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I might be secretly obsessed with Liam and Saja, why else would they show up so often?

Fragment: Mall and Liam Echo
I'm walking into a mall, following my boyfriend. He leaves to check a store out but my left foot hurts so I just stand in the courtyard. There's a bench next to a raised tile planter filled with soil, a wooden sign, and mounted on top of the sign is a pane of glass. I limp over to the planter thing (I have no idea what it's actually called), pain shoots from my toes to my ankle. I notice that an old man staring at me, concerned, I ignore him. As I'm sitting down I see a man through the glass that immediately reminds me of Liam. I pause and stare at him. He looks tired, in a lightly rumpled gray suit, a tiny little girl I take to be his daughter grabs his hand and leads him a few running steps. He smiles faintly and shakes the hair from his eyes with a slight movement of his head. In this dream his hair is a dark red brown.

I force myself to stop, thinking that I can't just keep gawking strangers. I sit down and take my shoe off to rub my foot. I wonder if I should go to the emergency care place they have in the mall...

Saja: The Runewall, the Gate, and the Return
The mansion feels like it is both inside and outside. There's an entry hall, in the foyer is a double stair case with a deep red-brown bannister and black/white checker pattern tile on the stairs, running up to the second floor. Most of the tile in the room at the foot of the stairs is gone. Across from the bottom landing is another doorway, the door itself is gone and it opens up into a ruined section of the house. Jutting out of the dirt next to the door is a two foot tall polished dark grey stone wall () On the inside curve are three lines of runes.
The Liam echo from the dream fragment kneels next to a woman who is dressed in all white and grey shimmering cloth.
"You really did find it then.." He says. Her expression becomes mildly bemused, eyes far away, she nods. "Do you know what it says?" he asks.
"What do you mean? The stone is blank."
Liam rises and walks around to stand on the inside curve of the runewall. He touches the top of it and a faint vibration rises from the surface. The woman stands up and looks at the stone in shock and further bemusement.
"So it is the runewall." She doesn't necessarily sound happy, just tired.
"Can you read the runes now?"
"They are...difficult to read. They all run together."
He points, "What about this part?" There's a vertical line of English letters on the outer edge preceding the first line of runes.
X
E
B
They talk about what it means that he can read those letters, even pronounce it like it's a word. Zheb. She gives him the gist of what the runes say, he joins her on the other side of the wall. She says something about trials and sending messages. She uses a formal tone the one I associate with speaking a prophecy. The wall is a sign that the gate will soon reopen.
"You were destined to reveal the wall, just as I was destined to craft the basin."
She says there are artifacts that have to be found to open the gate and that in the final location, the middle of a hollow plateau, she will create the basin in the clay. I see a rough rock formation. The basin will show them where the key to the gate can be found.
As she speaks she pushes her hands down into the wet sand like she is kneading dough. The walls of the crafted crater rise up, she runs furrows into the sand floor with her fingers.
"The plateau could be anywhere, they are all over the place." Liam says, frowning slightly.
"Don't worry. Believe me, when the time comes, we will know exactly how to find it. Do you know how to send the message?"
"Yes."
She gives him a small, troubled smile. The task ahead will not be easy.

Then I am Saja. I meet a tall dark haired main in a ruined mansion, it's nearly identical to the mansion where Liam revealed the writing on the runewall. Something isn't right, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I wonder where his family is, they were supposed to come here to see him off. Once the others arrived, we would be going home.
"Where is the gate?" He asks. He looks tense and unhappy.
"There's a balcony on the second floor that leads out into a garden then to a field. The gate is there." I turn my back on him and skip lightly up the stairs. I see myself from the back, the long shining black curls. A cream colored dress with a light green-yellow bodice. My hair bounces as I mount the stairs. I twist around and find he is staring at me with undue intensity. I smile and, beckoning him to follow, run up the rest of the stairs.

I know the man has traveled a long way. Liam's message feels like it comes from across the sea. Far away, certainly, but not too far to reach. He reluctantly climbs the stairs. I can see how he's looking at me even though my back is turned and I finally understand why he is here alone.
He was forced to make a deal, in exchange for his family's safety he would get me from opening the gate and going home.

There's a lapse. We're outside. There's a stone arch standing alone in the middle of a garden. As we get closer heavy wooden doors shimmer into existence. I turn and confront him on his motives, but I don't remember what the outcome is.

Moving
I'm in the process of moving. It's the house in Oklahoma I lived in with my mom. There are a lot of other people helping at the house, all dream characters, I don't know any of them. I'm walking with a woman and saying that we're almost finished getting everything into the truck.
"There's a startling amount of furniture though." I gesture to the antique chairs that are stacked seat, to seat. A loveseat and a couch. All antique looking with white cushions and a small black picture spaced every 4 inches of fabric. I leave her and walk the house, making sure we haven't forgotten anything.
Upstairs there's an attic closet, except in the dream there are two, side by side. I've dreamed it like this before. I open one door and see all the boxes inside, and all the junk mixed in. I open the other door and it's mostly junk without boxes. In the far corner of the room across from the attic closet are giant bags of groceries. There's at least 4 loaves of bread and some chips. I wonder how long the bags have been up here. The food looks fine but I know no one has been up to the second floor in months.
I head back downstairs and I start helping them pack more things. We get the last of the boxes and then the woman I walked with earlier says,
"Now it's just the furniture."
"OH! I'm so sorry." I interject, "There's the attic closet upstairs too. Most of it is boxed."
She looks a little annoyed.
I know I went back up into the junked out attic closet but I can't remember what I did there.

Murder
The same dream characters that helped me move are in this dream too. I'm helping a woman track down her father. The police think he murdered someone, but we are trying to prove that he didn't. We're in an empty bar. The woman (she's short and round, wearing her hair back in a little tail, wearing a blue t-shirt and a black jacket), returns from outside carrying a box with two stain pad tools in it (something I see at work). She's saying that her friend couldn't find her father's DNA on them even though the receipts say they are his.
"So that means..."
"That there was someone else here with him." We finish together. It makes perfect sense. "What do his phone records say?"
"He placed several calls to the Scarlet Pony the day he went missing." She replies.
I go and look out the window, wondering if it's the bar across the street. The sign is bright red and says something like "Red Play" or "Pli Red".
I leave to investigate a property he purchased recently.

