IRC-Galleria

Kirjoitin tämmöisen pienen tarinan näin halloweenin alla/kunniaksi. Kaikki palaute on tervetullutta, varsinkin jos se on jollain asteella rakentavaa. Tämä on kokorajoituksen vuoksi pakko jakaa kahteen osaan.



Cold Dreams


Every night it's the same dream. Or part of a dream. He walks into a room, inside is a young woman on the couch. She is frozen solid, a thin layer of ice covering her entire body save for the head. The damsel is clutching to something small in her hand, but he can't make out what it is. She looks at him with pleading eyes and manages to utter the words "...please...lift me...". Before he can take a step towards the poor woman, her face turns motionless and she stops breathing. After this he wakes up.


This had been going on for longer than Conrad Penner cares to remember. It was unsettling at first, but eventually it became more of a nuisance than anything else since it seemed to often prevent him from actually resting and gaining energy while asleep. Not that it mattered that much, he didn't really have an outlet for energy, being unemployed and without a family or a spouse. He had long ago stopped trying to figure out the meaning of the dream and figured it would eventually just go away if left ignored. He picked up his cellphone and checked for messages. Nothing as usual. His finger felt something rough on the backside of the phone. He turned it around and saw the letters "C P" scratched onto its corner. His ex-girlfriend Helen had made the markings over a year ago. It might as well have been a decade since then, those times seemed so distant to him these days. She had said back then that the markings served the double purpose of helping him recognise his phone and remembering that it is indeed a cell phone. "Hilarious...", he uttered aloud to himself almost bitterly. He sat on his chair in front of the tv. It was already late, but he figured he could watch something pointless anyway, since it wasn't like he had some errand to wake up to in the morning. He was tired though, the dream had taken its toll. He turned on the tv and settled on the channel that was showing a thriller about some detective trying to solve a murder. "Fair enough..." he thought to himself, sat back tried to relax. Soon his eyes started to feel heavy as he listened to the sounds of the city outside the window.


Again the same dream. It even seemed that the dream looped once and the events played out twice in exactly the same way in one night.


Awake. Conrad still kept his eyes closed and tried to shake off a headache that must have come from seeing the dream twice. He was sitting down and figured that he must have fallen asleep in the chair. While he opened his eyes, he let out a vocal exclamation of startlement as he realized he was looking at a steering wheel. The steering wheel of his car. Confused, he looked around and saw that the car had hit a small tree on the side of the road. The road didn't seem very urban. It was a gravel road that had a small amount of snow on it. It didn't look like it sees much traffic. Where was he? He didn't have any idea of his whereabouts, although he felt a very faint sense of recognition as if he had seen this place before... but couldn't piece together his location or how and why he had ended up there. The tree had sunk about a half meter into the hood of the car, so it seemed like fair bet that it wouldn't work anymore. He tried turning the car keys anyway, but the engine didn't make a sound. He reached to his pocket to pick up his phone and call for help, but noticed that it was not there. After checking all his pockets in his pants and coat he searched the car thoroughly finding nothing. He never left the house without his phone. He checked his pockets again and found piece of paper. It was crumbled, although it seemed to have been originally folded once to maybe fit an envelope. To his amazement Conrad recognized his own handwriting on the paper : "You'll find the house easily after turning on the right road after the small red wall. You'll know you're on the right track when you see a large rectangular boulder on the right side of the road. It's just a little ways after that, beyond a bridge that crosses the river." He couldn't remember writing this. It started to snow and he now noticed how cold it really was. Wind was also picking up and he looked around again trying to get his bearings and noticed a large rock with almost 90 degree angles on it. It must have been the "boulder" mentioned in the letter, he thought. The surreality of the scenario baffled him, but he knew he had to find shelter, and the letter mentioned a house in the direction of the rock. Conrad started walking passing the large boulder on his right. He turned to look behind him and stared into the dark tail lights of his car. Shaking his head he continued on toward the unknown.


After a few minutes he came upon a small stone bridge. Judging from the sound, the water was still flowing in the river below. Conrad glanced quickly over the side and saw that the water was indeed flowing and it seemed that the river was fairly deep as he couldn't see any rocks breaking the water's surface. For such a short bridge it was a surprisingly large drop. Suddenly an odd sense of vertigo came over him. It wasn't the height, he had never been afraid of heights before. He stumbled to his side and leaned onto a stone pole. Trying to maintain his stability he took a step forward toward the end of the bridge and stepped on some broken glass. He was really cursing his luck at this point. Taking a few deep breaths he continued on over the bridge and regained his sense of equilibrium. He still felt dizzy but at least he could move forward normally again. He glanced back at the bridge, wondering who had built it, since it didn't look exactly safe. Save for two small poles, one on each side, there wasn't any railing or even much of an edge before the vast nothingness beyond. A shiver went down his spine and reminded him that he should probably keep going to find shelter from the winter that tried to push into his bones so relentlessly.


During the journey Conrad had tried to remember why he had ended up in the car but the last thing he could recall was sitting in front of the tv. The dizziness didn't help his ability to think clearly but it seemed to be thankfully fading away. After walking a few more minutes he saw a house in the distance. The cold was biting his face as the wind circled around him and he hurried onward. When he reached the front yard, he saw a few sets of tire marks on the ground that had partially been covered by the snow. He didn't see any cars around though and dreaded the possibility that no one might be home to let him in. The door looked like a bastion of hope after the ordeal he had just been through and walked over to knock on it. There was no answer. "Hello!", he yelled and knocked again and turned the handle almost as a reflex. To his amazement, the door was unlocked and opened. "Anyone home?!... My car broke down a mile or two back and.... Hello?!" There was no answer nor any sign of anyone being home. He took a few steps inside and closed the door, figuring that if someone was home he could just explain the situation calmly and ask to use the phone or something. He was really exhausted from the events that had transpired moments ago and needed to just take a breath after reaching what at least seemed like safety.