Things to Run Away From Really Fast

I watched The Last Exorcism last night. It was boring, and the shaky cam made me nauseous.

I'm sitting in the hotel lobby, because it's really hard to sleep after a dream like this. Everyone else in my party is still in dreamland, of course.

I just have more fun there.

09/06/10

In which I'm confronted by a creepy little demon girl.



The case contains four Books from the Akashic Records. I pull off the lid reverently, and the three of us peer into the box.

I pull out a dusty, leatherbound edition, and turn it over in my hands. The cover is blank, but the unwritten words pop out at me in red script.

To read this text is to risk eternal damnation.

I open the Book without another thought. It falls open to a spot near the center, revealing an illustration of a beast with horns, wreathed in flame. So this is the comprehensive guide to demonology. I skim the Latin text, translating automatically. The demon has a name something like "K'nushekkal". I turn the name over in my mind, not willing to risk saying it out loud.

Actually, I think about it. Just to see what would happen.

I'm more interested in the other two books.

fade

I hear movement, and wake up in a dark room. I feel like it's my bedroom, but the place bears no resemblance to anywhere I've ever lived.

The blankets are bunched up at my feet, and I sit up, bringing my knees up to my chest. I'm looking at my hands, trying to count my fingers, but I can barely see. It's just light enough for everything to take on a dark blue hue. I peer at my fingers, touching each one with the other hand.

"One, two, three, four, five, six." I mutter. The number's not right, but I think I might be seeing things.

No. I can see the pinky digits twisting into each other. I'm dreaming.

I feel a puff of breath on my ear, almost a laugh. "You're a natural," says an otherworldly voice. I can hear the smile in it.

I turn my head slowly to the left, not moving another muscle. A little girl in a white nightdress, maybe twelve years old, is leaning against the side of my bed, grinning up at me. Her irises are such a dark brown that it looks like her eyes are all black. The whites of her eyes seem to glow.

And her nails are digging into the skin of my forearm, holding me in a vice-grip.

Before I can react, she's pulling me through a tear in the dream, straight through the back of a bookshelf. Dark grey mist howls around us, and I can feel her pulling me down. Screams linger at the limits of my hearing, and a tendril of fear slithers through me.

What the hell, I think, giving myself over to the sensation. I want to see where this goes. I close my eyes.

When I open them, I'm standing in the bedroom, across the room from the demon. Her hands are clenched into fists and she's scowling.

"Hm," I say, tilting my head to the side, "You're one of the demons from The Book. I recognize you." Not by sight, of course, but the pages left an imprint.

I cast a glance around the room behind her. Like I thought, the demon is standing next to The Books. That's irritating. I really want to read the other three.

The demon tenses, and I grin as I rush her, landing a hit that sends her sprawling to the side. I keep up my momentum, going to grab the box.

She hits me from the back. I spin around to face her, but she's running at me again. We land on the ground, each trying to pin the other down. I can feel her demonic form at this point, even if I can't see it.

I have her pinned by the arms when I realize that I won't be able to contain her. Calmly, I come to a conclusion. Without a physical weapon, I start to sever her limbs from her body. I pick up an arm and throw it away from the rest of her, cut off her head and kick it away from the rest of the body. I'll scatter the pieces around the house. In the time it takes the demon to pull herself together, I'll have read at least some of the other books.

I'm sawing apart a Barbie doll. Then I wake up.

Scare Factor: 5/10
Rating: 6/10

I'm not crazy.

I work on my lucid goals and try to ignore my interfering parents.

I'm wandering through a house, and I stop at a piano. There's sheet music open, and it looks interesting, so I sit down and start to play it. I play the song through entirely, and listen to the notes hum and fade away as the song ends. Then I start from the beginning, trying to memorize it.

Still in the house, which I think might belong to a relative. My dad stops me and asks for my help with something, but something feels off. I realize that I'm dreaming and take in my surroundings, surprised by how stable the dream is, and how real everything looks. My dad still wants help, but I tell him that I can't get caught up in the dream-plot.