There's a lapse. I'm walking on the curb where a parking lot meets the street. An annoying group of people cuts me off so they can walk beside the curb. They don't even bother to move when a car drives around the corner. I step into the parking lot to avoid them, and the group weaves back into the parking lot and stands by their car, laughing with each other about how pointless the detour to the curb was.
I'm too annoyed to admit that they did me a favor, I would never have been able to reach the house by following the curb. , there's a bridge connecting the parking lot to the house I've come to investigate. The structure is unpainted weathered wood with a single window. I see the women from earlier, along with another, standing at the door trying to decide if they should go in. I try to decide if I should bother avoiding them or just meet them inside. I walk to the edge and consider jumping across and going in through the back door but I'm not sure I can make the leap. Instead I cross the bridge and follow them inside.
The house is only two rooms, a living area and a bedroom. Under the window is a long work table littered with tools. There's a rocking chair with rotted out cushions, and then on the right hand wall are two book cases. One of them has an arched top. I realize that a girl I used to work with is standing next to me along with the DC from earlier. She has her red hair pulled back in a ponytail, and her blue eyes are wide as she leans forward to examine the titles.
"I want something REAL." She says.
I try to help her pick a book, but the only titles that stand out are fantasy. I don't remember them now, there was one about different fairytale creatures and one with a title that could have been real but I knew was fantasy. I point one out.
"That isn't REAL." She says scornfully. "None of this can HAPPEN."
I keep trying to help her find a book. We hear a noise from outside and I see the outside of the house. A dozen police officers have met in the parking lot and are going to storm the house, they think a murderer is here. We huddle down by the work table. We can hear them move to encircle the house.
Annie mutters, "What's taking them so long? Why aren't they in here yet?"
The other DC gets up and takes a quick peek out the window.
"Um...they're using goats to herd cats." She says.
Annie snaps at her, annoyed, "Why would the police care about herding cats?"
I decide I need to see this and I stand up, look outside. The officer in charge looks exactly like Robert Patrick the guy who played the villain terminator in Terminator 2. I'm really amused by that.
As I duck back down I say "Apparently herding cats is really important if you're a Terminator." I start laughing, the other two look at me like I'm crazy.
"Come on, we might be able to sneak out the back when they come in the front."

There's a short lapse. We're standing outside at the back of the house. It's a narrow grassy area. The grass is vividly green. I notice there's a drop off in the landscape, and I start to jump across but Annie grabs at my shirt, throwing me off balance.
"There's a hole there!"
I know she was just trying to help so I try not to be annoyed, I jump across the gap and pointedly think that I should be glad someone was looking out for me.
From there I can see a river and a concrete storm drain, and a thin spidery hand gripping the edge. The sight of it scares me. It very slowly releases its grip and disappears, I'm relieved that whatever it was didn't leap out and kill us. I follow the river, it hooks around to the front of the cliff where the house is perched.
I notice a deep birds nest in the grass with a clutch of bright turquoise eggs. I'm thinking they would make fantastic food for my companions when a man interrupts me. He's about 60, straight backed and tall. He's wearing all faded black, green and grey. Black pants, green vest, plaid shirt, with a worn black cap.
"What are you doing? Are you stupid? Don't touch those!"
I snatch my hand back but disturb a patch of grass. One of the blades lashes out and slashes an uneven mark in my throat, it's deeper on the ends than in the middle. I see a view of my throat and the cut, and my hand pressed over it. I scramble backwards and he regards me moodily.
"Well? What are you doing?"
"I didn't know this land belonged to anyone."
"Oh so you can just explore as you like. Serves you right for touchin' things that don't belong to you."
He gestures sharply and I know I have to follow him into the house. He whirls around to face like his conscience took hold and forced him to do it, he examines the cut. "Yer lucky. If it had been fully matured it'd be poison."

We go inside. There's an extra room now, a kitchen. He sets a pot on the burner and asks me terse questions while he makes tea. At some point he changes into a young woman. She looked a little like this , she's wearing all grey. Her hair is pulled back into a loose bun, when she looks at me I notice her eyes are pale pink rimmed in an angry blood red. I feel like it would be easy for this to become a nightmare. She seems to seethe for a moment, then she presses her lips together tightly and turns back to the tea.
"Did you take something from the field?"
It's about then that I realize I have something in my hand. "No." I lie.
"I can feel it on you, give it back!" She hisses. Suddenly she's the old man. I don't see the change happen. He towers over me and I hold out my hand. I have three tiny blue eggs in my hand. He swipes them from my palm. I wonder if I should tell him I have something in my other hand too. As he turns back to the stove he breaks the eggs into a pan.
"I thought we couldn't eat those."
"It's only fine if the keeper of the land prepares them for you. I have the secret." Now he's the woman again. I get a close up of her face, her eye color is odd, like there's a texture to the color. Hammered, or like a shell, seeming flaky. There's even a small fleck of pale turquoise above her pupil. They're very pretty.
The front door is now beside me, it stands open, I look outside and see Annie and the other DC beckoning to me.
"Go then." The pink eyed woman says sternly to me. I see another close up of her eyes. I start to leave and then I turn back.
"I just wanted to tell you, your eyes are such a pretty color."
She smiles a little.

Fragment 1: Creepy
I'm on the edge of sleep. I feel heavy and the room feels off like there's someone in it with me.
"I hope she isn't here again." I think. So of course when I drift off I see a picture of a girl with chin length dark hair. At the time I didn't think she looked familiar, but she looks a little like Sailor Saturn. ((Completely freakin' random, but whatever. It's less random than strangling a bear and harvesting happy clams from it..)) She's standing in some version of my room, she's got a long-handle mace, it looks like bone and there's an evil grinning face painted on it with blood.
NOPE I think and force myself awake, but begin to drift immediately. When I fall back asleep she isn't there.

Sharks
I'm an eleven year old boy with pale skin and dark hair. I'm in the water with my older brother, he's only a couple of years my senior. We're clinging to some sort of wreckage. The water feels enclosed like a lake, but is behaving like the ocean. I get the feeling it's supposed to be part of a resort but all I ever see is the water. We never intended to be out this far. Something has happened that forced us into the middle of the lake. We look around for other people, over by the side of a boat there's another boy, that one is younger. Seven maybe. I grab at my brother's shoulder as I try to catch my breath.
"Do you see that kid over there?"
"Yeah--"
"We have to help him!"
We see movement in the water and see a dull nose bump the body, searching. It's a shark. It's...nibbling, searching, until it finds one of the boy's feet.
"Adam." I say, my brother just watches, horrified. "ADAM."
"Why are there SHARKS here? Why would they do that?"
I shake my head in frustration and I let go of the wreckage and swim furiously toward the little boy and the shark. Somehow my movement startles the shark and he lets go. I get a hold on him and kick to the surface. Someone leans out of the boat and gestures to me.
"Hand him up!"

