The Dreams

The Room

"I warned you!........."

   I remember turning the knob on the door. I can't recall where I am or how I got there, but there I was just the same. As I stepped inside a wave of nostalgia overcame me. "I know this place", I thought to myself. As the darkness of the room slowly came into focus, I realized I had once lived in this place. Confusion was temporarily replaced with excitement. Somehow my childhood home was infused with an old apartment I shared with an ex friend. How could this be. It was strange, and yet, somehow normal. I turned on the lights, and a dusty overhead florescent light  blinked a few times and finally turned on with a less then enthusiastic pop. Followed by another pop and the light blowing out.

"I warned you not to do this...."

   There was enough light coming in through the dirty windows to get by, so I started to explore. It was amazing. There was things in here I haven't seen for 10 maybe 15 yrs. I was looking at the old rug i remembered playing matchbox cars on when I heard a woman's voice behind me. "This junk used to be yours?" I quickly turned around to see a small figured female, maybe in her early 20's, sitting on the old gray couch my mother used to own. Had I come with someone? I could of sworn I was here alone only a second ago. "Well, some of it. The rest is stuff my mom used to have when i was a kid." She did not seem impressed. "Well, it all looks like junk to me." I did not
know this woman, and yet i was sure I had known the touch of her love in the past. My attention was abruptly drawn away from this mystery woman, to an old guitar that had once belonged to my ex friend/roommate.

"Why did you take her from me?......"

   A wave of sadness, with a hint of remorse bubbled up in my chest. Her? did this voice in my head mean the woman on the couch? "Girlfriend...". I turned to the couch again but the girl was off rummaging through a pile of stuff on the floor. "I remember this, this used to be his..." She was holding a gas mask she had apparently found in the pile. "Do.......do I know you" I asked, surprised at the shakiness of my voice. "Don't ask silly questions", she replied. That didn't get me far. 

"I've done very bad things....."

   The lazy afternoon sun was starting to dim, as the cold florescent street lights outside started to come to life. It was getting hard to see in the apartment. "Is there anything here you want?" i asked the mystery woman, but she had returned to laying on the couch, apparently bored with rummaging through the junk. "No, it all reminds me of him", she explained with a very dry and mono tone voice, "you can take whatever you want". I turned around to the pile of items I had intended to take, only to notice it was gone. In fact, most of the stuff in there was gone, save the couch and carpet from years past. But they had now taken on a rotten quality. They appeared to have been older than time, and seemed burnt. The excitement had gone back to fear. As panic set in, a wall of bright white light hit me, then darkness........

"I've done very bad things...I killed them all............"

   When I came to I was standing at the back of a jeep, with the tailgate open. My jeep? the back had empty boxes and other items I was sure belonged to me, and I was holding a stack of empty boxes in my hand. Confused, I set the boxes in the back of the jeep when I heard a voice. "I warned you!" Startled, I spun around to see my ex friend standing behind me. Although it was indeed him, he had taken on an empty quality. His clothes were dirty and torn. His skin was pale and clammy. And his eyes.........his eyes were so sunken and red it gave them the appearance of two small holes. He looked like death. "I warned you not to do this!" he muttered, with a mixture of craziness and apathy. I started to ask him what he was talking about, but all he did was stare at me. Seemed to stare through me. Like he was staring into my soul. "Why did you take her from me?, he moaned. "take who?", i asked, but got no reply. Just more staring. "is this junk yours?" I heard a woman's voice play through my mind, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. He then turned around and started to slowly walk away from me, and I noticed the back of his head. Or rather the lack there of. in place of wear hair and skull should be was a big gaping hole, with blood all around it. I wanted to scream, but no noise came out. He turned back around very methodically and looked right at me. " I've done very bad things" he whispered, "I killed them all....". I could feel bile creeping up the back of my throat, when a very bright light came over me, then more darkness.

"Soon you'll know....."

   As I came to for a second time, I was back in the old apartment, laying on the couch with the mystery woman. She was softly running her hand through my hair. "I just had the weirdest dream." I told her, but she didn't reply. While trying to make sense of it all, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a shut door that previously wasn't there. I stood up and walked over to it.

"I've done very bad things.......I........Killed.....them....all......"

   "I don't remember this door being here", i said aloud, but still no response from the woman who was lazily sprawled out on the couch. I reached out for the door knob and could feel heat. As I laid my hand on it, it was as hot as an open flame. I quickly threw my hand back in pain. I walked over to the mangled couch and tore a large piece of fabric off of it and used it to turn the knob on my new found door. As I slowly opened the door, the mystery woman behind me broke her silence. "I wouldn't do that, if I were you...". I ignored her eerie words and let the door swing the rest of the way open. It was dark, very dark, and that smell.......It was a musty, dank smell, mixed with ammonia. It scratched and clawed at my nostrils. I took a step inside and slowly let my eyes adjust to the darkness.

"I warned you!"

   Just as my vision was coming in, I was starting to wish it hadn't. It was a bedroom of sorts, very old looking with four beds strewn about the room. Everything was covered in dust and cobwebs, and that's when I noticed it. The bodies. Every bed had a body in it. All female. All rotting. Like they had been there for months. I was horrified. It took ever ounce of me not to vomit all over myself. As the command to run my brain was so desperately trying to give me started to sink in, I noticed I knew the girl in the bed closest to me. She was an ex-Lover of mine. In fact, they were all ex-Lovers of mine, all four. I dropped to my knees and wept uncontrollably. "What did he do" I screamed. As I finally got controll over myself, I stood up while wiping tears from my eyes. As soon as I was standing, I had noticed the room had changed. Well, not changed, but expanded. The beds with the bodies in them were still there. but the room had an alcove in the back now. I walked towards it and noticed two things. One, there was a table with a bloody sheet on it, seeming to conceal another body, and two, slumped on the floor next to it, was my ex friend, gun in his hand, back of his head blown off. I choked back another tear, and slowly walked over towards the table with the bloody sheet on it. As I slowly lifted the sheet off, I could not process what I was looking at. It was me, burnt to a crisp, lying there. Blank eyes staring back at me. I started to get dizzy, like the feeling you get right before one passes out. "We warned you...", I heard from behind me. As I turned around I saw the mystery woman standing at the doorway to the room, holding a can of gasoline in her hands which she was pouring all over the place. "You just had to come here, didn't you?" she said with a smirk on her face. "What are you doing?", i asked, but she just smiled and lit a match. As she stepped out from the room  she dropped the match and shut the door. I screamed as my body began to burn. Outside the door I could hear what sounded like a male and female.............and they were laughing...............