r/WritingPrompts
[Word Vomit. Zero editing.]
You work at a company that carefully monitors one's dreams. It is a job that you've always wanted, until you get placed in the Nightmare Department.
When I was younger, I had a dream job. No, seriously, I work at a place that monitors people dreams. Don’t get me wrong, the technology that we used was absolutely state of the art. Through a new technology allowing the monitor- that being me, and a host to share brain-waves, we were able to enter someone’s dreams and experience what they were experiencing. That doesn’t sound so bad, right? Its really wasn’t. It is very similar to lucid dreaming, except you can exit at any time. Flying over cities, talking to animals, its all amazing.
What we did was ride along with people as they dreamed and analyze them to help with their therapy sessions. Mostly we worked with kids, and their dreams are usually pretty tame. I’ve done my fare share of ride-alongs with adults too, and they tend to get a little more weird with many undertones, and… uh… mature content. I loved it. Not the mature stuff… well, I mean OK I didn't hate it, but what I really mean is that I loved working with people. Helping them to understand their inner workings and what their subconsciouses were trying to tell them. I did well, was promoted a number of times, and really felt like I had everything going my way. Then my success caught up to me and they promoted me to “Special Cases,” nicknamed the nightmare closet. If you can imagine how great it was to fly and do all sorts of amazing things with the kids, just imagine the utter horror of being chased by a tornado with your feet feeling like they were encases in cement, or the feeling of millions of worms crawling around under your skin. Even when you are a passenger, that stuff sticks with you. I did my best to handle it though, and was even given specialized therapy sessions designed to help me distance myself from the dreams.
Then one day, we got a new case. A little girl, Annette. She wouldn’t talk, she barely ate, and she wouldn’t move unless you took her by the hand, and even then, she would barely shuffle along. The only times she would ever say anything was at night. Just one word, screamed over and over. “No!”
So, one night, they hooked me up and sent me in. The first night is always a simple observe and report. No interactions, no revealing myself. And so I went. I felt the machine take hold, and after a few moments, I felt the familiar sensation of my mind opening a door that was unseen.
I instantly found myself in the middle of an open field, the sun warm on my cheeks, and a slight breeze blowing a sweet smelling air through my hair. In the middle of the field was a small table, Annette sitting at the head, and a bunch of dogs wearing three piece suits sitting at each spot. The dogs were all laughing like humans, but Annette just sat there. Looking past them at the tall trees that were moving towards us as if the land was shrinking.
The sun quickly vanished as a mist settled over us, except that now the stars were out, and the moon cast a silver light all around. When I looked back down, the dogs were no longer laughing, but hulking monstrosities baring their teeth at Annette. She still just sat at the table, her head now bowed.
Then the first one lunged at her. I shouted and ran towards her, but there was no way I could make it in time. The beast grabbed her by the arm and began shaking his head from side to side, teeth snapping bone and rending flesh. She let out a scream that chilled me to my core. The other dogs arrived, each taking arm or leg, save one dog that stood nearly twice as tall as the rest. It circled around the shrieking child, and as it made its way around, looked towards me as I approached. It gave me an all-too-human smile and then pounced. It landed atop Annette, and sunk its massive fangs into the child’s face and neck, her wordless screams beginning to gargle with blood.
I yelled, but there was nothing I could do. I stopped short, and just watched. I knew it was a dream, but holy hell this was the most messed up thing I had ever seen. What had happened to this poor child to cause this type of em emotional scarring?
I hear a rustling behind me, and when I turned to see what it was, there was a forest and I could see Annette, whole and unbloodied, running into its darkness. I followed, stumbling on rock and root in the darkness. I quickly caught up though when we made it to a small cleared area, a ring of boulders, with circling an ancient looking tree, gnarled and knotted and smelling of rot. I stepped up next to the little girl, and put my hand on her shoulder.
