C a p t u r e d

21: Hallucinations

       

Chapter Twenty-One- Hallucinations

Lucid dreaming

1.      Awareness that you are dreaming.

2.      These dreams are also more intense and vivid than regular dreams.

  Everything was going all wrong. Everything was spinning out of control.

  I fell asleep in a haze. Then my eyes reopened. All I could see was darkness.

  I was perched on rough rocks with nothing but blackness all around me. Then I was sitting up, and an icy breeze smacked me out of nowhere. I shivered and tightened my grip on my arms.

  Ding ding ding.

  The world went neon. I blinked and the whole world changed. I was sitting up against a Technicolor merry go round which twirled around slowly, playing the strangest, lilting music box tunes. A glass of brown beer was in my hand. It's the type that my dad used to drink.

  I glanced down and around, and my clothing was changed. I wore a bright golden marching band outfit, like I did in 8th grade before I quit band.

  "What the hell is this?" I muttered, tossing the glass beer away from me. It spilled and cracked open on the rusty cave floor.

  "That was violent," a soft voice whispered.

  Someone stepped out from behind me. I turned to stare as Paul himself stepped out of the darkness, wearing a white bellhop uniform decorated with black and blue buttons and a red apron. His acne scars were visible. He was on the short side- God's way of keeping him a little bit closer to hell, probably.

  I nearly laughed. Paul looked like he's wearing a messed-up Halloween costume. If he wasn't a serial murder and mutilator, then maybe I would appreciate this moment.

  "We've never talked informally," he said, "Hi."

   "Hi."

   That's when I knew this was a dream. In real life, he probably wouldn't have wasted a moment. He would've bitten me within a second. Even so, my heart began pounding harder and harder with the lucidity.

  "I have two selves," Paul whispered. "One is me, right now. And the other is the person who kills people."

  "You think you have double personalities?"

  "Yes."

  "You're full of crap."

  "I'm not. I'm still a young vampire. There is still a human part of me inside my head."

   Yikes. This nightmare was enough to give me nightmares.

  "What is blood? What is violence?" Paul asked.

   "What?"

   "I was never born and raised to be violent. When I was a child, my family raised me in aftermath of the French revolution. We all feared violence. We ran from it. I remember when I was little; there was a hotel in Lanarce, Ardèche where the owners were killing people. They were caught and guillotined, and I thought that they deserved it."

  "Charming," I said.

  "I was happy. I had everything that I wanted. Then, I became a vampire."

   Thank God this was a dream. If this was real, I would shit my pants.

   He studied me, clinically, like I was the one who had no soul. "I had to tell you, child, vampires can't feel things the way humans can."