A dream is a mental construct. Whenever one falls asleep they experience vivid hallucinations. These are impossible to record or properly re-account.
Psychosis is a mental condition where the victim experiences very disturbing hallucinations or thoughts. Think of things like schizophrenia, Then take the effects of that condition and amplify it. Psychosis victims report hearing whispers, Seeing bugs crawl on their skin and see the faces of people they have never met.
When I studied psychology I learnt about these things and they fascinated me. I went on to get a degree in psychological study and have been working as a psychologist and health scientist for 17 years.
I was contacted by my facility about a matter of a psychosis patient, While rare I have stumbled upon many of them and they act the same. In-consistent nonsensical babbling and severe PTSD. Most of the cases are results of tripping on acid but some are caused from depression and schizophrenia. This case was different.
When i arrived the patient seemed to be normal. When i sat down with her she opened up before i could even speak. “Doctor. Alexander.” She took a deep breath. “I see dreams when I’m awake, Not hallucinations. Right now when i look at you, All i see is spots across your face. Like polka dots.” I had to process this for a moment. “Dreams you say.” I started to think.
“Y-Yeah.. Dreams, Nothing is normal, Every piece of furniture in this room looks different from each other, Like that vase behind you, It’s not right.. It looks.. Folded in.. Like an origami vase.. I can’t describe it.”
I didn’t understand her. Dreams? This doesn’t seem like psychosis.After a few hours of talking about what she has been seeing, How she feels and if her mind is feeling foggy, The only thing i could partially diagnose was severe schizophrenia.
“Take this prescription of Haloperidol, Take 2 a day, 1 in the morning and 1 at night. If you have more issues, come back here and we can discuss it. In 2 weeks I will do a mental health re-evaluation so I can see progress.”
There were no issues for around a week until I got an urgent call. “Sir. One of your patients, Jane, Shes gone batshit fucking crazy, Like seriously she cant even talk without screaming that something is taking her soul, we need you down here NOW.”
I rushed down to my facility, Thoughts raced through my head “Has she stopped taking her meds?”I shook all those thoughts off as i swerved into the parking lot, As i darted inside the familiar jingle of the bell above the door startled me “Fucking bell..” I whispered under my breath as I ran faster than I have before.
When I arrived at the emergency care block I heard the screaming from the entrance. It was deep guttural wails that filled with so much dread it hurt my heart to listen to. When I stormed in there, Jane stood there on the ground covered in blood.
“THEY ARE HOLDING ME. SOMEBODY STOP THEM. SOMEBODY PLEASE”
She was screaming bloody murder and her mouth was bleeding. When I saw her state I immediately asked one of the nurses for a sedative to reduce her condition.
As she went I stood there with her trying to comfort her.”What do you see jane.” I overcame her wails with a calm demeanor and all of a sudden everything stopped. She seemed normal.
“They.. They stopped. They are staring at you.”I looked at her calmly. I knew these were psychosis symptoms and I started to comfort her.”Jane, You are experiencing very vivid hallucinations. It is called schizophrenic psychosis. Have you been taking the prescription I gave you?”
“Y..Yes doctor i have but.. it doesn’t work, Everywhere i go i see the same things i saw before, Except this time everything seems more cold.. Beforehand everything seemed more colorful. Now it is damp.”
“Jane, I am going to have to check you into this facility for a full psychiatric re-examination and study. If this is not schizophrenia, I will have to figure out what it really is so I can properly diagnose you and get you the help you need.”
She began to cry terribly. “w..why can’t i just be normal, why me? what have i done?” I began to pat her back as i sighed. “Let me help you up” as i stood i reached my hand out. As she grabbed it i almost yelped. She was extremely cold, Almost frozen. My hand felt pain as she held it but I pushed on as she stood.
“I will have some nurses check you in and we will begin tomorrow. Please signal for help if you see anything, we will try and get you the right medication to stop it.. But I can’t guarantee anything, We don’t know what we are dealing with.”
As I walked off to check out I signaled to the front desk to call the nurses for Jane’s psychiatric re-evaluation. They nodded and they called into the intercom “We need 3 available for psych unit 7”
The sounds muffled as I walked out, I felt really bad for jane. But I knew she was getting help.
As i arrived home the warm smell of the autumn trees luminated like a light. I felt more calm as I walked through my door. The gentle creaking of the hinges made me cringe as I shut the door. The warm air rushed out of the room as I walked to the kitchen.
As I grabbed my bottle of rum I got a call. “What the fuck is it now..” I sort of just waddled over agitated. I checked the caller ID and noticed that it was an unknown caller. Out of habit I declined the call and went back to my bench. As I poured the rum the iridescent smell of pleasure filled the air.
