Hopeless Wanderings

So, I only really post on my DJ when I have a dream that really sticks with me that I want to remember, and this was one of them. I think it came from watching the news about the guy who walked into a theater during The Dark Knight Rises and started shooting everyone. My dream is sort of based on that, so it's a bit disturbing.

I was at my local park with Niki and we were just hanging out. The sun had just set and it was getting darker out. There was a movie theater there at the park, Showtime Cinema. Of course it didn't occur to me that this theater is not located in the park obviously, but just a few minutes down the road. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so I just went to check out the theater, perhaps to see what was playing(which I think was Dark Knight Rises, but I don't remember for sure). Instead of the whole movie theater being there, it was just one screening room. I sneaked in through one of the emergency exits, which wasn't locked for some reason. The theater was packed with people, and I looked around and saw a guy with a gun. Shots were fired, so I ran back out before the shooter could notice me and dialed 911. The lady on the other line seemed familiar, like I'd called 911 a few times already and had heard her voice before. She seemed very chill and relaxed. "911 what's your emergency?" she asked in a very monotonous tone. "There's a guy shooting people at Showtime Cinema! People have been killed, please send someone over." I said. "Someone will be right there," she replied, not a hint of worry or tension in her voice. I thought she would want more information, but she didn't say anything else so I just said "thank you" and she said "you're welcome. bye" like it was a normal everyday phone conversation. I waited outside awhile and it seemed to be taking the police forever to show up. Then, the theater doors burst open and people came running out. I thought it was finally over, until I saw the shooter come running out after them, shooting every person he could. There was blood and screaming; it was a terrible and frightening scene. He shot and killed one of my friends, Dani, and then came towards me. He took a shot at me and missed but I fell to the ground and pretended to be dead so that he wouldn't keep shooting. When I looked at him again I noticed that he was so angry and raging that he didn't notice he'd run out of bullets and was now just shooting blanks. So I stood up to him. I don't exactly what happened, but whatever I did worked and the cops came and everything was secured. The next thing I remember was reflecting on what had just happened. I vividly recalled all the blood, the screaming, the chaos, the dying, and it traumatized me. I cried and cried throughout the day and the next day. I kept having flashbacks and it was just awful. Then I realized that this was probably just a dream, so I talked to my mom and she showed me a newspaper article headlining the terrible event. There was some kind of picture that was blurry and I don't remember, and then somewhere in the writing they mentioned that I was a hero. I was too distraught to even think about being a hero though. 36, that number kept following me around. I could physically see that number, floating in the air around me. 36 people dead. So much death. I cried again, the pain was so real, the emotions so intense. Then I woke up for real and breathed a sigh of relief when I could finally know for sure that it was just a dream.