The Balloon Has Gone Up

    Yearning to serve my country, I make the decision to enlist in the military. The journey begins with a grueling two-week boot camp, a crucible of endurance and discipline. Alongside my comrade Chad, we find ourselves thrust into the company of seasoned soldiers, their eyes reflecting the weight of experience and the scars of conflict.

    Together, we march to the battlegrounds, braving the horrors of war. The air was thick with tension, the deafening sound of gunfire, and the acrid stench of fear. Our hearts pound in unison as we face the unknown, driven by duty and the unyielding camaraderie that binds us.

    Yet amidst the chaos, tragedy strikes with a cruel and unforgiving hand. My mother, a beacon of unwavering support, ventures to visit me in the midst of the turmoil. But fate, ever the cruel mistress, unleashes its merciless blow. An enemy soldier, lurking in the shadows, springs forth and in a split second, snuffs out the light of her existence. Grief clings to my soul like a suffocating shroud, engulfing me in an abyss of despair.

    Despite the weight of sorrow that threatens to consume me, Chad and I press on, our footsteps heavy with determination. We continue to navigate the treacherous path of battles, our minds scarred by loss but our resolve unwavering. Each engagement, a reminder of the fragility of life and the sacrifices we make in the name of duty.

    In the midst of the turmoil, a small helicopter emerges, its blades slicing through the air like whispers of hope. The pilot, a figure of unknown origin, turns to me and beseeches for assistance. His request is simple—to wipe away the encroaching dust that threatens the delicate machinery while we soar through the heavens.

    In that moment, doubt gnaws at the edges of my conscience. I confess my lack of experience, my inability to fulfill the role bestowed upon me. The pilot, understanding the weight of my admission, nods with somber understanding. "I appreciate your honesty," he murmurs, the gravity of the situation etched upon his weathered face. And so, the opportunity slips through my grasp, the winds of destiny carrying me in a different direction.

    Regret lingers, mingling with the scent of gunpowder and the cries of fallen comrades. In this realm of uncertainty, choices are made and fates intertwine. I am left to wrestle with the ghosts of what could have been, the path not taken—a solitary soldier, burdened by the weight of an unchosen destiny.

I wake up. 

The Scent Of Horror

A group of my fellow high school students is spending a few days at a retreat in the hills. There is a mine track rollercoaster that tours guests through the woodland ridges. My brother-in-law built the coaster and tells me it's dangerous. A few of us pile in a cart and start up the giant hill. When we get to the top, there is another small hill before the significant drop. Joseph, the teenager, sitting next to me, leans back exaggeratedly far. He doesn't see the next hill coming. When the cart takes the mound, Joseph's head hits the track, and he begins to fall out. I try to pull him back inside, but it's too late. Joseph lies on the route with a severe head injury. The cart malfunctions and starts rolling backward. Joseph is run over. He is dead. While in shock, I try to call Chad to inform him of the situation. I tell him to stop the mine carts on the track. My frantic fingers cannot find his number in my phone. The next cart rolls along and runs over Joseph's body. I see Chad standing on a boulder. I inform him of our situation. The roller coaster comes to a standstill. We get off of the ride.

"This ride is dangerous!" I yell to Chad. Heated, he yells, "I told you it was dangerous!"

Standing on the ground, I can see paramedics carrying joseph's body down on a gurney. I can't look. I turn and walk away. As dusk approaches, most of the guests have left the retreat. I call my mom and ask her to pick me up. I'm standing next to a cabin where the female guests stayed. A car pulls up. I assume a guest is picking up their belongings, so I walk away. As the sky is dark and the retreat is still, my mom shows up. Chad tells her what happened. While the scent of horror is still in the air, we drive home.

I wake up

The Adventures Of Chad And Keith

Dream 1.9.2018

My brother-in-law, Chad, and me are shopping at a small mom and pop store in a town far away from our own. In my humble opinion, this store is crap. Everything sold here is crap. All I am looking for is a package of Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies. I search the store far and wide, like an archaeologist searching for some long lost, precious artifact. I don't find it. And every time I think I've found what I'm looking for, it turns out to be something else entirely. In the end, I buy several packages of frozen meat. Also a zip lock bag full of leftover chocolate chip pancakes. When the lady at the front cash register rings me up, she asks for my social security card. An odd practice one would think for a grocery store, but I hand it over. She says something to me about security and then I leave. I stand outside, waiting for Chad. We drove different vehicles here. I drove his Traverse. He drove the Prius.

