The Dream

So I promised to post this dream, but then I didn’t. Honestly it was hard to write out, for obvious reasons. Things that I added in parenthesis are things that made me realize it was a dream or only occurred to me once I woke up. I can only assume that this dream reflects my fear of losing my new family. I’ve told everyone, repeatedly, that if ANYTHING happens, I expect them to run. I don’t want anything like this dream to ever happen. We all scatter, and we all know where to meet back up.

So the dream…

I remember Shady and I were talking about something in the living room when the front of the mansion exploded inward, stone and wood everywhere. I knew immediately that it was Thuggee, though I’ve never laid eyes on the man. I can’t remember his face now. We just stood there like a couple of rabbits while he raised his hand like a stage magician. Some force lifted me up and sent me right through the ceiling into the second floor.

Shady cursed and whipped out her knife, but Thuggee’s eyes turned gold and a flare of energy threw her back into a wall. It dented around her like something out of a cartoon or video game. (It was then to my great relief that I realized I was dreaming. The stone wall would have had more impact on Shady than vice versa, and the fact that I was seeing all this while I wasn’t in the room helped me stay asleep and see the dream through.)

Lullaby rushed out of her room. Thuggee turned to face her as Sunshine ran in from the backyard. He teleported, grabbing Lullaby by the throat before she had time to react and kneeing her in the stomach. The floor rippled out from the impact as he slammed her into it. Sunshine roared and went for him, but Thuggee just spun on his heel, a spark of energy from Thuggee’s palm smacking into his head. Sunshine went flying backwards through a hole in the wall (that we fixed thanks to Mr Crowley) and into the garden.

Shady was pulling herself to her feet as Thuggee approached the tree and ladder to the second floor (another reminder that this was a dream since we replaced the ladder weeks ago). He made a fanning motion with one hand, and Shady was forced to her knees. She hit the floor so hard it cracked the wood. (Of course we don’t have wooden floors. It was at this point that I withdrew entirely from experiencing the dream and went into observer mode. This is usually how I deal with nightmares since they can still be useful for examination later.) She spat at him, and he sent the saliva shooting back into her mouth with a gesture. Shady choked, and he winked as he passed her, somehow making her nerves explode with pain.

He levitated up to the second floor and laughed as he approached me. I was just climbing to my feet at that point, dazed and confused. I watched as my dream self mentally lunged at him. (Interesting that I was using the same skills as him, but it was a dream after all.) He deflected it, pushing it back into my mind, causing me to writhe and fall backwards onto a table… (no tables on the second floor)

Thuggee saw sunshine coming back to the mansion through one of the holes in the walls, and caught my eye. “Stay,” he said and broke one of my ankles with his mind. He grinned and stomped a hole in the floor, dropping back down to the first floor.

Sunshine was knocked off balance by piece of wall that Thuggee tore away as climbed back through the hole. He stumbled forward, recovering his balance just as Thuggee sent some kind of golden spheres towards him. His kneecaps exploded as they made contact.

Sunshine roared and stumbled forward, everything beneath his kneecaps slowly crumbling into dust. He sputtered indecipherably. (I guess even in my dreams he doesn’t talk much.) Thuggee teleported up to him, giving an almost negligent tap to his shoulders, but… Sunshine’s arms bent backwards at an unnatural angle.

Keeping his eyes on Shady who was struggling to get up and stop him, Thuggee gently placed his hands on Sunshine’s head and said something like “I have some words to say, pet, but you do not have the honor of hearing them.” Then he squeezed Sunshine’s head like a melon until it collapsed. His body swayed and fell.

Shady ran towards him, swinging her knife, but Thuggee just flicked her twice in the ribs, her bones breaking painfully on contact. Then he grabbed her by arm and flipped her over his back. She hit the floor with a bone rattling THUD, groaning as she tried to get back to her feet.

Lullaby finally tried to run, but a floor lamp went sailing through the air, impaling her. She collapsed to her knees, coughing. Thuggee was obviously aware that Shady was struggling to her feet again as he approached Lullaby. It was like he was putting on a show for her. He grabbed Lullaby by the chin and flicking his wrist, sent her head first into a wall. The wall toppled over her, burying her. Dollmaker twitched on the floor; Lullaby must have dropped her during the attack. Thuggee kind of snorted and flung another of his “energy balls” at the little doll, making her burn to ash in a matter of second.

