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    Things to Run Away From Really Fast

    Warnings: violence, problems with authority, and links to TV Tropes.

    But in all seriousness, this journal legitimately contains the kind of graphic and disturbing content that gives people nightmares, so either that's a selling point or a reason not to read on. Just a heads up.

    As of 2015, dreams are ranked according to three categories:

    Adventure: How much fun and excitement can I fit into one dream?
    Control: How much control do I have over the narrative, environment, and dream powers?
    Fear: How scared and out of control do I feel? (Has very little to do with how Silent Hill the monsters get.)

    Regular dreams are in black (along with notes).
    Semi-lucid dreams are green.
    Lucid dreams are blue.

    1. #181. Eternity

      by , 01-28-2011 at 05:56 AM (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.
    2. #180. The Road

      by , 01-28-2011 at 05:48 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★☆☆☆

      Samael Presents:

      (your daily)

      SOLO SENTENCE ESPRESSO

      (the contents of which you should still)

      FLEETLY FLEE FROM

      (with all due haste.)


      On a deserted stretch of Saskatchewan highway, after I wake up in the back of an empty car surrounded by empty cars, I watch a figure approach from the distance (I don't expect him to attack me until the door is opening and I can't wrench it shut and I barely remember to break the dream into a thousand million jagged pieces of glass).

      The Road. Scare Factor: 7.

      Samael's SOLO SENTENCE ESPRESSO is not at all similar to Mzzkc's ¡Single Sentence Sizzler!® and disclaims all semblance of copyright infringement thereof. That would be stealing.
    3. #179. Action Movie Physics

      by , 01-17-2011 at 03:10 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★★☆

      01/16/10

      I coax my motorcycle to its maximum speed, streamlining my body as I approach the closing elevator doors. The elevator cab has already left for the top floor, and I strain to hold the metal doors open. In half a second, I'll crash into the back of the open elevator shaft and hurtle half a dozen stories into the secret basement of the compound.

      Pause.

      No reason for that. I don't have to follow the rules, after all. I stand in the open air, looking up at the elevator cab as it slowly escalates to the top floor. That's where I'll find her.

      Go.

      I fly through the doors, over the pit below. The front wheel of my bike hits the far wall, and I twist

      Speeding up the elevator shaft at maximum, up the vertical wall. Vertigo. Disassociated from gravity and catching up to the elevator cab, about to impact. I jump away from the vehicle; it fades away. Suspended in the air for a moment, and I reach toward the closed doors leading to the floor second-to-the-top. I pull myself in, catch on the small ledge there, hang for a moment, looking at the bottom of the elevator cab. It's moving towards me now.

      Jump. Over the elevator, clinging onto the doors leading to the top floor. With a wave of my hand, they're opening...


      I wake up. Damn it guys, could you break up a little more quietly?

      Action Movie Physics. Scare Factor: 3.
    4. #178. I Spy

      by , 01-15-2011 at 08:52 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★☆☆

      01/14/10

      She pours cream in her coffee, and I know she's the spy.

      The woman sips at the drink as she turns and pushes into the crowd of people in the mall. I pull away from a conversation, follow at a distance. I can make out her long black coat, her long curtain of blonde hair. She breaks into a run, and I'm speeding after her. I'm falling behind, reaching out and (force pull) she's flying back into my arms. Hair falls away from her face - the wrong face. A body double. (I'm letting go of the woman, blending into the crowd.) Good.

      She's going to make it fun.

      I Spy. Scare Factor: 2.

      Blondes and coffee seem to be a recurring trope.

      Updated 01-17-2011 at 03:19 AM by 31096

      Categories
      non-lucid
    5. #177. Leverage

      by , 01-13-2011 at 12:26 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★★☆

      01/12/11

      Darth Vader is quite literally on ice, lying frozen in the bathtub. All part of your regular Wednesday morning kidnapping attempt. The plan is to free Vader from the control of the Emporer, and to take our chances with a renegade Sith Lord. (Large-scale mayhem is the most likely outcome, but to Parker, that might just be the most interesting one.)