There's a lapse and I'm treading water where I rescued the boy. I'd been unconscious. My head hurts. I feel something bump against the small of my back, then my shoulder.
no, no, no I think, trying to right myself so I can figure out what's going on. Teeth start to close around my hand and I jerk my hand free. If I keep moving it won't be able to grab me. A wave smacks me hard, rolling me under the water. I get a terrifying visual of the shark's head and jagged teeth through the hazy water.
Then Adam is there and pulling me to the surface. An old man leans out of the boat and drags me onto the deck before giving Adam a hand. I lay there and quiver violently. There are patches of skin missing where the shark had nibbled at me, and the flesh on my hand is a mess but to my immense relief I can still move my fingers and it doesn't even hurt too much.
"You're lucky, that other boy lost his foot." Adam says.
The old man grimaces and hobbles away. I see that all that remains of his feet are the heel and he's put metal caps over the bones so he can walk. Other people have similar injuries. One woman is missing her whole left arm.

Fragment 2
In a narrow kitchen. Everything looks like a dim yellow. A short, hunch-shoulder Mexican man, hands in his hoodie pockets. At first he looks normal, he casts a frightened look over his shoulder. I approach him. When I get a little closer he drops his head and grins a little. The expression is really unsettling.
I'm tired of being creeped out, I swat his shoulder.
"STOP THAT."
He looks startled, then afraid.
"Sorry." but he can't help it. He does it again and I force myself awake, roll over.

Fragment 3:
Sitting in a booth in a diner. There's someone across from me but I can't remember his face. It was like we were on a date.

Fragment 1: Songs
In the beginning of the dream I'm amused by how this song sounds like this one. I even see the music videos playing side by side, but in the dream the lyrics to Colors of the Wind are a stupidly obvious echo to the other song. I think "Did they do this on purpose?"

The Clockworks, the King and the Key-knight
Beneath the main building where I work, a tangled mess of hallways, tunnels, and offices stretch infinitely down into the earth. There are too few people to occupy the whole space, and much of it is dark and has been abandoned. I see the office from outside, the walls are a cool blue-white. The lights are dim, casting most of the hall into shadow. A door opens and I emerge from it, a woman slightly taller than me (with two others standing nearby) pats me on the shoulder and ushers me out. I'm naked to the waist, she hands me a pink hoodie to cover myself so I pull it on and zip it up. I thank her for releasing me. She smiles and walks behind me to the stairs leading to the surface.

There's a lapse. I literally drop into the scene, through the roof of the porch. There's a woman who looks a little like Olivia Dunham from Fringe crouching in the yard, she's telling a story about her father. She smiles wistfully, her hands clasped to her chest.
"That was before everything happened." She waves her hand and snow dusts the porch, the wind grows colder. Her father rolls off the roof into a drift then rises and brushes off his shoulders. A dark vaguely rectangular hole appears behind him and two men leap out, dragging him back into it.
"Before He sent his knights to take us for food. Before the Mel...Melisand...Mellisana." She says the word haltingly, like she's read it but hasn't had a reason to say it aloud. I stare at her profile, then she turns her head to look and gives me a distracted smile.
"He'll come for us until we're all gone."

I walk around the side of the house, I feel like time is running out. From this angle, the porch is actually inside and it's a hallway. The room is long with yellow walls, but not very tall. Maybe 6 foot walls? There are picture frames and mirrors hanging everywhere. There's a woman there, I recognize her as the one who gave me the hoodie.
"Now, pick a mirror and I'll paint over your reflection to improve your features." She gestures without looking at me. Out of the corner of my eye I see that she's holding a paint brush.
"I can't, you never found me a shirt when we left the tunnels."
"That's ridiculous--of course I found you a shirt."
"No really, I'm naked under this."
"Take it off anyway."
I frown doubtfully then shrug. "Okay." I take off the hoodie and stand in front of a small square mirror, a 6X6 with a thick glossy black frame. I can't clearly make out my face, but I don't necessarily look pretty. My hair is too wild and my features uneven. It doesn't matter, she'll make me pretty.
"This will be my last painting. I'm going to the ISP."
I become aware that my boyfriend is listening to me talk.
"Really? That's where Justin went." (He's one of my IWL co-workers that transferred to another store.) "He used to work in ISP before moving on, if you need help you can ask him. He's nice."
"I won't know what he looks like."
"Here, I can show you." We follow the wall, there are pictures everywhere that they posted IWL after the store meeting. I can't find the one I'm looking for and I can't even focus on the pictures for long. I can feel my boyfriend's scrutiny like he's suspicious because I mentioned a male co-worker by name. "All these pictures are of people dressed like batman. They're all Batmans. Batmen? Hahaha BAT MEN. That makes them sound like giant bats with man features." ((My subconscious is so stupid.))
All the pictures were taken at night and there are 6 or 7 men and little boys dressed up. In one a man holds out his cape out to the side with one hand, and I can just barely make out a younger man's masked face blending in with the cape. "That's the only reason he was able to hide so long, he blended right in."
Then I say, "It's weird that Justin isn't in these pictures. He really likes Batman."
The woman walks away, "Never mind, let's get you painted."

It's not really clear what happens next. A man that looks vaguely like Jaime Lannister appears. He's wearing a red-brown leather jacket and carrying a sword (of course). He herds us into the depths below the building where the King is waiting to eat us. We are surprised by his betrayal. Everything is dark except the path we walk on, it ends in a circular platform, and then across from that is a narrow walkway. The five of us huddle on the platform. Jaime is on the narrow walkway. In the middle of the sentence a giant hand reaches out of the wall behind him and plucks a large old key Attachment 4725 from the center of his back with enough force to pull him to the ground. He collapses against the wall, horrified that he has led us here.
We are comforted that he didn't do it of his own volition.