At home, later that night, I cook up some of my chocolate chip pancakes. My mom is watching NASCAR on TV. The race is taking place in an indoor stadium, something I've never seen before. Dale Jr. has a nasty crash. While cooking my pancakes, I regret purchasing all of the items from the store.

Chad and I return to the mom and pop grocery store, it seems, just to watch a TV on a shelf. We are mesmerized by the program so much that time slips away. I don't think we buy anything from the store this time. I walk through the parking lot searching for Chad's Traverse but then I remember that I drove my Jeep Wrangler. I love my Jeep. If there is one good purchase I've made in my life, it's the Wrangler. A solid vehicle. It gets me from A to B and C to D. I tell Chad that I have no idea how to get home. He doesn't either. I tell him I'll follow. We drive away.

I don't recognize any landmarks or surroundings as we go. We end up in a town that looks like Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Somewhere along the drive, we switch from driving cars to riding bicycles. We find ourselves in a town that one might find in an old Tim Burton film or lying within the stanzas of a Danny Elfman orchestrated piece. The trees are tall with no leaves. The buildings look European. The streets are full of people as if tonight is Halloween and all the neighborhood kiddies are tricking and treating for their candies. I notice several people dressed up as 18th century figures. As Chad and I ride through this quaint town, Chad lifts up into the sky like Elliot with an alien in his front basket. I look for a few minutes and then finally Chad reappears. I ask a nearby child what this town is called. He tells me that it is Vermont, Vermont. I think I might live here one day.

We finally find our way back home. But we don't have a key to Chad's house because I changed the lock. For some reason, my sister and the kids are not home. Chad and I grab a couple of sleeping bags and camp out in the drive way. While lying there, we hear a voice off in the distance. It sounds like an old, crazy drunk. We pay it no heed. As the night goes on, the voice seems to get closer. Worried, we go to the front door to try again. I look on my phone for a key app but am unable to find the correct key. Then the voice says something that grabs both Chad and my attention. "Keith and Chad, I'm gonna kill you!" It is still very dark outside. Chad and I walk away from the house and down the block. We still hear the voice but cannot see a thing. I take my phone and turn on the flashlight. I shine it in the direction of the voice but it is too dark. We see a house with the garage door open. We run for it. Chad says repeatedly that we're going to break in if we have to. We come to the door leading from the garage to the house and it is locked. I try to fit through the doggy door but it's too small. We bang on the door to wake the attention of those inside.

The residents of the house are awake but for a moment they don't hear our cries. Then, when they finally hear us, they shrug us off as if we are the town crazies. We finally see the man with the voice who threatened us. He walks fast into the garage, meaning to do us harm. Chad walks over to him and punches him so hard in the face that he is quickly knocked out. We place the old man in a green recycling bin. He looks like a crazy person. Like the elevator doesn't go all the way to the top floor. I take a nearby bag of dog food and pour it on his face. This wakes him up. Another man is now in the garage with us. This new member takes a metal bucket and hits the drunk over the head with it. This surely knocks him out cold. The residents of the house, now understanding our situation, let us inside to call the police. Dream ends.

I wake up

Slasher

A Nightmare From The Past

At my childhood home in Middletown, Indiana. I see my brother-in-law, Chad, down the hallway. I say hello. He looks robotic. He hurries down the hallway and stabs me with a knife. He also carves out a piece of my flesh. I now have a baseball sized hole in my belly. I should be dead but I am not.

Chad has taken my cat, Tandy, and either killed it or given it away. He has then bought a new cat that looks like Tandy but replaced its claws with needles.

I see Leatherface in the hallway. I close the door and lock it. He's not trying to get into my room but I need to escape anyway. On the ceiling, there is a vent. I try to pull myself up into it but struggle to do so. Dream ends.

I wake up

STAB

Dream 10/18/2017

My sister, Kristen, brother-in-law, Chad, and I go to a military work-out session. Kristen and Chad are part of the military but I am not. However, they said I would be allowed to participate. We stand outside the front door among several other soldiers. While standing there, a woman soldier stabs another.

We walk into the building. I stay in the locker room, not feeling right about joining the work-out. A girl who I used to know named Emily is standing in the locker room. Neither of us speak to each other.