      I'm stripping the Stormtrooper uniform off of some poor, dead bastard when a man in a black flight suit rounds the corner. He freezes for a moment, processing me, half dressed as a Stormtrooper and the body half undressed... I shoot him in the head with a blaster pistol.

      "Everything okay in there, Nate?" says a voice crackling through the earpiece.

      "Everything's fine, Eliot." I reply, putting a hand to my ear. I scowl at the second, inconvenient body for a moment before a new plan starts to form in my mind.

      "Parker, are you in position?" I say, pulling on the gloves of my uniform.

      "Nate?" says Sophie, concern in her transmitted voice, "What are you thinking?"

      I smile as I slip the Stormtrooper helmet over my head. "We're going to steal a Death Star."

      Leverage. Scare Factor: 2.
    6. #176. Flight

      by , 01-12-2011 at 10:54 PM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★☆☆

      01/09/11

      I just found a Star Wars game for my phone. I decide to try it out, so I'm tilting it left and right, figuring out the controls. Spacebar is jump.

      I'm in the game. My surroundings are a dank green, covered in vines and rot. This was a school once. I try out the jump command, disappointed when I realize I have only first-level force jump. It doesn't matter; I'll be able to get around just fine.

      Obi-Wan's shade appears beside me to explain my mission. This is strange, because I'm pretty sure I'm a past version of him. The force ghost fizzles out and disappears, exploding into four green blobs of goo. They reform and immediately begin to scuttle about, taking shape as Gravelings, mischievous reptilian creatures that arrange the accidental deaths of the people around them.

      I strike with my single lightsaber, v-stepping in and twisting away after I cut through the torso of one of the gravelings. The creature goes still in shock, before it disintegrates in a flash of red sparks. With a sweep of my lightsaber, the others are scuttling away. I finish them off with force lightening.

      Later, alone in an empty room, I suddenly realize that I'm dreaming. It feels like waking up. I try to remember my goals, but I come up blank. Fine - I'll run. I love to run in dreams. I take a running start and leap from a four-foot ledge.

      In one reality, I can feel myself flying.
      I drift away, into the blue, blue sky, heedless of the ceiling that used to be there. Simultaneously I'm falling, landing. I can feel the remnants of the other reality until all four of my limbs slowly reach the floor. I lay my forehead onto the cold cement and just breathe.

      I see Zoe, walking away into a crowd of faceless people. I call out to her, chase after her. Her blonde hair swishes as she half turns, keeps walking.

      We're sitting side by side, looking at the massive crowd milling about through the mall. She's counting the cash in a till.

      "There's something you want to tell me," she says, flipping through a pile of five dollar bills.

      "Yep."

      She scowls, but doesn't turn to look at me. "Well?" she asks, "What is it?"

      "You could say," I smile faintly, "That I have slightly more than platonic feelings for you."

      Her hands go still. "Oh."

      "But that doesn't matter," I say, leaning back.

      "And why is that?"

      "Because," I say, and I stretch my hands out in front of my face, "None of this is real."

      And the dream dissolves into static.


      Running. Scare Factor: 3.

      Updated 01-17-2011 at 03:20 AM by 31096

      Categories
      lucid
    7. #175. Coffee

      by , 01-01-2011 at 08:11 PM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★☆☆☆☆

      01/01/11

      "I'd like a triple Venti half-sweet white mocha, please," says the woman. Her curly brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and she digs through her purse for change.

      I nod absently, pick up my sharpie and mark the drink, putting it on the bar next to the other three drinks that have already been ordered. My hand scrapes against the white fabric and I pause, glancing at the alarm clock on my nightstand. Two AM. Wait...

      "What the fuck are you people doing in my house?" I mutter, shaking off the last fragments of the dream. Still half-asleep, I imagine that the customers are waiting impatiently in my living room. Irritated and disoriented, I curl up and try to go back to sleep.

      Coffee. Scare Factor: 4.

