal force. Then, just before impact, the hunk of metal stopped as if it had been caught, mid-flight. I'm not sure if it was Deadpool that caught it, or his ally, but Deadpool was soon standing right beside me and leaning down in my face, saying something like: "Hey, next time something like that happens...try moving out of the way," in his trademark, jokester fashion.

The last thing I remember is him walking away, nonchalantly telling me that it was His team that attempted the heist of the office where I had been working (back in the first dream). He said that they already knew about the trap we were springing (which is what made me believe the woman in the lab coat was Domino - though I remained unable to actually see who he was with, presently), and that they were still successful in stealing the company's weaponry, which were the weapons they were just using against the police. 

  (I've had many cases of the narrative of separate dreams weaving themselves in with each other, but this one was probably my favorite. Absolutely nuts. Lol. Also, I've been painting a picture of Domino, lately, as well as looking through some great Deadpool cosplays, which would explain why the characters were on my mind.)

"Burning Bridges" - 11/25/2013 (Lucid + Chain)

"Burning Bridges"
11/25/2013

(Lucid + Chain)

Part 1:

At the end of a walkway, leading from my house, was a small courtyard and a brick tunnel. Atop the tunnel’s entrance was a platform, and atop that platform lived a very large dragon.

The dragon, it turns out, was Smaug, from the tale of The Hobbit. (My daughter and I had just watched the trailer together, the day before this dream). Whenever someone would try to get through the tunnel, he would stop them – not for any real reason. Simply because he could. At first, all anyone could really see was the shadowy outline of his face while he sat in the dark. He seemed to enjoy the seclusion and didn’t really make it a point to make himself seen if he didn’t have to. As far as I know, he just liked sitting up there and blocking people from using his pathway because it gave him something to do. He was always excessively douchey about it, and talked as if he was a god among insects. Needless to say, he wasn’t very well-liked in the neighborhood. I can’t remember why, but I ended up having to use the tunnel, one night, so I came up to it, peering into the darkness at the monster that I knew resided there.

Of course, Ol’ Smaug wasn’t having it. When I tried to reason with him as to why it would be alright to let me use the tunnel, he would exhale an intense stream of fire in my direction. Stepping off to one side of the flame – seeking refuge behind one of the nearby brick columns - I got a view of him from an angle, and it was then that I could see how enormous this dragon actually was. As much as it frustrated me that he was simply being belligerent, I had to be careful with what I said, because I knew he could have easily swallowed me whole, if he wanted to. This encounter happened at least twice, and he was just as big a jerk, the second time around.

The third time, however, was different. On my way to the tunnel (I still can’t remember my reason for trying to go through it), I began thinking through how my encounter with the intimidating dragon was going to go. It was in this moment of thinking through my situation that I realized how incredible this situation actually was; how absurd it was that I was about to encounter a dragon. I realized that this was only possible because I was dreaming. The light-switch in my head came on, and I quickly became lucid.

Any fear I might have had of the dragon completely vanished. Instead, I started calling him out as I walked down the pathway toward his perch. I had faced dragons in my lucid dreams before, and I was feeling enough in control that I was ready for a little face-off with this self-righteous beast. We had a short exchange of words (that I don’t really remember), and he was soon spreading his huge wings and taking flight, charging at me while bellowing flames in my direction. Unlike my last, lucid, dragon encounter (where I put up my hand and created a force-field to block its fire), I simply braced myself and leaned directly into his fire stream, allowing the fire to wash over me, defiantly and painlessly, solidifying my confidence in the knowledge that this was my dream and Smaug could not harm me. Boy, did that piss him off.

He repeatedly dove in toward me and I took flight as well; launching, dashing and strafing in all aerial directions, constantly dodging his advances and daring him to try to burn me –  just before, of course, simply allowing the fire to pass over me again. I was having a great time at his expense, and he was hating it. Each passing moment, though, made me all the more confident in my control. There was a pool in the yard, and I descended toward it, coming to levitate with my feet just a few inches over the water. For merely a moment, I had my doubts about whether or not I would be able to maintain elevation over the pool (which often happens while flying), but I was able to stay focused and square off with him again, hovering just over the water's surface.

