The Power of Stories: Phantasms & Fantasies II
The nightmares and dreams I’ve had since I was four or five have always been full of colour and sound, almost like watching a movie. In fact, there were at least two full length nightmare ‘movies’ I saw. :D More on that soon.
But the early dreams were fear-related scenes, including one where I was forgotten at the zoo and ended up trapped in a cage full of monkeys. At night! Their eyes glinted at me reflecting the weak light of the lone bulb hanging outside the cage. Their furious chittering came closer and closer as the monkeys took offence at an intruder in their cage… It was super scary.
The full length movie experience happened in my teens. One was right after I had finished watching an episode from The X-Files show, 'Squeeze'. It involved a liver-eating serial killer (yeah, really!). He could enter any place by contorting his body to fit in through the smallest vent or opening.
Added to this horrifying imagery, there were the memories of mom’s retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula bright in my head. Also,… I had just finished reading Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs (yup, cannibalism, FBI agents and all). So it was no wonder that all of these jumbled up in my head that night to form a nightmarish dream set in the US featuring FBI agents! :P However, what is vivid in my memory is the opening scene.
A girl is thrilled at winning a lottery and calls her boyfriend from work. He comes to pick her up in his car to drop her home. Something about the guy’s smile and the way his eyes gleam, makes the girl uneasy. She ignores it, telling herself it’s simply a fanciful thought.
Night has fallen by the time they reach her house. It’s a secluded area with row houses. The girl lives alone and the other row houses are empty which means most of the area is dark except for the light of the full moon. Yup, the full moon is a star performer in my nightmares. :P
She bids farewell to her boyfriend and starts walking towards her house, behind another one. But something causes her to turn back. Her boyfriend’s car is still parked on the street and she can see him watching her. Seeing her turn, he raises a hand to wave at her. She waves back. Even with the distance separating them, his smile chills her.
Now the unease is blossoming into a fear she can’t reason with. She starts hurrying, walking past her neighbour’s darkened house to her house at the back. She turns back once more and sees the car still on the street. She can also see the silhouette of her boyfriend in the driver's seat.
By now her heart is pounding. She’s sweating though the night is cool. She fumbles with her keys to open the door. She turns back again. The car is still there. Her boyfriend is still watching her.
She opens the door and stumbles inside, almost sobbing. She slams the door shut behind her, shuddering with relief. A sound causes her to look at the window. And there across the room, striated by the light of the moon and the blinds, stands her boyfriend sneering at her, his fangs catching the light. She screams and he leaps at her with inhuman speed and my dream vision goes blank.
...and that was just the beginning. One would imagine that my brain would show some mercy and wake me up. But no. It was busy getting entertained and frightened, pounding heart and all. :D But experiences, real or imaginary are fuel to the writer. Perhaps one of these days I’ll put those nightmares all down on paper. An exorcism of sorts? :P
Next Part: One more ‘movie’ nightmare and stories that inspired me ;)
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