I swear, the older I get, the more my nightmares resemble Stephen King short stories. This is the one I had just a few minutes ago. I'm hoping that by writing it down I'll get it out of my head.
I was a teacher, in some middle school, and I was monitoring the behaviour of a mixed-age class during some very serious presentation. One of the younger girls, Sophia, wouldn't sit down at my instruction. She said, "he scares me," and took off through the door. An older girl, Lauren, followed. I also followed, as they ran down the hall, up a narrow set of concrete stairs, and then up a still narrower flight to what I assumed to be the school roof. I burst through the door just as it had closed after Lauren, and walked into blackness.
Not complete blackness. I could see in the dimness that we were in some large chamber. It was surrounded on four sides by a narrow concrete walkway, and whatever lay in the middle disappeared into darkness an untold distance below. There were a few rays of subdued natural light coming from the ceiling, but the only real light source came from a small brazier sitting on the walkway to my left. Something was suspended from the ceiling in the centre of the chamber, and that something was moving.
I edged toward the brazier, trying to figure out where the hell I was and trying as well to locate my young charges. Not being able to feel them, I began to call their names.
"Sophia?"
No answer.
"Lauren?"
No answer.
Again. "LAUREN?"
"Yes." It was a very small, very scared voice, coming from the darkness somewhere in front of me and to my left. I knew in that instant that whatever it was that was suspended from the ceiling had to do with why I couldn't find Sophia.
I called to Lauren to use the pocket mirror I knew she carried to try and reflect the light from the brazier onto the suspended bundle. The couldn't get the brazier light to reflect, but she did manage to catch one of the puny rays of natural light. Because she was in front of me, I couldn't see what she saw, but I saw the shadow of her ray of light on the wall, and that was enough.
It was a writhing bundle, covered all over with large insect-like creatures, probably the size of my head. I had the random thought that they looked a bit like ants and then something in the depths of the darkness began to move up through the blackness. There was a scrabbling to my left and Lauren cannoned into me. I set her upright and stopped her from falling off the edge and we edged to the right to the stairs I knew were there.
We took the stairs four at a time, practically fell down the other stairwells, and ran into the main hallway of the school just as the presentation was letting out.
Attracted by our screams, one of the older lady teachers turned towards us and saw our faces as we collapsed by the wall. I looked up to see that one of the pictures on the wall, which usually portrayed one of the school founders. Instead, in it was a wide cloaked figure, with staring eyes. The lady teacher who had followed my gaze saw it and screamed, too, then ran off. The figure in the picture followed suit.
Many of the teachers present hadn't seen what we had seen, and were still unsure as to what was going on. One of the male teachers was walking out of the room with the guidance counselor. "Looks like you've got your work cut out for you, Lloyd," he said.
Lloyd, as he came away, looked at me and chuckled. "Yes," he said, "but now I know where to find them." He reached out and grabbed my arm, still chuckling, though now it was a menacing tone. The hand on my arm was hard, like pincers, and I saw that what I had thought was a jacket was actually a cloak, and that under that cloak where were other arms, insect arms.
At that point I tried to scream, but my mouth felt glued shut, and Lloyd continued to stare into my eyes, laughing.
Then Andy woke me up because I was "breathing funny."
I figured I should write this down and hopefully get it out of my head.
You know when things get all crazy, and you complain about how crazy they are, and then they get crazier?
This is one of those times.
Finished:
Thanksgiving.
SSHRC proposal.
Three transcriptions.
Some comp readings.
Still to accomplish:
More comp readings.
Trudeau proposal.
Wenner-Gren Proposal.
Seven transcriptions.
Trip home for Grandma's birthday.
And with the Pie now working all the time, things are all messed up around here schedule-wise.
BLOOOOOOOOOG.