It was getting late, and the party was winding down. I went upstairs to find my friends. I knew exactly what room I was looking for, but for some reason there were way too many doors. I tried a few. Some were locked. A strange woman was changing clothes behind one. I looked around, confused. The dimly lit hallway no longer looked familiar. I could not tell the doors apart. Where am I? This is not my house, Is this a dream?


I opened the nearest door, slowly coming to terms with my lucidity. A flickering blue fluorescent bulb. A tiled bathroom. I am standing before a mirror that does not show my own reflection. I turn to see the room behind me. A little girl is crouching in the corner of the bathtub, trapped, with her head bent impossibly under the faucet. She looks pale, and her eyes are dark and glassy. I am lucid now, and I ask her, "Who are you?" I hear my voice echoed in a deep, monstrous tone. As I speak my next line, the girl's lips move in sync with my own, exposing her yellowed and rotten teeth, "You don't belong here."

I hear my real voice trying to speak above the dream as everything fades. I am talking in my sleep, but my half-paralyzed mouth is mumbling and groaning monstrously.