      And working New Years Day... what a nightmare.

      Updated 01-17-2011 at 03:20 AM by 31096

      Categories
      non-lucid , dream fragment
    8. #174. Squish

      by , 12-30-2010 at 02:21 PM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★☆☆☆

      12/30/10

      "Doctor, believe me I know. When someone locks themselves in their own mind like that, it's only a matter of time before it destroys them."

      Squish. Scare Factor: 2.

      Updated 01-17-2011 at 03:21 AM by 31096

      Categories
      non-lucid
    9. #173. Thievery

      by , 12-29-2010 at 07:50 PM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★★☆

      12/29/10

      The shop is open to the street, choked with dust kicked up by the people and horses bustling by on the busy dirt road. A woman with short, strawberry blonde hair arranges the merchandise at the front of the stall. Her movements are quick, angry, but she looks tired. The heat and the dust and the people and the fact that she's working for nothing for someone else are wearing at her patience and her sanity. I am that woman.

      A man walks by. I have time to register that he's tall and handsome, with longish dark brown hair, before he's brushing by me. He stops long enough to whisper, "I'm taking the harmonica back. Are you with me?" I've never met the man, but I'm nodding and setting things down, moving away into the street, my movements perfectly synchronized with his.

      The mark is looking at silverware two stalls down. I'm threading through the crowd as he shows off the silver harmonica. I'm tapping him on the shoulder, smiling as he turns around and we chat about the silverware on display. He's waving the harmonica over his shoulder, and the first man, the thief, snatches it from his hand. The mark turns to shout, and I'm brushing by, cutting the strings on his purse.

      We run. Through the countryside, on the uneven ground of the foothills. I thought we were safe, thought we'd outrun our pursuers hours ago, but arrows are raining down on us and the horses are hot on our heels.

      I'm hit. The arrow pierces through just below my ribcage, and I feel the blood soak through my shirt. I fall behind, am left stumbling through the brush. The dogs are quieter now, and I take refuge beneath the roots of a giant tree.

      At the bottom of the hollow are three doors, each small enough to crawl through. I pull out the small leather pouch I stole earlier and turn it over. A key falls into my hand. This key will open any lock in the dreamworld, a voice whispers in my mind. Smiling, calm, heedless of the wound on my side (suddenly much, much younger) I drop to the moss-covered ground and slide the key into the lock.

      Thievery. Scare Factor: 3.

      Isn't that the perfect amount of obvious symbolism for the guys in the Dream Interpretation forum?

      Updated 01-17-2011 at 03:21 AM by 31096

      Categories
      Uncategorized
    10. #172. Seaweed

      by , 12-29-2010 at 07:11 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★☆☆

      10/28/10

      Scrambling up wet black rocks, spray from the waterfall soaking me to the bone. Straight up to the top of the vertical cliff face. Looking out over the dark river snaking through the vast canyon, all sound drowned out by the constant roaring of the falls. Green, black, silver, and blue... It's a clear, crisp day, and I let the joy of the moment wash over me.

      The water is too shallow for me to jump safely... but this is a dream. I'm already half awake as I jump, as I plummet. Icy tendrils cut through me as I hit the ice-green water with a splash.

      I crawl through the interior of a small school bus surrounded by schools of fish. The sunlight from above barely reaches us, filtered through the water to be a dark yellow-green. I push through the wall of the bus, and it gives way like plastic wrap.

      I breathe. Around me, in every direction, are silver fish of every possible size and description. A face appears through the murk. A mermaid, her tail flicking around my leg and then she's in front of me. We're reaching for each other and we're kissing and the scene fades...

      And I'm sitting next to him, our knees touching as we laugh about some random happenstance.


      Seaweed. Scare Factor: 2/10.

      Updated 01-17-2011 at 03:21 AM by 31096

      Categories
      lucid
    11. #171. Shadows

      by , 12-08-2010 at 08:09 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★★☆

      12/07/10

      The vibrant old neighbourhood straddles the line between dilapidation and gentrification. Places like this have colour and character completely unlike the sterility of the suburbs. Walking down the street, taking in the brightly coloured fall leaves on the unkempt lawns, you know that this is a place people consider home.

