Zödra

I am with Laura, walking through a forest with a small clear stream going over some rocks in the middle. We are walking up it and people from our group seem to be leaving every once in a while. To my right is the north and the stream is heading downhill from west to east. We are heading east. I look south and see another stream identical to ours, when I look at it again, I realize that I can see the same people that are here over there except me. I tell Laura to follow me and she says “I don’t want to see anything freaky.” and we head through a knot of trees and a small pathway. “You can head back if you want.” I say, not looking to see if she follows. When we get there, we are with the same group, but this time, inside the knot of trees is a bunch of stairs.
I take the stairs. The rock walls are replaced with smooth ones, I hear music. There is a bit of a “back room” as I would call it. There is a janitor cleaning some stuff up. A little kitchen/mop room, maybe something like a “break room” No north east south or west can be remembered here, so I will call part of this room North East South and west and do everything from there. North will be the far wall, I came in from the furthest south part of the west wall. The stairs facing east and west. As I walk in, there seems to be music past the door to the east. Janitor is in the mop area on the east part of the north wall (looks like it opens up to his own area from there). Table in the middle with some chairs, mop sink and the like on the north wall. Counters and sink and fridge and microwave to the south. The Janitor turns around. He is wearing what looks to be like a bellhop uniform or an old timey elevator guy or an old timey guy that works in the movie theater. Red and yellow hat, clothes trimmed in red and yellow, don’t need to tell you much about his face, since it is NICHOLAS EFING CAGE.
“Hello there.” he says, turning around to talk to us. I notice now that my sisters are here too “I see you are wanting to visit the land between the living and the not quite dead.” He starts messing with some things on the east wall, different cleaning supplies and maintenance supplies.
I stand there is silence, not sure what to say, I will let this play out.
“Well, best get started.” he opens the door that is on the southern part of the east wall “As you venture further in, you will notice things get a bit more strange, but don’t let that bother you. This is slightly dangerous, but so is walking out your door every day, these are just people like you, so they are as dangerous and as peaceful as you.”
He walks over to the door on the north part of the east wall and steps on through. I Step through the door. There are like seven people, all standing around some normal looking furniture. Lets go deeper I think as I see that there is another door on the east wall. I smile at the people and then as I walk through the door there seem to be more people, and I can tell I am also heading down further, maybe not even actually going east, this is just a bigger version of the same room. I realize I can use dream control to change what each room will be as I step through. I decide to freak the girls out and think about some aliens. As we step through the next door, the people are about 9 feet tall and their faces are shaped like aliens, but they don’t have eyes that I can see. It looks like human faces squished into that shape and their eyelids can no longer seem to open. Giant heads of course. They are all drinking some alcohol and talking all snooty and the place is decorated like madmen a bit, I find this kinda funny, but my wife starts talking about how hilarious it is that the heaven for these alien things is old style furniture from the 50s. I decide to keep going and imagine that the next place is “the destination” when I get there. I open the door and it is a huge party. I cannot see the other wall. We just entered through the front door, and there is a waiter waiting to take us to our table. On the south east side of the building (near the next door, so I guess it didn’t take me to the destination, I still think that this place is important though, so we stay for a minute) I sit down. A guy with a giant normal shaped head and a Jack in the Box mask on comes up to me and says “Excuse me” and bumps into me as he is trying to get the cake (the cake table is between me and the door to go further. This honestly reminds me of a wedding now that I think about it. “Don’t make a mess” he says as he sets the cake next to me and drops part of it on the ground.
Part of me is instantly worried that I might get kicked out if I make a mess. I pick up the big pieces, but the cake is white frosting with vanilla inside and the floor is completely white. I get down on the floor and start looking for spots. Using my napkin from the table to clean it. The guy is back.
“What happens if I don’t clean it?” I ask him
“Just clean it up! I can’t let him know, you don’t want him to find you.” Now I am more worried, but the guy no longer has a jack in the box mask on, just a big head. Blonde hair his face looks a bit like the psychopath from breaking bad (will find his name later) but big head, so big face).
So I seem to finish cleaning it up and I notice that people are just kind of standing around, except one couple, they are slowly making their way to the door.
This is it, I think to myself and then tell my sisters and wife “don’t forget about coming back when I call, I can’t guarantee the next place will be as lively and fun as this one, stick with me if you remember.”
“Oh hi!” the boy and girl say as they come up to us, trying to exit the conversation with the dream characters “We are Nancy and Paul, we are looking for our friends William and Stacy, have you seen them?” The party seems to hinge on this moment. The DCs I sense won’t like that we are going to leave if the plan is to leave the party. These people are like us though.
“Yeah! I think they went right to the bathrooms this way.” I say and quickly open the door and step through. My wife does not follow, she heads to the west door, the DCs aren’t watching us walk through, but you can kind of tell that they are. We step on through to a forest.
I am pretty excited, destination reached. The forest is kinda like a normal forest by all accounts, it is not overgrown anywhere though and there are lots of paths through the forest. The trees are all hickory trees and it is pretty bright in the forest.
A girl is there in the forest, not really waiting for us. She starts talking about the best people ever WIlliam and Stacy and about how amazing it is being with them here. The whole world seems to revolve around them from what she says. The forest leads into a beach house and we walk into a beach party. I do my best to blend in at the party and my sisters immediately split up. The beach is on the south, the forest to the north. I keep talking with people, trying to figure out what they know. It occurs to me that they are all persistent with some convos about things going on. They all know that this place is the “place of the dead” and that this is where they live. I realize with conversation that I should be careful, I don’t think that they would like us being here. William and Stacy pull up. They look like complete tools, dress like they own the place, driving a camo golf cart. There are actually cars here, which I am surprised by. They talk to everyone else like they are better than them and everyone loves it. I think that the “dead” want William and Stacey to stay, so they are giving them everything that they want.
