Spooky Tales

Dreams

Sometimes the dreams you have are real; and the only reason the memory of them fades so fast is because they're not your memories to keep.

What if your dreams were real?

What if when you went to sleep your soul left your body and took over someone or something else?

I dreamed of killing someone; I'd never seen them before, never met them and they lived three towns over from me... I know this because I remember seeing the town name. I remember seeing the large sign telling me where I was entering and that it was twinned with somewhere in Spain.

The last time this happened.... was too long ago to remember.

I remember walking along a dark but lit dirt path to a converted farm; there were many houses but I singled out just one and opened the door like I had every right to be there. I felt the carpet under my bare and dirtied feed as I ascended the stairs to where I found an occupied bedroom with a single man in the bed. He awoke when I stepped on a creaky floorboard and as expected began to yell asking why I was in his house. I silenced him swiftly with a blow to the head; evidently I had been carrying what resembled a fence post in my right hand. I used that same fence post to make his silence long lasting and drove it down through his mouth into his bed.

I yell and sit up in my bed, soaked with sweat. My mind races and I try to put the pieces together but the dream fades. My alarm yells at me a few seconds later and I'm loathed to start my day.

I feel rough; my surroundings are so odd and out of place. Not what I remember.

I don't turn on any lights until I reach my bathroom; I stop and stare at myself in the mirror. I look tired, exhausted in all fairness and I don't quite recognise the person looking back at me. I call into work sick and make some half-hearted excuse about food poisoning before they cut me off and ask who I am...nobody of that name works there. Apologies and spluttered confusion about a wrong number ensue.

I look around this home and I feel both comforted and confused. It's a place I know well and also not at all. Flashes of my dream break up my day, names and an address.

I instinctively pick up a small box and press a soft button which lights up a box in the corner of the room. Another button and I switch on the news; it's all about a home invasion that was carried out during the night, a man murdered using what was described as an opportunistic weapon from his front garden.

I don't remember ever taking it from his garden.

More flashes of my dream. Running through fields, a river, underpasses and roads. The news says there's no leads because muddy footprints only gave a size of men's nine and a half. I look at the shoes in my hallway and discover they're a size seven. I don't know what a 'size seven' is and these styles of shoes are unknown to me.

No witnesses. Quiet night. Barely a sound made.

My dream can't have been real. It must just be coincidence; this can't be happening again.

But I check that my doors are triple locked, I check that my windows are shut and keys hidden away. I barricade my bedroom door before I go to bed and lay down to sleep..... even though I know it won't make a difference.

More dreams; mazes and blood, climbing walls and entering another home. More deaths and an escape before anyone can raise the alarm that something had happened. I scream when I wake, disturbing the person beside me and making myself jump when they move.

"Bad dreams?" The voice is deep.

I nod "uh, yeah...." I blink in surprise at the pitch of my own voice before I head to the bathroom and take a few minutes to wash my face with cool water, look over my feminine features.
It's been a while since I've been in a female body and I find it amazing how I carry myself differently.

The news that day is much of the same; home invasion, senseless murder of a single person with an opportunistic weapon. An update on the previous murder; the man had murdered and hidden bodies in his back yard - excavations were taking place.

I swallow thickly and my partner tells me I'm not my usual self. My memories of the previous murder and my previous body are fading quickly and I'm trying hard to hold on to them. I apologise and shrug it off as a simple "off day" because of my dreams. Secretly I wonder what the other person is feeling today; do they remember anything of 'me'?

Sleep takes hours and then I don't dream. I awake the next day in this same body and with this same life that I both know nothing of and everything about. More news and a link has been found between both victims; they had carried out crimes I will not speak of against those who should never be touched.

I sigh because it becomes real again. I'm needed.

Days and nights go by before I experience another dream. This time a woman who was linked to the second murder victim. She helped him in some way. I watch as I use a large piece of concrete to kill her then leave before anyone can raise the alarm.

Another rude wake up in another body but this time I can remember my previous body better. I'm in bed with another but they don't awaken.

It's a cycle I haven't dealt with in over a century; I hadn't needed too. Apparently someone needs my help - whether it's to avenge their death or stop them from dying, I've been called.... summoned? This time I have new magical things to help me work out who I'm meant to help which should make everything much easier. My current host knows a lot about something called 'the web' which I'm finding very useful.

While I carry out my duties I have to get used to a new world and I can only hope that while I leapfrog to the correct body I don't damage those I use as hosts - mentally or physically.

I don't remember everything; only the important parts and maybe that's for the best. I hope it's the same for my hosts and it fades like a bad dream.