The phone rang once more. As I sighed I walked over and answered the unknown caller. “Hello Dr. Alexander, How may I help you.”
“Good evening Dr. Alexander, We are here to identify a patient of yours, Jane Myers correct?”
Confused, I confirmed his assumption “Yes that’s right, What is it?”
“Sir I work for a certain agency, I can’t tell you its policy. Tomorrow we will be at your front desk awaiting your arrival. It’s to do with her condition. If you believe this is a wrong contact, please confirm so we can move on.”
I was extremely confused at this point, I thought it was a prank at first but it all seemed serious. There was no underlying tone to his voice, it seemed raspy, he sounded too old to be a prank caller.
“Uh.. Okay? I’ll make sure to be there by 12:00 PM.”
The call ended abruptly as I whispered to myself.
“What the fuck…”
I kind of shook it all off, Maybe it was her family? I don’t know but I’ll figure it out tomorrow. The rest of the night went uneventful and as i faded off to sleep i thought of jane. I dreamt about terrible black figures standing above me and Jane on the floor of the psychiatric unit. They were almost fuzzy, like blurry, I couldn’t properly conceive their appearance, they were just human shaped blurry structures.
When I finally woke up it was 10:30 pm. I woke up later than usual so I rushed to get ready. As I finished getting dressed I poured myself some coffee, as I sipped on the hot beverage the aroma of earth filled my nose. I felt relaxed, I thought to myself “Today will be a good , happy day.” I was trying to make myself feel better about the coming events.
When I arrived at my facility I saw a black car with tinted windows outside the front. “Must be them.” I said to myself as I wandered through the door, The bell startled me and I kind of froze for a second. I finally collected my thoughts and I saw 2 men in plain black suits. They stood up to greet me as if they knew who I was.
“Hello Dr. Alexander, My name is Harry and this is my partner Sam. We are here about your patient Jane Myers, It is to do with her condition. May we see her?” I said “Why do you need to see her?”
They both adjusted their positions and Sam said
“We are with the government, We are here to review this patient’s condition. We cannot tell you why but it is important, It is research and we believe she has a rare condition. “
I thought for a moment before finally obliging. As I led them down the plain white halls I started to get more anxious, I started to overthink “Are they here to kill her?” I shook off the thoughts. They were stupid, Simply just speculation.
As we arrived at psych unit 7 we walked in to see Jane on the bed being talked to by some nurses and another psych doctor. As they walked in they shut the door behind them. “What we are about to tell you is to be upmost classified among only you”
Everyone looked at each other extremely confused but before any questions were asked they opened up.
“Jane, You have a condition called petriscarphy Dream Psychosis. It is a condition where well.. Instead of you falling asleep to dream, You see them awake. You are the only known suspected subject with this rare condition. We want to record what you see. A team will be arriving soon to set-up the right conditions for this to be possible.”
As Harry finished his sentence I almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing.. Were they being serious? Before I could do anything, The other psych doctor in the room, His name was Terry, Stood up and got in the 2 men’s faces. They remained calm as he spouted off at them.
“What the fuck do you think your doing? Are you joking? That is nonsense, I request you leave immediately before I call security.”
The 2 men stood there silent as Terry stared at them. He had a crazy look in his eye and then he shoved harry. The moment he touched him, Sam grabbed a pistol out from the underside of his jacket and aimed at Terry.
“Sir. Calm down, I assure you this is not a joke. We are being perfectly cooperative with you but if you try to do anything like that again then I will be forced to put you down.”
I remember the phrasing of that sentence “Put you down” He spoke like he was a higher being and was about to just.. Phase Terry out of existence.
As Terry backed up, shocked he sat back down and became silent. I swear I could hear the air in the room, Not for long however. Jane began to sob and wail softly. “They are back.. They are upset, They don’t want you recording them, Please.. Go.. Don’t do this. They will kill me. PLEASE”
She pleaded with the men but they stood in silence. After 5 minutes of Jane’s agonizing wailing we heard the sounds of frantic footsteps and before long, men in white coats and masks entered the room. They had a label on their coats. It was a blue circle with black in the middle, It had the initials above it “N.A.O.S”
“We are here for Ja-“ They stood silent as she continued wailing
“JUST LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE”
She grew silent as she sat there un-moving.
That’s when she slipped unconscious, Slouching over into her bed and making no sound. We sounded an alarm that a patient had fallen unconscious and nurses rushed in ignoring the men. After around an hour we stabilized her.
The man stood around in silence and once everyone was out but me and Terry, They got to work. I watched as one of the white coated men pulled out a small vial with a blue liquid in it. He grabbed a syringe and started to draw the liquid. It looked viscous and bubbled at the top as he finally pulled out the syringe.