The queen has the body of a woman and ball with a clock on it for a head. She's pregnant. She's standing in a bright white room with intricate circuitry lines tracing every surface. A vaguely human-shaped creature that looks like slowly cooling lava, carrying a giant axe, leaps out of nowhere and knocks her to the ground. It raises the axe as though to kill her and the King's large hand reaches down and flicks it across the room. He helps his queen up, but cuts off her head. Her head and body work independently.
"I should have know you wouldn't let such weakness stand." She says, her voice crackling. I can feel him smiling, but can only see his hand, which holds up her head at about his eye level before he discards it.

I don't think I want to recount the first half because it was kind of...pornographic and that makes me uncomfortable. The last half had to do with a clothing store/sewer. The scenery was vivid at the time but I can't remember it now. I try to get past this young woman and her friends. She keeps making fun of me.
"Why don't you like me?"
I see myself as she sees me and I'm a little disgusted. I've always been well endowed in the chest area, but to her it looks grotesque. I'm wearing a pale green shirt, my breasts look huge.
"You're disgusting, that's why." She looks me over critically and I feel a stab of shame. "You're not even wearing a bra!"
"What do you mean, of course I'm wearing a bra." When I see myself from her point of view it's obvious I'm not, but as soon as I say that I am. She grabs one of my breasts and I slap her hand away.
"Fine, turn around." She rolls her eyes and exchanges a meanly amused look with her friends. "You're not wearing it tightly enough."
I frown and I decide to leave. She mutters something and I yell back at her.
"I'm only a 36--" I realize that isn't true, "A 3...a 32G."
"She can't even remember her size, obviously she's lying."
"I'm not, you can look at the tag on my bra if you don't believe me."
"That isn't necessary."
"Why do you have to be so mean, I only wanted your help. Is it so difficult to help someone instead of ridiculing them?"
She frowns and stares at the floor then smiles a little, it seems genuine.
"Fine. Whenever you get to the end of the road, go and see Dr.______, he can help you."
"Thank you so much."
"Whatever. Don't talk to me again."

I remember pushing a cart through a clothing store and thinking that I need to buy some shorts for summer. I wonder if they have anything I like.

This one has been a long time in coming. I used to get things like this all the time. I'd dream something and then days (sometimes years) later I'd see it in the waking world and I'd remember.
My clearest example: Years before I would move to a new state and start at a new school, I had a dream that I was in a place I didn't recognize, looking out onto a stage. There are a ring of teenagers with papers in their hands, sitting on the floor. There's a boy with a bright yellow shirt and white-blonde hair with this back to me.

In 2001 I moved to Indiana, they needed someone for a small role and invited me to play it. At our first meeting, I'm standing on the left wing of the stage, watching them setting down into a ring with the scripts in their hands. Zach has his back to me, he has white blonde hair and is wearing a bright yellow shirt.

Usually it isn't so clear. The conditions have to be just right. So there I am, standing in front of my hall mirror. I've never braiding my hair in front of this mirror before. I can hear something from the bedroom, I don't have a hair tie so I turn away from the mirror, thinking about undoing the braid and getting dressed for bed and the trip my boyfriend is going on. I see the hall (obviously). Vertigo strikes me and I stop, god it feels familiar. My boyfriend's shoes at the end of the hall, they haven't been there very long, he's going on a trip tomorrow. That's the only reason they sit where they do. The portable heater is also at the end of the hall, the lights are on. Of all the hundred times I've turned from the mirror and walked down the hall, it's only after I've braided my hair and the shoes are there that I'm stricken.

I had forgotten how strange it feels. I vaguely remembered a dream I had when I was a kid, when I was a long ways off from living in this duplex. Turning toward a hallway, seeing the heater at the end of the hall, a pair of shoes off to the side under the ironing board. I can't recall much more, in the dream the other rooms felt...busy, like there were people in them. Sort of wild, unhinged.

I should go to bed, I have to get up early. I have some things I wanna work on tomorrow when I get home from the airport.

I hardly remember. I know at one point I woke myself up laughing because a dog had a sign on its back, it said "Parental Dog" on it in green lettering, I read it as "Penis Dog" and started cracking up. My subconscious is so easily amused. *rolls her eyes* I dropped easily back into the dream and had to explain to the dc why I thought 'penis dog' was funny.

There was also something about a heavily burdened dun horse in a parking garage. It looked vaguely cartoony and in a perpetual state of consternation. The concrete was impossibly slick and slightly slanted. Every time I tried to approach the horse I slid around like a crazy person before maneuvering myself back to the railing.

I was traveling? Or talking to someone? I don't know.

This dream had a storyline but I can't remember what connects all the pieces.

1: Winter Already
An imp-like little man, that had animal features. He wore a floppy cream colored hat and a blue shirt. He hid between the worlds so that he would have more time to figure out how to deal with his enemies. I see him by a pond at night. The water is deep blue around the edges, with spots of lights scattered at the bottom, shining blue and green. The trees line the water, skinny and tall, weaving together like a net.
He skips by the water, telling me that the sky here doesn't know the passage of time, so that you could spend many dawns not knowing a dawn had passed. Suddenly it's cold enough to see his breath on the air. He moves over to a smooth bone white bridge that curves over the pond. The bridge is like a living thing, when the water becomes cold, it draws back slowly in shock, then begins to slowly reach across the surface.
The little man coaxes it forward until it tentatively touches its tip to the pond's edge, sending find ripples through the freezing water.
"It shouldn't be this cold, is it winter already?"
Troubled, he leaves the water's edge. There's a tree there, the roots divided to either side of an earthy, root wall. There's an impression of a door. It opens and out steps a bent old man,kind of like this guy. Except his robes are gray and drag on the floor. He's more bent than actually short. The little imp-man is surprised to see him. He exclaims that everyone thought he had been lost to the Between.
"I just stayed away until the time was right..."

2: Outcast
There's a dark haired woman standing on a docked ship. It's pulled up length wise along the dock, she's waiting for someone. She's ousted royalty, someone no longer considered equal to the nobility. She's wearing a dark purple floor length gown. But it had glints of gold filigree hidden in the folds of the gown. Her luggage match her dress, one of the cases is huge and stands taller and wider than she is.
"Wow, that is a big suitcase." I think, and then wonder what else she would carry her wardrobe in.

3: Great Dane
A white and black Great Dane is actually a person in animal form. He is intent on killing the Heir. The wizards keep asking him if that is wise, and that he should consider another course. He does not listen.

