When I got home, I was quite tired. More tired than usual. I was hungry, but I didn't even bother eating. I walked to my room and got in bed and immediately fell asleep.
When I woke up something was different. I felt even more tired than before, and I felt paranoid. Something was watching me. I could feel it. I tried to get up, but I fell as soon as I tried. My legs weren't working like they should. I'm fact, most of my body wasn't working as it should. It felt delayed. My arms wouldn't move until seconds after I want it to. I hit my head on the way down, and I hit it hard.
I tried to touch my face, but I didn't feel anything. "I don't have a face?!" I frantically thought. I felt something but it wasn't my face. I know what my face feels like and this wasn't it. I got up quickly and fell again. I saw something in the corner of my eyes, but I didn't see it when I looked up. I got up once more, slowly this time, and walked. It felt awkward. That delay in what my body was unlike anything I've ever felt before.
That feeling I felt came back. It weighted my heart, it was the one that I felt when my dad died, and when I was told I would die.
I walked slowly towards my living room. I felt contorted, my body was deformed in all sorts of ways, or at least that's what it felt like. I couldn't actually see anything wrong with my body, except for the delayed movements. I felt trapped inside my own body. Terrifying doesn't even begin to describe what I felt. I felt nothing but horror. Every negative emotion you could think of was what I felt. Every single one.
I grabbed a candle and matches. I lit the candle but the flame was blue. I had never seen anything like it before. I suddenly had a feeling of wonder, and happiness through all of the horror. But that didn't last long. Somehow I caught fire. Blue fire. It was hot, so very hot. I was melting away.
I reached for something, anything. I grabbed a mirror, and looked through it. I saw a strange face. It was mine, but horribly deformed. My teeth were long and not proportional, I had purple bags under my eyes. I looked to be balding, and I my nose was comically short. The place where I hit my head was also bleeding, and my blood was literally boiling.
I suddenly had a realization. I was dreaming. So I yelled out "I know I'm dreaming," but my paranoia was right, I was being watched.
"You shouldn't have said that." A strange voice stated. It repeated, again and again and again. "You shouldn't have said that."
I knew it was a dream, but I couldn't help but be scared. The voices screamed at me. They were inescapable. I tried with all my might to use the fact it was all a dream to my advantage, but I just couldn't.
I limped to the front door and walked out, a trail of fire following behind me, as well as the voices. I got out, but there was nothing there. Pure darkness. I got to the edge of my porch, and I looked down. I was too scared to walk beyond the porch. But that didn't matter, because I was pushed, and I fell into the uncaring void anyway.
I landed on the floor, but wait, I wasn't on the floor, I was in a chair. I was at my brother's dinner table, eating something.
"I can't believe he's gone now." Augustine said, rubbing his eyebrows.
"Mhmm." I said. "A real shame."
Something was off, but I couldn't tell what. His face, what he was wearing, his hair, something was off. I remember this though. I distinctly remember this. This is real, or it was. I'm in a dream right? I can't tell anymore.
I got up from my chair and said, "Well I must be off now."
Augustine looked away from me and leaned on his counter. I walked out the door, but it didn't lead outside. It led to my hometown. As I walked, days passed, weeks, years, decades. All that time passed in seconds. I saw all the people I knew in my hometown. But again, something about all of them was off. I tried to focus on the details, what they looked like, but I couldn't.
I saw myself grow up, along with former friends, my mom, and my brother. Suddenly I stopped in my tracks and everyone one else stopped. They all slowly looked towards me. "MOSTRO!" They screamed on repeat. I covered my ears but I couldn't stop the voices.
"DAMN YOU!" I yelled back at the people chanting at me. "NON HO FATTO NULLA DI SBAGLIATO!"
"Sei sicuro?" They chanted in response. They all chanted in unison. Not a single person was off. If it wasn't so terrifying, it'd be melodic, like a choir.
Suddenly it all went dark. The chanting didn't stop though. Then I saw colors flash past me, I felt feelings I've never felt before. "You're dying." They chanted. It never ended. "You're dying, you're dying, you're dying."
I was no longer on fire but the pain lingered. I was no longer deformed but that feeling never went away. My movements were no longer delayed, but that feeling of not being in control never went away. It's like guilt. It never goes away.
I woke up I'm a cold sweat. My back stuck to my bed as I sat up. The memories of the dream faded almost instantly. I could hardly remember what happened, except for very broad parts of the dream, but that weight on my heart lingered.
It was morning. The sun hadn't risen above the trees. Everything was normal again.
Until I heard a voice.