      It's dead now. Shadows gather where they shouldn't beneath a cloudless blue sky. Trees whisper with the cold wind, and the world seems to be holding its breath, waiting.

      Utterly boring, I decide, as I stare out the window of the second floor of an old house. I'm watching the shadows dance across the vinyl walls of a building across the alley, and I know that I'm being watched in turn. If I make a mistake, one small misstep, they'll attack.

      I'm wondering what that step would be, because I'd really like to get it over with.

      I see movement in the corner of my eye, and I carefully ignore it. Every light in the house is on, and they don't so much as flicker. I let out a breath, close my eyes.

      He asked me to marry him. There will be a wedding on Friday, and I'm a friend, and isn't it terrible what happened to his fiancee?

      A blade cuts through the air where my neck was. I'm halfway across the room in that instant, flickering through the shadow-world, disappearing and reappearing between blinks of an eye.

      The shadows coalesce into a lizard scuttling across the walls, held in place by the rules of gravity that don't apply to them. It leaps from the far wall to the ceiling above me, strikes at me with its scythe-like tail and shrieks.

      And I stand there, waiting. I will not be intimidated.

      Shadows. Scare Factor: 3.

      Updated 01-17-2011 at 03:22 AM by 31096

      Categories
      non-lucid , dream fragment
    12. #170. Ouroboros

      by , 12-08-2010 at 08:06 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★★☆

      I've been working a lot. A lot.

      12/06/10

      I'm standing in my childhood bedroom, surrounded by white walls and pastel shades. None of my rooms have looked like this in years, but that's not something I notice. It seems like I'm awake - already, the fragments of previous dreams are falling away.

      I hear a low hiss in the background of my mind, and I smile.

      I thought I'd lost you, I admit. I tilt my head, listening to a voice only I can hear, and make a face. "Yeah, I'm not having that argument with you."

      A flash of a symbol, the ouroboros, a snake in a circle, eating its own tail. I see green and black stripes, and the dream fades into another one.

      "The walls between realities grow thinner by the day," she says, "And people continue to mine them for profit!"

      I'm half-listening to the merchant at this point, waiting for her to hand me the items I'm buying from her brightly-coloured wooden stall. I need the monkshood for an attempt on the Guardian up in the mountains.

      "One of these days," mutters the woman, "Demons will tear through from the world beyond, and our world will be without hope!"

      Snake chuckles darkly, in the quiet of my mind. Too late for that.

      I nod absently at the woman. I know how to close the gaps between worlds, but of course, I'm one of the demons that these people fear. "Do you know where I can find any explosives?"

      Ouroboros. Scare Factor: 2.

      Updated 01-17-2011 at 03:22 AM by 31096

      Categories
      false awakening , non-lucid
    13. #169. Hostel

      by , 11-20-2010 at 10:00 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★☆☆☆

      11/19/10

      I'm a lifeguard at an indoor pool. We're doing drills, practicing rescue techniques. I stand at the edge of the pool, deliberately collapse into the water.

      Someone from high school. He's another lifeguard. He dives in after me, pulls me up to the surface.

      Surprised to be shooting up out of the water, suspended in the air for a moment.

      I'm staying in a hostel with two friends. Going to our bunk beds, and I'm looking up at the inside of a dome-like structure, planning my escape. We're in a group, aren't allowed to leave at night. I plan to. Sharing a conspiratorial glance with the other troublemakers.

      A school. My brother and I are sneaking in with one of the girls from the hostel trip. She doesn't speak English. I shrug, tell my brother to pin the blame on me if we get in trouble. Nothing they can do to me.

      Hostel. Scare Factor: 1/10.

      Yeah, I haven't been around much. Between moving to a new city and starting a new job (or two, or three), life's been a little hectic. I'll get caught up on others' journals when I get the chance.

