Dream or Paranoia?

[CabbitGirl 4,018]

ok, so little back story before i post the whole story: i wrote this for my creative writing class and it drove me crazy trying to think about it and get it done in time to hand in. It will be handed out to the class next week (i think) and they will go home and read it and it'll be work shopped in the class the following week, or after that. So this is not a finished polished thing yet. I kind of feel as if it were a little thrown together. but anyway, enough back story, here it is... (put it in spoiler tags for less scrolling if you already read it haha)

Michelle hesitantly opened her eyes. This place seemed familiar, in some strange way. She sat up from lying down on the floor and put a hand to her head. She felt as if she had the worst hang over in the world, her head throbbing as it reached a higher altitude above the floor. Her eyelids squeezed together, as if trying to pop her eye balls right inside their sockets. Shivering, she slid her knees up against her chest and draped her robe around them until she was in a big terrycloth ball on the floor. Scanning the room she realized everything was all wrong. She knew it was her house, but this was not her furniture. The wooden chair up against the window by the door was not there. Nor was the cat that perched upon the various coats and scarves that were thrown there as people entered the house. She remembered yelling at her younger brother Reese for throwing his heavy winter jacket on top of poor little Aly one winter afternoon. The couches were not the same beat up beige ones’ she’d grown up with either, but were now replaced with a newly purchased red velvet love seat and matching recliner. The hardwood floor was still the same though. The deep cut into the wood was still by the front door. I guess the bed frame didn’t fit through the door as well as Reese had hoped, Michelle had thought to herself, but that was his reminder. Mom was really mad that day when she came home. Michelle rose up slowly and took a few steps toward it, but suddenly it vanished, like it had never been there at all. A fog arose and swallowed the floor beneath it. Michelle’s breath quickened, she wasn’t sure what was going on, but she didn’t want to stay and find out. She went through the white wooden door out into the snow. Barefoot and merely wearing a forest green robe, she knew she should’ve been cold, but was surprisingly unfazed. Staring at her pale Irish skin covered in crystallized rain, she was puzzled. First fog, now snow that isn’t cold? What’s going on here? Out of habit, she clutched her robe tighter around her so as to make herself believe she’d get warmer. She was suddenly lifted into the air, but it wasn’t a cold scary feeling like before, this one felt secure and warm.

******

Reese came in from the biting cold, eager to get warm, but soon forgot all about his frozen fingertips when he saw his big sister passed out on the hardwood floor. Cold chicken soup spilled out onto the floor around the shrapnel that used to form a red and white Campbell’s soup bowl. He stood frozen, but not because of the temperature. Reese stared, observing the half curled body on its side, trying to figure out if she was dead. Breathing heavily, tears pooling in the corners of his eyes, and now trembling, he crept across the hardwood floor to get a closer look. The coming dusk dimly lit the living room, and the charcoal colored drapes didn’t help the light come through any easier, but the room seemed darker than a moment ago. Reese, wide eyed, noticed the forest green terrycloth rising and falling in quick intervals. Briefly relieved, he got up and flicked the light switched on. He looked over at her face. Her eyes were twitching underneath their eye lids, like they’d been captured in a burlap sack and were trying to escape. He studied her frail body. She was wearing the red candy cane pajama pants he’d bought her for Christmas. He smiled at them and remembered how happy she looked when she opened the shiny blue snowflake box. She was 2 years older than him, but everyone still thought she was his little sister. She was only 5 foot 3 and Reese stood at 6 foot 1. It was an easy mistake to make. Reese studied her for a few more minutes before he decided she needed to be off the cold ground before anything else. He went behind her and slid his arms underneath her body, cupping her like a child. He was wondering what was going through her head, if anything at all, as he made his way up the stairs to put her into bed.

