I’m not sure if this adds any essence whatsoever to this entire story, but about a month ago I read a story with a very weird theme “Knowledge is painful, ignorance is bliss.” For context, it’s 8:00 AM right now and I’m a stupid sophomore in highschool and I might have made the worst mistake of my entire life.
My friend Abraham invited me over to his house just a day ago for a sleepover. He’s an overweight senior and is almost always smoking weed. I came over and we shared a blunt before playing some video games on his old xbox 360. We always do random shit and find the weirdest ways to entertain ourselves. It was getting late and we were tired, 12:30ish.
He nudged my shoulder and began talking to me about this weird drug.
“There was some sketchy as hell dude on the side of the road handing out some drug called ‘wonderland’. He told me about it and it sounded like a fun as hell experience. If we do some weird shit in our sleep I can record it.”
“How sketchy are we talking?”
“Mad sketchy dude, he had this really thin beard on his face and looked like he was tripping balls, hands couldn’t even hold still and his eyes were almost completely grey. Kept talking about how this drug would bring my dreams to life and how I would do some crazy shit in my sleep, so I got two and you to try it. Dirt fucking cheap, literally cost me 2.50$ for both.”
“Man there’s no way I’m trying that, sounds like a trip to the hospital and I don’t want to spend another year under drug watch.”
“Oh come on dude give it a shot! I’ll even tell your parents that I forced you if things go crazy and shit.”
Abraham put his phone in the corner and began recording a timelapse. He then passed the drug over to me and gestured me to pop it in my mouth. It was squishy and didn’t even come in a container, that, or Abraham had already opened it for me. It was dark grey and felt like playdough. Abraham had stuck his into his mouth so I did the same. It tasted salty, really salty.
“Man what is this shit.” I swallowed quickly and grabbed some water. I should have just spit it out.
“Dude this is literally that dough shit they sell to kids. I thought it was legit, screw that old guy I’m gonna beat his ass.”
“Damn I hope so because if this starts making me trip out and have a fucking seizure on the floor I’m gonna beat your ass.”
“Yeah yeah whatever dude try me. I’m hitting the sack now I wanna see if this was legit.” He just waved me off and laid on the couch.
“I could take you just watch me!” He just ignored me and pretended to be asleep.
After this I felt nothing, whatever this ‘wonderland’ drug was I thought it was just a piece of playdough like him. I stayed awake a little while longer and just played on the xbox. I launched the demo of peggle that was on it and messed around in the few levels available, checking back on Abraham to see if maybe something had actually happened. He just continued to breathe and occasionally snort, followed by a few seconds of snoring each time. Eventually I joined him and laid on the armchair.
I fell asleep and woke up a few hours later. The TV had a weird hint of static but had the xbox 360 homescreen on. I looked over at Abraham who was still asleep and went to get some water, the time said 3:20 AM. I got a glass of tap water and went back to the room, disconnecting the xbox because of a weird noise it was making.
I shot awake in a cold sweat, my heart was racing and I had an extreme headache but nothing had even happened. The TV was on and so was the xbox, reading 3:28 AM. I looked at Abraham who I had thought maybe woke up and turned it on then went back to sleep. I thought nothing of it and went back to the armchair, but for some reason I couldn’t sleep.
I stared up into space and let my mind wander, thinking back on the drug. Whatever it was seemed to be fake. Abraham sat up and began laughing hysterically. He stared at the TV while he did it, I looked over with him and saw something in the screen only for a split second, it was a red figure.
It was suddenly quiet and the TV was off again, Abraham was also asleep. The radio clock on the other side of the room read 4:30 AM. I was breathing heavily, and panicking. I went over to Abraham to wake him up but I couldn’t. He just laid there with his eyes wide open, I kept on shaking him and even began to cry, but he just held still.
I was in that fucking chair again, out of nowhere I have no idea why I was just there again. The TV was on and the xbox screen was visible but blood red, blood fucking red and playing this horrific sound of screams and what sounded like someone talking. The windows were being slammed and blood stained them. Inhuman bony hands ran along the windows and smeared the blood all over in weird lumps. The clock read 5:14 AM and Abraham wasn’t on the couch, he was on the floor rolling around and screaming and laughing. I ran towards the door and reached for the knob, I wanted to get the hell out of there.
I was in the chair… again… The clock read 6:30 and the sun was shining through, the radio clock was blasting a weird song as an alarm. Abraham was on the couch, kicking the ends. The TV was on and the xbox screen looked normal, there was nothing in the windows. I ran over to him and shook him awake. He screamed and his eyes were bloodshot. He punched me in the face and threw me to the floor.
“Wait it’s me man it’s me!” I yelled at him assuming he experienced the same thing.
“What the fuck were you doing!?”
“Put two and two together it’s that fucking drug you made us take!”
“Holy shit I’m so sorry dude…”
“So much for a fucking ‘wonderland’ I almost fucking died!” He stared into space with his eyes darting around.
“My phone-“
He ran to his cellphone and looked at it. The thing was still recording. I saw him stop the video and immediately go to play it back. He began scrolling quickly through the video. Everything I did was mirrored perfectly, the water I drank, turning off the xbox, running for my fucking life, but every time I would walk back to the chair and lay motionless again. Abraham was laughing at 3:30, the same time in the dream, He was rolling around at 5:14, the xbox turned itself on and I kept turning it off. In between I did stuff I couldn’t remember, Abraham was pointing it out to me, saying he saw me do the exact same things in whatever trance state we were in. We kept playing it back and for one frame, a split second at 5:14 AM, a figure appeared.
“Turn it back dude turn it back!” I yelled at him
He did, he rewound it a few seconds and caught the exact frame where the figure appeared. It was dark red and featureless, bearing only a slight resemblance to a human. It was wavy and covered in blobs, and it appeared to have only one white eye. It stood in the corner of the room staring at us. Finally I put it together, the drug brought out the missing parts of our dreams, whatever twisted shit goes on in our heads at night was brought out during those moments. But that wasn’t all… Whatever that figure is… it brought that out too. I’m not sure what it is, but I don’t think it was ever meant to be free. I wish this wasn’t real, I wish I never knew. I’m at home now and I’m going to call the police to find whoever the hell that drug guy was… and maybe whatever that ‘thing’ was.