“It’s going to be alright Annette, I’m here. This is just a dream. Everything is going to be alright.” I looked down towards her shaking body, and she looked up and met my eyes. They were wide and wet, and woefully resigned. “No.” She whispered.
“No?” I asked, but no sooner where the words out of my mouth when I felt something grab me by the legs and wrench them out from under me. I tried to get my arm under me in time, but I was so caught off guard that I didn’t quite make it, and my face slammed unto the musty ground. Whatever had its grip on my legs began to drag me through the brush and the dirt and the rocks, and I could feel my flesh give way to the scouring. I could hear Annette also screaming, ut I was powerless to do anything but try and protect my face. After a short moment I felt my body roll, and I opened my eyes. I was laying on top of a rock, branches or vines twisting and grabbing at my wrist and pinning them down like my legs. Above me stood the ancient tree, menace and hatred seeming to pour off of it. It now has an inhuman face, and it smiled.
“Hello,” it grated. “You are not supposed to be here. We only came for the girl.” I looked to my side, and next to me was Annette, pinned in place like me, but now silent. Her face was a wet mess of tears and dirt and blood. “What do you want with her?” I shouted, but the tree ignored me, instead, twisting and looking down to Annette.
“Child, I will ask you again tonight, like all the nights before. Where is it?”
“Where is what?” I yelled when Annette remained silent, but I got no response from either. “Where is what you dick?” I shouted again, and the tree turned on me.
“Be thou silent, mortal.” It said coldly, and then I felt as my head was grasped by a group of vines. They sent their smaller tendrils into my mouth, forcing my jaw open, and then punctured my tongue over and over. I tried to move, to shout, to do anything but I was immobile. And then, just like that, they retreated, my tongue taken as their prize. I looked back at Annette, and the tree monster now pushing one of its branches into her stomach.
“Where is it?” Is asked again, and pushed the branch a little harder.
“No,” She said, teeth gripped.
“Where?” The branches began to break the skin.
“No!” She yelled this time.
“I will have your soul if I have to rip it from you in shreds. Now, where is it!?”
“NOOO!!!!”
The tree shoved its branches forward, and they plunged into the child’s abdomen with a wet sound. I tried to cry out but could only make faint moaning sounds. “Tell me!” The tree roared.
“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!” Annette roared, her voice hitting me like an avalanche, and I could see it hit the tree with a similar force. It roared back in defiance, and split it’s branch into segments, shredding Annette’s body into ribbons, but rather than blood, a bright golden light shone forth. It pierced the darkness with needle thick shafts of dancing radiance. The tree bellowed, using some of its branches to shield its eyes, bark smoldering and some it its leaves catching fire.
Annette stood there, a body made entirely of light. She looked at the tree, and turned around, running back into the forest, her light fading back into skin. After a moment, she was gone, and I was left with the monster. I looked back down to me, smoke still trailing up from its edges.
“Well well, this is a surprise. You should not have seen that.”
I felt tendrils begin to make their ways over my body again.
“I will have to remedy this.”
“My vision went red and I could feel the small vines push into my eye sockets, ripping and pulling until my eyes were free. I tried to yell, but couldn’t. I couldn’t thrash. I couldn’t see. My world was now black. I heard the tree laugh, and say my name. I started. This wasn’t my dream, it couldn’t know that.
“You will not enter my domain again,” It said. “Be gone!”
And thats when I awoke. I could feel the sweat covering my body and could hear the voices of the shouting attendants as they were trying to rouse me.
I sat up, dizzy and tried to ask someone to turn on the lights. The words… they wouldn’t come. I reached my hands to my mouth but my tongue was still there. I tried again, but only gibberish came out, and thats when I realized the room wasn’t dark. It was black. Empty. There was nothing. My sight was gone.
Wake up! Wake up! I tried to wake myself up, and use all the methods that I have been trained on, and came to a sick realization.
I was awake.
I was mute.
I was blind.
And I just witnessed something eternal.
