I just woke up
None of the lights would work in the house we were in. Everything was made from an old wood and you could smell how old this place was, or even how little living was actually done there. There was a large loft above us but none of us could figure out just quite how to get up there. It was sundown and all of the shadows were disappearing from the floors. Yumi and Darin walked around and we all talked about where we would go, because it was scary in there and none of us knew of any rooms that would have working lights. Of course, I had to pee. That would happen to me in a creepy, dark, old house. I found the bathroom and when I sat down I could feel something dripping on my knee. I couldn't see what it was, but I could feel it roll down my leg and into my shoe. Again, it happened so I ran out and was reunited with my friends. After working ourselves up to the point of intense paranoia we found a back door that I guess we had missed when we searched that house the other times. Finally we were out of there.
Once outside the house the landscape was bleak and bustling. A narrow shopping mall. There were some guys standing by a fountain, talking and laughing. One of them glanced up at me with a look that I couldn't define, then continued talking. It made me comfortable for about two seconds. Everyone else was walking with no expression and I knew that we all grew more uncomfortable than we were when we were inside that house. The crowd of people directed me with their hurried walking into an electronics store that I thought was quite small, but was actually massive once you got past the displays. I looked down each aisle for light bulbs and couldn't find any. I'm not sure how we got out of the mall but it wasn't long before I was outside and the sun was shining. I was in a made up town, mixed with New Orleans streets and San Francisco neighborhoods. While I walked down Decatur I felt weak and soon realized that my friends were gone. I stopped in the threshold of a Decatur Street bar to see if I could find some change in my pockets. The one man sitting at the bar looked up not at me, but in my direction. So I left. Up to this point, every place I went was uninviting. One person made eye contact with me and my friends were somewhere else, which was incomprehensible. But I kept walking until I got to a drugstore. I knew that THEY would have light bulbs, and if nothing else, someone to give me directions.
Inside the store were multi-level floors, but not in the sense that it was a 2 or 3 story building. Some parts of the floor rose about one foot off of the other, and so on. It was really hard for me to walk in there and I spotted some light bulbs so I hurried over. I grabbed them and made my way to the cashier but the line was snaking down aisles and no one seemed to be moving. The clerk was smiling and flirting with a man twice her age. Waiting in that line was making me anxious so I left. Without the light bulbs. A bus could be heard coming down the street and when I turned to see it I noticed that this city was looking different than it did when I first left that mall. Nothing was familiar at all. I got on the bus and stood next to some old, Japanese women. Because the bus line runs through a predominately Japanese neighborhood, all announcements were made in English then Japanese. It sounded nothing like Japanese to me, but the women understood and would nod after each announcement. The bus driver was sort of chubby and overly friendly. He offered to help the women get on and off the bus, thus taking us a long time to get to each different stop. Time seemed to be going by rapidly and the sun was already starting to set again. I still had not found my friends. My anxiety worsened. While standing on the bus I could feel a numb feeling in my mouth, which grew very uncomfortable, so I got off the bus in front of a very plain brick building. Many of the women also got off on this stop. They were smiling and walking down the sidewalk into the building, but a few of them deviated off the course to a huge bush behind the building. That is where I was as well, because I felt something in my mouth. I started spitting out leaves and my mouth felt horrible and gritty. The other women were facing the ground as if they had to do the same, but nothing happened. The bus driver was patting the lady next to me on the back, trying to console her. He spoke of some people inside that would take care of her. This seemed to make her feel better and she followed him into the building. Slowly, everyone was gone except for the bus that was still parked on the street. The women inside didn't seem to care that the driver was not driving the bus. They just sat there and talked to each other in a very guttural Japanese, which grew more and more intense until the point where I woke up abruptly at sundown to a dark and empty apartment.
Once outside the house the landscape was bleak and bustling. A narrow shopping mall. There were some guys standing by a fountain, talking and laughing. One of them glanced up at me with a look that I couldn't define, then continued talking. It made me comfortable for about two seconds. Everyone else was walking with no expression and I knew that we all grew more uncomfortable than we were when we were inside that house. The crowd of people directed me with their hurried walking into an electronics store that I thought was quite small, but was actually massive once you got past the displays. I looked down each aisle for light bulbs and couldn't find any. I'm not sure how we got out of the mall but it wasn't long before I was outside and the sun was shining. I was in a made up town, mixed with New Orleans streets and San Francisco neighborhoods. While I walked down Decatur I felt weak and soon realized that my friends were gone. I stopped in the threshold of a Decatur Street bar to see if I could find some change in my pockets. The one man sitting at the bar looked up not at me, but in my direction. So I left. Up to this point, every place I went was uninviting. One person made eye contact with me and my friends were somewhere else, which was incomprehensible. But I kept walking until I got to a drugstore. I knew that THEY would have light bulbs, and if nothing else, someone to give me directions.
Inside the store were multi-level floors, but not in the sense that it was a 2 or 3 story building. Some parts of the floor rose about one foot off of the other, and so on. It was really hard for me to walk in there and I spotted some light bulbs so I hurried over. I grabbed them and made my way to the cashier but the line was snaking down aisles and no one seemed to be moving. The clerk was smiling and flirting with a man twice her age. Waiting in that line was making me anxious so I left. Without the light bulbs. A bus could be heard coming down the street and when I turned to see it I noticed that this city was looking different than it did when I first left that mall. Nothing was familiar at all. I got on the bus and stood next to some old, Japanese women. Because the bus line runs through a predominately Japanese neighborhood, all announcements were made in English then Japanese. It sounded nothing like Japanese to me, but the women understood and would nod after each announcement. The bus driver was sort of chubby and overly friendly. He offered to help the women get on and off the bus, thus taking us a long time to get to each different stop. Time seemed to be going by rapidly and the sun was already starting to set again. I still had not found my friends. My anxiety worsened. While standing on the bus I could feel a numb feeling in my mouth, which grew very uncomfortable, so I got off the bus in front of a very plain brick building. Many of the women also got off on this stop. They were smiling and walking down the sidewalk into the building, but a few of them deviated off the course to a huge bush behind the building. That is where I was as well, because I felt something in my mouth. I started spitting out leaves and my mouth felt horrible and gritty. The other women were facing the ground as if they had to do the same, but nothing happened. The bus driver was patting the lady next to me on the back, trying to console her. He spoke of some people inside that would take care of her. This seemed to make her feel better and she followed him into the building. Slowly, everyone was gone except for the bus that was still parked on the street. The women inside didn't seem to care that the driver was not driving the bus. They just sat there and talked to each other in a very guttural Japanese, which grew more and more intense until the point where I woke up abruptly at sundown to a dark and empty apartment.