4: Threads of Song
I'm in a room with a dark wood floor and yellow walls. I want to show someone that I am creative, by taking parts of different songs and making something new. There's a computer program displayed on the wall for separating tracks. I select the track I want, "Hate to See Your Heart Break" by Paramore. I reach up to the screen and the different vocals actually become threads on a flat piece of plastic. I try to unwind them, first white, then yellow, then aqua. The threads are longer than I expected and become tangled. I'm trying to separate them...

5: Tigers
In the same dark wood floor room with yellow walls. They are telling me I have to distract the tiger, to mate with him if necessary, otherwise they will never be able to leave the room. I ask them if they know how dangerous tigers are. They just gesture me forward.
I become a tiger. The male tiger across from me looks agitated, flicking his tail. He's bright orange, I can hardly see any black in his coat at all.
I keep flickering between tiger and girl, and it's confusing both of us. I'm afraid of his claws, and know that he could easily break me. I stalk forward and bat at one of his forepaws. He bares his teeth, ears back. I feel the swipe of his paw close to my arm.

I'm not sure if I can properly express just how much I hate body-snatcher dreams. As disturbing as the cannibal dream was, I'd gladly watch that again if it meant I didn't have another one of these.
Possession. Body-snatchers. People who look like my loved ones but no longer act like them, knowing that everything that made them who they are is GONE. They are dead and still walking around. (Oddly, zombies don't really bother me. There's a fine distinction there.)

I'm in my childhood home in Massachusetts. My father and brother are there with me and after a time, so is Liam. The house is dark, all the lights are off. The three men are sleeping in the living room.
(I went a little crazy there for a minute and built you a layout)
I'm dropped into the middle of an action, walking down the hallway from my room. The house feels wrong, but I can't figure out why. We came home in the middle of the night. I pass the kitchen door and catch a glimpse of something on the floor. I take a step back, feeling tense and on the edge of fear. Yellow and green balloons litter the floor. I don't like the look of them.
Suddenly one of them moves, and I realize there are things inside them. A slimy, translucent thing. Kind of like a gooey slug. I start yelling for the men to wake up, that we have to get out of here before the things finish becoming. Blearily they rise, I beckon them to me.
"Quickly, get your things. We need to leave."
"I don't understand the problem." My brother says.
I stab a finger toward the creepy balloons. "You're telling me that doesn't bother you at all."
Fear steals over their faces. Liam seems pretty placid, but he's mostly a shadow right now. I don't see his face so much as I know he's there. He's taller than my brother and father by a good half foot.
We rush to the other end of the house, everyone splits off and goes into various rooms. Gathering clothing and other necessities. I duck into my room, the only one that's lit, and see a slug-creature on the wall above the nightstand. It has a yellow-green center, surrounded by clear membrane. I find my dad and tell him that they've finished becoming. We rush out into the hallway, the four of us together, but I've forgotten something so we go into my room first. The slug is gone. I feel a spike of panic. I know that when it takes a person, they will cease to be who they are and be in control of the slug.
I step back into the hallway, relieved, "Good, it didn't get any of you." Liam stands mid-hall. He has his head cocked to the side, standing very still, his back to me.
"You're wrong." He says quietly. The words are like a slap.
"What? NO!" I reach out to him and my fingers brush his elbow, which has creepy slug goo on it. "No, no, no! This isn't happening." I retreat a few steps.
"I'll....fight as long as I can. Go. While I can...hold it off." His voice sounds distant, watery.

I force myself awake and roll over. When I fall back asleep, I dream about Dream Views. NewArtemis has posted a dream. It's just a picture, a claymation still. There's a tree, there is a large hole in the middle right before the crown. Wooden boards make a crude ladder up to the hole, one branch juts out to the left. On the jutting branch is a boy. Climbing up the ladder are a boy and a girl. The climbing boy has dropped one arm and is facing the 'camera', his mouth is open in a horrible grimacing smile, lined with sharp teeth. I scroll down and Artemis posts "My pack is dead."
I don't understand, I scroll back up and the image flashes. First there is an orange and white cat crouched in the hole in the tree. When it flickers the cat first stands on its hind legs, and in the next it disappears.
"See, he's gone."
(O.o wtf...)

I drift into a deeper sleep and I'm sitting next to a dog. She even looks a little like my dog, with less white in her coat. My sister adopted her and I hear my sister say what a good find she is. That when they retired her from the Fire Department, everyone clamored to adopt. Just like when _______ was retired. I heard a name, I don't remember it. He was a bright red, looked a little like a blood hound. I see his collar drop off to signify that he is retired.
I pet her a little, and then test her patience. I'm curious if she's as well-behaved as Caspian. She doesn't look pleased when I put my hands on her face, but she only bares her teeth a little and then dips her head away.

I'm sitting on a couch telling people on the forum about my creepy slug dream. I only really remember the man. Slim, lean muscle, short wavy dark hair and black/brown eyes. He's wearing a grey tank top. He's sitting next to a girl. He calls behind me, to my boyfriend who is laying on the couch under some blankets.
"Does any of this bother you?"
My boyfriend throws a hand out from under the blankets in a dismissive wave. "Just a dream."

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I had a work dream that I couldn't get into the break room. In the dream it was underground, you had to go down a couple flights of stairs and then a ramp to get to it. At the door is a tall shiny water pump. I know that to open the door you have to level the pump a certain way. I know you have to do something else but I can't remember what it is. I stand there stupidly, watching as another employee opens the door and sprays one of our PSAs in the face, he's on his way out. I jog forward and ask them to hold the door, they do. I go inside, out of the corner of my eye my HR is making fun of me for not being able to get in.

There's a wide, grassy courtyard. They are filing us out from one building into another. I am a man, leaning on another man. There's something wrong with both of us. The extreme opposites of a case. An orderly holds up a curved piece of metal with padded ends, meant to be pressed to my temple. The orderly is monitoring the machine so he doesn't see that my friend likes the treatment. His face twists into an intense mask of joy and amusement. I know he's on his way to being possessed, but I have my own problems. I'm having trouble moving. I know that the treatment will knock me out, even though it's not supposed to. It's supposed to prove that we have passed through the haunted building without picking up any passengers. I lean against my friend and brace myself. When the orderly puts the device to my head I pass out.
"What's wrong with -him-?"

