Reality Testing - A Child in Dreams

Bruce went down the wooden spiral staircase, thinking about his options.

"Should I listen to this girl?" was his first instinct.

He stepped out the door at the bottom of the staircase.

The sunlit avenues seemed to stretch forever in some sort of crazy acid nightmare. Fear melted the lamp posts, and paranoia sharpened the blades Bruce imagined every pedestrian must be carrying.

At any second he could die.

His heart pounding, his head throbbing, he downed another bottle of cough syrup.

He was already delusional, fighting the nightmare, trying to figure out what to do next.

The bum is my ticket. That bum is my ticket into the underworld.

The sunlit acid day dream, shuffling through the park. Laying on a nearby bench was a bum, he got up and attacked Bruce with yet another knife.

He stopped short of attacking our hero.

"You're the cop looking for the girl, right?" he demanded, throwing the knife between his two greasy hands.

His clothing was made of compost.

Bruce was Bruce Willis, and I was Bruce Willis.

"Ya, do you know anything about her being at my mom's apartment?"

As Bruce stepped out of the door leading from the wooden spiral staircase, he was greeted with people lining the concrete pathway up to the sidewalk of the busy street above. They were standing around, drugged out, and dirty as hell.

Bruce was tempted to shoot one of them, but his conscious got the better of him.

Bruce rewrote the story.

One interesting section was a sort of seashell spiral staircase at least 50 feet in diameter with a huge hole in the center. Leading from there was an outside area - the other side.

He caught a glimpse there of whatever he was after, and it led him to another apartment building.

He was starting to become me, and the building was where my mom was moving in the dream.

She had the place all nice, and I remember peering out the window shades and getting vertigo looking 30 floors down.

There isn't much else I remember.

I know he solved the mystery.

Back on the dock, he was a ghost or the little girl was there - some sort of goodbye from beyond the grave. The unique places he went, and feeling the plight of the homeless and sick, it gave me a new understanding. This dream was definitely epic in the emotions it carried.

Bruce rewrote the story.

He got to his mother's apartment, and he went up the oily metallic staircase.

He didn't care how loud he was as he held his pistol in his clenched hands.

Teeth grinding together.

He got to the top floor, and ran full speed at the green wooden door that splintered into a thousand deadly shards when he booted it destroyed.

"Who the fuck wants to die?!" Bruce shouted into a room full of nobody except for his bewildered mother.

"What the hell's wrong with you Bruce? What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for a girl."

"I saw the zombies on the news."

"And the missing girl?"

"I know it all."

"Then can you help me mother? What do I do?"

"Just keep killing zombies my son. Keep killing them until their rotting flesh feeds all the plants of the earth. The dead shall give rise to new and perverse life. Pure in its innocence, death in its nature."

I made my way out of the apartment, and now I was a ghost. I was killed after I exited the wooden spiral staircase, expecting to come out onto the busy streets and drive with you in the acid sunset nightmare.

We'd drive, and get behind this car at night. It's sort of rainy.

Driving is really a never ending race, did you know that?

I hit the accelerator and speed ahead of the car in front of me.

I start approaching 100 miles per hour.

"See, that's one of the games you can play while you're driving. It's called 'racing someone who doesn't know that you're racing them'. Want to play another game?"

"Sure."

"Fucking bad-ass. Ok, the next game is called, follow someone, and see if they freak out cause they think you're following them."

Bruce followed a car, scaring his unwilling passenger half to death with this insane, pointless act that could potentially lead to a violent confrontation.

Winding through wet city streets at night, the cool air blowing through the silent car's rolled down windows, they followed the mini-van as it began to go faster and faster.

"They know we're following them," he said, as a big grin spread across his face.

Speeding along tighter and tighter residential areas, it seemed the mini-van had lost them. Bruce was barely following the vehicle now, staying at least a block away at all times, and without his headlights on.

"Just imagine! Just imagine how scared he is. And the greatest part is that maybe he doesn't even know we're following him."

A cold barrel was now pressed against Bruce's right temple.

"Stop the car," is what I remember you saying. It was classic.

Bruce stopped the car.

"Get out," you said, all so serious.

Bruce got out.

You got out of the car, walked around the front of the car and...

Sorry... this part's so funny.

You put that gun right in his face and straight out yelled.

"This is a fucking dream! Wake up!"

Bruce looked over your shoulder though, and saw something you couldn't see. That lady, the cop.

"You got ten minutes!" she shouted as she ran towards you guys.

Bruce had his hands raised and he was trembling on the grass lawn of some house in this maze of a neighborhood. Bruce's shoes were getting wet.

Seres had her gun hanging at her side.

"Bruce, what the fuck did I tell you? You're not dreaming! Jesus!"

"Bullshit! I already know I'm dreaming!"

"Seres, don't lie to him. He needs to go lucid!" you valiantly demanded.

"But he doesn't understand! He's not ready!" Seres tried to say. She knew that at this point, only words could solve the situation. Because in her eyes, bloodshed was not an option in this mission - the loss of life unacceptable. And yet, she just couldn't see how this would turn out her way.

Little did either of you know that I was watching in on your little fiasco. This was turning into quite the botched operation. Seres' personal feelings about the mission were coming into play, and in a situation like this, the only alternative was for you to neutralize the only threat to the mission's success, Seres.

You looked down at the wet grass at your feet, while holding the pistol at Seres's cute face, with your head down, looking at the rain fall on the night time foliage.

"I'll shoot you right now if you don't let him go lucid. He'll lose it any second now."

