351 E. Center St #105
Provo, UT 84606
801-427-1271

It’s Just A Dream

Another late night, thought Mary, as she was still going over the case file. The victim, another Jane Doe, was found under the overpass. A young female, in her early twenties, who was found naked, head severed, scalp removed exposing a brain, with little incision marks, and small industrial steel pins, marking off the different areas of the brain, as if she had been in the middle of an operation, gone horribly wrong. Her face had been scraped off, and mutilated, so the victim’s identity would remain a mystery. The rest of her body laid three feet away from the severed head. Her finger nails had been removed, body hair had been shaven off, and wrists were bruised and cut, as if she had been restrained. She was covered in dried up blood but, there were no signs of blood anywhere else near the crime scene. The killer had killed her else where, that’s for sure, thought Mary, then laid her to rest underneath the overpass sometime the night before. Due to the precision of his work, this wasn’t his first time. She was dealing with a serial killer. With no real clues to go off of, Mary was getting frustrated. She stared blankly at the case file. No leads, no witnesses, no answers, nothing to track this animal, just a construction worker, who had found her body earlier that morning. Mary looked at her watch; it was almost one in the morning. She had been working on this case all day. Mary tossed the file down on her desk, tired of trying to find something that would help with the case. She was ready to call it a night. I will get back to it in the morning, she thought, I have to get home and I don’t want to miss my train. She grabbed her jacket, left turning off the lights and headed for the subway.

The nights in New York have gotten a little chiller now that winter was fast approaching. Mary tightened her jacket as a breeze started to pick up. There were still lights on in the tall buildings downtown, as others worked late. The streets seem deserted, Mary thought as she walked to the Subway station three blocks away from the precinct she worked. She arrived just as the train was arriving. She quickly boarded the train and found a seat next to an older man bundled up by a long heavy jacket, his face hidden behind a copy of the New York Times. “I guess I’m not the only one working late tonight”, she said, as the train started to take off. The man just continued reading the paper. “So you work around here?” She asked. “I guess you can say that”, the man replied. “So, what do you do?” Mary wondered. The man put down his paper and looked at her through a pair of thick framed glasses and answered “Well, I’m a psychiatrist, but currently I’m working on a study of Human Emotion. Fear to be exact.” He picked up his paper, reading where he had left off. Sounds interesting, you wouldn’t know anything about serial killers? She murmured to herself, realizing he wasn’t the conversation type. “What was that?” the man asked slightly lowering his paper again. “Nothing” and the man began reading again. Mary was tired. She just wanted to go home and stop thinking about the case, the woman, and how she died, but what if it were me, she thought. Trapped, alone and screaming for her life knowing that the killer wouldn’t show any mercy as he would begin to saw off her head watching her cry helplessly. Mary closed her eyes trying to keep her mind from thinking about such horrible acts.

When Mary awoke she was no longer on the train headed home, instead she was lying on a cold concrete floor. She tried to look around but everything was hazy, she was unable to see anything clearly. Whenever she turned her head the lights trailed leaving a motion blur in the mist of the darkness that surrounded her. She tried to get up, but her legs would not move. What happened, where am I? She thought. Where’s the train, her questioning mind searching franticly for some sort of answer to explain what’s going on. She felt for her legs, they were there, so was a cold heavy chain which bound her by the ankle. “What the Hell is going on.” Mary screamed tears started streaming down her face, feeling the chill of fear going down her spine. “Hello Mary” a deep voice spoke over an intercom filled with screeching static. “Where am I?” Mary cried, the interference of the intercom giving her a headache. “The train wrecked, I saved you. But your safe now”, he laughed as if he had made a joke. “Have the drugs worn off?” he continued. Mary cried out again, “what’s going on, what’s happening to me I can’t see any thing.” “I take it you are still enjoying the lovely effects of your chemically induced state.” The mysterious voice laughed, and continued “See Mary you are my next experiment, Hand picked by God if I may, since you have been working so diligently trying to solve my handy work. You see Mary, you are my next victim, so prepare yourself for the operating table, this one will be a real head splitter”, he laughed maliciously, the static screeching louder over the intercom, making her headache intense. ” Who are you?” she demanded. “Aww, Mary I’m offended, you’ve sought me out, well here I am, find me.” The shackles were removed, and she started feeling the pins and needles of her leg regaining the feeling it had lost. She got up slowly, trying not to loose her balance. What the hell is going on?