******

The ground fell away, crumbling like Ritz crackers being smashed up into a black void soup. She still felt herself rising up higher into the air. The sun rays cut through the darkness and began to shine down on her cold skin, making it tingle as it absorbed the warmth they emitted. Everything seemed to become brighter and warmer as she floated amongst clouds. She spotted a white accumulation a little further off into the distance that sort of resembled a bunny. She fluttered over toward it, propelling herself as if she were swimming through the sky. Coming upon the cotton-tailed looking cloud, she jumped into it, rolling around trying to find a comfy spot. Michelle took a deep breath and sighed as she curled up, content in her new sky nest.

******

He brushed some stuffed animals out of his way so he could set it down onto the floor. Reese opened the folding chair he had kept in Michelle’s room since this prolonged dream state happened the last time. The doctors never did give him a straight answer.

“It’s probably just stress,” a doctor had said to him

“What do you mean just stress?” he had been so frustrated waiting outside for 2 hours just to hear that it was stress, “What kind of stress makes a girl pass out?!” he had yelled. The doctor just shrugged, which made Reese even angrier.

Pulling both hands up to his forehead, he closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair for just a moment before slapping his hands down on top of his knees and slumping forward with a groan. He was now staring blankly across the room. His eyes began to wander around the powder lavender walls. Pop band posters and pictures of her friends and family were scattered across the wall in no particular fashion. It drove Reese insane when she would put the pictures up crooked on the wall.

“Why not just put them up straight?” he remembered asking.

“Because I didn’t take them straight. Besides, does it really matter? I’m the only one who’s gonna see it anyways.” She had a point, but he wasn’t about to admit it. She used the same excuse with their mother too.

“Michelle Rose this room is a pig sty! How do you not kill yourself every time you get out of bed??”

“It’s an obstacle course mom! Besides, I’m the only one who’s gonna see it right?” she had smiled and laughed. Reese smiled at the memory. His sister was always so optimistic. He gently brushed the pink frilled curtain to the side and peered over his sister lying beneath the canopy. He slid his other hand into his right pocket to retrieve his cell phone. 5:38pm. He stared at it contemplating whether or not he should make the call. Would it do any good? What nonsense would they tell me this time? That I should stay calm and not worry and wait patiently? She’s my fuckin sister, how can I not worry? Reese snapped out of his memory. 5:41pm. He put the receiver up to his ear.

“Hello, 911 emergency?”

“Yes hi, my sister passed out and I need an ambulance right away.”

******

Nestled in her new cloud bed, Michelle wondered if he parents felt the same warmth from the sun as she did on their plane ride to Germany they had taken just over a week ago. As if teleporting, she was suddenly on the plane, standing next to the row her parents were in. Her father was resting as her mother occupied herself with Sudoku. The plane jerked. Her father, jostled awake now, looked terrified; her mother as well. They looked toward each other for confidence, but doing so merely amplified their fear two fold. Michelle panicked. She looked around to the other passengers, but they were a blur, so she looked back to her parents who were now holding each other, not even noticing their daughter standing 2 feet away from them. She outstretched her arm toward them, but a sharp nose dive ripped Michelle right out of the top of the plane. She watched in terror as it descended, sinking, almost being swallowed by the darkness.

“NOOO!!” Michelle screeched, helplessly stuck, floating above them. She stared into the bottomless pit that had just devoured her parents, not sure if she believed what just happened. She clenched the hair on both sides of her head shaking it violently back and forth wishing it all away. Tears burned her eyes and she shut her eyelids propelling the water out of her eyes and down her cheek. She buried her face in the terrycloth not ever wanting to open her eyes again. What am I going to do without them? Oh my god why? Why them? Why us?! Why not someone else? How am I going to tell Reese?? What did we do to deserve this?! She wiped away the tears, but the kept on coming. Trying to console herself, she rocked back and forth, knees held tightly to her chest as if she’d lose them the second she let them go. An ambiguous click and a constant flash of dim light interrupted her sorrow. Reese?

******

They gently settled the stretcher’s wheels onto the asphalt. It rose up and the stretcher steadied with a click as they rolled it away from the front walkway to the back of the ambulance.