We played a little bit more Cat and Mouse, but when he came to realize that he just wasn’t gaining any ground with me, he finally gave up the chase. Frustrated, Smaug actually thought it best to strike up something of a friendship with me. He gave me my respect for being a tougher challenge than he was anticipating, and we seemed to get along, somewhat, after that; there was still an air of animosity between us, though, even though we were civil to each other. At one point, there was a small party in the yard that we came to share, and Smaug used his fire-breath to BBQ a cow for us. We would spend some time flying around, and I found myself just kind of marveling at what an incredible creature he was. When he would fly in the distance, I could see how enormous his wingspan was. (He reminded me a lot of the big bull dragon from Reign of Fire. He was just that massive.) Things seemed to be going fairly well, though, for a while. Smaug seemed to loosen up a bit, and there was actually one time when I caught him singing to himself. Haha. He became more open to interacting with other people, as well. It was around here that I began losing lucidity, and just fell into the story line.

All the niceties vanished, though, when a large group of people decided that they wanted to slay the dragon.

Unbeknownst to me, a band of townsfolk (it's hard to tell if they were modern or medieval. The dream seemed to have interchanging elements of both time periods) had approached the tunnel and caught Smaug completely unaware. They used some kind of catapults or 'launchers' to hurl spears at the dragon, severely injuring him, but not killing him. (I believe I watched this part, disembodied, because I wasn't actually 'there' when it happened.) When I finally showed up, after learning about what happened, I went looking for Smaug. His attackers had already left the scene. There was a great tree that towered over the yard, and I had a feeling he might be up there. I flew up to the top of this gigantic tree (I was no longer lucid, that I can think of, but still kept my ability to fly), and I could see him there, nestled among the thick, twisting branches, with a large number of the spears still sticking out of various parts of his body. He was curled up as if he were trying to sleep off the pain.

At first, he acted as if I wasn't there, hovering next to him. I tried to speak with him - to tell him that I came to him as a friend and to see if he was alright. He ignored me, still. I tried again, telling him that I knew nothing of the attack, and that even though I was one of 'them' (human), he could trust me when I said that I had nothing to do with it. Obviously, completely unconvinced, he let out a deep, trembling growl at me which, without words, told me to leave him the hell alone. I was guilty by association, and he wanted nothing more to do with me.

"Fine," I said, a bit hurt that he would have thought of me in that way, and I flew off.

(I woke up for a moment and attempted to do a WBTB and have another lucid dream. I ended up dropping back into the same story, but with no lucidity, this time.)

"Burning Bridges"

Pt. 2

I was back in the same setting as the previous dream. Smaug was out of the area, and some of us humans were having another get-together in the yard. Even though I wasn't lucid, I still had my ability to fly (as if it was a normal thing. Lol) and some telekinesis, which I periodically used during the night. My mom and her boyfriend were there and, sooner or later, I got to talking to them about my interactions with Smaug and what had happened to our brief friendship. My mom (who hadn't been in the previous dream) was skeptical of the whole 'dragon' thing. She didn't believe that I knew - let-alone talked to - a dragon. Waving off her skepticism, I began thinking to myself about how I really wanted to patch up this misunderstand with Smaug.

I drew upon my telekinesis and attempted to use it sort of like Dragonrend, in Skyrim, to call Smaug back from wherever he was. I really didn't know whether or not he would actually show up, but what I really wasn't ready for was for him to come crashing down through the branches of the great tree, above us, and landing with an earth-quaking 'Boom', feet-first, off to one corner of the party. From the look on his face, I could tell that he was quite surprised, too.

My mother took one look at the dragon and immediately screamed. Both she and her boyfriend bolted for the nearest exit from the yard, which was just passed Smaug; meaning that they had to cross his path in order to reach it. The dragon, still apparently startled by his having been summoned, suddenly shifted himself to face the frantic humans approaching him. As if by complete reflex, he lifted one, giant, hind leg and booted my mom across the entire front of her face and body, knocking her off to one side, unconscious. I ran over to her and held her up to me, trying to revive her.

Smaug - who had just been on self-defense mode - leaned over me, softening his expression and realizing what he'd done in error. After a short silence, he began to apologize. He said something like: "....I didn't mean to--" and I cut him off. I was furious, and assumed that his action stemmed from his hatred of 'us', and that he did what he did out of spite - not because he thought he was being attacked again. That table had turned, and I didn't want to speak to him at all. Figuring that I wasn't to be reasoned with, he was the one who took off, this time, and I don't remember anything after his flying away.

