...
I had a dream last night. A nightmare. I usually don't have em, nor do I believe in superstitious crap. but this one really got to me.
I was at an apartment complex where this girl I dated a long time ago, Sarah, lived with her mom. There were a few people out in the patio area, an old Japanese woman and some children playing, and this old maid carrying some sort of basket. I hadn't intended to meet Sarah but we crossed paths and after some idle chit chat I left. As I was walking away, the old maid began heading towards the hallway I was coming out of. She was old and withered and the basket looked heavy. As she looked down the hallway that Sarah had left down, her long boney fingers clutched the basket tighter. She looked towards the sky and stopped. As I walked past her I heard her mutter under her breath.
"That girl...she'll be gone tomorrow."
She stares a bit longer and then keeps walking. I walk a bit further and the old japanese woman is looking at the trees which had just started blooming flowers. She notices me and nods. I nod back and start leaving as she looks back at the tree.
"Saku ga kirei naa" (the blooms are beautiful). I stop. "Un..sou da," I agree.
"Zannen kedo..ashita...kieru yo"( Too bad but, tomorrow they'll dissapear)
I stare at her. And for a split second a smile creeps across her face. I blink and its gone. I keep walking and leave the complex.
I head out to a pizza place to meet my friends. We eat, talk and are overall having a fun time. Cory's flirting away with Irene and Pete and I are doing really badly at House of the Dead. I'm going to get a drink when I pass a news report playing on the T.V. at the bar.
"A woman walking her dog found a severed arm near the riverbank earlier today. Later that evening another person had found the remains of a foot on the eastside of town. Police have yet to identify the victims and have not concluded whether this is, in fact, the same body or two seperate homicides." The people at the counter were talking about how awful it was and gossiping away.
I head back and Pete broke the conversation to mention the yearbooks had just come out from our old high school. We decide to go through it to see what our underclassmen that we knew were up to this past year. As we flipped past a few pages, something caught my eye.
I borrowed it and turned to this article about the girl. It was Sarah. There was some sort of drama between her and another girl that had led to a huge scism of the student population. Things began getting violent and several people ended up in hospital. The girl, the one I didn't know, ended up having to leave school and eventually town because of this.
I felt a twinge, and I was staring at the picture until my friend pulled the yearbook away from me. We started talking again and I soon forgot about it. We play a few more games and finally start getting ready to leave. It's getting pretty late. Already the early hours of the next day.
I get a phone call. It's Sarah's mom. She hasn't come home yet and she's calling everyone. My stomach lurches and I get a really bad feeling. I tell her mom I haven't heard from her since I left and that if I she calls me I'll let her know you're worried.
We're walking back to the car when I see a bum pushing a cart holding an old basket. Suddenly I remember the old women. The pit in my stomach get's heavier and I try to ignore it. I don't believe in superstitious crap. But I can't shake this feeling.
We get in the car and I decide it can't hurt to at least check on Saku. I call her and it goes straight to her voicemail.
I wait a bit longer and try again. Voicemail.
I start breathing harder. Somethings wrong. I tell Pete to start driving to the complex. I try one more time and once again I get her voicemail. I'm panicking. My fingers are tapping my seat. Pete and Cory begin talking about Persona 4, oblivious to me. We are a mile away from the complex when I cut them off and begin explaining. Towards the end I get a phone call. It's Saku.
"What faggot, I'm at work." I breathe a huge sigh of relief but stop short. I ask her if anything strange has been happening today. She starts telling me about this one crazy old lady who was trying to return a console without the reciept and that she told her off. I hear a faint bell in the background as a customer walks in and Saku is disconnected mid sentence. The complex is in sight. My stomach clenchs yet again.
The old woman is sitting under the tree. The flowers are dying and falling softly around her. She looks directly at me and smiles.
Pete keeps driving.
"Pete that was it."
"I know."
"Pete..turn around."
"I will in a second"
"PETE TURN THE FUCK AROUND."
"I will, I will, I'm just looking for parking"
He keeps driving towards the main road, towards the freeway. He turns back to Cory and jumps back into the discussion of Persona. I look back at the fading apartment complex when I hear a click.
The door's locked shut.
"Pete..what's going on."
He ignores me and keeps talking. I quietly reach for my phone and call saku again. No voicemail. All I hear is a disconnected line signal.
I try again, only to recieve the same noise. I try one last time. It picks up, but there's heavy static and the voice is grainy.
"I'm sorry. The user you are trying to dial is no longer in service"
We are getting closer to the freeway. In the distance, the sun isn't out yet but day is breaking. I unbuckle my seatbelt and start scrambling at the door. The lock is stuck in position and I can't open the door. The window won't roll down. I start pushing buttons frantically and Pete stops talking and turns towards me.
"You need to calm down."
I'm breathing harder. I try to cry out but nothing comes. It's slowly getting brighter. I start punching the window as hard as I can. My fists are bleeding but the window doesn't even have a crack. Suddenly, THWACK! Cory punches me in the side of the head.
"He said. You need. To calm down"
It's getting harder and harder to breath. My vision is blurring as I start losing consiousness. He straps me back into the seatbelt. Tightly.
It cuts into my skin. We're on the freeway. I try to scream but all that comes out is a weak whisper. "no...no...."
The sun has risen.
I woke up hyperventilating screaming "NO. " I was covered in sweat and my hands wouldn't stop shaking. I went to the bathroom and vomited. I ended up smoking 3 ciggarettes in a row but I still couldn't stop shaking. I don't believe in visions or prophetic dreams or shit like that but still. This dream bothered me for a number of reasons. I was so powerless to help. My friends aren't like that. Not at all. I don't remember ever feeling that terrified in my life. And why saku?