“Reese?” Michelle whispered, eyes opened slightly.

“Michelle?!” Reese panted, as he jogged along side the stretcher with the paramedics. Her eyes fell closed as quickly as they opened. “Michelle? Michelle!!”

They loaded her into the back of the ambulance and were on their way to the hospital. While the paramedics attached IVs and sensors to his sister’s arms and chest to monitor her vitals, his phone continued to vibrate.

We’re almost there, how close are you? He read the text to himself. Reese continuously flipped his phone open and closed the entire way to the hospital; both to release nervous energy, and to reply to texts. It felt like a lifetime had gone by when they finally arrived at the hospital.

******

“I stayed home so I could pick them up from the airport!” she screamed to no one in particular. There was nothing around her; she was merely floating in black space again, “And now I’m never going to get to see them again! Why!” She raised up her fists to her forehead, resting them there, not quite sure what to do. Her eyes wandered, but there was nothing to fixate them on. She felt cold and lonely and a bit confused. Reese, she thought. She still had Reese. If all else in the world failed they still had each other. Even in the face of Armageddon. They used to joke about it, but as of right now, it was comforting. This felt like Armageddon, like all was lost and there was no getting over it, but at least she didn’t have to go through it alone. How did she find him though? How did she get back to him from this void?

“REESE!” she screamed, “REESE!!!” she had to tell him.

******

Reese had taken up residence next to Michelle’s bed for the past hour. No change, no movement. It was then that her right arm closest to him twitched. He focused on her.

“REESE! REESE!!!” Michelle screamed. Reese fell sideways out of his seat, but quickly scrambled to get up and stand up at her bedside. Two doctors ran in as well.

“Michelle? It’s ok, I’m right here!” Reese stared at her, still startled by the sudden scream. Michelle began to cry.

Sobbing she said, “Oh my god Reese mom and dad are dead, their plane crashed and I saw it and there was nothing I could do and I told them they shouldn’t take the plane and I was just stuck there staring at them go down and it was the most terrible thing I had ever seen and I can’t even believe it!”

“Whoa, whoa slow down, what are you saying?” Reese stopped her, confused.

“Mom and Dad are dead!” She began crying again

“Michelle…” Reese was about to continue when their mother and father ran into the room along with the doctor who had been taking care of her.

“Michelle, honey!” their mother said. She ran over to the bedside next to Reese and gave her daughter a hug, “We were so worried about you, we rushed straight here from the airport!” Michelle stared at them, like a deer in headlights. She was so sure they had been dead that she couldn’t understand seeing them here, but she began sobbing even more now. Her father approached the side of the bed as well and stroked her daughter’s head, “It’s ok honey, we’re safe you don’t have to cry.”

Reese added, “Ya, see? It was just a dream.”

critique, comments, likes, dislikes, all are welcome hope it was enjoyable!

[Pchan 5,162]

Will check it out today

[Ladywriter 7,783]

teh koolies

[CabbitGirl 4,018]

thanks got to hand it out to the class on tuesday, but we have spring break next week so i wont get it back until the following tuesday, or even the one after that (depending how much time we take workshopping everyone else's stories)

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Oh, I liked it. Well wrote! The first part was like.. 'wtf?' but then it made sense.

If the plan crashed after her parents got off it, you could have sold this story as the beginning script of another final destination movie.

[CabbitGirl 4,018]

thanks ya i was trying to make it sort of unreal, unrealistic type of scene so it was a "believable" dream so to speak. and i guess it was a pretty good hook as well ^^

haha maybe! but she actually made it a point to tell us not to make "movie scripts", but instead focus on a story. plot development. creating believable, 3D characters. she used Saw as a reference lol. "an entire story killing people in the most creative and descriptive ways possible? well, you haven't written a short story, you've written a million dollar movie script." lol she's pretty funny like that X'D

[Ladywriter 7,783]

we can still write a horror script if ya want mwahahahaha

[Pchan 5,162]

Engaging, and current. I liked it, Cabbit *thumbs up*

[CabbitGirl 4,018]

thanks GG ^^

hey lady... maybe we can do that at the next fanfest and post for everyone to see what kind of diabolical stuff is going on with the murders this year.....

