I want to tell you about dreams that haunted my sleep for some time. At first, they were normal. Simple dreams of me visiting a mall with my friends. I’d never been to this mall but remnants of the mall seemed similar to ones I had visited before. The mall seemed possible in this dream. You’d enter the mall through a long hallway at the end of the hallway you’d see the bathroom to the right as well as a wall that seemed slightly outta place and to the left stores that would be typical of a mall. A shoe store, a game stop, food court, an empty store with signs telling you that it could be leased.
The only thing outta the ordinary was the first store you’d see when entering. This store seemed to sell a bit of everything and had a strange woman at the counter and a window that looked into the long hallway. Weirdly though the window couldn’t be seen when in the hallway. After waking from this dream nothing seemed wrong and it just seemed like an underwhelming dream.
The second dream opened up very similar to the first walking down the long hallway into the mall. This time I visited the mall with my mother, and it was much more populated. My brain had a hard time keeping up with how many people there were. But besides that nothing really eventful. I do remember feeling like something was wrong when I woke up.
The third dream was where I realized something was wrong with the mall. It was nearly empty and all the stores were closed down except for the everything store. I was with a man who seemed so familiar but I didn’t know his name. I swear I’d seen him before but had no clue from where. We entered the everything store and I overheard a conversation between him and the girl at the counter. Except their conversation was incoherent, a jumble of words like they were speaking a different language that didn’t even exist. They both stared at me but now the man’s eyes were gone. Not like they had been taken out more as if they were never there like skin covered them. The lights of the store turned red for a second. I wasn’t in the everything store. More like a facility, a long hallway with flashing red lights. Then I was awake. My body was pouring sweat and I knew something was wrong with that mall. This is when I began making notes of the dreams.
The fourth dream began with me in the food court. The mall had shifted like some of the stores had moved around. The everything store, the bathrooms and the store for lease had remained in their locations. But the wall that was outta place was gone. There stood a room completely dark. Only through the faint dimness of the lights could you see a few feet into the room. The floors matched that of the weird designs of public bus seats. But besides that it was completely dark. I found myself weirdly drawn to this room. But I knew I shouldn’t go in there. I knew deep down something was wrong with that room.
The fifth dream had me standing in the mall. It was completely dark except for a row of lights that led to the dark room. It called to me, I stepped closer before I was faced with the peering darkness of the room. I felt like I was staring into an endless void. Like going into this room meant I know longer existed. Then he came, I stepped back away from the void. the eyeless man from my previous dream stepped out of the darkness.
Now his movements were silent, his legs and arms had grown making him much taller and slender. His fingertips had turned to claws and his smile that goddamn smile. Stretched from ear to ear, darkness was just as endless as the void behind him, NO it wasn’t him. It wasn’t human, it couldn’t be. No human could look like that, it had no eyes but I stared right through me. The eyeless creature lunged at me. I stood there and nothing could be done. This was the end. Then I was awake. I never had been so relieved, Feeling as if I had narrowly escaped death.
Six dreams, six fucking dreams why am I back what does it want with me. Now I don’t want to sleep. Now I hate even looking at my bed. I began forcing myself to stay awake but you can only escape your dreams for so long. Soon I would be back in that hellhole of a mall. It was lit up this time at least, no one was there. I couldn’t hide in the crowds. The emptiness of the mall waned on me. Every few seconds I had to check my surroundings to make sure it wasn’t there. I figured out I was in a dream this time. Maybe It was lucid, maybe I could control it.
No I was stuck, I yelled “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT WITH ME!”
I spun around again only for it to stand outside the dark room. The eyeless man, that was its name, beckoned me to the dark room waving its hand in a motion like it was calling a dog. The dark room, everything would make sense once I went into the dark room. But I’ll be damned if I go in there.
Dream 7 started outside the bathroom. Someone was crying in there, a child, a little girl. I had to check on her , and make sure she was ok. I entered the bathroom, the crying was coming from the furthest stall. I walked slowly creeping towards and I began calling out to the child.
“Are you alright, I’m gonna open the stall. I swear I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to help”
It opened to nothing, the crying stopped. I flipped around only to see his face snap around the corner. He was watching me that whole time. When I reached the corner to the exit of the bathroom it disappeared. The exit was fucking gone. I was trapped staring at the blank wall where the door had once been, I was trapped. I knew he was there on the other side laughing at me. I couldn’t hear him but he was there. I banged on the wall till my hands were cut and bruised. I sat in the bathroom for hours, playing with the toilet paper to clear my boredom. Time passed. I tried to count the seconds to see how long I had been in there but I’m not Senku but I lost track about 4 hours in.
