I Dream of Danger

 

In my dream…

It was something I’d heard about and seen play out a time or two in the news, something  utterly terrifying. In these grainy newsreels it would show someone in a car stopping because of a car sitting sideways in the middle of the road.  Beside the car would be two cartoon-like characters that looked to be men in costume.  The costume made them look like simple children’s drawings: large and puffy, all white, and a simple face drawn on with a black marker.  There was something paranormal about this phenomenon such that if the person found themselves confronted by this scenario they were going to die and there was nothing to be done about it (a la “The Ring”).

So, I am pulling out of a parking lot with my family and as I turn there sits a car with the two cartoonish characters by it blocking the road.  In a full on panic I put my car in reverse.  I speed off backwards towards the downtown skyline and when I get there I briefly see the outline of a giant fox-like creature in the distance towering over some skyscrapers in my rearview mirror.  I realize it is part of this thing I am now caught up in and I make my family exit the car.

We run across the street and into an empty department store.  I am trying to get them to move as fast as possible without having to tell them we are in mortal danger.  I am kind of running behind them saying “go, go, go!” staying between them and whatever is behind us.  We run down an aisle to the back and I am looking around trying to find a way further in and further away from the danger stalking us.

I have them go through some doors into the back offices and then into a bathroom where I lock the door and tell them to be as quiet as possible.  I have no idea if anything I do will actually save our lives but I am determined to do everything in my power to increase the odds of our survival.  We stand in silence and I hear someone or something approach the door.  I put my finger to my lips and make eye contact with each family member to make sure no one makes a sound.  But then my teenage son starts to get impatient and gives me a kind of annoyed look and says in a low voice that isn’t quite a whisper “There’s nobody out there”.

I don’t know how to make him not talk and at this point I am sure we have been compromised.  It is such a feeling of total despair, but I can’t give up hope and so I push open a window and lift up my daughter to get her outside so hopefully she can continue to run and possibly escape the inevitability of this nightmare.

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