*hears gator music*

[Ladywriter 7,783]

bwahahaha!

[CabbitGirl 4,018]

so i just realized i never posted the revision for you guys! a lot of people seemed to like it and pointed out some great stuff and i got SOME good feedback... for those that wrote any so here ya go! i may or may not work on this some more later on down the road

"Altered Reality"

Michelle hesitantly opened her eyes. This place seemed strangely familiar. She sat up from lying down on the floor and put a hand to her head. She felt as if she had the worst hang over in the world, her head throbbed as it reached a higher altitude above the floor. Her eyelids squeezed together, as if trying to pop her eye balls right inside their sockets. Shivering, she slid her knees up against her chest and draped her robe around them until she was in a big terrycloth ball on the floor. Scanning the room she realized everything was all wrong.

She knew it was her house, but this was not her furniture. The wooden chair up against the window by the door was missing. Nor was the cat that perched upon the various coats and scarves thrown there as people entered the house. She remembered yelling at her younger brother Reese for throwing his heavy winter jacket on top of poor little Aly one winter afternoon. The couches were not the same beat up beige ones’ she’d grown up with either, but were now replaced with a newly purchased red velvet love seat and matching recliner. The hardwood floor, however, was still the same.

The deep cut in the wood was still by the front door. I guess the bed frame didn’t fit through the door as well as Reese had hoped, Michelle had thought to herself, but that was his reminder. Mom was really mad that day when she came home. Michelle rose up slowly and took a few steps toward it, but suddenly it vanished, like it had never existed at all. A thick, white fog arose and swallowed the floor beneath it. Michelle’s breath quickened, she wasn’t sure what was going on, but she didn’t want to stay and find out. She went through the white wooden door out into the snow. Barefoot and merely wearing a forest green robe, she knew she should’ve been cold, but she was surprisingly unfazed. Staring at her pale Irish skin covered in crystallized rain, Michelle wiggled her toes, breaking up the snow around them. She was puzzled. First fog, now snow that isn’t cold? What’s going on here? Out of habit, she clutched her robe tighter around her so as to make herself believe she’d get warm. Taking a few steps off the curb with arms crossed, Michelle squinted looking up into the smoky grey sky while snow still daintily sprinkled itself onto the bleak, frozen landscape. She was suddenly lifted into the air, but it wasn’t a cold scary feeling like before, this one felt secure and warm.

***

Reese came in from the biting cold, eager to get warm, but soon forgot all about his frozen fingertips when he saw his big sister passed out on the hardwood floor. Cold chicken soup spilled out onto the floor around the shrapnel that used to form a red and white Campbell’s soup bowl. He stood frozen, but not because of the temperature. Reese stared, observing the half curled body on its side, trying to figure out if she was dead. Breathing heavily, tears pooling in the corners of his eyes, and now trembling, he crept across the hardwood floor to get a closer look. The coming dusk dimly lit the living room, and the charcoal colored drapes didn’t help the light come through any easier, but the room seemed darker than a moment ago. Reese, wide eyed, noticed the forest green terrycloth rising and falling in quick intervals. Briefly relieved, he got up and flicked the light switched on. He looked over at her face. Her eyes were twitching underneath their eye lids, like they’d been captured in a burlap sack and were trying to escape. He studied her frail body. She was wearing the red candy cane pajama pants he’d bought her for Christmas. He smiled at them and remembered how happy she looked when she opened the opalescent blue snowflake box. She was 2 years older than him, but everyone still thought she was his little sister. She was only 5 foot 3 and Reese stood at 6 foot 1. It was an easy mistake to make. Reese studied her for a few more minutes before deciding she needed to be off the cold ground. He went behind her and slid his arms underneath her body, cradling her like a child. He was wondering what was going through her head, if anything at all, as he made his way up the stairs to put her into bed.

