++ A Mindwreck's Noon Nightmare

Yesterday noon, I had a surreal dream and possibly an out-of-body experience.

For four days I’ve been experiencing body chills occasionally, a prelude to a flu attack. At lunch hour I’d travel back to my apartment and sneak under the comforter to rest my body and give my immune system a better chance at keeping the flu symptoms at bay. I would doze off for about 45 minutes, just enough rest to sustain myself until five pm when my workday officially ends.

I dreamed that I was walking along a golf course. It was high noon, and I was in my workclothes.

A teen girl was waving at me from a distance, trying to catch my attention.

Eventually, I was at her location. She gestured towards her side. My eyes looked at the direction to which she is pointing. A forest village. Several treehouses resting on massive tree branches. But the forest had a dark shadow to it. It wasn’t a bright, lush forest. It looked like a somber one.

“Follow me,” the girl’s eyes told me.

Mesmerized by the forest village, I followed the girl to the biggest treehouse. While walking down the path to the treehouse, I noticed several village children scampering about carrying macabre costumes and props. I saw a child lug an ax. A boy no older than ten was lifting a bundle of clothes stained with rust and blood. I saw a girl tossing a pair of dentures with hideous fangs as she skipped down the path. “There’s a special event later,” said the girl. “Something similar to your Halloween. The children dress up in clothes.”

“You mean costumes?”

“No, I meant clothes. Those things you saw were the actual items used by the person they took it from.”

“Explain.”

“You saw the child with the axe? That axe belonged to an axe murderer. Those teeth with fangs? It belonged to a vampire.”

We eventually arrived at the treehouse. Inside was an old man. “A sage,” I thought.

“How would you like to experience death?” the old man asked me.

“As long as I am able to come back to life I have nothing against your proposal,” I answered.

“Good. We are right in choosing you. Take off your shoes and your shirt, and lie down.”

I did as the old man said. I took off my shoes and my shirt. Then I lay down on a mat. The old man knelt beside me. He placed dabs of cream on my fingertips and toes. And then he chanted.

The girl who escorted me also placed some cream on her hands.

“Are you ready?” the old man asked me.

“Yes I am.”

“Then it shall be done.”

The old man placed his palms on my chest. I felt my breathe leaving my body. I felt the cream at my fingertips and toes hardening like cement. I felt light-headed all of a sudden, and then I was calm.

All ambient noise was immediately gone. I could not hear anything. My eyes were still open, but I could not blink nor move my eyeball. I could see the old man and the girl talking above me. I could see the roof of his treehouse. I could see the kids gathered around me, dressed up in their halloween costumes. And that’s when I panicked.

The kids were dressed up as characters from my childhood nightmares. One was dressed as the Lord of the Vampires. Another was dressed as The Axe Serial Killer. Another dressed like Freddie Krueger. A small female child came as the Singing Witch.

I tried to stand up, but I could not move. And I realized that I was not breathing. But I felt that there was still a little breath inside of me.

Then the girl pressed her palm on my chest, and the last of my breath escaped from my body.

Immediately after that my point of view changed. My view was now from the window outside the old man’s treehouse looking in. There I could see my body lying down on a mat, the old man and the girl and the horror kids standing around me.

I tried to scream, and found out that I can pass through the walls easily. I made a dive for my body to protect it.

And that’s when I woke up.

My breathing was very shallow, and my pulse rate was very low.

Scary, isn’t it?

I still don’t know what it means.