Her senses were starting to come to, but everything was still a little hazy. She grabbed for her belt. No gun. Damn. She started walking slowly feeling the wall for support. Slowly regaining her sight, Mary saw she was in a long hallway dimly lit in the back of on old warehouse. Most of the bulbs were either busted or burnt out. She could make out a small doorway at the end of the hall. She followed the wall down to the end, every once in a while stopping to regain orientation, if she went to fast everything would start getting hazy again. She finally reached the door, not sure what lied on the other side, but there wasn’t really any other choice. She turned around to take a deep breathe, I’m just dreaming, she told herself, this isn’t really happening. She noticed on the wall there was a loose pipe bent out a little ways. She went over to the broken pipe and starting bending it back and forth until it gave way and she fell to the floor. “I can’t believe this is happening.” She got up and took a deep breathe as she approached the door. She clenched the pipe as she turned the door knob and opened the door slowly. The door flew open leaving her grasp. She swung the pipe the all her might, feeling the pipe strike hard against the wall sending a slight vibration through her arm. Loosing her balance Mary caught herself on the iron railing so she wouldn’t fall down the concrete stairs lying in front of her. “Automatic doors are great, aren’t they?” came the voice over the intercom again. Mary turned to see the speaker wired above the door. “What kind of sick twisted game is this? Just let me go” Mary begged. “Find Me” The voice urged, “and we’ll see.” Silence, no static, just her and a stair case leading down to another floor below. Mary held tight to the stairs iron railing and took a step down. As she descended Mary could see an eerie glow of yellow light at the bottom.

Mary grabbed the pipe she dropped and stepped through the door to get away from the grotesqueness she had seen. She shut the door behind her, hoping to catch breathes of fresh air, but the smell still lingered. She turned around slowly wondering what she had gotten herself into. She saw a small room lit by a desk lamp on an office desk that looked exactly like the one in her office. Behind the desk seated a mangled looking creature. It looked human but was far from it. Whatever it was, it looked as if it were made out of individual body parts; all stitched together like a Frankenstein monster. On the other side the room was another one sitting in a wooden chair. His flesh burnt severely exposing the bones through the melted skin. The eye of his left eye socket was lying in his lap on a napkin with a long pin sticking it into his right leg. He was wearing a brown suit with the thick drops of blood splattered all over the pants and coat alike. He had a black tie wrapped around his neck tight which would be choking him if he were still alive. Mary started crying. Slowly she slides down the door feeling hopeless feeling settling in her stomach, letting go of the lead pipe she had been carrying as a trusty bodyguard. Her face frozen and void as there was no way out. A crackle started in the intercom, then the voice. Damn that Fucking voice. “Hello Mary,” Came the raspy voice “What the hell do you want” She asked. “Death comes to us all eventually, you shouldn’t be so scared.” He continued. “What are you afraid of Mary? Are you Afraid to die? Afraid you’ve lived a meaningless life? What is it you fear the most? Is it me? Why don’t you walk to the wall on the other side the room, and see what’s it store. The static had quieted down. Mary got up and grabbed her pipe and headed over to the wall. She hadn’t seen anyone else or anything else in the room. What does he mean? She thought, passing the desk. Glancing back afraid it would jump at her she saw that the Frankenstein monster was gone. “What the…?” so was the burnt corpse that was sitting on the wooden chair. This isn’t happening, I am just dreaming. It’s not real, I’m still on the bus, I fell asleep remember. It’s just a dream, it’s not real, it’s not… Her thoughts were interrupted by a scraping noise. She turned her head to see where the noise was coming from. “Oh My GOD!?” She screamed. The stitched up creature was standing right behind her, along with the burnt man, who was glaring with an intense stare from the one eye still left in its socket. The Frankenstein creature was inching toward her, flailing one of its sewn together arms, trying to grab a hold of her. Mary swung, the pipe, with all her might, nailing the creature right in the face. It’s jaw fall scattering across the floor, leaving him with a gapping hole down his throat. Mary raised the pipe and shoved it down his throat. The creature Started gagging and convulsing, and fell to the ground, shaking uncontrollably. The burnt man looked at his fallen alley and started toward Mary, gnawing on his lower lip as he crept closer. Mary stepped backward, falling as the hand from the stitched up monster grabbed Mary by her foot. Mary fell to the concrete floor. The burnt man grabbed her by the throat, and picked her up off the floor. Mary clawed at him peeling off the crisp burnt skin. She kept clawing. The pieces of his face started sticking to her fingers as she tried to break free. He threw her down. The other creature had gotten up, and was standing in front of Mary, the pipe sticking out of its throat. It grabbed Mary by her hair and pulled her up to her feet and turned her around to face whatever it was by the wall. The static from the intercom started, followed by the mysterious voice, “fear, Mary, what do you fear Mary? Sometimes what we fear most looks back at us anytime we see”, “it’s a mirror” Mary interrupted. “It’s A FUCKING MIRROR, A MIRROR,” “That’s right Mary, it is a mirror. Now look into your soul, and see your fears come to life.” What do you know about fear? You just prey on those that are weak, placing them in places like this just to watch them suffer right before you kill them.” “Tell me Mary, what would you do if you woke up one day only to find out your life was just a dream? You fear you might wake up. You might actually face reality one day, when you won’t be able to hide behind your badge and gun, when you are just a lonely, little girl, face to face with a killer, defenseless, helpless, at his mercy, fearing that you might be the next Jane Doe, as he hacks you into itty bitty parts. No one would even recognize your dead corpse.” “Stop playing games with me” Mary yelled, “Leave me alone, it’s just a dream, I’m dreaming, just a dream.” Mary repeats to herself. “You can dream when you’re dead,” the burnt man grabbed Mary by the throat from the stitched up monster, choking her. Mary tried to break free. She tried to kick and hit him, but he held her tight. She struggled. She swung her elbow hard into his gut. The burnt man puked all over her, letting Mary fall right into the hands of the stitched up creature, who grabbed and held Mary tight around her body, as the burnt man grabbed the pole from the other creatures throat, and pulled it out. “Are you Dreaming, Mary, Do you still think you’re dreaming?” The intercom sounded. The burnt man plunged the pole right into Mary. The metal pipe went all the way through her like a razor, busting out through her back, and into the monster behind her. The other Creature Howled in pain as the pipe punctured his stomach. “Wait until you see reality.”

