Entering the Vat
I was with several other people, maybe four or five and we were in an empty hallway, walking down it. The hallway was neutral in color and the walls and floor were bare. We stepped from it into a very large room. The room was so large, it was hard to see the far wall and although I could see everything near me very well, it seemed to get much darker the further away I looked. There was a plain, rectangular table nearby and I think the floor was white. Beyond the table there was a very large structure like a huge aquarium filled about 3/4 with a clear liquid. The aquarium was at least 20 feet tall and was cubic with all four sides being transparent and it had no top.
Somehow, I knew that there was a matching vat of liquid somewhere else, maybe at the opposite end of the long hallway we had come down. I think there was a square platform or ledge near the side of the vat in this room and all but one of the other people were now using it to climb into the clear liquid. They dropped down in and floated upright at the surface, facing me and as I saw them I also saw in my mind the other matching vat far away. I saw a creature that was roughly human-like, naked, sickly and disfigured. It climbed into the other vat of liquid and just as it entered the water, I saw that there was a link between the two. The liquid in the vat of the room I was in flashed with light for a brief moment and the people inside made sounds of surprised agony as I saw their clothes instantly burned away by the liquid. Their bodies were immediately but smoothly disfigured and contorted. Large, red sores appeared on their bodies and large areas of their skin became discolored. Some of their joints were twisted and bent as their skin was pulled and stretched. Their facial features were shifted and changed until they no longer resembled their former self. Their hair was burnt away into nothing and their new appearance was hideous. All of this happened in less than a second as I watched.
One person remained near me who hadn't entered the liquid. It was a young woman who I had never seen before. She had wavy brown hair down to her shoulders and was wearing simple, white clothes. There was also another person who I just noticed. A young man who was larger than me and he was now headed toward the vat to enter the liquid. The original people in the vat were now gone. I don't know what happened to them. The man entered and again I saw the creature in the matching vat as if it were deliberately infecting the liquid, knowing that someone was entering. The young man became instantly disfigured like the rest as his clothes dissolved. He became slightly taller as his body stretched, his hair remained and was a light golden brown and, for the most part, his body was changed very little, except his upper half. He didn't seem to notice the agony or even the physical change and he exited the water and came back near me as if to prove to us that the liquid was harmless. I pointed to a mirror that was near the bottom of the vat and when he looked in, he saw what I saw. He had formed several other heads in addition to his own. From shoulder to shoulder, he now had six heads. His own was in the center and remained relatively unchanged. The others were slightly smaller and all were grotesque in their own way. One of them had only skin over where eyes should have been and instead of a nose there was a large, soft fleshy snout hanging over in front of the down-turned mouth. Another had its features twisted diagonally with a thin mouth at a 45 degree angle and one distorted eye much higher than the other as it sat on a scrawny neck, cocked to the side over his right shoulder. They seemed almost as if the skin and features of the faces had both swelled and melted at the same time. Then the man was gone and it was only me and the woman, who I noticed was now also heading toward the liquid.
I didn't try to stop her. At least I didn't try very hard. I stood by and watched as I had with the rest as she entered the liquid. She too was instantly changed and became an elongated and deformed version of herself. She exited the liquid and I helped her into a large bed that was now on the floor near the table. She seemed too distraught even to cry and she laid on her stomach, motionless under a large blanket as I stood nearby.
A small group of other people entered the room from behind me and none of them seemed interested in entering the vat. They said something to me and I started to turn and leave the room with them after giving the woman in the bed one last disgusted glance. As I turned, I heard her move and heard her voice. When I looked at her again, she looked very different. Still disfigured but now she was back to her original proportions. She was a little shorter than me and her skin was a greyish blue with large areas of darker grey around her muscles between joints and over her stomach. She was thin and her skin seemed shrunken to her bones and her brown hair was now an orange-red and only existed in a few large patches on her head. She turned in bed and propped herself up clumsily on her arms and looked at me. She said, "Don't leave me here. Don't go without me." and I suddenly felt an overwhelming affection for her and an unbreakable determination to do anything I could for her and to take care of her. I didn't leave her, I woke up. That's all I remember.
Somehow, I knew that there was a matching vat of liquid somewhere else, maybe at the opposite end of the long hallway we had come down. I think there was a square platform or ledge near the side of the vat in this room and all but one of the other people were now using it to climb into the clear liquid. They dropped down in and floated upright at the surface, facing me and as I saw them I also saw in my mind the other matching vat far away. I saw a creature that was roughly human-like, naked, sickly and disfigured. It climbed into the other vat of liquid and just as it entered the water, I saw that there was a link between the two. The liquid in the vat of the room I was in flashed with light for a brief moment and the people inside made sounds of surprised agony as I saw their clothes instantly burned away by the liquid. Their bodies were immediately but smoothly disfigured and contorted. Large, red sores appeared on their bodies and large areas of their skin became discolored. Some of their joints were twisted and bent as their skin was pulled and stretched. Their facial features were shifted and changed until they no longer resembled their former self. Their hair was burnt away into nothing and their new appearance was hideous. All of this happened in less than a second as I watched.
One person remained near me who hadn't entered the liquid. It was a young woman who I had never seen before. She had wavy brown hair down to her shoulders and was wearing simple, white clothes. There was also another person who I just noticed. A young man who was larger than me and he was now headed toward the vat to enter the liquid. The original people in the vat were now gone. I don't know what happened to them. The man entered and again I saw the creature in the matching vat as if it were deliberately infecting the liquid, knowing that someone was entering. The young man became instantly disfigured like the rest as his clothes dissolved. He became slightly taller as his body stretched, his hair remained and was a light golden brown and, for the most part, his body was changed very little, except his upper half. He didn't seem to notice the agony or even the physical change and he exited the water and came back near me as if to prove to us that the liquid was harmless. I pointed to a mirror that was near the bottom of the vat and when he looked in, he saw what I saw. He had formed several other heads in addition to his own. From shoulder to shoulder, he now had six heads. His own was in the center and remained relatively unchanged. The others were slightly smaller and all were grotesque in their own way. One of them had only skin over where eyes should have been and instead of a nose there was a large, soft fleshy snout hanging over in front of the down-turned mouth. Another had its features twisted diagonally with a thin mouth at a 45 degree angle and one distorted eye much higher than the other as it sat on a scrawny neck, cocked to the side over his right shoulder. They seemed almost as if the skin and features of the faces had both swelled and melted at the same time. Then the man was gone and it was only me and the woman, who I noticed was now also heading toward the liquid.
I didn't try to stop her. At least I didn't try very hard. I stood by and watched as I had with the rest as she entered the liquid. She too was instantly changed and became an elongated and deformed version of herself. She exited the liquid and I helped her into a large bed that was now on the floor near the table. She seemed too distraught even to cry and she laid on her stomach, motionless under a large blanket as I stood nearby.
A small group of other people entered the room from behind me and none of them seemed interested in entering the vat. They said something to me and I started to turn and leave the room with them after giving the woman in the bed one last disgusted glance. As I turned, I heard her move and heard her voice. When I looked at her again, she looked very different. Still disfigured but now she was back to her original proportions. She was a little shorter than me and her skin was a greyish blue with large areas of darker grey around her muscles between joints and over her stomach. She was thin and her skin seemed shrunken to her bones and her brown hair was now an orange-red and only existed in a few large patches on her head. She turned in bed and propped herself up clumsily on her arms and looked at me. She said, "Don't leave me here. Don't go without me." and I suddenly felt an overwhelming affection for her and an unbreakable determination to do anything I could for her and to take care of her. I didn't leave her, I woke up. That's all I remember.