***

The ground fell away, crumbling like Ritz crackers being smashed up into a black void soup. She still felt herself rising up higher into the air. The sun rays cut through the darkness and began to shine down on her cold skin, making it tingle as it absorbed the warmth they emitted. Everything seemed to become brighter and warmer as she floated amongst clouds. She spotted a white accumulation a little further off into the distance that sort of resembled a bunny. She fluttered over toward it, propelling herself as if she were swimming through the sky. Coming upon the cotton-tailed looking cloud, she jumped into it, rolling around trying to find a comfy spot. Michelle took a deep breath and sighed as she curled up, content in her new sky nest.

***

He brushed some stuffed animals out of his way so he could set it down onto the floor. Reese opened the folding chair he had kept in Michelle’s room since this prolonged dream state happened the last time. The doctors never did give him a straight answer. He could already smell the stinging sterile waiting room. Staring down at the linoleum tiles, connecting the speckled paint pattern, or whatever it was supposed to look like, with invisible lines. The ceiling wasn’t much more interesting. It was an off white popcorn texture. He contemplated touching it, but never actually got up to do so. The room was still and quiet so he wasn’t exactly sure if he had nodded off or not since everything was still exactly the same. Reese was baking under the unnecessarily bright fluorescent lights making everything appear more washed out, making every fiber in the flat cushions of the chair visible. Hours spent on those chairs just to have the doctor appear in the door way telling him the tests were inconclusive. He was not happy about possibly returning.

Pulling both hands up to his forehead, he closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair for just a moment before slapping his hands down on top of his knees and slumping forward with a groan. He was now staring blankly across the room. His eyes began to wander around the powder lavender walls. Pop band posters and pictures of her friends and family were scattered across the wall in no particular fashion. It drove Reese insane when she would put the pictures up crooked on the wall.

“Why not just put them up straight?” he remembered asking.

“Because I didn’t take them straight. Besides, does it really matter? I’m the only one who’s gonna see it anyways.” She had a point, but he wasn’t about to admit it. She used the same excuse with their mother too.

“Michelle Rose this room is a pig sty! How do you not kill yourself every time you get out of bed??”

“It’s an obstacle course mom! Besides, I’m the only one who’s gonna see it right?” she had smiled and laughed. Reese smiled at the memory. His sister was always so optimistic.

He gently brushed the pink frilled curtain to the side and peered over his sister lying beneath the canopy. He slid his other hand into his right pocket to retrieve his cell phone. 5:38pm. He stared at it contemplating whether or not he should make the call. Would it do any good? What nonsense would they tell me this time? That I should stay calm and not worry and wait patiently? She’s my fuckin’ sister, how can I not worry? Reese snapped out of his memory. 5:41pm. He put the receiver up to his ear.

“Hello, 911 emergency?”

***

Nestled in her new cloud bed, Michelle wondered if he parents felt the same warmth from the sun as she did on their plane ride to. As if teleporting, she was suddenly on the plane, standing next to the row her parents were in. Her father was resting as her mother occupied herself with Sudoku. The plane jerked. Her father, jostled awake now, looked terrified; her mother as well. They looked toward each other for confidence, but doing so merely amplified their fear two fold. Michelle panicked. She looked around to the other passengers, but they were a blur, so she looked back to her parents who were now holding each other, not even noticing their daughter standing 2 feet away from them. She outstretched her arm toward them, but a sharp nose dive ripped Michelle right out of the top of the plane. She watched in terror as it descended, sinking, almost being swallowed by the darkness.

“NOOO!!” Michelle screeched, helplessly stuck, floating above them. She stared into the bottomless pit that had just devoured her parents, not sure if she believed what just happened. She clenched the hair on both sides of her head shaking it violently back and forth wishing it all away. Tears burned her eyes and she shut her eyelids propelling the water out of her eyes and down her cheek. She buried her face in the terrycloth not ever wanting to open her eyes again. What am I going to do without them? Oh my god why? Why them? Why us?! Why not someone else? How am I going to tell Reese?? What did we do to deserve this?! She wiped away the tears, but they kept on coming. Trying to console herself, she rocked back and forth, knees held tightly to her chest as if she’d lose them the second she let them go. An ambiguous click and a constant flash of dim light interrupted her sorrow. Reese?