Mary awoke. Eyes wide open, trying hard to scream, but no sound came out. A hard piece of steel nailed to her mouth prevented sound from escaping. She tried to get up but she was bound to an old electric chair by metal clasps binding her hands and feet. She could see blood slowly coming down her forehead. “Dreams are a lot like life. We can think and feel as if we were alive so when does a dream become reality, or reality the dream? Think about that” A voice came behind her, sounding like the voice from the intercom. Mary felt a weird tingle in her head, almost like an itch. She jerked as the man from behind her pulled out a long needle sticking to a small piece of her brain from her exposed skull. “This concludes our experiment of the human mind.” The man addressed his class. “The carnal mind of man still finds enjoyment out of the persecution of the weak.” A man stepped from the shadow. She recognized him as the older man on the bus. He had on a pair of thick goggles instead of glasses. “Class dismissed, I will see you all next week, and I’ll have another piece of fresh meat for you all.” Mary looked around. She was in a dark circular room. There were four figures getting up and leaving in an upper part of the room. “Mary, tell me how does one know truth? By the sense that feel? By the thoughts we think? Is this even real, you might ask. The doctor was circling Mary’s chair. “You know, you can close your eyes one minute, going to sleep, the next minute you wake, the world is darker and uglier than before. Sometimes you’re the hunter, sometimes you’re the hunted. When I saw you asleep I couldn’t help it. I knew you were next experiment. The class loves to meet someone new; after all they are my sons. Like father like son, right.” The doctor stopped to grab something from the metal operated tray. Mary twitched and squirmed as the doctor stood in front of her with a stainless steel operating saw. “You see Mary, It’s only a dream.” He kneeled down; with saw against Mary’s neck He began moving it back and forth. Mary could feel the teeth from the saw; sink into her neck, tearing away the flesh as it sunk deeper and deeper. She felt the warm blood flow down her neck. The doctor continued, sawing through the muscle, blood splattering on his white jacket. “It’s only a dream, until you wake and you realize you’re already dead.”