The beach is pretty standard, volleyball, drinks and the like. I can see the ground all around the beach, so I don’t think it is supposed to be an ocean, just a man made beach on a lake or river. There are stands for drinks everywhere and everything is free. Honestly the whole thing seems like a honeytrap designed for someone else.
I grab a drink, the only drink that they serve here, and it tastes very good. After some time of talking with people, William leaves to sleep. Stacey stays and I notice some odd things happening around her. Some bits of control here and there. She may be what is stopping them from leaving. The place calms down and Stacey leaves eventually. The DCs all disperse and it is just me in the forested beach area. It seems like something is controlling everything, because when I reach for a tree, and tk it in the air, it barely moves. The world is being sustained in this state by something or someone. I look at a tree, line up another tree behind it in my sight, close one eye and imagine that the branches from the second tree belong to the first tree as well, when I walk to the side, the second tree is gone. Perspective control is powerful, It is hard to use in a fight, but I should be fine.
The sun seems like it is coming up after a few minutes. I can also splash sand around with tk easily and move the waves, I don’t know where my sisters are, this doesn’t matter so much, I know, but I’d like to stick with some of the story while I explore this land, I think about how this is kinda the closest thing I have been to that resembles “The unknown” from Over the Garden Wall. I talk with some DCs as they show up. Stacey comes up in the morning, I notice that Paul and Nancy are back and are being given the runaround by some DCs as they try to talk to Stacy.
I walk over to a few dream characters and ask them (A couple girls) “Where is William?” and they both look at me and laugh.
“Is that the name of a person or place? I have never heard of a thing called a ‘william’” They giggle.
I look over and notice that Nancy and Paul are being separated by the DCs and they both look worried. Probably they were told the same thing as me. I am not complying with the girl DCs in front of me and they can tell. Oh no, they know that I am not under their spell. I walk slowly to a car, they seem to think that I may still be and are waiting for my proof that I am not under it while the others (Nancy and Paul) are there. Stacy, standing up on some rocks seems to be ordering them. She must have killed William, or had him done away with.
I don't know if it will work. But I know we need to leave. I tap the side of the car to enter into it, kinda like a video game.
It doesn’t work.
“Hey!” someone yells and I turn around to see two people coming at me. I use telekinesis to stop one of them and try to move over to the other, but TK isn’t working well here, takes more attention. I seem to be able to stop them with just a thought, but can’t push them away easily, I try to grab a tree with TK, but as I do, I can tell that it is controlled by someone else. Oh crap, this place is being held together by someone, and they actually have control of themselves. That is why TK isn’t working like normal, gotta fight like I am fighting someone strong, with every one of them. I reach over and TK in front of me again, this time making the air straight to me and that guy shimmer and move, I imagine a giant hand lifting him up and the air shimmers into that shape and tosses him into the ocean. The other guy is coming to me, I TK the air between us and he can’t pass it. I see a car and decide to jump in, quick cuts style and I make it in this time.
I drive off. My sisters jump into the car quickly and we all yell "paul and nancy!"
"Okay. You drive to them, I'll hold them off." The car we are in is a green honda civic, but that shouldn't stop me. I don't look back and imagine the back being bigger. I hit a button on the dash to make the top open (that shouldn't exist). It slides back quickly and my sister hits the gas. The people are all smiling and keep chasing us. I knock down a tree with my finger. (Close one eye put finger "on tree" and knock it over, perspective) the people crawl over it. Other people come from the side on motorcycles. We pass by a chain link fence and turn through a gate. As soon as the gate pole passes by the other one from my perspective, I imagine it connecting from one side to the other as it flashes by and a guy turns right into the fence where the opening was just at and flips off. We keep going down a dirt road and my sisters slam on the breaks. We are with nancy and paul. Nice, I wasn't expecting them to actually find them.
We all take off into the forest, continuing to head back west. No wall or anything, but a door is right in between two trees bent over. I notice that I am alone. I open the door and walk through, my sisters are there already, in the kitchen.
“Well, it's good to see you made it back.” Nicholas Cage says as I open the door.
“I couldn’t save William.” I said, a little sad about failing.
“You actually made way for some other people to escape the almost dead as well, they would have all been stuck there if it wasn’t for you.” He says, motioning to a couple of teenage boys that were also part of the party at the beach. I never saw them attacking us, but they seemed part of the spell, maybe we broke the spell, maybe they were just better at acting like they were part of the spell than I was.
I am getting ready to leave when Cage says “Take some cookies from on top of the fridge with you.” I look and there are some cookies in a clear container, similar to what you get from a kroger bakery. The boys already have them and are heading up the stairs. I grab one and notice that the cookies are square, but also seem thicker than most cookies. I think about the fact that I will be heading up the stairs and away from this cut off space and that the dream time will likely start ticking again as soon as I get to the top of the stairs, so I think about turning around.
“You won’t be able to get back that way today.” Cage says, he is mopping the ground and has his back to me. I decide to head up the stairs. As I walk up, I start thinking about my goals so that I can do them as soon as I exit the stairs. As I bring the goals up, I realize that I am in bed visualizing. I open my eyes and decide to type this instead of sleeping more.