"The Sixth Seal" - 11/18/2013 (Chain)

"The Sixth Seal"
11/18/2013

(Dream Chain)

Part 1:

I was with a few friends, but T was the only one I could specifically remember. There was some supernatural disturbance, here on Earth, and the next thing we knew, the entire city we were in had been turned into a glass desert. By that, I mean that the ground had instantly turned into a reflective surface that stretched as far as the eye could see. There were only a few structures to be seen in the distance, which looked like mesas in the desert. The ground perfectly reflected the night sky, and the absence of light and landmarks was so intense that, when looking around, it was impossible to get bearing on where we were, or how far it would be to civilization. It was, quite literally, a 'glass desert'.

We wandered about for a while, trying to find out where we were, or if there was anything left, at all, of the world we knew before this apocalyptic event. After roaming about for probably over a mile, we came across a rise in the ground. At first, it looked like a sandbar rising up out of the sea. However, when we got closer, we could see that it was actually a city street, which had elevated up passed the glassy surface and continued on into a city. The first survivor we came across was a young, partially-nude girl who seemed to be sleeping in the dirt. She had a half-packed water-pipe beside her, that someone in my group asked if he could use. After spending a few minutes discussing the situation with her, we moved on.

Eventually, we ended up meeting the Winchester Brothers from the show Supernatural. They were already on the case, trying to find out what was going on in the city. It turns out that there had been some sort of super-volcano eruption, in which the lava that burst out of the ground, over the span of a city or more, had instantly solidified to glass. It was a signal of the release of Hell on Earth and the pending apocalypse.

Somewhere through the narrative, I actually turned into Sam Winchester and - as in the show - was struggling with turning into a Demon, myself. This did not sit well with Dean Winchester (Sam's brother), and our relationship rapidly deteriorated over the course of this dream. Dean was soon treating me like his enemy, instead of his brother. Even while we were working together, and trying to figure out what was going on with the apocalypse, he was treating me with so much hatred that I, as his brother, was heartbroken. He wouldn't listen to anything I said, and responded to my every word with sarcasm, disdain, and the unmistakable sentiment that - had he the chance - he would kill me where I stood. We were no longer brothers, in his eyes. I was a filthy demon, just like the others, and didn't deserve to be on this earth.

What followed was an event that was much like a false awakening. However, instead of feeling that I woke up as myself, in my own bed (and world), I woke up as Sam Winchester, feeling that I had dreamed the apocalyptic event as another person (my real self). I was talking to Dean about how I saw the whole event (the volcanic eruption and the glassing of the earth) as someone else (my real self), and about how that somehow provided us with more information about the event. Of course, Dean, still looking at me as a worthless demon, just nodded his head and said "uh-huh", sarcastically, not listening to a single thing I said. He just wanted me Dead. Period.

The scenario ended with me trying to find access to a computer, so that I could log my dream (as I normally do, upon waking), while still in the character of Sam Winchester. My transformation into a demon had progressed, and I was now starting to lose my human teeth. They were falling out of my mouth, every few minutes. I would be in the middle of talking, and would feel them come loose and start rolling around in my mouth (which is a terrible feeling). It was only one or two at a time, at first, but then they began dislodging so rapidly that I was just start spitting them out on the floor as I talked. My voice was also becoming more deep and 'demonic', the longer the dream carried on.

Dean finally showed me where a computer was, but told me that it was in a room where I would have to be locked away, since I - demon scum that I was - was no longer welcome to help he and our associates fight the apocalypse. I was 'one of them', and couldn't be trusted (a scenario that actually played out, on the show). As much as it hurt, I agreed to stay behind, so that I could type the dream in my journal before I forgot it, while Dean and our allies went on to reverse the damage that had been done, without me.

(I woke up and saw that it had only been about an hour and a half since I'd gone to bed. After falling back asleep, another dream followed, which wasn't related to this one. I woke up after that one, and had another hour to sleep. In doing so, I fell back into a continuation of the first dream, where things had obviously taken a turn for the worse...)