When the work-out session is over, we stand outside the front door once again. A girl I know named Kasey, who is a police officer, walks over to me and stabs me in the arm. I am worried because the blade went into my fistula, which is used for dialysis. Dream ends.

I wake up

Telescope

A Dream From The Past

My brother-in-law, Chad, and me are leaving my house in Middletown, Indiana. While driving away, I spot a large, white object in my yard. We stop the car, get out and walk toward it. It's a giant telescope. I ask Chad where he thinks it came from. He suggests that maybe the previous owners left it. Dream ends.

I Wake Up

Morning Glory, Evening Grace

Dream 2/7/2017

     Something strange starts to occur in the night time sky. Stars from all over start to get sucked to one point in the sky. Everything in the sky flies to it. This takes place until the morning. I walk outside and find several neighbors looking up. One neighbor is holding a video camera. I ask a couple what is going on? They tell me it's been happening all night. I wonder out loud if it is a black hole. They don't know. Nobody does.

     My mom is driving the car. She drives though a wooded area into a clearing where an iced over lake is found. It is the dead of winter. She drives onto the ice. We all command my mom's attention. "I think you are on the lake right now," one of us says. We coach her on how to get back to land without crashing through the ice. "Stay in the middle, mom, and go very slowly." She gets back to land without any problems.

     My sister, her kids and I take shelter in a small cabin in the woods by the lake, far from civilization. That night, we hear someone or something in our cabin. It breaks through our door. It's an Extra Terrestrial. We run but we cannot escape. The alien kills us all. 

     The next night my sister lies down along with her kids and go to sleep. I stay up. I know that aliens are going to attack like they did the night before when we died. I search the house for any weapons. I find a chainsaw. "That's a good one," a familiar voice reckons behind me. It's my brother-in-law, Chad. I look down and see another chainsaw, only smaller. I give the big chainsaw to Chad since he is over six feet tall. I take the little one. 

     We wait. Late at night, early in the morning, several aliens try to break into our cabin. Chad tells me that if we truly want to beat them, we need to become aliens ourselves. One of the aliens outside is not evil, so I ask him to make me an alien. He has me look into a little mirror-like object and I see my eyes change. The same happens with Chad. We start fighting the aliens one by one, killing them, protecting my sister and her kids. Most of the space beings are dead, but one gets by us and walks into the bedroom where my family sleeps. The alien is Gillian Anderson from the X-Files. She gets close to my sister ready to kill when I grab my buck knife and throw it. The knife stabs straight through Gillian's head and pins her to the headboard of the bed. Just so that I know she is dead and won't come back, I stab her multiple times in the face until her face looks like spaghetti sauce. 

     In the evening we weren't sure we would live until morning. But in the morning, we knew our victory by each breath that we took. Dream ends.

I WAKE UP

Five Guys, Bikers and Cries

Dream 2-9-14

My brother-in-law, Chad, and me are driving through our old hometown of Anderson, IN. We are hungry. I think we should eat at Taco Bell. Chad thinks we should eat at Five Guys, Burgers and Fries. Chad decides that he is right. We drive to Five Guys.

We enter the restaurant, which is mostly empty with the exception of a few guests over in the corner. We walk up to the counter to give our order. We both get a burger and fries. We sit down. I overhear a girl across the room say that she wants to be a hot dog vendor. I find that fascinating because I too want to be a hot dog vendor.

We finish our food. As we walk out of the restaurant, I stop by the girls table and tell her about my hot dog aspirations. She tells me that she also wants to work in ministry. I find that incredible because I too want to work in ministry. 

Suddenly, my mother is there. She tells me how her foot is killing her and that I should pray for it.

I start to command the pain to leave her foot. The girl in the restaurant begins to pray for her as well. I ask my mom to stand and try to walk on it. She does. Her foot is healed.

We all walk out of the restaurant together. We walk behind the restaurant into a open field. As we walk, a biker gang swarms in and surrounds us. Each member of the gang has layers of cloth wrapped around their face. They seem dangerous. We make a run for our vehicles. Several men from the gang try to punch my mom. I protect her. We make it to our vehicle and drive away. The gang follows us.

Driving down the road we find that we are running out of gas. Our car starts to sputter. Driving next to us is a truck. I, being in the passenger seat, roll down my window and flag the truck down. The man in the truck lowers his window. Low and behold, it's my friend Jake. He happily decides to lend his helping hand. We climb into  his truck and drive away. Dream ends.

I wake up.