Then he turned on Shady again, sending a chair flying at her with a flick of his wrist. Her hip broken, he grabbed her by the ankle and twisted, breaking it like a twig. Shady cursed at him, trying to hit him with her knife, but his only response was to giggle. As she swung at his ankle, the knife was ripped from her hand, folding into the shape of an origami swan.

“Keepsake.” He smiled and gently set it in his pocket.

He dragged her towards the ladder by her leg and tossed her up to the second floor with a satisfied grunt. Shady cried out in pain as she landed on her ankle. A whimpering noise came from somewhere behind him, and Thuggee sent out a psychic wave of pain. Lucas tore out of a hallway, screaming and tearing at his hair. (Honestly I can’t picture Lucas hiding, but as this is a dream, I’m sure he won’t be too offended.)

“Make it stop! make it stop!”

“Say please,” Thuggee said in a bored voice. His eyes went gold once more, and Lucas’ legs were severed at the calf by a flat blade of energy. Blood poured out onto the floor.

“You want it to stop?” The door behind Lucas erupted into shards, freezing in midair as they separated and turned menacingly towards him. Hundreds of fragmented wooden pieces struck him in the back, and Lucas fell forward, dead. (Not that he would have lived long loosing that much blood.)

Looking smug, Thuggee sauntered back towards me and Shady, only to discover Trina and Tim in his way. I don’t know what possessed them to try it. The pain he’d used to drive Lucas from his hiding place was nothing compared to what Thuggee used on Trina and Tim. (Again, with all Trina’s been through, I can’t imagine her falling to such an assault, but) she snapped, her eyes going dull and glazing over as Thuggee literally scared her to death. He kneed Timmy in the nose as he walked by, shattering the cartilage before pushing him aside like a boring toy.

Walking up to Trina‘s lifeless body, he crouched in front of her and grabbed her cheeks. “You chose a bad day to be stupid.” He tapped her on the forehead, pushing her frozen body off balance and causing her to tip. “There is a thin line between stupidity and bravery, Timmy. What side are you on?”

Thuggee looked bored as he reached into Tim’s chest and pulled out his heart, keeping the boy alive even as he did so. He threw it against the wall, writing “Praise Thuggee and the gods, insignificant worms,” with the blood.

He returned upstairs where I was waiting, launching a surprise mental attack on him. (Seemed a lot simpler to do in the dream than I imagine it would be in real life, but hey, I haven‘t stared anyone down since elementary school.) It didn’t even phase him though.

Muttering, “Idiots,” he tossed me aside like nothing. I smashed into a mirror, shoulder first. (We don’t have a full length mirror like that, thank goodness.)

“But where is the other girl?” Thuggee asked in a whimsical tone.

Shady clumsily lunged out from behind Thuggee and tried to club him in the back with a chair leg. He teleported behind her, flicking her lower back and breaking her spine like a toothpick. He danced around her as she cried out in pain and smoothly twisted her shoulder, breaking or dislocating it. Then his eyes flared gold again. Energy flowed down his fingertips into Shady’s arm, every bone from her elbow to her finger tips imploding. Her arm collapsed like so much useless jelly. Thuggee slipped his arm around her hip and twisted, making her spin and collapse in a heap, completely paralyzed.

“If you weren’t such a mess, you might have had a future in dance.” He made a “squishing” motion with his fingers, and her jaw twisted out.

He dropped a glowing ball of light onto her chest from his sleeve. It seeped into her chest, and her eyes went blank. Such massive amounts of pain were coursing through her body that she was shocked into catatonia. Thuggee kicked her once in the hip as if hoping for a reaction, but Shady had gone beyond feeling anything. Thuggee skipped over to me where I was crying and sat down on a nearby windowsill.

“How does it feel? I’ve never experienced much pain, you know… not that I can recall. All these little tortures are so… fascinating. I do so enjoy exploring various methods of breaking the feeble. You are all just… toys.” Thuggee stood up, smiling. “There are so many toys to be played with, aren’t there?” He slapped my cheek as he walked away, leaving me alive in a house of death.