***

They gently settled the stretcher’s wheels onto the asphalt. It rose up and the stretcher steadied with a click as they rolled it away from the front walkway to the back of the ambulance.

“Reese?” Michelle whispered, eyes opened slightly.

“Michelle?!” Reese panted, as he jogged along side the stretcher with the paramedics. Her eyes fell closed as quickly as they opened. “Michelle? Michelle!!”

They loaded her into the back of the ambulance and were on their way to the hospital. While the paramedics attached IVs and sensors to his sister’s arms and chest to monitor her vitals, his phone continued to vibrate.

We’re almost there, how close are you? He read the text to himself. Reese continuously flipped his phone open and closed the entire way to the hospital; both to release nervous energy, and to reply to texts. It felt like a lifetime had gone by when they finally arrived at the hospital.

***

“I stayed home so I could drop them off at the airport!” she screamed to no one in particular. There was nothing around her; she was merely floating in black space again, “And now I’m never going to get to see them again! Why!” She raised up her fists to her forehead, resting them there, not quite sure what to do. Her eyes wandered, but there was nothing to fixate them on. She felt cold and lonely and a bit confused. Reese, she thought. She still had Reese. If all else in the world failed they still had each other. Even in the face of Armageddon. They used to joke about it, but as of right now, it was comforting. This felt like Armageddon, like all was lost and there was no getting over it, but at least she didn’t have to go through it alone. How did she find him though? How did she get back to him from this void?

“REESE!” she screamed, “REESE!!!” she had to tell him.

***

Reese had taken up residence next to Michelle’s bed for the past hour. No change, no movement. It was then that her right arm closest to him twitched. He focused on her.

“REESE! REESE!!!” Michelle screamed. Reese fell sideways out of his seat, but quickly scrambled to get up and stand up at her bedside. Two doctors ran in as well.

“Michelle? It’s ok, I’m right here!” Reese stared at her, still startled by the sudden scream. Michelle began to cry.

Sobbing she said, “Oh my god Reese mom and dad are dead, their plane crashed and I saw it and there was nothing I could do and I told them they shouldn’t take the plane and I was just stuck there staring at them go down and it was the most terrible thing I had ever seen and I can’t even believe it!”

“Whoa, whoa slow down, what are you saying?” Reese stopped her, confused.

“Mom and Dad are dead!” She began crying again

“Michelle…” Reese was about to continue when their mother and father ran into the room along with the doctor who had been taking care of her.

“Michelle, honey!” their mother said. She ran over to the bedside next to Reese and gave her daughter a hug, “We were so worried about you, we rushed straight here from the airport!” Michelle stared at them. She was so sure they had been dead that she couldn’t understand seeing them here, but she began sobbing even more now. Her father approached the side of the bed as well and stroked his daughter’s head, “It’s ok honey. We’re safe. You don’t have to cry.”

Reese added, “See? It was just a dream.” Michelle fell back onto the bed still sobbing. Reese pulled his chair closer and held her hand. “How about some cartoons?” he reached for the remote and turned on the television mounted directly across from the hospital bed. She couldn’t exactly form words to she muttered a quick “mhm” between sobs. Reese smiled at her and felt her grip tighten, “Everything is going to be ok, promise.”

***

Reese picked his head up off the side of Michelle’s bed and rubbed the back of his neck. I really need to stop falling asleep sitting up. He groaned while rubbing his face. The light from the television was stinging his eyes. When they adjusted he realized there was a news report on.

“…when the aircraft headed for Berlin suddenly started losing altitude and crashed right into the ocean right off the coast of Iceland.”

Reese froze. “No… way…”