"The Sixth Seal"
Part 2:

I was on my back, on a table, and still as the demonized Sam Winchester. Dean was now standing over me, trying to drive an enchanted blade (like the one in the show) down through my heart. I was fighting him with all that I could, pleading for him to stop - trying to make him realize that I was still his brother, despite the demon blood that flowed through me. He was blind with rage, though. Wouldn't listen. And he was incredibly strong. The harder I fought, the closer the tip of the blade got to my chest. Demon or not, I could feel my control on the situation waning, and I knew that I would soon be dead. I was practically crying - begging for my life through tears of betrayal - knowing that I would soon be meeting my death at the hands of my own brother, who couldn't see passed his hatred for what I was enough to spare my life. It was one of the worst feelings, emotionally, that I've ever had in a dream.

(I woke up before the knife actually plunged into my chest.)

"Four-finger Back-stab" - 01/21/2009 (Lucid)

“Four-finger Back-stab”
01/21/2009

Dream #1

(Lucid)

(This dream was amazing. I’d fallen asleep in my computer chair, and when I woke up, it was about 3am. I figured I could do a WBTB, and so I hung out for a few minutes and then went back to bed, auto-suggesting that I would realize when I’m dreaming.)

As the dream began, I was in an apartment, along with a group of random people. I don’t remember what happened in the very beginning, but I soon began to suspect I was dreaming. Walking over to the nearby window, my hand reached up to it, resting it against the glass. The surface resisted at first, but the window soon bubbled outward and my hand began to phase right through it. I now knew I was dreaming and put my other arm up, pushing outward and then walking straight through the pane of glass. Outside, it was a bit overcast, and I idly looked around for something to do. Immediately, I realized that I didn’t know what the [Tasks of the Month] were, this month, so I just tried to think of anything fun to do. (I kept looking down at my hands, all throughout this dream, which grounded me perfectly and kept me from slipping out of the dream prematurely. I also began singing that catchy “Dreaming” song, by some female artist I can’t remember, quietly to myself, so my mind wouldn’t wander from the knowledge that I was dreaming.)

I walked over to a small pond and brought my hands down in front of me, then raised them up over my head, focusing my mind upon the pond and trying to force a telekinetic jet of water to shoot up into the air. It didn’t work at all. I then focused my mind on the water's surface again, pushing my hands slowly outward, like I was pushing against a wall. A small hemisphere of water began denting inward as I mentally pushed the surface of the pond down into itself. While this was pretty cool, I tried to think of something better to do with my time. Nothing else interesting was really coming to mind, aside from a few lucid tricks, so I decided to go see what the DC’s I’d been hanging out with, earlier, were up to.

I walked back to the apartment and went inside. There were two cute girls and a couple of guys there, and I just chilled for a bit and waited to see if anything interesting would come up. Later, the girls were making some cake in the kitchen, and the rest of us were passing through, periodically, just doing whatever else it was that we were doing. I stopped by one of the girls and just reached out and grabbed a huge handful of her ass, kinda pushing her up against the table. She turned around and we immediately started making out. We moved from the kitchen and into the living room and were about to just have sex on the floor. The other girl came in, and she was the really hot one, so I shifted from the other one to her, and was about to have sex with her instead, but when she started to take off her shirt, I saw that she actually had six boobs, instead of two.  She also had a huge bit of stitch-work running down the side of her body, as if she had been ripped apart and laced back together. Needless to say, the whole thing kinda "ruined my appetite" for this particular girl. I switched back over to the other girl, and we continued to have a nice little session...

Later, it had gotten dark and we'd all gone outside. There was a man lying in the street, near a van, and a bunch of onlookers standing around him. When I'd gotten closer, I could see that the guy had gotten the top half of his head chopped off, as if he’d been visited by Sylar, from Heroes. There was blood all over the concrete, and the crowd was restless. A frightened woman asked “Who did this?!” and someone else frantically replied, “The Devil! It was the Devil!” By this time, fresh out of other ideas, I was in the mood for a good, lucid fight. I pushed through the crowd and said, “The Devil? Where is he? Which way did he go?” Then, I heard this loud, maniacal laughter coming from one of the balconies high above me. The man beside me pointed up and said “There! He went up there!” I looked up and saw a dark balcony. It was somehow more ominous than any of the others around it, and just seemed to scream 'EVIL'. (It was as if it was Halloween and none of the other balconies were decorated, but you just knew this one had a kickass haunted house inside of it; That kind of feeling.)

