Things to Run Away From Really Fast

★★★★★

SOLO SENTENCE ESPRESSO

The ballroom explodes into chaos as the giant chess set dismembers the guests, forcing me to escape with the elderly ghosts of the manor who then try to trap me as I escape through the cracks in reality with the maid and her sister who don't trust me after I rescue them from drowning because I can't die (from that point on, we're followed by their zombie-like blue-tinged doppelgangers who are haunting their mostly-dead father who says, "This is our eternity," and means, "This is Hell.")

Eternity. Scare Factor: 5. Rating: Awesome.

09/03/10



I'm on a scaffold next to a roof, scooping leaves out of the gutter. I scrape the soggy mess away from the shingles and into the eavestrough, then pull it all out. The leaves disappear at this point. There's nowhere to put them.

I'm moving slowly from left to right, caught up in the mindless task. The dream is pleasantly hazy and restful. And then... the roof falls away.

I'm left looking at a collapsed section of the roof. It leads down to a shallow pit filled with tar. The wind stirs up a bit, and I remember that this was the center of a huge mystical battle. Many people died. The rumours say that it's haunted, but no one wants to believe that. For a loved one to be trapped as a ghost is one of the worst experiences imaginable in this world.

A glint of red catches my eye. The sun lights up the crevasse, showing a red-haired woman standing quietly. Her hands are folded in front of her. She stares ahead with a blank expression.

A man comes over from where he's been working on the roof, probably wondering why I've stopped. He's physically imposing, in his late 40s at least, and he's wearing an eyepatch. When he sees the ghost in front of him, he goes very still.

I can feel his sadness.

I wake up.

Scare Factor: 2/10
Rating: 4/10

The ghosts were most definitely inspired by the Felix Castor book I'm reading right now.

P.S. I'll be gone for the weekend. If I have any interesting dreams, I'll keep track of them.

07/14/10

I'm running through a room with a sword, slashing at zombies. I feel like Zorro, only with more stabbing.

An allied DC gets grabbed. I slice apart the zombie holding him, but I scratch him with my blade. We hope for the best.

He thinks something might happen to me. I make an offhand comment, "I don't die." I'm not worried about myself.

I step into the next room. The door slams shut behind us.

I don't have my sword. A voice informs me that I'll have to meet its challenge, or the zombies on the other side of the room will be set free. A handful of neon orange-pink guitar picks appear in my hands. I have to throw them into a 3-inch gap on the other side of the room, in front of the zombies.

I throw two, but they go wild. The creepy childlike voice informs me that if I miss again, we're all going to die.

I hold one pick in the palm of my hand. I will it to float, and slowly send it toward the bucket. It lands perfectly.

I grin at the creepy ghostlike girl that appears out of the wall. She gestures sullenly toward another door and it opens with a creak.

"At least this isn't a dream," I say to my partner, "If it was, I'd have to wake myself up. I have a doctor's appointment in the morning."

I stop and feel for dreaminess. "And now I'm lucid," I say. "I really ought to wake up, though."

I focus on dismantling the dream, aiming for a new location. We'll see if this works...

---

False awakening. I beg a friend for a ride to work. Apparently, I work at a pizza place part-time. News to me.

One of the managers says that the new guy seems depressed and it's all my fault. I sigh, and go over to talk to the guy, who's standing in the kitchen.

"Look, it's not that I don't like you." I lie, "I just move around so much, I don't like getting close to people." I kindly leave out the fact that I'm friends with the DC managers, owner, and various and sundry employees.

The creepy fucker smiles at me. I really want to punch him in the face.

Zombies. Scare Factor: 4.

I try to banish a spirit in the name of God. It works about as well as you'd expect.

I'm at a train station, even though I'm sure that just a second ago, I was actually on my train. I shrug it off and try to get on the next one, but the conductor informs me that they don't allow dogs. I crouch down and hug my golden retriever, and we both stare up at him with sad puppy-eyes.

The man rolls his eyes and tells me that I'll be able to get on the next train. I thank him and walk back to the platform, where the people I'm travelling with are waiting. Fortunately, they have to wait for the next train as well.

We're on the train, but something's wrong. After a bit of investigation, we conclude that the entire train is haunted. Our team of Scooby-Doo-like investigators tracks it to its source - a bathroom in one of the sleeper cars.

I'm chanting nonsense Latin, "Omnipitus spiritus, omnipitus draco lux."* I repeat the chant, but it doesn't seem to be working. In fact, the haunting seems to be getting worse, black smoke sneaking in through cracks in the bathroom mirror.



The black smoke manifests over the vanity, and I catch a glimpse of a little boy in the mirror. The smoke lashes out at my companions, and distantly, I can sense the utter terror that they're beginning to feel. The girls are frozen, unable to move, and I...

I just feel hungry.

I've forgotten about the chant, and I fall silent and step toward the smoke. It shies away from me, tendrils retreating where I try to touch.

No, that won't do at all.

My hands lay at my side, but I'm latching onto the energy with my mind, pulling it toward me, devouring it. The black energy fades into my cloudy black and red aura, but I feel just a tiny wisp escape.

The girls are catatonic, and I ignore them, stepping silently through the train cars, looking for my quarry.

I see a white rabbit, my childhood pet, hopping through one of the train cars. I pick him up, but he starts squealing and twisting in my arms, trying to get away. He's scratching up my forearms and I wonder, dimly, if he's afraid of the dark presence that's been haunting the train.

No, I realize. The last wisp of the ghost has possessed my rabbit. I pull the last bit of dark energy out of the animal, and consume it. The rabbit goes still. I try to resurrect him, but organs start to leak out of his belly, and the stitching is coming apart.

***

"Can you help me?" says the boy.

I'm possessing a ten-year old. Go me. Apparently, the White Council is after us, probably for something I did. Apparently you're not supposed to kill people in this world?

Dresden comes back wearing some sort of ceremonial mask. I'm not paying attention, so the boy freaks out and runs away. He tries to hide in a storage closet, but Dresden catches the door and takes off his mask. "It's just me, kid." I take over and tell him that "I knew that".

I'm Dresden, now. I'm inside my office, talking to Murphy. I say something about the White Council. I'm about to do something really stupid, and it'll probably involve explosions.

Exorcisms. Scare Factor: 4.

*Apparently, this is really close to the actual exorcism I was going for: ""Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica..."