Hours passed, days passed, weeks passed. If I had to guess I’d say 6 weeks . The isolation set in long before I had the idea. Staring into the only mirror in the bathroom, into the eyes of my reflection. It had been my only company this whole time. But now it was gonna be my escape. I punched the mirror shattering the glass and splitting my hand open. Picking up the sharpest piece, They say if you die in your dreams you die in real life. I pondered that, but death seemed so much better than loneliness. The glass touching my neck, I forced it in the blood pouring down my hand I kept pushing harder till my hand gave out. Falling to the floor the blood loss started to kick in. This was a mistake I told myself . I tried to fight the sleep, I didn’t want to die. I gave in and let my eyes close. When they opened the relief washed over me. I was in my bed and I was home.
I went to the doctor and he recommended I go to therapy.
“There’s a lot of things linked to being the cause of nightmares.” Those words came from a man of smaller stacher reading the tag pinned to his shirt Tillen. This was the therapist I was recommended.
“Everything from our diet, stress, medications, mental disorders, even the position we sleep.” His words were condescending. “I don’t think it’s anything to worry about, just get into a healthy sleeping routine and maybe try a nightlight.” Two hundred bucks to get told to buy a nightlight.
Dream 8, he was staring at me, The eyeless man somehow was staring right at me. Once again with his creepy ass smile. “Are you gonna do something or are you gonna sit there and tease me all night.” As I finished the sentence I was grabbed by the shoulders and was being forced down on one of the tables of the food court. Shadowy figure surrounded me. He approached me while reaching into the air. He pulled a sewing needle out like he just reached into another dimension. He slowly moved the needle to my left eye. “Wait no!” I yelled as he moved it closer. I struggled but the shadowy figures kept me pinned. The needle touched my pupil, He pushed it in so fucking slow, smiling at me the whole time. When I woke up I could feel it in there I ran to my bathroom to check. No needle I could feel it there but. I looked like I had pink eye.
The nightlight didn’t work.
The final dream, he sat there and started again, Before bolting for me I ran. Pushing my body to move quicker than I ever had, I only had one place to go right into the place I swore I wouldn’t go. Right into the void that was the dark room. I slowed once I entered, he stood in the entrance laughing at me. It was the first time I heard him make a noise. I knew he won and he got what he wanted. On the other side of the darkness I saw the flashing red lights, with no other option I made my way to them.
The light opened up to a long hallway, the same one from so many dreams back. It was some sort of facility, I walked past many locked rooms. One of the doors was forced open. Inside were the skeletons that looked to be some type of scientist they had been dead for some time. Near them was a table and on it sat one piece of paper.
X01-23: The entity appears as a tall man with long arms and legs, no eyes, and largemouth which seems to house nothing in it. The entity attaches itself to one human at a time, it uses its reality warping abilities to place them in subliminal spaces that are familiar to the person it is hunting. The entity has complete control in these spaces, despite that it doesn’t outright kill it’s victims instead choosing to taunt them over weeks, maybe even waiting years as to provide a false sense of security.
Containment/extermination: The entity can be contained by the use of
The page cut off like it was unfinished. Was that what this was? I’m being screwed with some sadistic slender man wannabe? No it was a dream, just a shitty set of dreams, that’s what I told myself as I entered the hallway. He was waiting still with his grin, I didn’t wait for him to make the first move, Sprinting in the opposite direction down the hallway as quick as my legs could take me. The hallway opened into what looked like an airport hanger on the other side was an open door. I could see the outside world through it, that was my escape. I sprinted pushing my body to its limits, I could feel my lungs giving, I was almost there. Just as I reached it I was pulled back and thrown to the ground. He got me.
His claw-like hands found their way to my stomach. He forced the claws in, pulling in opposite directions. I felt my skin rip, I felt my organs shift, I felt my bones cracking. All while the sadistic fuck laughed, ripping me in half the pain was immense. The worst pain I have ever felt. I prayed for it to be over, let me die, let it end.
I’ll stop with the details, it’s been two years since the dreams. I long forgot about them, at least that’s what I like to tell myself. I moved on from them, I got married, and I have my first child on the way. I’ve had no reason to remember the dreams. Right now I’m sitting in my car typing this on my phone, I wanted now of all days for someone to know of the dreams, hell I never even told my wife. So why wait till now to write this well. It’s because I’m sitting outside of a grand opening for my new job. Security for a mall, The Mall.