A dream I had last night.
I wasn't in this dream. I was a spectator.
There was a paranormal being that resembled a naked woman with black hair. Its body proportions were "off". I don't remember all the visual details but think in terms of shoulders that sit too high or a pelvis not built to support the upper body.
I do specifically remember that the face was too small for its head, and the eyes were even smaller.
It had an uncanny valley vibe that gave away that it was not human.
It moved with hatred toward a house occupied by a mother, father, and two boys.
The dream was long. I vaguely remember this thing entering the home and terrorizing the family through a drawn out series of attacks, like a ghost or poltergeist.
The teenage son abandoned the house and went to stay with an organized crime gang with whom he had previous connections.
Eventually, the thing succeeded in murdering the mother and father.
The only one left was the younger boy. A small child. He ran into the back yard, toward a tree line, the sun setting. Once he reached the edge of the trees, he stopped and turned around.
Looking behind himself, he spotted this naked thing slowly approaching him. Not desperately chasing, just calmly walking closer as if it knew without a doubt that the boy would not escape.
And in fact, he wouldn't. He had resigned himself to his fate. Not because he physically couldn't get away, but because he realized, emotionally, that there was nothing left to run to. His family was gone, and so was his will to run.
The thing stopped just a few long strides away from the boy, and the two made eye contact for a long moment. The boy's human eyes locking with the small beads on this thing's face.
Just like the boy's desperation to escape disappeared, so did the demon's hatred. A small thread resembling the faint remnant of compassion emerged in this monster's heart, and it regarded the boy as a moral puzzle. He was the offspring of two humans whom it hated, though he himself was innocent.
Its murderous onslaught turned into an ethical dilemma. It didn't want the bloodline of the mother and father to continue, nor did it want to take the life of the boy.
And in this thing's twisted, alien idea of mercy, it made a compromise. It cast a spell on the boy.
With a scream, he violently contorted, liquified, bubbled and turned to wood, morphing into the trunk of a nearby tree. He became a part of nature, still alive, but no longer with the free will or consciousness of a human.
The monster leaned in close to the tree trunk which was once a human boy, and gave it a maternal kiss.
Its stubborn endeavor for justice colliding with its twisted idea of mercy drove it to remove the boy's agency as a human being while technically preserving his life. A cold, alien solution to two contradicting goals. One which this ghoul honestly believed was a reasonable outcome, and which it was so proud of as to seal it with a kiss.
Then the dream took an almost humorous turn. The thing turned toward a different tree and cast another spell. Part of the tree bubbled and detached from the rest, morphing into a cat.
And that was the reason this thing went on its murder spree. Long ago, the mother and father were somehow responsible for the death of its pet cat. That was the reason it killed the parents, displaced the teenage son, and effectively murdered (but didn't murder) the young boy. Because of a cat.
And after all that, it went from suffering from the loss of its beloved pet, to deciding that it could just make another.
No, not just one more. It decided to make three. Three cats emerged from this tree.
Then, a car.
This horrible monster and its three cats got into the car, turned on some music, and drove away into the rising sun.
Despite the almost laughter-inducing ending, I'm still disturbed by the dream as a whole. I know its meaning. It is complicated. But the ending was trying to tell me that I can move on from certain events in life.
I have yet to.
There was a paranormal being that resembled a naked woman with black hair. Its body proportions were "off". I don't remember all the visual details but think in terms of shoulders that sit too high or a pelvis not built to support the upper body.
I do specifically remember that the face was too small for its head, and the eyes were even smaller.
It had an uncanny valley vibe that gave away that it was not human.
It moved with hatred toward a house occupied by a mother, father, and two boys.
The dream was long. I vaguely remember this thing entering the home and terrorizing the family through a drawn out series of attacks, like a ghost or poltergeist.
The teenage son abandoned the house and went to stay with an organized crime gang with whom he had previous connections.
Eventually, the thing succeeded in murdering the mother and father.
The only one left was the younger boy. A small child. He ran into the back yard, toward a tree line, the sun setting. Once he reached the edge of the trees, he stopped and turned around.
Looking behind himself, he spotted this naked thing slowly approaching him. Not desperately chasing, just calmly walking closer as if it knew without a doubt that the boy would not escape.
And in fact, he wouldn't. He had resigned himself to his fate. Not because he physically couldn't get away, but because he realized, emotionally, that there was nothing left to run to. His family was gone, and so was his will to run.
The thing stopped just a few long strides away from the boy, and the two made eye contact for a long moment. The boy's human eyes locking with the small beads on this thing's face.
Just like the boy's desperation to escape disappeared, so did the demon's hatred. A small thread resembling the faint remnant of compassion emerged in this monster's heart, and it regarded the boy as a moral puzzle. He was the offspring of two humans whom it hated, though he himself was innocent.
Its murderous onslaught turned into an ethical dilemma. It didn't want the bloodline of the mother and father to continue, nor did it want to take the life of the boy.
And in this thing's twisted, alien idea of mercy, it made a compromise. It cast a spell on the boy.
With a scream, he violently contorted, liquified, bubbled and turned to wood, morphing into the trunk of a nearby tree. He became a part of nature, still alive, but no longer with the free will or consciousness of a human.
The monster leaned in close to the tree trunk which was once a human boy, and gave it a maternal kiss.
Its stubborn endeavor for justice colliding with its twisted idea of mercy drove it to remove the boy's agency as a human being while technically preserving his life. A cold, alien solution to two contradicting goals. One which this ghoul honestly believed was a reasonable outcome, and which it was so proud of as to seal it with a kiss.
Then the dream took an almost humorous turn. The thing turned toward a different tree and cast another spell. Part of the tree bubbled and detached from the rest, morphing into a cat.
And that was the reason this thing went on its murder spree. Long ago, the mother and father were somehow responsible for the death of its pet cat. That was the reason it killed the parents, displaced the teenage son, and effectively murdered (but didn't murder) the young boy. Because of a cat.
And after all that, it went from suffering from the loss of its beloved pet, to deciding that it could just make another.
No, not just one more. It decided to make three. Three cats emerged from this tree.
Then, a car.
This horrible monster and its three cats got into the car, turned on some music, and drove away into the rising sun.
Despite the almost laughter-inducing ending, I'm still disturbed by the dream as a whole. I know its meaning. It is complicated. But the ending was trying to tell me that I can move on from certain events in life.
I have yet to.