I'm myself again. Someone suggests I go to see the nurse. I do, I wait in the office. It's comfortable, dark red walls. A place to lay down. My friend says he'll go get the nurse. While he's gone the HR manager comes and sits down across from me.
"Sorry, the nurse is out for the day. You can tell me what's wrong though."
"Well...I've been having trouble doing things that used to be easy."
I glance at my friend. He urges me to continue.
"I couldn't remember how to get into the break room and I forgot how to use a---"
She starts laughing at me. "I'm sorry, I was there when you couldn't get in. It was really funny."
I frown, "it isn't funny, you don't understand I--"
"You're right, of course it isn't funny." But she's still laughing at me.

I'm warning you now, this is really disturbing. Actually I think I'll put the worst part in a spoiler link so no one will be scarred when they're ambling by my post.

I'm in a classroom, in high school. My boyfriend sits at the desk next to mine. One of the popular kids, a tall girl with a long blond ponytail is called up to give her presentation. She keeps looking at me while she's talking, which I think is odd because she has never really paid any attention to me. She's looking for some sort of affirmation but I'm the only one that matters. She's still trying to persuade the teacher that her idea is correct. To do so she drops to her knees and slides across the classroom floor, shrieking "LOOK! I'M SWIMMING LIKE A SAILBOAT!!!" As she says this she thrusts her hand out in front of herself, it somehow propels her forward. She reaches the teacher's desk, grinning like a beatific moron. He smiles at her, finally convinced.

I'm worried that he'll call on me next, only a few students will even be tested this way. He lets us take a break. The class starts to pull apart into groups.

The school has turned into a house. The students have both taken a dangerous drug and been dosed with a mind altering chemical. The people least effected only retreat to corners and spout nonsense. Others suffer to have their bodies distorted, or the mental barrier that would stop them from doing something terrible to themselves removed.
I wander through a giant auditorium, there are no seats, but there's a stage. A disturbing woman with long straight back hair, wearing a white t-shirt and nothing else is...poised by the stage. She has a cruel sort of beauty, a sharp face, a wicked smile. I don't like to look at her but I can't help it. She has a manic gleam to her eyes and her legs are twisted straight up behind her back. ((you know how you could twist a barbie-doll's legs up alongside her body? It looked kind of like that))

Spoiler for Gory Disturbing Stuff:

I pass through an open door hurriedly before she can intercept my path. A fat young man with shoulder-length curly brown hair is sitting on the floor beside the door. When I first see him he's obsessively eating his way through a bag of chips. There's a lapse, I feel hazy, and I pull myself up from where I'm laying on the floor. I look at the young man, I can't wrap my mind around what he's done to himself. He's issuing a bright, breathless laugh.
"I can't stand up." He says. I look at him more closely and horror grips me, I have a stark realization that I've never felt horrified before. He has somehow eaten through his entire middle, severing himself at the waist. But he's still alive. The drug has kept him from feeling any sort of pain, or even thinking that he shouldn't eat himself.
There's are bloody splotches around his waist, covering his hands, his mouth.
He laughs again but it sounds distracted, confused. His expression becomes briefly concerned.
"Why can't I stand up?" He tries to laugh about it. Then he sees his legs nearby, still twitching and starts to hyperventilate and tremble violently.
I try to scream but it comes out as a whisper. I don't remember what I said. "Help!" "I don't want to watch this!" "Oh god, what have you done?"
I trip over a woman laying on the floor. She's either passed out or dead, frightfully pale, purple-white hair, lilac dress. She's covered in the same bloody splotches, I can see some around her mouth. She was helping him eat through his flesh, and when that wasn't enough, she started on her own hand, consuming it from fingertip to elbow, whole.
My attention is drawn to the young man. He is caught between panicking and a wild, mad amusement. When he tries to lift himself off the ground with his meaty arms, I can see the tail end of his spine sticking out of the bloody mess that his mid-section. He lets out a keening noise and pants with disbelief, terror, horror. Then he starts to laugh again, reaching over and picking up his lower-section, shaking it out like a pair of pants.

I can't take anymore. I back out of the room, returning to the auditorium. I'm sitting on the stage, my boyfriend is standing next to a woman with black curly hair. She's wearing a flowing faded blue dress halter-dress. She has lovely tattoos across her back and shoulders, a gentle twisting of long-stemmed flowers, green and pink and purple. She looks familiar. I know I've seen her before. My boyfriend and the woman, Gale, approach. I'm not sure I like her, I have a reason to distrust her. By the time they reach me, I feel small, like a child. Now my boyfriend seems more like a father or brother, he links arms with the woman and smiles at me.
"Do you know what's going on?" I ask them.
"We should get out of here." Gale says. She has her arms hooked around my waist and mine are around her neck. She smiles warmly, reassuringly. I notice the disturbing woman with straight black hair glaring daggers at Gale. The woman knows that she can pass the madness with a touch. She walks over, on her hands, legs still pressed against her sides. She's moving too quickly. I want to warn Gale, suddenly our differences don't matter. She doesn't deserve madness, I can't stand the thought of her eating herself to death.
"Look o---"
The disturbing woman reaches out. Gale shifts subtly away. I worry that she didn't move in time, I'm denying the possibility that she has been taken from me too. Gale glares down at the woman, she slinks away.
"Wait here a moment? We'll be leaving soon." She steps away to talk with another man, my boyfriend stands with them. When I see her from far away I'm vastly relieved to see that she's wearing a sheer-white cropped jacket. Dream logic says that the disturbing woman can't have touched her skin if the jacket was in the way.
Gale comes back and picks me up. I want to tell her I like her tattoos. She smiles like she heard my unspoken compliment.
"Wait!" I say, trying to remembering something. "I forgot my..."
My boyfriend holds up my wallet. It fell out of my back pocket in the room with the young man.
"Oh thank you!" I say. He hands it to me. I want to tell him I love him.

((So, the most disturbing part is that even though I had no part in the eating, all day yesterday and today my jaw muscles have been sore. >.<))

There's a man sitting in a 60's convertible, top down, arm around his new wife, Ria. His first wife who he had loved deeply was named Kari. A woman who has always been in love with him scowls at Ria, she wants to make him look bad on radio. Transmissions have been few and far between, such that news of even highly public figures like Dan and Kari is scarce. Even though Kari died many months ago, many sectors are only just now hearing of it. It doesn't help matters that Ellen, the woman who has always loved him, is a reporter and lumped the two news pieces together to make it sound like Dan remarried weeks after his first wife died. I'm worried for him.
He doesn't seem concerned though, he knows how it will look and doesn't care. He smiles at his new wife. "I didn't think there would be anyone after my Kari passed away, then I met Ria."