      Updated 01-17-2011 at 03:23 AM by 31096

      Categories
      non-lucid , dream fragment
    14. #168. Exploding Bridges

      by , 11-19-2010 at 08:55 AM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★☆☆

      ...because burning them just isn't dramatic enough.

      11/18/10



      A sleek metal bridge extends over the choppy sea. I stand near the center, unable to see the shores on either side, obscured as they are by mist. Rain lashes out in sheets and the wind impedes my movement - block, parry, slash - as I slice through an imperial guard with my lightsaber.

      Something is speeding towards me, about to impact. I catch the missile with Force Grip, send it spinning into an enemy tank. There's a bridge running parallel to this one, and stormtroopers are setting up missile launchers on the edge. They fire -

      A wave of my hand sends them careening back into the shooters.

      A spider-like droid, twice my height, uses the distraction to scuttle towards me, using its legs as blades. I dodge, jump over the droid and land a glancing blow to its head. Its head swivels towards me as it prepares for another run.

      A purge trooper takes a swipe at me. It misses, barely, and I go on the offensive with a flurry of lightsaber strikes. Seconds later, it collapses to the ground, spent.

      I keep a wary eye on the spider droid, but it's smarter to take out the smaller enemies first.

      ...and I'm skating down a barely frozen river. I'm on skis, I'm on a toboggan, I'm holding on to some sort of ski lift as it takes me up, no, down the river.

      And I'm stealing some sort of precious coffee grounds. Or beans. One big pile, holding together only because it doesn't occur to me that they shouldn't.

      And I'm running through a house, up stairs and through hallways and secret passages.

      This room, says a voice, my voice, Was created by my father as a haven for me. No one else can enter it. And I'm laying down behind the couch so that no one can see me through the window in the door.

      And then I'm me, for just a moment. I look at the door and I smirk, knowing that the family that's following me will find me, only because that's what I'm expecting. I don't care. It's a dream, and not a particularly awful one. I just want to rest and not think and play through whatever game my subconscious is dreaming up...

      I wake up to the family pounding on the door, yelling. I pick myself up from the ugly, floral brown couch and pad across the room. I open a closet door methodically, pull a gun from the rack.

      I'm standing in front of the door, holding a crossbow at the ready, pointing through the window. The banging has stopped, and the father asks me if I'm really going to shoot his son.

      Everything's all right. The gun's not even loaded.

      Exploding Bridges. Scare Factor: 2/10

      As an interesting aside, I have not played the game that the picture is from. Before today, I have not seen any pictures or previews, so you can imagine my surprise when I come across an actual spider-like droid from Force Unleashed II, which the dream was based on.

      Granted, mine had more legs.
    15. #166. Elevators

      by , 11-01-2010 at 05:57 PM (Things to Run Away From Really Fast)
      ★★★☆☆

      10/22/10



      People continue to crowd into the elevator, and I'm starting to feel claustrophobic. On the verge of freaking out, I start to push the sheep-like masses in the direction of the buttons, hoping that no one else will be able to get on and pick a different floor.

      One woman won't budge. She faces the back corner of the elevator. She's looking down at the floor; I can't see her face. Her blonde ponytail swings a bit as I tug on her arm, and it takes me a moment to realize that she's missing a hand. Blood drips onto the floor below us.

      In the next second, she swings around with a snarl. I try to back up. I'm pushed away by the other people in the elevator. She's attacking me with her remaining claws, and her teeth are razor sharp and coming towards my neck -

      Pause.

      The scene stops for a moment, and I disassociate myself from my body. Hanging back, away from the elevator, I think about waking myself up. I'm about to, but

      That never works.

      All right, so we'll try something else.

      Play.

      I block the girl's attack and catch her by the forearm. I'm tugging her towards me, stepping forward and sinking elongated teeth into her shoulder. I'm pulling and her arm is coming loose with a sick tearing and a spray of blood.


      Scare Factor: 5/10
      Categories
      lucid , memorable
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