I jumped into the air and tried flying up to the balcony while everyone around me watched. I kept falling a few feet short of my intended altitude, though, and would just sink back down to the ground. I tried over and over, but just couldn’t get all the way up to the balcony. Finally, as if accommodating me, a large group of monsters of all type jumped down from the mysterious balcony and landed all around me. I don’t remember exactly what they looked like, but I know that they were all varied, and I believe that either they were all famous movie monsters or just some of them were. I began to square off with a few of them and wondered, because of their numbers, if this was going to be a little more challenging than I thought.

Then, I heard the laughing again, and looked over to one side. Walking toward me, through a break in the ring of monsters - and using his same old “damn I’m awesome” type of stride, with his hat brim low and his gloved hand held out to one side - was Freddy Krueger. He was grinning from ear to ear, of course (as usual) and I could tell he wasn’t here to make good on the promise he’d made during the last dream in which we'd met. He was here to kick my ass, with the aid of these other monsters.

I said to him, “I thought you said you were going to help me when I needed you, from now on.” He just kept walking toward me, grinning, and said “Yeah…I know…I’m a real asshole, aren’t I?” He then raised his bladed glove and launched himself at me.

I grabbed his arm by the wrist and spun him around, throwing him one way, just as the rest of the monsters jumped in at me, at once. The fight was absolutely insane. I was moving so fast, trying to keep from getting grabbed or slashed by them, that I believe my 'will to move' was driving the action, rather than me actually reacting to anything that the DC's were doing. I kept trying to use energy attacks, but they weren’t working quite right, and I had to keep up the melee. I did get a couple of telekinetic “pushes” to work, and there was one time where I squared off with Freddy and I brought one hand to the side, igniting it with a large flame over my palm. Freddy actually did the same, matching me, and we threw fireballs at each other at the same time, both of us dodging the other’s attack. The monster horde closed in on me again, and it was more close-quarters melee. It got so fast and intense that I eventually felt the dream’s stability slipping from me.

(I woke up from the dream and immediately tried to jump back into it. Staying completely still, I fell back asleep. But, while the next dream still took place in the same apartment complex, there were no other references to this one.)

"Fallen Prey" - 07/27/2006 (Chain)

“Fallen Prey”
07/27/2006

(Dream Chain)

Part 1:

(Wow….)

 

My earliest memory of this dream was being at this lakeside campsite at night. There were about 8-10 of my friends and family with me, and I do remember that my 5-year-old daughter was a teenager in this dream. I know that there was a whole lot of back-story to this dream, but my recollection of it all kicks in after all of the strange shit started happening, of course. 

Apparently, there was this really weird guy staying in a trailer that was close to our campsite. (I believe the camp was in a state park or, something. Anyway...) Over time, we could tell that something just wasn’t right about this guy. I’m not sure what led to it, but, sooner or later, I had snuck into the stranger's trailer while he was out doing something, snooping around to find out more about him, after he had been giving us all the severe creeps. It was dark as hell inside the trailer, but I eventually stumbled onto his secret: 

He was a serial killer, and hidden away in a number of pantries and closets in his trailer were the corpses of other campers. 

Glancing out through the translucent curtains, I could see the man's silhouette. He was on his way back! I don’t know how, but I made it out of the trailer and returned to my group, to warn them, figuring I had gotten away without being detected. ...Nope. Not so much. The stranger was soon stalking us all through the darkened forest, threatening to kill us in ways I can't recall as of now. There was one point, when we were trying to escape on this really shitty piece of broken-up raft that was in the lake. There were about eight of us trying to fit on this one raft, and it was falling apart beneath us. What’s worse is that the murky lake water was ridiculously alligator-infested. So much so, that we had to actually step over the creatures when we waded, haphazardly, out into thigh-deep water, trying frantically to make the broken raft work to our advantage. Once I was aboard, a few of the gators began snapping at us, some of them taking large chunks out of the raft. 

While fighting the gators off, one of the people in my group (dunno who it was) suddenly dropped to the splintering deck of the raft. Dead; shot in the heart from the unseen assailant. 

More shots peppered in, around us. The killer was sniping at us from near his trailer, but we couldn’t see him at all because it was night time, and the trailer was about 50 yards back in the woods. As our attention went more to the bullets than the gators, another friend of mine scrambled into the path of one of the gators and was dragged underwater. Gone. This raft idea was not working. Even if we did keep the damn thing afloat, we’d be sitting ducks on the water. 