It was hard to tell, I say to my mom, that this was a dream. Our surroundings have been very stable, and the only part of the house that's changed has been the twin beds that appeared in the living room.

I try to remember my dream goals. Right, I wanted to open a portal. I stretch out my hand and will a circle to form, growing outward from the spot where my hand is. I start to see blue rings form, but the dream fades.

I see title credits. That's it: a black background with words on it. I don't even have a body, though I'm still lucid. My entire awareness is focused within this little black box I've made for myself.

Frustrated, I post the journal entry on the forums, in my old DJ thread. The Cusp (who I don't think I've ever interacted with) makes a few suffestions. He says that if portals don't work for me, I shouldn't force it, and should try another method.

Scare Factor: 2.

I am, once again, my female Lucifer character, where I introduce myself to people as Sam. I'm following a version of the character in which I'm sent from place to place through dimensional portals. I open the portals myself, but I have no idea where they lead to when I step through. I don't remember most of this dream, which is a shame, because it was fun. I think.

I've secured myself an invite into the apartment. I don't need it; it's just polite. I open up the window and step inside and -

splash

- find myself doused in holy water. It has no effect, of course.

Buffy is very suspicious of me, for good reason, I suppose. I'm not actually an antagonist to her and Angel, though. This time.

Buffy, When You're Quite Possibly Evil, Maybe. Scare Factor: 2. Reaction: I really wish I could remember more of this.

March 13, 2010

Um, spoilers for Supernatural 5x08.

I think I can state at this point that I am having a bad day. My brother, Sam, has a tendency to randomly disappear and come home possessed, but usually these trips don't involve extra-dimensional portals. Goddamnit.

Also, I can't find my jacket.

"So, you're absolutely sure we'll be able to get back."

"For the last time, boy," Bobby says, glaring at me for asking the same question several times, "This plan is foolproof."

"Right. Foolproof." I look from the frayed rope looped around my waist, tied to a wooden post on Bobby's porch, to the bright and swirly portal leading to God knows where. "Bobby, I don't doubt your excellent research capabilities, but is this really going to work?"

"Do you want to find Sam or not?"

This pretty much ends all discussion on the matter, and I find myself stepping through the ominous swirly lights...

...and into a bar.

The first thing I notice is that guy from the fan convention drinking at the bar. The second thing I notice: he's wearing my jacket. One bar fight later -

(and I have to figure out how to steal a jacket off of someone who's wearing it. In the chaos, I figure it'll be easy enough just to will it into my hands rather than work on the physical mechanics of how you would get a jacket off of someone in a fight)

- I have my jacket back. Oddly, it seems a little big for me.

Sam's on the other side of the room, talking to someone who I don't actually pay any attention to. I march over there, "Excuse us," and drag Sam a few feet away.

"Okay, we have got to get out of here."

Sam just looks amused.

We continue walking over to where the portal is - I can see it, swirly pink and blue lights and all - and I walk through it. Ow. I walk straight into the wall behind it.

"Oh," says Sam, looking thoughtful, "Looks like you can't get me through this way."

I'm out of time; if I don't leave now I'll be trapped in this dimension as well. Away from the apocalypse and all, but still.

A flicker. Sam's face seems overlaid by something. Another face, one that I recognize.

I rush at him, stopped after a couple of feet, held fast to the portal.

"Where's Sam?" I growl.

The fake Sam just smiles and walks away, waving.

"Gabriel!" I shout after him, "GABRIEL!" Everything fades out, and suddenly I'm standing back on Bobby's porch.

"So, how did that go?" asks Bobby.

He gets no response.

"Oh well, we'll try again later."

I stand dumbly on the porch as he walks away for a few moments, before -

That's not Bobby.

Son of a bitch. Where the hell is a wooden stake angel-killing knife archangel's sword when you need one?

Bad Fanfiction. Scare Factor: 2/10. Fun for the writer, torture for the reader. And the Trickster's not too bad... as long as he's not killing you several dozen times over.