The first nightmare I've had in a while
I was staying in a hotel for reasons that weren't entirely clear. The hotel was built around a courtyard area, but a very odd one. The reception desk was just sitting out in the middle like a bar, with a balcony all around the irregularly-shaped room and all the hotel rooms on the mezzanine. There was a set of solid glass double doors off to the side that led out into a small garden, but one that was totally unlit for some bizarre reason.
The dream actually cycled through twice with a different man at the front desk each time, for reasons which will shortly become clear. I don't really remember the first cycle, but I do remember the revelation, which was that there were some kind of spirit possessing people and using the hotel as a blood ritual site. The first time through the hotel attendant was a shorter, heavy-set bald man, and now that I think about it, the second time it was basically H. H. Holmes, walrus moustache and all.
In the second cycle, I was staying at the hotel in a room that was near the stairs. Just before I went to bed, Bill Clinton and his security detail showed up at the hotel and wanted a room, and for some reason the attendant tried to throw me out of my room and give it to the whole ex-presidential group, even though my room was roughly 50% bigger than the bed it contained and there's no way even one person could fit with all their luggage. After a longer argument, I finally got everyone to leave me alone, shut the door, and perhaps remembering the previous cycle I got back up and threw the deadbolt. I lay in bed staring at the door until I saw someone move between the light and the crack of the door, so I got up and ran to it, but the door opened a bit--somehow, the deadbolt acted more like a door chain--and the crazed visage of the attendant thrust itself through the space opened up as he leveled a gun against my chest.
And then I woke up, heart beating and totally awake in an instant. I'm a little glad that softlykarou had forgotten her Ventra card and was on the way home, because she came in and gave me a hug and I lay in bed and read after she left until I had to get up. My recounting mostly makes it sound ridiculous in the way that dreams often are, but it was definitely terrifying in the moment.
I blame Daylight Savings Time.
The dream actually cycled through twice with a different man at the front desk each time, for reasons which will shortly become clear. I don't really remember the first cycle, but I do remember the revelation, which was that there were some kind of spirit possessing people and using the hotel as a blood ritual site. The first time through the hotel attendant was a shorter, heavy-set bald man, and now that I think about it, the second time it was basically H. H. Holmes, walrus moustache and all.
In the second cycle, I was staying at the hotel in a room that was near the stairs. Just before I went to bed, Bill Clinton and his security detail showed up at the hotel and wanted a room, and for some reason the attendant tried to throw me out of my room and give it to the whole ex-presidential group, even though my room was roughly 50% bigger than the bed it contained and there's no way even one person could fit with all their luggage. After a longer argument, I finally got everyone to leave me alone, shut the door, and perhaps remembering the previous cycle I got back up and threw the deadbolt. I lay in bed staring at the door until I saw someone move between the light and the crack of the door, so I got up and ran to it, but the door opened a bit--somehow, the deadbolt acted more like a door chain--and the crazed visage of the attendant thrust itself through the space opened up as he leveled a gun against my chest.
And then I woke up, heart beating and totally awake in an instant. I'm a little glad that softlykarou had forgotten her Ventra card and was on the way home, because she came in and gave me a hug and I lay in bed and read after she left until I had to get up. My recounting mostly makes it sound ridiculous in the way that dreams often are, but it was definitely terrifying in the moment.
I blame Daylight Savings Time.