(no subject)
Happy Halloween!
I failed to come up with a story for this year, but next year is going to more than make up for it, so instead: have a tale about a recurring nightmare based on a (supposedly) true story!
I've been working at a haunted house in town for the month, and in the ticket line (the one inside the building) there are two cages built into the walls, meant to hold snakes. The first weekend I worked there, one of the snakes, a big python, had arrived and was in the first cage; but all the staff were complaining that the second one, an albino, had not. Its cage was empty.
I came back next week, noticed that the cage was still empty, and mentioned that it must still be in transit to another worker.
"Oh, no," she replied. "It got here, but then it got loose."
"Haha," I said. "I'll be sure to tell the customers that." Because I didn't believe her. I'm still not entirely sure I believe her, but the thing is, everyone else--staff and workers--says the same thing. And I am not paranoid enough to assume this is some big prank. What I mean when I say "cages," after all, is "plywood boxes with no locks on the latches," and they play loud techno music in the ticket line to keep the customers from thinking about how long they're waiting, so it's not that I don't imagine the snakes would want to get away. I've seen the python try to break out constantly the times I've worked there. (There is, of course, the question of whether the place would still be in operation if there was a snake loose; but personally I think they would.)
I wasn't aware of how much I must have been thinking about that loose snake though, until a dream I had a little while ago. I dreamed I was working at the ticket line, near closing time, and when I looked out at the line I noticed a little boy staring at this albino snake twined around the rails of the platform that we keep the animatronic hangman on.
Huh, I thought, so there's the snake. "Hey, kid, you should probably step away from that," I called. "Come here so I can tear your ticket."
The boy didn't look at me for a few seconds. He kept staring at the snake, which was staring back at him. And then, while I was still leaning on the rail that separates the floor where we stand from the line, he turned towards me.
There was nothing wrong with this kid. He didn't look like a zombie, he didn't have glassed over eyes or look weird, and he didn't shamble or anything as he walked slowly towards me. But the second I saw his face, I realized that the snake had possessed him. He just looked like a little kid, maybe ten or eleven; but he was walking right towards me, like I had told him to, slowly like he had no worry about catching me.
I woke up as I was backing away from the rail. That was the first dream.
The second one came a little while later; this time, I was working in one of the attractions called "Dark Terrors," and I had pushed open one of the hidden doors in the facade and stepped out to get one of the security guys. I don't remember why. As I was walking over to where two of them were standing, I saw that they were looking up at the fake rafters by the facade; so I glanced up too, and saw the albino snake curled around one.
Oh, I thought, it's that missing snake. I didn't remember that I had seen it before.
This time, while I was looking at it, the two security guys turned towards me in unison. I hadn't said anything to get their attention, and when I looked at them, they looked just like the kid had--perfectly normal. But I knew that the snake had possessed them.
I started to back up, because even though the workers' area of Dark Terrors is basically a dark maze, it was the only place for me to go--the guys and the snake were blocking the closest exit, and I would have had to jump the line ropes to get to the other one. But I had only taken one step backward when I realized: the snake had possessed everyone inside the house as well. Somehow, I had walked out just as it got them. I couldn't go back inside. And the security guys were walking as slowly as that boy had; that kind of slowness of a predator that knows it's going to win, and it doesn't even have to try hard.
In the first dream, the snake had only been looking at the kid. This time, it was looking at me.
Then I realized that I had been through this before, realized that it was a dream, and woke up.
I'm really hoping they find the snake today, since it's the last day; I want some kind of closure to this, a confession that it was a widespread joke or that the snake is found. Because I know in the third dream, the snake will have possessed everyone in the building.
Except me.
That'll be the fourth dream.
I failed to come up with a story for this year, but next year is going to more than make up for it, so instead: have a tale about a recurring nightmare based on a (supposedly) true story!
I've been working at a haunted house in town for the month, and in the ticket line (the one inside the building) there are two cages built into the walls, meant to hold snakes. The first weekend I worked there, one of the snakes, a big python, had arrived and was in the first cage; but all the staff were complaining that the second one, an albino, had not. Its cage was empty.
I came back next week, noticed that the cage was still empty, and mentioned that it must still be in transit to another worker.
"Oh, no," she replied. "It got here, but then it got loose."
"Haha," I said. "I'll be sure to tell the customers that." Because I didn't believe her. I'm still not entirely sure I believe her, but the thing is, everyone else--staff and workers--says the same thing. And I am not paranoid enough to assume this is some big prank. What I mean when I say "cages," after all, is "plywood boxes with no locks on the latches," and they play loud techno music in the ticket line to keep the customers from thinking about how long they're waiting, so it's not that I don't imagine the snakes would want to get away. I've seen the python try to break out constantly the times I've worked there. (There is, of course, the question of whether the place would still be in operation if there was a snake loose; but personally I think they would.)
I wasn't aware of how much I must have been thinking about that loose snake though, until a dream I had a little while ago. I dreamed I was working at the ticket line, near closing time, and when I looked out at the line I noticed a little boy staring at this albino snake twined around the rails of the platform that we keep the animatronic hangman on.
Huh, I thought, so there's the snake. "Hey, kid, you should probably step away from that," I called. "Come here so I can tear your ticket."
The boy didn't look at me for a few seconds. He kept staring at the snake, which was staring back at him. And then, while I was still leaning on the rail that separates the floor where we stand from the line, he turned towards me.
There was nothing wrong with this kid. He didn't look like a zombie, he didn't have glassed over eyes or look weird, and he didn't shamble or anything as he walked slowly towards me. But the second I saw his face, I realized that the snake had possessed him. He just looked like a little kid, maybe ten or eleven; but he was walking right towards me, like I had told him to, slowly like he had no worry about catching me.
I woke up as I was backing away from the rail. That was the first dream.
The second one came a little while later; this time, I was working in one of the attractions called "Dark Terrors," and I had pushed open one of the hidden doors in the facade and stepped out to get one of the security guys. I don't remember why. As I was walking over to where two of them were standing, I saw that they were looking up at the fake rafters by the facade; so I glanced up too, and saw the albino snake curled around one.
Oh, I thought, it's that missing snake. I didn't remember that I had seen it before.
This time, while I was looking at it, the two security guys turned towards me in unison. I hadn't said anything to get their attention, and when I looked at them, they looked just like the kid had--perfectly normal. But I knew that the snake had possessed them.
I started to back up, because even though the workers' area of Dark Terrors is basically a dark maze, it was the only place for me to go--the guys and the snake were blocking the closest exit, and I would have had to jump the line ropes to get to the other one. But I had only taken one step backward when I realized: the snake had possessed everyone inside the house as well. Somehow, I had walked out just as it got them. I couldn't go back inside. And the security guys were walking as slowly as that boy had; that kind of slowness of a predator that knows it's going to win, and it doesn't even have to try hard.
In the first dream, the snake had only been looking at the kid. This time, it was looking at me.
Then I realized that I had been through this before, realized that it was a dream, and woke up.
I'm really hoping they find the snake today, since it's the last day; I want some kind of closure to this, a confession that it was a widespread joke or that the snake is found. Because I know in the third dream, the snake will have possessed everyone in the building.
Except me.
That'll be the fourth dream.