Dream - 14th November

(Josie Sayz: This is the scariest dream I have ever had. I woke up terrified and thinking that I should turn myself into a psychiatric ward, following that dream. I have never dreamt of violence before. It took me over six hours to get over the shock and trauma that this dream caused. It is horrific and I never want to think about it ever again.)

 

Her chest pounded. Her lungs stung. Throwing her head over her shoulder, the red head scanned her surroundings, as she ran on. Two figures, in the distance, ran towards her. She spun her head back to the route before her. The souls of her shoes pounded the ground. Her eyes darted from left to right. Buildings lined her left. Traffic sped by to her right. A screech sounded behind her. She gasped. Throwing her head back over her shoulder, her eyes widened. Her heart hammered against her ribcage. Facing forward, the red head spotted a building that she recognised. ‘The restaurant I used to work at,’ she thought, as the familiar chequered frosted window came into view. ‘I hope someone there recognises me,’ she thought with a swallow. Her footsteps slowed, as she neared the entrance to the restaurant that she worked at seven years ago.

Swinging open the front door, the red head leapt inside. A curvy lady, with a short chestnut-coloured bob, looked up from the cash register, positioned opposite the front door. “Can I help you?” asked the brunette.

“Kerry?” gasped the red head, panting. Stepping towards the counter, the red head leant her hands against its surfaced, as she seeped in several deep breaths. “It’s Jane. Do you remember me?” the red head asked, between gasps.

“Jane?!” Kerry exclaimed. “Are you alight?” Kerry’s eyes were wide, as she reached a hand out towards the panting red head.

“I’m being chased,” cried Jane, clasping a hand to the sharp sting in her left side. “Can I hide here for a while? Please,” she begged, feeling the inner corners of her eyes sting, as her vision began to blur. “I’m so scared,” she added, with a sniff, her voice shaky.

“Of course,” Kerry replied. “Go sit upstairs. I’ll bring you a glass of water up when I get a minute.”

“Thank you,” cried Jane. “If anyone asks for me, please don’t let anyone know I’m here.”

“Of course. Of course,” Kerry told her, as she led her former colleague through the restaurant and towards the staircase to the staffroom.

Having clambered the stairs, Jane turned to the doorway on her right, to the office. Her eyes widened. A filing cabinet lay tipped over on the ground. The cabinet’s drawers were scattered across the floor and paperwork was sprawled everywhere. Spare uniform had been tossed around the room. The desk chair had been tipped over. Another filing cabinet, in the far corner of the room, had the middle drawer open, with its contents amongst the rest of the paperwork sprawled across the ground. Taking a hesitant step forward, Jane’s heart hammered in her chest.

A squeaking creak sounded from a distant room behind her. Glass shattered. She gasped. Throwing her head over her shoulder, Jane twisted her body around to face the landing doorway, as she shuffled a hesitant step back. Footsteps thundered towards her. Pressed back against the office desk, Jane’s eyes scanned around at her surroundings. Her heart hammered in her ribcage. Her knees trembled. Pulse pounded in her ears. A roaring war cry rang out, as a foot appeared at the doorway. Jane’s hand grabbed a golfer’s umbrella that lay on the table beside her. Sweat clammed her palms, as she gripped the handle tight in bother hands. A roar screamed, as the intruder pounced towards her. Snapping her eyes shut, Jane lunger the tip of the golfer’s umbrella forward. Heavy pressure weighted on her arms, accompanied by a bloodcurdling scream. Jane’s eyes shot open, as she gasped. The tip of the umbrella had pierced through the centre of the intruder’s torso. Jane’s chest trembled. Her eyes widened, as she stared at the scene before her. With one last gasping breath, a bald man, dressed in combat clothes, flopped to the ground. Lying on his left side, the umbrella skewered him. A pool of scarlet liquid seeped into the carpet.

Shuffling back, as far as she could, Jane curled a hand to her mouth. Her eyes froze on the crime scene before her. Her intestines swirled into knots. A lump lodged in her throat. Trembling, the red head pleaded with her eyes to look away from the corpse on the ground, but she could not.

Another squeaking creak sounded in the distance. ‘The fire escape ladder,’ she realised, with a gasp. The people chasing her had broken into the restaurant, through the rickety metal ladder fixed to the restaurant’s side window that connected to the washing machine room. Jane’s heart raced faster. Her shallow breaths trembled her chest. Sliding her hands back, against the table’s surface, the fingers of Jane’s right hands rested upon a cold, metal object. Glass crunched. Footsteps thudded about a few rooms away. Jane dropped her eyes to the object in her right hand. A handgun. The red head’s eyes widened, as she forced a swallow. ‘Just point it at them, and they’ll leave you alone,’ she told herself, as the footsteps grew nearer. Footsteps thundered towards her from both sides – the main doorway, to her right, that she had entered from, and that back doorway that circled around the entire first floor, to her left.