"He's here! I know it! But I have to tell you before you do this! I have a bad feeling about him. I don't think we're doing the right thing with all of this."

You clenched your eyes tight. The rain was falling harder now, and your drenched hair was pouring rain over your face, washing it clean of guilt and doubt.

Without hesitation you sent Seres close to the brink of death.

I walked over to you at this point, and put my hand on your shoulder.

You looked at me, and with your youthful eyes, studied my features. My long, blonde beard, wavering in the cool evening breeze. My worn features. My short stature. And the chi flowing out of every passage in my body.

I could see it in your eyes that night, in that dream, it was the feeling that you could never equal me. In your eyes I was an unattainable perfection of a god.

You knelt before me in allegiance.

"What shall we do next master?"

"Continue with the mission."

You looked up, with a pleased smile spreading across your cheeks.

"Yes, master."

You bowed, turned around, and pointed the gun at Bruce again.

"Get in the fucking car."

Bruce got in the car, fumbled with the ignition, and turned on the headlights. All you could see as you got in the passenger's side was the edge of the deserted city street. It was late at night with no cars.

"Pull around and look for another car. I've got one last game for you."
You smiled as you field tested your pistol. You disassembled it, oiled every part, and put it all back together. It took almost the whole car ride.

"Wanna see something cool?" you asked, jovially.

Bruce looked over at you, confused, with sweat beading down his temple.

Bruce, our hero, was beginning to wonder if he really was dreaming.

"I've got a secret to tell you Bruce."

Bruce hesitated.

"What's that?"

"Seres was lying. She didn't think you should be awoken. You're unstable. But my boss says you might be something special. Something worth manipulating."

"Manipulating?" Bruce said, as he thought for a second, "...manipulate me for what?"

"You're dreaming Bruce."

Bruce felt the surge of consciousness bleed through the veins of his subconscious. Thought and the waking started filling his thoughts. He felt torn from the dream state.

"You can't leave. Don't worry."

Bruce looked over at you, with a look of shocked amazement.

"What is this?"

"It's lucid dreaming."

"I know... but this is different."

You sighed, and looked out the window with cold rain running down the sides of the window pains.

"Listen Bruce, this is all just a waste of time. You're not gonna remember much of this anyway, so just find a fucking car and let's get this over with."

Bruce thought about his options, and realized the guy telling him what to do had a gun.

"You're smiling! You think that's funny?" you demanded, in your usual moody fashion.

"Right, whatever you say impatient one," Bruce said.

Anyway, Bruce found a station wagon, and followed it better this time - keeping his distance.

"Now Bruce," you asked him, raising the pistol to his temple once more, "What would you do if I said you were dreaming, and you could kill this family with no repercussions."

Bruce was wavering with doubt at this point. He was back in a dream for a second, and then for a second doubted if what he was seeing was real.

"This is the point in the story where I'd like to add that you're skills are really improving Phineus. You're very good at tricking dreamers into the lucid state and holding them there. Your powers have grown immensely."

"Thank-you, master."

You held Bruce in that state as he waited in that car for hours. Finally, the family was asleep.

Bruce crept into the house, thinking it was a dream, but once he had the barrel of the gun to the sleeping father, you made it so that he thought he was really living what he was seeing.

"What the fuck is going on?"

He pointed the gun at you and it was right then, that Phineus... I was scared, I'll admit it.

But you held fast.

"Put the gun down Bruce, this is just a dream."

You said this with your eyes closed, looking at the ground. Complete confidence in your ability to make him transfer to the lucid state again.

"Bruce, kill everyone in this house, and you'll be able to enter our lucid dream society."

You made it so that Bruce thought it was real again.

Bruce sat there, thinking, realizing what was happening. He was completely torn between whether this was a dream, or if it was reality.

"Make your decision now, Bruce," you said, pointing your pistol at him.

Bruce made the decision to trust that he was dreaming. He knew that if he was dreaming, and these people could control dreams in a way he'd never imagined, than maybe this was an opportunity to join something larger. To do something outside his previous reality.

The bullets popped out like rabbit shit on a cold day.

That doesn't mean they didn't blast that dream away though.

Bruce woke up, and there you were. Phineus sitting on Bruce's bed, and Seres laying bleeding, on the floor.

"Welcome to lucid dreaming," I said.

I picked Seres' bloody body up in my arms, and disappeared.

Bruce looked alarmed.

"Will she be alright?"

You looked away with a smirk.

"I'll see you again, ok? Tomorrow?"

"Wait, you're leaving?"

"I'll be back. Don't worry. Every time you dream from now on, you're now part of our society so... I guess welcome... I'll be seeing you tomorrow night."

Bruce lay back in his bed, with his arms crossed under his head.

"What does this all mean?"

"Nothing, really."

Bruce looked alarmed.

"Nothing?!" he demanded.

"You've only just begun."

"How is that so? Wasn't I inducted into this lucid dream cult or whatever the hell you guys are?"

You had a big, evil smile crack across your lips.

"You're still dreaming Bruce."

Bruce looked shocked.

You were about to disappear, but before that you turned around and looked into Bruce's eyes.

"And you're not even Bruce by the way. Have fun practicing lucid dreaming. You can do whatever you want in your dreams now. It's like a second life basically. You're still pretty new so you don't know how do anything past your own consciousness. But, you'll learn in time."

Bruce stared at the wall for a moment.

"I'm so fucking confused."

"We all are"

And then you vanished, Phineus.