When I woke up I saw two young piglets looking at me. They were both ugly boys. Twiddle-dee and Twiddle-dum look alikes. And that was just me being nice.

As someone who deeply appreciated beauty, I'm sorry but I didn't like looking at their direction. They sucked the life out of my eyes.

The boys looked around the age range of 8-10. The other one on the right was a bit taller and he was drooling. Next to him was a plumpy boy with freckles all over his face. He was picking his nose and trying to eat the snot.

Oh God. I wish I could've unseen that and I wish I could turn my body but I realized I was paralyzed.

I felt nauseous, sluggish and weak. My body seemed to have been drugged. Finally, I noticed that my wrists were aching and my clothes were a mess. Even worse, I was wearing cheap clothing. Not Gucci, nein prada, nor Hermes.

[ Unbelievable! ]

I also didn't understand why I was tied up to a chair with my hands on my back and why these two boys were standing there beside me, just staring at me with creepy, little smiles.

[ Dear, you can continue smiling like a creep but please just stop eating your snot in front of me. ]

Although I had a weird feeling. They looked at me like how I admired my monthly paycheck and when I grinned at the sight of a steaming, hot piping cheese burger after smacking it on my useless assistant's face.

[ I know what this is about. I'm lucid dreaming. It's because of that bitch Dorothy. She's finally getting fired. And that amateur executive who keeps sticking his short, fat d*ck into my female staffs. If he likes holes that much I'd be happy to glue his member up to his---]

"Aaaaaaaa!"

Suddenly, I hear a woman's scream from across the room and also a deep, enthralling voice belonging to a man.

"Woman, have you not learned anything?"

Then the atmosphere began to cloud darkly and the surroundings turned dim.

But because I was fortunately aware that I was just lucid dreaming, I didn't have much of a response. It was normal to trigger a real dream-like state when extremely stressed. I recalled a colleague said so.

Becoming financially stable as a chief editor at the blooming age of 23 years young wasn't as easy as it looked. But I made it looked easy, too easy. And men and women either hated or loved me for it.

With such a delicate situation, stress was always there, clinging like my exe's side-chick Gretchen. That obnoxious brunette was always down for a cheap ride.

Although on another notion, I think the 'lucid plot' that was taking form right now had something to do with the thriller book that I reviewed and criticized before going to sleep.

***The Grimoire of Ally***

It was an original intriguing novel at first but soon the protagonist's brain began to deteriorate, thus ruining the entire plotline. Such a protagonist, well simply put, she was a sorry example of a living, breathing primate.

"Please, please, give me another chance!" The woman's scream from the other room ceased my thoughts once again.

With a much less appreciated movement, I was able to turn my stiff neck to the direction of the voices and I was caught off guard.

Standing there was a tall, mature and rugged middle-aged man. With only a glimpse of his form and stature, I wondered if he was a possible and eligible marriage partner.

He kept himself healthy and fit. His muscles well-defined, standing with a pair of long legs. My outrageous criteria of a perfect equal that my mother once said, was right in front of my eyes now.

[ A pity it was all but a dream. ]

Bluntly put, I disliked books that repeatedly praised handsome masculine features. Hence, I will cut it short. Beauty was a luxury, but too much emphasis and most readers would feel it to be mandatory, most comparable to the insufferable menstrual cycle gifted to females.

"Not, scared?" The man spoke, looking at me with a slight surprise turning into amusement.

I did not enjoy his seductive blue eyes as much.  He looked at me, the way I least expected him to. Like a main attraction of the circus.

Perhaps he expected my frightened appearance, but there was no need for that. He was inside my dream, inside my head, and my territory.

"Girl, are you really not scared?"

[ Girl? ]

I inwardly scoffed.

Either he was blind, or playing hard to get for not noticing the precious curves on my person that exercise and a strict diet could gave to a woman.

"Agh!"

The woman shrieked.

My calm gaze finally took the leisure to scan the woman but then it darted at the man's fistful grip around the woman's hair, yanking her roughly.

[ Oh, my, God. ]

Her frizzy unwashed hair was unacceptable.The black and blue bruises on her arms and legs were terrible. Most of all, her out of date fashion dress was also a painful experience for me to keep on watching. Never mix yellow clothing with green. Otherwise you'd look like a Christmas tree, was once my grandmother's favorite words.

The woman was incessantly begging the man while the two boys didn't even glanced at her pitiful appearance.

"Mother, too noisy..."

"Please, shut her up father."

"No, please, please, I can do better! Please, give me another chance. Forgive me..."

[ How preposterous! This is too much icing on the cake! Somebody give this woman a soap and some decent clothing. Even a dollar store will suffice. ]

The scenario in front of me was too uncomfortable and yet it felt familiar. 'Like Deja Vu, like I've been here before,' kind of quote.

As I was slowly putting the pieces together, the woman suddenly crawled towards me, scaring me a little.

"He...hello, welcome to the family, my, my daughter...."

[ Excuse me, what? Sweetie your about the same age as I am.]

"Father, I'm enjoying this girl's presence. Can I have her, please?" The tall boy politely asked, pointing his untrimmed, long digit at me. I shuddered.

"No, please! Let me be the one father. I've been very good this week." The plump, nose-picking child retorted.

"Well, I've completed most of my hunt! I should have her!"

"Then, it should be me, I caught more than enough, compared to your embarassing numbers!"

I frowned in displeasure. Something was clearly strange and wrong with this family. Still, I tried to stay calm. But I had a feeling I wasn't going to enjoy where the direction of the situation was going.

Accidentally, I met the man's deep blue eyes, his gaze was intense. Just like mine when Dorothy that bitch tries to get ahead of my projects.

"A little scared?"

I inwardly snorted. This was getting old. I needed to wake up. That rookie author's thriller book was actually the one I was currently dreaming about. Such bad taste.

Unacceptable. This was a brutal and tasteless plot.

"Your a mad man." I carefully looked at him and spoke without a tremble in my voice. I was stating a fact.

The boys blinked, confusion in their faces while the woman turned paler than before.

Out of the blue, the middle-aged man chuckled. This time, I noticed the boys flinched and immediately lowered their heads obediently. The woman was no better, she was almost kissing the floor.

Everyone looked away from his smile, but I didn't, I stared at his beguiling laughter. His teeth was very white. Oh Lord, he had great hygiene. And for a second, I forgot he was deranged.

Slash.

He sliced the woman's throat in the blink of an eye.

[ That was unexpected. Now I hate lucid dreaming.]

A line of blood appeared across her neck. Seemingly unsatisfied, he started stabbing her throat repeatedly, spraying blood in front of me until I just saw the insides of her throat and the dangling ripped flesh.

Maybe I still looked too calm for him or my facial expressions were too numb by the shock but he suddenly grabbed her throat and ripped it out.

Blood sprayed out. It spurted like the great fountain back in Greece.

"Mother, died..."

"Mother was too noisy, it's her fault..."

The boys whispered to themselves. The man shot them a look and they instantly went silent. 

It finally hit me.

This was a different book entirely.

*** The Casket above the flowers ***

The savage man in front of me was not only a psycho, he was also part of a cult. The two boys weren't any better. They were little monsters that liked to 'enjoy' women inside their little stomach while the victim was kept alive, half-breathing.

Immediately half of my courage heartlessly abandoned me.

But, no, no matter, I-I'm st-still lu..lucid dreaming, am-am I not?