After he was done the 4 other men in the room grabbed out small pieces of equipment and started to arrange it. The parts clacked together and made the same sound as metal being dropped onto a hard surface. The echoes of the screeching sound made me cringe once again.
When it was done it looked like a microscope was attached to a plate with glass in the middle. A camera lens was attached and the coated man squirted a small amount of the viscous blue liquid onto the plate and then he grabbed another device. It looked like something out of some saw movie.
It was a dome shaped metal helmet with tubes running out from 4 holes surrounding where the head should go. These tubes ran to a socket in the device. I started to feel sick “What the fuck is all this” I murmured angrily. “This is a device that is used to transmit the electrical waves inside the patients head and can be transferred to this magnoscope to then print out the photographs. The liquid you see is well.. I actually can’t tell you, It’s not that simple, But it’s classified.”
I started to boil with anger. This was inhumane, Finding someone’s terrible condition and using it for research instead of helping them? I was considering trying to stop them but I knew they had guns. There’s no way I was leaving either.
Finally after a few minutes of assembly they attached the device to Jane’s head and a sound started to play. It was like the sound you expect electricity to make, a little quiet constant zapping with the occasional crackle.
As i watched jane she started to twist and turn in discomfort even though she was unconscious, I felt so fucking bad for her, Everything about this was so twisted, It seemed so.. Wrong.
As she squirmed and fiddled the sounds started to fade as the liquid that was on that glass plate had turned to a deep red color, almost like blood. As I stood looking at it I smelt the sensation of chemicals, like bleach and drain cleaner.
I started to feel like I was going to break down. My mind was literally foggy as I stared at this contraption. Another sound started up, It was like that of a printer but much quieter, I could barely hear it. As I stared at the pictures being pushed out from the side I started to feel more nauseous. Something about this felt wrong. I couldn’t describe it.
Finally the coated men approached the pictures and they examined them. The moment one of them looked at one of those pictures he froze in place and looked shocked. I could see the look of fear in that man’s eyes. As he stared longer and longer he started to shake uncontrollably. After an agonizing few seconds he grabbed the syringe with the remaining liquid and screamed.
“WE HAVE TO KILL IT, WE MUST BANISH IT, WHAT THE FUCK IS IT”
The man’s once professional manor turned into malice and hatred as he injected Jane with this syringe full of this liquid. She immediately started to seize, a Black goo was coming from her mouth and she flatlined almost immediately.
Sam and harry immediately upholstered there weapons and aimed at the man
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING” Sam screamed at the man, Finally he lunged at them, Immediately 2 ringing gunshots sounded as the man fell, Everything went to shit, Screaming and crying occurred throughout the unit and that was when i took my chance to run, Not before grabbing the photos however. As I ran the screams echoed and the sobbing and crying of other patients sounded.
I made it out to my car and swerved out of the lot. I almost hit another car but i managed to narrowly avoid it and race home, My heart was beating so fast it felt like i was about to have a heart attack. As I made it into my driveway I took no time grabbing the photos and my bag and rushing right inside.
When i made it in i slammed my door shut, The creaking didnt phase me this time, Nothing did, I was focused on getting away from whatever the fuck had just happened.
When I finally calmed down enough to function I sat down with the photos and looked at them. Dear god, The terrors this woman must have faced.
The first photo had a black and white vivid pattern, In amongst it i could see an opaque face, It was perfectly symmetrical, Almost too perfect, The faded patterns ran through it like a vintage photo but the only detail i saw were the eyes, In the pupils i saw another cascade of photos, It was the same perfect face over and over. I counted how many I could.. I counted 9.
That one disturbed me, It felt ominous and had an almost aura around it, It was clearly a sinister vision, It was… Really odd to me however, This wasn’t what Jane had described to me as her visions.
The next photo is why I’m writing this. Why I’m ready to accept death from the organizations that conduct these inhumane things. I saw a structure, In around it was a show with white fade, But the center had a very recognisable shape. It was a single long line with more lines stretching off of it, they formed a pattern that looked like a spider, well kind of. The thing that disturbed me was the one word that stood under it.
It was in an almost unrecognizable state, it was scribbly, faded and pretty much blurred, but I could read it. There stood the single word: Universe.
That was when i thought i was hallucinating, I started to feel sick, I dry heaved and eventually vomited as i stared at the photo, It doesn’t sound disturbing when i put it into words but when you look at it… It almost seems fake, like a vision of its own.
It’s been a week since then. The facility is closed and I doubt it’s gonna open soon. I’ve been staring at this photo for a long time, A very long time. And I swear whenever I look away I see blurry dark faces staring back at me.
They will be here soon to take what’s theirs. This is my final message. Goodbye.