“Give it up,” bellowed a man, in the doorway to her right. Jane’s eyes shot towards him. Stood feet apart, in camouflage combat gear, he pointed a shotgun towards her.

“We’ve got you surrounded,” announced a female voice, to Jane’s left. Flickering a glance to the room’s other entrance, Jane forced a swallow as she spotted a woman, dressed from head to foot in the same camouflage combat outfit, with her short hair spiking out in a ponytail behind her. She too held a shotgun in Jane’s direction. “Give it up, red,” growled the woman.

“Lower your weapon,” the man, to Jane’s right, demanded.

“No,” Jane managed to mutter, as she squeezed the grip as tight as she could and rested both of her index fingers over the trigger. Stretching her arms out straight, Jane aimed the weapon that she had found at the man.

“Get her!” he growled.

Snapping her eyes tight, Jane squeezed the trigger tight. Bang! Her arms trembled, as a vibrating shock emanated from her wrists and travelled up her arms and into her body. A male yelp sounded. Scrunching her face, Jane hunched her shoulders and squeezed on the trigger as hard as she could. Bang! Bang! Bang! Keeping her eyes closed, she swung her arms to her left, keeping a tight grip on the trigger. Bang! Bang! A female shriek wailed in her ears. Bang! Bang! Swinging her arms from left to right, Jane held her breath, as more firing continued. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Thud.

Trembling rattled in Jane’s arms, as she lowered her weapon. Her heart hammered against her ribcage. Her bottom lip quaked, as she squinted her eyes open. The male intruder was lying, face down, in a puddle of his own blood. His clothing darkened as the liquid seeped into the fabric. Frozen, Jane stared. ‘I, it shouldn’t do that,’ she told herself, as her right arm trembled. ‘I never pulled the hammer back,’ she realised, as her eyes lowered towards the left of the room, where the female intruder lay in an identical position as her male companion. “No,” Jane whispered, as she continued to stare at the corpses in the room, unable to take her eye away from the horrific sight. “No,” she cried. Lifting her knees, the red head curled her legs around her, as she shuffled back on the desk. “H, how did…? B, b, buh, but I didn’t…” she stuttered, shaking. “I, I never meant to… this is impossible.” A frown puckered her brow, as she thought about how the point of an umbrella has stabbed through a man, and how a handgun had continually been fired, without her pulling back the hammer. ‘This was self-defence,’ she told herself. ‘I was going to die. I never meant to hurt anyone. I never wanted this.’ The red head’s breathing grew shaky. Her body flopped against the wall, to her right, as her vision glazed over.

Rattling clanked from outside. Glass cracked beneath a heavy boot. An intense thump pounded in Jane’s chest. Her eyes widened. Her head shot towards the landing doorway. The index finger of her right hand tightened around the handgun’s trigger. Her breathing slowed. Footsteps crept closer. Her ears pricked up. Crunch! She flinched. Her eyes widened. “You ain’t getting away now!” growled a deep throaty voice, as a man with hair shaved back to his scalp, clothed in camouflage combat gear, swung a machete in the air, as he leapt through the doorway.

Screaming at the top of her voice, Jane snapped her eyes shut, aimed the handgun at the floor and squeezed the trigger. Bang! The bullet blasted through the floor, at the man’s feet. Flapping his arms at his sides, he lost his balance. A horrific scream howled in Jane’s ears, as he tripped over one of the corpses and swiped himself with his own blade, before skewering himself, with a squelch, onto the point of the golfer’s umbrella. Thud! The red head gasped. Squinting open her eyes, she watched as the fourth intruder slumped against the pile of bodies. ‘Oh no!’ she cried. ‘Downstairs must have heard everything.’

Leaving the handgun where she had found it, Jane flickered a glance around the blood splattered room, as she lowered her feet to the floor. The red head’s chest jittered, as she seeped in short, shallow breaths. Having staggered out of the office, Jane stood at the top of the staircase, staring down towards the restaurant. Upbeat, party music blasted, as conversations and laughter filtered into her ears. Staring dead at the patch of black and white chequered flooring on the edge of the restaurant, Jane shuddered as her former colleague swept into view. “You feeling any better?” asked Kerry with a beaming grin. “Sorry, it’s been manic down here,” she added, with a chuckle.

“Help me,” Jane muttered, with a stone stare, her arms lifeless at her sides. Then I woke up.

- Josie -