21 Jul 2024
Dream
My old roommate had the ability to start and stop fires at random. She was sitting out front of my old childhood home which was a townhouse, where she would think of a fire, and all of the sudden, everything was ablaze, until she felt like going back to normal, and nothing was smoldering; as if the fires never existed.
I walked to my friend Courtney's house a few blocks away, thinking that would calm me down from watching my house turn to flames, only to go right back to ordinary. No such luck. Courtney was dating Marc, a friend of mine that I used to chill with at the bars, and comment on chicks with. They had apparently been together for a while, and all you could find in their fridge was leftovers from going out to dinner every night.
I was so angered that they would spend so much money on going out, when they were struggling for rent money. God, they're just like my dad and step-mom. But they didn't see it. Courtney was so oblivious to her over-spending, and just sat back and played Playstation 2 some more.
So, onto my house again, where my old roommate had left to kill herself. She told my sister Jennie to tell me that she couldn't handle her newfound powers, so she was going to leave the world. I was suprisingly nonchalant about it. As I moved onto talking to Jennie about going back to the House of 1,000 Corpses Haunted House, where she had chickened out last time we went. I had experienced quite a large amount of dysphoria last time I went, being that I fell through the floor, only to find myself covered in maggots and doormouses. The house was enveloped by morbid quotations written in graffitti. Stuff like "your mother raped me, so I killed her." and "this is the blood of the many victims of this house."
I thought that for a haunted house, they went a little far with their decorations, but I figured, Jennie wants to go and see if she can handle it, I may as well go with her to 'hold her hand' if she got scared.
So, I decide to go first, and wait for her there. I remembered the part of the house where I fell through, and made sure to stay clear of that level. I uncovered more morbid quotations, and even more creeking panels. There were ropes hanging from the ceiling, and chains cuffed carelessely to the banisters. I didn't want to go back in there. But I had to remain strong, for Jennie.
She was going through enough already, with her getting admitted into the mental hospital, and escaping because she knew she wasn't crazy. I had to stay with her, make sure she was safe.
So, Jennie finally shows up, exhausted and out of breath from running again. She had run into one of the orderlys on their way to the asylum. But at least she made it here okay. Although she was shaken up from the whole ordeal, she still wanted to go into the haunted house. I told her she may not be able to handle it, but she insisted that she do it, to prove that she wasn't a pussy.
She reluctantly climbs up the steps to the first floor, watching me to see if my facial expressions change, giving her an idea of where to and where not to go. She eventually makes it to the level where I fell in. I stood on the window sill on the level below, where you could look up and see where other people were in the house. There was nowhere for me to climb up to her to warn her, and for some reason, she wasn't answering my cries to her to stop and turn around. So, what other option did I have than to go myself? I started getting very sweaty, my palms could barely hold onto the banister, which was shakey to begin with. I pass over the blood stained wood beneath my feet as I make my way up the staircase to where she was.
I find her sitting down on the very slates that I fell through, petting a lost dog. She seemed very somber, as if she was in an ordinary house. I couldn't understand why I fell through, and when I come here to be her moral support, she winds up being more unafraid than I.
I try and tell her it was time to leave, that we had to get out of the house before the boards split, and she becomes engulfed in insects and rodents. And as I stood there, pleading with her, there sat a doormouse, just like the ones I fell into before. Right behind her.
She turns around, and picks up the furry creature, and starts petting it, as though she were a little kid in a pet store. Everything seemed fine.
We finally leave the house, and realize, only when we looked around and saw not a single soul, that there was no carnival in town. No fair, no amusement park; we just spent over an hour in an actual blood haven.
We stoically walked forth to our house, where we had to get ready for a party soon. We walk in, and find the party has already begun. I tell Jennie I have to go upstairs and change before my soulmate Kenny got there. As soon as I said that, her daughter Emily runs up to me, and asks me why I was covered in blood. I couldn't tell her. I simply walked up the stairs without missing a beat.
Later, Jennie went onto explain to Emily that it was fake blood. No reason to make Emily upset.
I finish changing, and sit down by the window, because I wanted to watch the moon. A few hours pass by where I forgot about the world, when all of the sudden, Jennie walks up to me, and tells me to hold out my hands. Shaking a pill bottle into my palms, she gives me 7 Tylenols with codeine. She thought that maybe if we were numb and apathetic to the whole incident, we could enjoy the party more. So I take them. All of them.
Next thing you know, I'm calling everyone in my phone book. I stumble across a few people I hadn't talked to in years, and they seem unknowing to who I was. She was right; the pain killers helped to make me forget the killer's house, but now I had something else to deal with. People had forgotten me. People that I held in such high regard, people that I talked about all the time, and shared memories of them with other acquaintances.
How could they forget me? They said I was such a great friend.
