Bang! Bang!

Nightmare 1.17.2018

I go to my dialysis treatment, like I do every other day, like I have for the past four years. During this treatment, I am given a lunch break, which I spend sitting in my Jeep. Out of the woods behind the clinic, comes a man and a woman. The woman walks several steps behind the man. The man walks in a suspicious manner. Like he's been taking speed. The way in which he walks and the look of his face reminds me of someone I worked with several years ago. A man who unsettled me. A man whose cogs weren't all spinning at the same tempo. A man who openly told me that he beat his wife and laughed about it. No remorse appearing on his drugged face.

I watch the couple in the darkened parking lot walk past my Jeep and toward the McDonald's and gas station. Not long after that, I return to treatment. I can't help but acknowledge a creeping thought in my mind that I will see the man from the parking lot again. But this time in a more troubling fashion.

My seat in the clinic is facing a window to the outside. The window looks out to an apartment complex. The apartment building is very close to the clinic, only fifteen feet or so. Something dramatic is happening in one of the apartments. A small crowd gathers at the front door. Someone is having a medical emergency. I expect to see an ambulance at any time. My nurse has told me that I will have a short treatment today due to the holiday. I won't put up a fuss over that.

I see the man from the parking lot. He walks in front of a window in the clinic, puts a gun to his chin, aimed up and pulls the trigger. Everyone in the clinic witnesses his death. A new girl at the clinic walks near me and I tell her to take me off of the machine, to end my treatment. She tells me that she won't do that because I just started. This pisses me off because I know that I've been running for at least two hours and the nurse told me it would be a short treatment. I continue arguing with the new girl elevating my discourse to cussing. She refuses.

A police officer walks next to my chair, raises a shotgun at the patient behind me and shoots. I know I am next. Somehow, I manage to unhook myself from the machine and get free. I don't think I am shot. Dream ends.

I wake up

Mantis

Dream 9/8/2017

I am headed toward Alaska. I'm am going there on a missions trip with Global Expeditions. We will spread the message of Jesus Christ to the villagers there.

Although we could drive to Alaska, we decide to take a boat and travel across ocean. With nearly a mile to go, without warning, we, all of us, observe as a spiky tentacle, the size of a skyscraper, surfaces and then drops back down underwater, out of sight. A few more times, we see parts of the colossal creature. The sheer size of it takes my breath from my lungs. We fear that it will capsize our boat and we will drown or be eaten.

We make it to land without problems. We greet the villagers on the dock. We ask them what the creature is. They tell us that it is called Mantis.

Our group travels inland where we go rafting on a nearby river. The river must've taken us back out to sea. We travel through the same area where we witnessed the creature earlier that day. We know that it will find us. Our fate has been determined. The captain of the boat decides to creep the vessel near a cliff as not to draw attention. Before we know it, Mantis appears. This time, it seems intent on bringing us down. I walk to the front of the ship where I have a clear visual. The tentacles lift up out of the water and slam down, time after time.

The passengers on the boat are terrified. They are so scared that two of them, Matt (who is my friend) and a girl who I do not know, commit suicide with guns. The event is distressing.

The rest of us make it back safely.

On our way home, I am walking down the aisle of the boat and I decide to sit down in an empty seat. When I do, I feel something wet on my back. I turn around and see a large blood stain on the seat. I don't know whether the blood is from Matt or the girl. Anyway, I decide to change seats. I walk up the aisle and sit down between two girls on chairs that look like toilets. Since the chair looks like a toilet, I choose to urinate while sitting there. The girls next to me are disgusted.

Back at home, finally. I sit on my bed holding a joint. I believe one of the villagers gave it to me. Should I smoke it? The temptations keeps coming. My mom is in the next room. I think she is sleeping. I almost smoke but decide against it. I open it up to see the weed. It is just a rolled up, green Brillo pad. Dream ends.

I wake up