Recent DJ Posts

I was in my dorm room. It seemed that the world was going to collapse, destroying the souls of everyone in it. The only way to save them was to take them to another world entirely. Although I don’t recall doing it, I knew I had created a portal for them in my room to take them to Nyre. It was the safest place I could offer them. People ran through the portal in desperation. As I explained it to Autumn, we could save everyone who wasn’t actively dreaming up the “waking” world. In the end, it would only be as stable as the dreams of the last person dreaming it – probably not stable at all. Autumn was clearly worried that I would try to save everyone from the world’s collapse. I ran into the room connected to mine and warned everyone there that time was running out. They had a matter of minutes to escape. I checked the bathroom and found a little girl being attacked by shadow creatures. They pinned her to the wall.

Drawing Apheri in a swift motion, I tore through the shadow beings and banished them from our world. The little girl threw her arms around me on the verge of tears. I reassured her and brought her back to my room where the portal awaited. With Autumn’s help, I convinced her to go through to Nyre. The other portals I’d created around the world were allowing billions of people to escape the crumbling world, but the number of people I expected to die with Earth was still enormous. Some of them refused to believe it was happening.

“I have to try to save them,” I told Autumn. She grabbed my arm.

“You don’t have time,” she replied. “Four minutes won’t be enough.” I almost argued, but when I thought about it, I realized she was right. I would die with the rest of them if I stayed here too long, and then what would become of Nyre? Perhaps it would collapse just like Earth. I gave in and joined her in stepping through the gray-blue rift.

The dream jumped. Autumn and I sat on the back of a riding lawn mower with my grandpa. After coming to Nyre, he found an enormous plantation and built a house. It seemed like a lot of land for him to take care of… He was living his dream, so he didn’t mind the work. We accompanied him back to his house before going our separate ways. Autumn and I wanted to find the people we saved in Illinois. I also wanted to make sure no one had found Nocturn Isle. I couldn’t trust Earth’s society with Symphony. Autumn didn’t want to drive, so I agreed to it. A light snowstorm blew in as we departed.

★★★★☆

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.

I'm baaack.

Originally Posted by #1. First Appearances

It's dark, and I'm surrounded by beautiful, frightening living statues made of shadow... twisted, slender, lethal. I want to remember them when I wake up, because they're mine.

08/26/10



The Monster of the Week gets in over its head.

This dream takes place in my old apartment building in Ixburg. The suite is a floor down from where I actually used to live, and it's been refitted with giant windows. It has a balcony with a fire exit, and the place is spacious and airy. Which is fortunate, because I live there with a group of people, and we're all sleeping together.

I'm alone in the bedroom when I see it. A presence has been on the edges of my consciousness for a while now, and it finally coalesces into a physical form. It's a black statue, shiny and carved out of something like obsidian or onyx. It's vaguely humanoid, but it's a simplified form. It has a somewhat bulbous head, but the rest of it is sleek, almost liquid.

Time speeds up, and I watch life continue in fast-forward. The other people in the apartment don't notice the statue at all. I have the feeling that it's been there for some time, and the fact that I can see it now means nothing good.

Ignoring the others going about their day, I stand up from the bed and walk over to the statue. It's immobile, but I can feel a dark presence.

It's moving. The statue bends an arm back, quick as lightening, and stabs forward. My mouth falls open in an involuntary gasp, and I see myself being impaled on the thing's arm, its hand reaching out through my lower back. I come to the sudden, horrible realization that I'm a sacrifice, and the only person who lives here that meets the requirements. Golden white light streams into my vision, claiming everything, and I feel myself fall back, completely detached from my physical form.

It's like being in the blue-white light from previous dreams, but this feels more like home, more a part of myself. I'm searching for something, cataloguing information that my conscious mind can't comprehend. And I feel it.

The "statue" exists before me as an infinitesimal dark speck, a mote of dust. The thing before me, the spirit inside the statue, I reach out - no, I don't even have to reach out. Just by existing in this state, I snuff out its tiny little black soul.

The light falls away, and I'm left standing in the apartment, completely intact. The dark presence is gone, and I allow myself a glimmer of satisfaction.

There's a reason they call me the Lightbringer.

Mugging the Monster. Scare Factor: 2.

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

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

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

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

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



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

I just feel hungry.

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

No, that won't do at all.

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

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

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

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

***

"Can you help me?" says the boy.

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

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

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

Exorcisms. Scare Factor: 4.

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

I'm running away from something. I'm underground, and it's dark and brown and I propel myself forward upward through the cave system. The thing I'm running away from is catching up to me, but I realize that I'm dreaming. I spin on my heel, turn around to confront the creature. I feel an icy thrill of fear when I see it. An inky black miasma chokes the air around me, and I can feel the creature's energy trying to infect my every pore.

I use that against it.

I expand my awareness, absorbing the black energy and forcing it to change, twisting it into an approximation of my own energy. I blanket the creature in a cloud of soft red and black, my aura, and allow the energy to dissippate.

All of my surroundings are gradations of red and black, and I find the atmosphere calming. All that's left of the monster is a swathe of black fabric on the ground, and a round plush toy that doesn't make much sense. I step over the toy and peer out into a gigantic cavern.

The very air starts to hum. I can feel bright blue energy spiking through the dream, interrupting the calm dark colours, and the energies start to clash as everything fades to white.

Something Blue. Scare Factor: 6.

And then I went to the dentist's office and found this:


It's identical.

Spring 2008

I'm in my grandmother's old office. Shift. It's dark, and I'm surrounded by beautiful, frightening living statues made of shadow... twisted, slender, lethal. I want to remember them when I wake up, because they're mine.

The office space gives way, and I'm in the basement of my old house. I'm waking up, still surrounded by the last traces of my shadow-creatures. I'm trying to remember them, listing their traits aloud. Onyx. Jet. Shadow. Cat-like, bat-like, tribal, sharp, angular. They wouldn't have been out of place on a tattoo, if they weren't so real, so dynamic.

I hear a scream.

From upstairs. My mother? Why am I in the basement? Everything is hazy and dream, and my reactions are sluggish. I stumble through the basement and away from my dream-room. I reach the base of the stairs, which, oddly, are not located where they should be. The only light is coming from upstairs. I look up. There is a man standing there.

He's old, unremarkable. I wouldn't recognize his features if I saw him now. He's small, but not in any particular way. Not overly short, not overly skinny.

There was a scream from upstairs, but now, it's all about me. Because the man is stepping down stairs toward me, and I'm just standing there. There's no screaming - it's so quiet - and I couldn't move if I wanted to. And I want to move.

I'm rooted to the spot, affixed by an unbreakable bond to the dreamscape. I can't flex my muscles or flail, because it's not about my feet. I am stuck, immobile, immovable.

And the old man is walking down the stairs, unremarkably. Not sinister or threatening, but I need to get away. Because something horrible is about to happen.

And he reaches the base of the stairs and I haven't moved because I can't, although this is my last chance to rush him, to push past him onto the bare wooden steps.

He's standing in front of me, and of all my will, the only thing I can do is push two words past my lips, "No, please" and it's barely more than a whisper, because nothing's moving, and I haven't thought about drawing breath.

And the old man looks at me, his expression unremarkably pleasant. He places his hand on my forearm -

End.

First Appearances. Scare Factor: 9.

I'm not sure what it was about the dream that freaked me out so much. But I couldn't be alone in my apartment once I woke up. Not in the dark. It was something like five in the morning, and the Tim Hortons beside the building was open. I threw on clothes and nearly flew down the stairs. I ordered a hot chocolate, and a bagel, and sat with my back to a wall where I could see every exit, I and waited for the sun to come up.