And why is it bothering me so much in the first place..
I was at an apartment complex where this girl I dated a long time ago, Sarah, lived with her mom. There were a few people out in the patio area, an old Japanese woman and some children playing, and this old maid carrying some sort of basket. I hadn't intended to meet Sarah but we crossed paths and after some idle chit chat I left. As I was walking away, the old maid began heading towards the hallway I was coming out of. She was old and withered and the basket looked heavy. As she looked down the hallway that Sarah had left down, her long boney fingers clutched the basket tighter. She looked towards the sky and stopped. As I walked past her I heard her mutter under her breath.
"That girl...she'll be gone tomorrow."
She stares a bit longer and then keeps walking. I walk a bit further and the old japanese woman is looking at the trees which had just started blooming flowers. She notices me and nods. I nod back and start leaving as she looks back at the tree.
"Saku ga kirei naa" (the blooms are beautiful). I stop. "Un..sou da," I agree.
"Zannen kedo..ashita...kieru yo"( Too bad but, tomorrow they'll dissapear)
I stare at her. And for a split second a smile creeps across her face. I blink and its gone. I keep walking and leave the complex.
I head out to a pizza place to meet my friends. We eat, talk and are overall having a fun time. Cory's flirting away with Irene and Pete and I are doing really badly at House of the Dead. I'm going to get a drink when I pass a news report playing on the T.V. at the bar.
"A woman walking her dog found a severed arm near the riverbank earlier today. Later that evening another person had found the remains of a foot on the eastside of town. Police have yet to identify the victims and have not concluded whether this is, in fact, the same body or two seperate homicides." The people at the counter were talking about how awful it was and gossiping away.
I head back and Pete broke the conversation to mention the yearbooks had just come out from our old high school. We decide to go through it to see what our underclassmen that we knew were up to this past year. As we flipped past a few pages, something caught my eye.
I borrowed it and turned to this article about the girl. It was Sarah. There was some sort of drama between her and another girl that had led to a huge scism of the student population. Things began getting violent and several people ended up in hospital. The girl, the one I didn't know, ended up having to leave school and eventually town because of this.
I felt a twinge, and I was staring at the picture until my friend pulled the yearbook away from me. We started talking again and I soon forgot about it. We play a few more games and finally start getting ready to leave. It's getting pretty late. Already the early hours of the next day.
I get a phone call. It's Sarah's mom. She hasn't come home yet and she's calling everyone. My stomach lurches and I get a really bad feeling. I tell her mom I haven't heard from her since I left and that if I she calls me I'll let her know you're worried.
We're walking back to the car when I see a bum pushing a cart holding an old basket. Suddenly I remember the old women. The pit in my stomach get's heavier and I try to ignore it. I don't believe in superstitious crap. But I can't shake this feeling.
We get in the car and I decide it can't hurt to at least check on Saku. I call her and it goes straight to her voicemail.
I wait a bit longer and try again. Voicemail.
I start breathing harder. Somethings wrong. I tell Pete to start driving to the complex. I try one more time and once again I get her voicemail. I'm panicking. My fingers are tapping my seat. Pete and Cory begin talking about Persona 4, oblivious to me. We are a mile away from the complex when I cut them off and begin explaining. Towards the end I get a phone call. It's Saku.
"What faggot, I'm at work." I breathe a huge sigh of relief but stop short. I ask her if anything strange has been happening today. She starts telling me about this one crazy old lady who was trying to return a console without the reciept and that she told her off. I hear a faint bell in the background as a customer walks in and Saku is disconnected mid sentence. The complex is in sight. My stomach clenchs yet again.
The old woman is sitting under the tree. The flowers are dying and falling softly around her. She looks directly at me and smiles.
Pete keeps driving.
"Pete that was it."
"I know."
"Pete..turn around."
"I will in a second"
"PETE TURN THE FUCK AROUND."
"I will, I will, I'm just looking for parking"
He keeps driving towards the main road, towards the freeway. He turns back to Cory and jumps back into the discussion of Persona. I look back at the fading apartment complex when I hear a click.
The door's locked shut.
"Pete..what's going on."
He ignores me and keeps talking. I quietly reach for my phone and call saku again. No voicemail. All I hear is a disconnected line signal.
I try again, only to recieve the same noise. I try one last time. It picks up, but there's heavy static and the voice is grainy.
"I'm sorry. The user you are trying to dial is no longer in service"
We are getting closer to the freeway. In the distance, the sun isn't out yet but day is breaking. I unbuckle my seatbelt and start scrambling at the door. The lock is stuck in position and I can't open the door. The window won't roll down. I start pushing buttons frantically and Pete stops talking and turns towards me.
"You need to calm down."
I'm breathing harder. I try to cry out but nothing comes. It's slowly getting brighter. I start punching the window as hard as I can. My fists are bleeding but the window doesn't even have a crack. Suddenly, THWACK! Cory punches me in the side of the head.
"He said. You need. To calm down"
It's getting harder and harder to breath. My vision is blurring as I start losing consiousness. He straps me back into the seatbelt. Tightly.
It cuts into my skin. We're on the freeway. I try to scream but all that comes out is a weak whisper. "no...no...."
The sun has risen.
I woke up hyperventilating screaming "NO. " I was covered in sweat and my hands wouldn't stop shaking. I went to the bathroom and vomited. I ended up smoking 3 ciggarettes in a row but I still couldn't stop shaking. I don't believe in visions or prophetic dreams or shit like that but still. This dream bothered me for a number of reasons. I was so powerless to help. My friends aren't like that. Not at all. I don't remember ever feeling that terrified in my life. And why saku?
And why is it bothering me so much in the first place..