Darkly (or - the dream I just had, coping with metal processing, 4:51 AM, and confusing steampunk)

And I just had the second worst dream I can remember.

It's 4:51 AM and I just finished writing it down.  It was really vivid and I remembered it clearly even after being awake for a while to try and really wake up.

I turned it into something of a short horror story.  Something like what a young Poe or Lovecraft would have written.  'Cept with fewer and generally shorter words.

I added a little here and there for the flow of it and tagged a cliche ending onto the end to wrap it up but easily 90% of this is what I just dreamed less than an hour ago.

[WARNING: The following contains violent and disturbing content.  Reader discretion is advised]

I’m watching him go out the door.  I had a good time catching up with an old friend.  It was a pleasant visit; I can feel the last bit of a smile on the corners of my mouth.

A realization comes: it was an event on a timeline.  But what comes next?  Have I forgotten?  It was important.

The door closes in front of me and I see myself in a dim reflection on the patterned glass.  I was staring at my friend, watching him leave, waving “goodbye.”  Now I’m staring at myself, my smile is gone, but I’m still waving.

My wife walks up behind me smiling gently looking slightly up at me.  For a moment our eyes meet in the door glass and I can see the love in her gaze.  Then I feel a sharp pain in my left side just below my shoulder blade.

I remember!

Frantically, I turn around and see my wife standing there with a bloody kitchen knife.  The love on her face is replaced with pure madness.  I pull my left arm back behind me for a moment and can see fresh blood on my elbow.  It’s slowly getting harder to breathe.

This was it.  This is what I was supposed to remember: the twist, the next event on the timeline.  How could I forget?  How could I remember?...

She is laughing now.  She sees I remembered, but not in time.  I grab her hands to keep her from stabbing me again.  She resists…somewhat.  She’s just laughing.

I try to form a sentence.  I’m in pain.  Every breath feels like she is stabbing me again.  I’m confused.  My wife…  My blood…

She responds to the words I never say.

“The look, the look on your face?!” she gets out between her hysterics.

I finally force the knife out of her hand but she does nothing.  She just falls to the ground giggling like a school girl.

I don’t even recognize her any more.

“What?...  But, how?...”

I don’t even know what to ask.

“You don’t really remember, do you?” she asks sardonically.  “How could you forget?  I’ve seen it already?”

She’s mocking me now.  She wants me to know.

I charge forward and her tone changes.  She replaces her smile with a confused grimace.  I grab her with my empty hand and turn her over face down on the ground.  I’m sitting on her now so she can’t react, or even move.

“What happens to me now?”  I have to know the next event!

She starts laughing again.  It’s sinister.

“Tell me!”

My wife turns her head and looks at me sideways.

“Now you die!” she says elated.

I can’t wrap my head around it.  My wife just murdered me!  Why couldn’t I remember?  Now there’s nothing I can do.  I’m already as good as dead.

This is not my wife…it can’t be…

I turn her over onto her side.  She looks fulfilled.  She doesn’t seem to care anymore.

Out of anger, confusion, and pity I stab the knife into her side.  I shock myself and pull the knife back out.  It didn’t cut deep.

At first she is a little surprised but then relaxes.  Her face calms as she accepts her fate.

“You’ll have to finish it now you know?” she tells me.  She makes it sound like a sadistic dare.

She starts to fight back kicking and throwing herself around; like she’s making this into a game.  I stab her again between the ribs into her left lung.  She gasps sharply and bends back.  She keeps fighting me but with less enthusiasm now.  I stab her again in the right lung and again she reacts.

So she does feel pain…

I grab her wrists to keep her from struggling.

“Oh just let me die!” she rebukes.  It’s like she’s talking to a child.

I let go, stand up, and step back just to watch.  She is still lying belly down but bent backwards in pain and facing forward.  She knew this was coming and did nothing.  She is content now.  She wants to die.

And I killed her.  I stabbed her.  Three times.

Because she killed me.

I am dying.

I can’t breathe…

I wake up shaking in a cold sweat.

“What was that?”

Reality is starting to set in.  It was a dream.  I’m awake now.  I look beside me and see my wife lying there peacefully asleep.

Then the dream sets in.  A mix of emotions washes over me as tears fall from my face.  I get up and walk into the bathroom.  I stand at the sink a minute and let the dream wear off as I try to calm myself.  I wash my face with cold water and stare at myself in the mirror.  I hear my wife stir from the bed and walk in behind me.

“Are you alright?” she asks groggily.

I stand silently.  I don’t know what to say.

My wife walks up behind me smiling gently looking slightly up at me.  For a moment our eyes meet in the door glass and I can see the love in her gaze.  Then I feel a sharp pain in my left side just below my shoulder blade.

                Had I forgotten?

And there you have it.  I don't know where that came from and I hope it stays away!  There was other stuff too before that that I can remember.

I was on a large, floating city-scape similar to Columbia from Bioshock: Infinity.  It was a large city and I felt like I had been there before in a dream.  I definitely haven't though.  It was just dream de-ja-vu.  There was something about cars.  Flying cars.  The looked normal though.  At least, normal from like, the 1950s or something.  Everything had that Bioshock antiquity/steampunk vibe to it.  I was in a car and ascending on a pully system into the clouds.  The pully system became the rigging on a sailing ship.  I was climbing under the ship to get to a specific door on the side and steal something from one of the crew's rooms.  I punched a hole in the wall to peek inside.  Sadly the outter wall of the ship was about 2mm thick so I don't think it would have done much good on open water but oh well.  I went inside but was found before I got anything.  I jumped out and one of the soldiers chased me.  They were foreign but not really from anywhere.  Dark skinned with weird, non-existant south-European accents.  We swam away from the ship.......all the way to America?!  I know this was from my head but I hadn't really thought through this part until just now.  So it sounds pretty odd to me too.  We went to my epic apartment where the soldier turned into the loud old fat guy from the remake Ocean's 11.  ?!?!  We had a pleasant chat and cleared things up from the ship raid.  I apparently had a plot twist where I removed a face piece that helped me talk differently to reveal I was not Matt Damon but was actually Leonardo DiCaprio!  But when I look in the mirror next to me I still looked like Matt Damon but really thin like Christian Bale from the Machinist.  Then the guy left and that's when the trippy stuff started happening.

What?!?!?!?!

Idk, whatevs...

I'm feeling better now so I'm gonna try to get back to sleep.  I'm off tomorrow...today so I'm gonna see if sleeping in works after this.

Sheesh...