They are being ushered into some sort of medical compound. Well, it's supposed to be a medical compound but it really just looks like a corrugated metal barn with a grass floor. There are two garage openings. One of them is only half open, and Ellen has arranged for some sort of accident. Dani and Ria are pulling into one of the open doors, but there's a large engine sitting in the middle. They crash into the obstruction and the garage door slams down onto them. My subconscious feels separate from the story, like I'm watching a movie. I feel so bad for Dan, losing the woman he loved. I don't want it to happen again. I think "Who would put that there?!" Ria is put on an operating table. Dan is nowhere to be seen, I'm afraid he's dead. Ellen is in a pale green hospital gown. She's reaching over to the far wall where there's some sort of handle or lever that you can push back. It will drop something heavy onto the table Ria is laying on, so she will certainly die. Except she slips as she's pushing it back and it snaps toward her, turning her arm below the elbow into a bloody mess.
"No no no, stop it. I don't want to this to happen. Not after everything." I think. The dream changes. I don't get any sort of resolution from it, not even a bad ending. I'm standing in the barn, the grass feels cool under my feet. It's night outside. A co-worker of mine is telling me I have to find a way to turn off the power, because there's a loose cable and the floor is wet. I spend the rest of the dream anxious that I'm going to be electrocuted.

There was a dream before this one but I don't really remember it. I'm traversing the highest part of a vast, sprawling city in the quietest part of the night, swinging, leaping, running. I get so carried away that I forget where I'm going. I stop, thinking I've gone too far, and that now I'm a section of the city that I don't recognize.
I stare down at the street corner. It has a lonely, deserted feel. The building is curved to match the street corner, and there's a wide band of red neon flickering hectically. Just beyond that is an abandoned bank. The IBC sign hangs down over the street, it used to be a neon sign as well, all the letters overlap. The longer I look at it the more familiar it seems.
I drop down to the street and into another persona. I'm a cop, I've tracked two young men here. They've gone on a crime spree across every sector of the city. The last being the murder of a city official and taking the official's wife Becka as a hostage. They seemed frantic, terrified. Like birds startled into flight, they fled and settled here. I creep inside the building. It's tiny. Just a front desk hugging the right-hand wall and a couple of glass-walled offices. They have broken the last glass panel and are inside the office. The lights flicker. The walls are a warm cream color, the glass framing dark bronze.
For a second I think I see a fox-like red dog dusted with shattered glass, delicately stepping over the shards, trying not to damage her paws. She looks at me for a moment. Then It's Becka, the red-headed official's wife, looking at me. Like a moron she steals the element of surprise from me. She sees the gun in my hand and pleads loudly for me not to kill her.
I lower my weapon and approach the room. Inside two young men, brothers, are setting up a camera. They are both dark haired and blue eyed, wearing navy t-shirts. One is in the middle of a hysterical tirade. Neither of them seem to concerned about my presence.
"They're everywhere--we can't be certain who has been taken." He sets up a tripod and tosses a length of cable to his brother.
"I'm only concerned about your hostage..." I break in. They glance at me.
"She's not a hostage! Once we showed her her husbands true face, she came with us willingly."
I look at the tall red-headed woman trying to figure out of they're telling the truth, but I can only see her profile. I frown a little.
"What do you mean?"
"They've been staging a silent take over for a while now. Fae demons who wear the skins of men, ghosts possessing our families!" The young man says, I glance at his brother. His brother rolls his eyes, I know that the other brother is the only believer here. He notices me looking and schools his face into passivity. "We'll open the door, and show everyone their plan. Is the Key ready?"
"Yeah Bran--"
"Such fools." Becka says quietly. For a second I think she's talking about people in general. "Did you really think you'd get away with this?"
My realization is quick, how perfectly she infiltrated their little group. They go on their crime spree, seem to take a hostage, and all the while she's planning to murder them. Who would question a captive killing her captors? She wouldn't even have to break her cover as the Official's wife. As I look at her, her eyes change from dark brown to...glass filled with white mist and curlings of blue-gray smoke. Over Bran's shoulder I see that the portal is open. There's a dark green square of land with a group of tall fae women.

I'm standing in a weathered-wood pig pen. The gate is even open. On a raised platform to my back, the tall fae women sit on elegant stools and chairs. They lounge there, waiting. They're all dressed in long gowns with elaborate jewelry. They are not really concerned with restraining me. I walk through the open gate, feigning a casual stroll. I check the back of my belt for the small knife I usually keep there. It's missing, of course. One of them laughs derisively, "Humans."
"Becka" is standing all the way on the other side of the square of land, there's a fence and wheat reaching a few feet taller than even her. There's a stirring in the wheat. She frowns at it.
"Boys got away, did they?" I ask no one in particular.
"Not for long, I'm afraid." A woman answers.
Becka turns back toward, out of the corner of my eye I see someone duck under the fence next to me, into another patch of cultivated land. I walk slowly, very conspicuously, toward it.
"Look, she's trying to escape." Someone says mirthfully. It's probably a good thing that they underestimate me. I break for the fence, but I can't climb over the top. They've set up chicken wire in a cage over the area. Becka runs at me bears me to the ground. I struggle wildly, wiggle free enough to kick her hard in the shoulder. I scramble under the lowest bar of the fence and as I'm regaining my feet her hand swipes at my ankle. I dance away into a run. There isn't much room in here. There's only a foot and a half between the rows of a vine with dark glossy spear-head leaves and bright red flowers. They grow up into the chicken-wire cage and around, then down again into the earth. I can feel her right behind me, I dodge around a corner as she makes a grab for my shirt.
I can't believe how fast I'm moving, but she's keeping pace with me, I can't seem to shake her. I take a right, feeling leaves slap my face. I turn again, hitting the dividing rail hard, squeezing into the space between the last row of vines and a low wall with a galvanized metal planter with new plants in them.
I hear her curse behind me. I'm a small woman, I don't have trouble running here. Becka is built a lot larger, wide at the shoulders. I smile a little. I can see the corner of the plant cage from here. It's just a matter of finding a gap I can climb through. I run to the corner, I know she's moved back into the adjacent row. I'm turning right and see my way out. As I reach it she knocks me to the ground. She pulls my knife from behind her back, on her downward stab I somehow smack it from her hand. It hits the dirt. I scramble toward it. She grabs it before I can.
There's a sort of galvanized trap door. On the hood is the knife Denna from The Name of the Wind carries, a thin sharp blade with leather wrapped around one end. It glitters in the light. I wonder if Becka has noticed it. I dearly hope not, I would love to use it. I look at the knife hungrily, almost.
There's loud crash and she looks over her shoulder, startled. I use the distraction to crawl through the trap door.