We pulled it back ashore and I told everyone to sit tight. Frantically, I sprinted back toward the campsites, zig-zagging, as I could see the sniper-fire sinking into the dirt around me - following me on my race to grab our car, which I knew had a handgun inside. I vaguely remember having a fire-fight with this guy, while running back to pick up the rest of my group by the lake, but don't recall the details. 

(I woke up shortly after this, and was up for about 15 minutes, before going back to bed and falling back into a continuation of the same dream.) 

"Fallen Prey"
(Part 2)

Those of us who remained alive had arrived home, to safety, and were shacked up in my old neighborhood in Texas. It wasn’t long, though, before we realized the house was now haunted. (I swear, I can never get a break :| ) 

It started off, first, as a few strange occurrences. Shortly after the initial weirdness, full-bodied apparitions began appearing. I turned out to be the only person who knew who these ghosts were. They were the victims of the camp-killer, whose bodies I had stumbled upon when I raided his trailer. Not taking the time to stick around, we all hauled ass out of the house. More and more ghosts were appearing. There were about 6 of us remaining, and we all ran to the car. CJ, my daughter (still an older version of herself, in the dream), jumped into the driver’s seat. Without even giving it a second thought, I jumped in on the passenger side and everyone else climbed in back. Come to find out, my daughter was a HORRIBLE driver (which is hilarious because whenever she’s playing my Need 4 Speed game, in waking life, she’s always crashing and referring to herself as the “worst driver in the world.” Haha.), and was constantly stalling out and had no sense of direction. We eventually got far enough away from the house to come to a stop sign and for me to say “Alright, get out, CJ, I’m driving!” As we switched places, I could see people coming slowly down the street. There were too many to count. ...The ghosts were still following us. 

I drove off and we went someplace downtown, trying to stay somewhere in public. There was this bar/pool hall/rec center place that we took up shelter in, but something seemed really strange about it, from the get-go. I was recognizing a lot of the people, here. One guy, in particular, was following me around through the crowd. I vaguely noticed there was a glowing, 2-digit number etched into his forehead. (Ever see the movie The Frighteners with Michael J. Fox?) He was a victim of the serial killer, and much of the crowd was made up of the ghosts that we’d just been running away from, moments before. 

I was about to gather up everyone to get out, but realized that there was suddenly no way out. No way to leave. The doors had disappeared and everyone - including us - was inside was trapped inside. Then, it all began to make sense. The puzzle was beginning to piece itself together. 

These “ghosts” weren’t threatening to us, they never were. They were trying to communicate with us, to tell us what I’d begun to figure out on my own. I stopped at the bar and looked at the bartender. He looked back at me, as if he knew what I was thinking, just by the look on my face. Not quite sure of the words I was searching for, I simply asked him. “I’m…..we’re……supposed to be here…aren’t we? I mean…we’re not supposed to leave….are we?” The bartender shook his head with a solemn look of pity and answered: “No….you’re not.”

My hunch was right. None of us had even made it out of the damn campsite. We were all dead – either killed by the psycho or eaten by gators. I have no idea which. Everything we’d experienced since getting back home (the haunted house; driving; this club) had been taking place in Purgatory. We were only able to see the ghosts because we were on their plane, and their fascination with us was simply that we were the newcomers. There really was no going back. Feeling about sick to my stomach, I sulked around the place, pondering over how I was going to tell the rest of my friends and family of the horrible revelation I'd had. 

The dream carried on a while longer. I let everyone in on what happened and, over time, we came to accept this Purgatory, each finding our own little niche. I'd found this room where a bunch of guys were sparring on a huge, elevated mat, and I started taking on a few matches. One guy pulled out a pair of foam-rubber practice nunchaku and started tearing opponents up with them. I think it was a point system or something because it was all light-contact (which is kind of ironic, seeing as how we were already dead). Some other guy then threw me two pairs of them and I jumped in, whirling them around like a professional and completely dominating just about everyone else that stepped up on the mat. Good times. There was also a huge gym somewhere else in the building, where I played volleyball. I sucked Really Bad at that, though, and some girl, who looked a Lot like my friend Ame, kept giving me shit, every time I cost our team a point. Haha. 

(That’s about all I remember, but damn, what a dream(s)!)