I've lost my pursuers in a crowd. The building feels somewhere between a mall and a university. I insinuate myself into a group. I notice a weird shop, with a yellow neon sign. I hear a girl saying that she might need to stop in there to have her skin tightened.
"They sell skin tightening here?" I ask, intrigued.
We reach an arched ramp, and at the bottom I can see the last door that will take me to freedom. She tells me about it and I turn around to go look at the shop. Then I wonder what the hell I'm doing and why I would even need skin tightening. I turn back to the ramp. Near the door, standing guard is Brienne of Tarth, looking like the actress who plays her on Game of Thrones. She's sitting in a chair, one leg extended, arms crossed over her chest. Her bare arms, neck and side of her face have angular designs in faded woad. I hesitate. I know that she would joylessly take me in, since it was her duty to follow the orders of the Fae queen. Even if she didn't want to. She is looking away, now's my chance.
I hurry past her, my hands are on the bar of the glass door---
I wake up.

The beginning of the dream has the visual clarity of an old movie, a little faded, with occasional black lines. An elderly woman narrates, standing beside a large car. She's wearing a powder blue dress with a straw hat. Her fluffy curls look very white against her clothes. She's helping to load light mauve luggage into a net atop the car.
"Things were different in those days. Raised entirely on the farm, in quiet schools. When you came of age you would go off to University, and if the music was good (as it usually was) you'd join the chorus."

I don't remember what happened between that and this next scene.
Kvothe from The Name of the Wind is sitting in front of a small cook-fire, ringed in stones. He's wearing a loose white shirt and dark brown pants. His hair looks very red. He shifts to the other side of the fire as a slim woman with honey colored skin and short chestnut hair moves over to use it. She keeps looking at him disapprovingly. There's an L-shaped awning sticking out from the shed, connected to the front of the woman's house, it's her house we sit in front of. In front of the shed are two tables. I can see the front door and dusty sand-colored stone steps. Her husband comes home as Kvothe lifts a deep green guitar, using it like an upright bass. He is learning how to play the true names of things. He has just perfected 'fire'. He starts to play 'tree', gripping the neck and sliding all four of his fingers down the strings.
"HEY!" the man yells. Kvothe isn't quite playing it right, a tree nearby quivers violently and threatens to topple. Kvothe alters the note a little and instead of quivering the tree sings with the truth of its name. Kvothe grins and stops playing. The man rolls his eyes.
"Yes, yes. You are very clever."
The man keeps scowling at Kvothe, like he doesn't want him there but is obligated to teach him Name Songs so that he doesn't hurt anyone with his wild talent.
I think how the color of the guitar matches his eyes.

I'm running on a long narrow walkway that stretches from one end of the street to the other, hugging a sand colored building. I stop at the edge and look at what I'm holding in my hand. Three colored stones. One is the amethyst crystal I fell asleep wearing on a chain around my wrist. The other two are pendants I have, usually labradorite, and amber. Now they are both dark red. I blink, thinking they should be a different color.

I hear the alarm going off in the other room and wake up. I doze back off trying to think of how to start writing my forum DJ post. It starts with the old woman. When I get to the part where she mentions music, a strain of music swells in the back of my mind drowning out her voice. I try to focus on it and backtrack to the end of her sentence. When I regain focus the car is gone and I am a young girl, reveling in new found summer freedom. There's a dirt path in front of the house where the car was parked. I run down it to the stable. I'm thinking how the house was small and correct myself, thinking that it was the 60's, it should be a large, sprawling property. As I think it, my surroundings change subtly, feeling more open.
The stables are huge, when I pass them I look inside, they are corrugated metal.
"We had many animals, of all different kinds."
They pour from the stalls, horses (which I'm very excited to see), cows, sheep, chickens, cats...so many. When they run out into the open with me I notice a simple black tent pitched in the middle of the field. It moves to follow us, I can't see inside. As my father meets us the tent jumps a little, I think that inside is a wolf. A feral one. Then I see our tame wolf she's mostly white, looks kind of like this:
http://4packs.webs.com/1%20%20%20%20...%201%20aca.jpg
She sits down at my father's feet, looking lovely. I stare intently at the tent, waiting for the other wolf to emerge...

And the alarm in the other room goes off again.

I'm having some trouble remembering this one. I was at work, following a storyline about a murderer. An old story that matched up with current events. Something about a bloody pipe?
I run around a corner by the garden doors and there's a man kneeling there gathering items he had dropped. He gives me an embarrassed smile. I'm stricken by the similarities between him and the dream character Liam, what I call a Liam echo. Meaning that he shares features with the DC, even evokes the same emotions, but I know it isn't him. Even kneeling I can tell he's tall, his hair is dark red. He has the same general face shape, eye color, smile.
"I almost ran over you." I say as I pass him, I hope he thinks I'm pretty and then I'm annoyed with myself. I'm taken, I can't think this way.
"No worries, I'm the moron on the floor."
I keep walking fast, I want to go back to talk to him, but I have to follow the storyline of the dream.

I'm outside, walking with a housing agent and my friend L. We're looking for a place to live together. We find an old apartment building, there are two apartments near the back and right next to each other that are for rent. We think it's perfect.

I'm standing in a bathroom, looking in the mirror. I'm blue all over. A deep sky blue. The color of Liam's eyes. My hair is slicked back, also blue, in a long braid down my back. I'm wearing a matching blue dress with oblong gold beads at the waist and in intricate patterns down the skirt. It makes my eyes look a glowing, impossible green. I turn to my boyfriend but he isn't paying attention. "Hey, look how green my eyes are." ((I'm amused that neither of us care that I'm painted blue))
He still isn't paying attention. I lean close to the mirror and look at the brightness of my eyes. "Hey, look how bright my eyes are!" I say to him again. He waves dismissively and goes back to whatever he was doing without looking at me.