Dead Night Land

-- Dead Night Land --

CHAPTER 1 - LOST AT DAWN, DESSERT CALM
CHAPTER 2 - ITS TIME JASPER, DEAD NIGHT
CHAPTER 3 – BIG MOON, HIGH NOON
CHAPTER 4 – COLORS FADE, MOONLIGHT SHADE
CHAPTER 5 - HIGH TIDE, SHALLOW RIDE 14
CHAPTER 6 – ABOVE THE FLOOR, LOST NO MORE

Dead night land
***
Good night, good bye to life
Dark night, dreadful sight

We wake up in a dream
No more life it would seem

What is a dream, if not the land of death
Here there is no right or left

A vision on dreamy shade
Time stops and colors fade

Black absence of light
Dead right, good night


Chapter 1 - Lost at dawn, dessert calm

We took off at dawn. My parents said nothing.
We drove through almost empty highways, the desserts can be quite calm at early dawn. But the sun never came up. All day it was gray, the clouds covered up the sky. You could hear a soft noise of thunder, and a tension in the atmosphere that could only mean rain. But the rain never came.
My parents still hadn’t said anything. But I knew that it had something to do with getting there as soon as possible. My parents as usual had nothing to say to each other or me, their only son. They stayed together, but they behaved like dead people all my life. Even in the car, there was rarely a word spoken. My father drove, and my mother read a some magazine. After a few hours they switched. Not a single word exchanged place, my father just stopped the car, and stepped out, my mom understand and stepped out to, and they changed places.
We were on our way to visit cousins. My fathers brother and his family, wife and two kids. I remember playing with them on Christmas when I was just a small boy.
We listened to the radio, and the song “stairway to heaven was playing.” After the song, the radio talker said that he loved the song so much, that he would play it again.
We finally arrived to this very small town. It was the place where my father was raised. I had so much trouble imagining him playing on these streets as a young boy.
My father told me that a copper mine had been closed, after some big accident. And a lot of people here were now unemployed. My father decided to come down here to help his brother, give him a loan or something.
The town looked like a sleepy town. It was sort of no life going on. People were scarce. They walked slowly, and didn’t really smile or anything. I saw a dock as the town was close to a large lake, but no sign of boats.
We pulled up at this big house, that looked like it had once been majestic, but now it looked like nobody was taking care of it. The garden was overgrown and the pavement looked dirty.
We sat on their couch, drank tea. My father suddenly started speaking like never before. It was like his lost personality had come to life just by being back at his hometown.
They had a nice home. I saw a old miniature horse carrousel standing on a old desk drawer in the living room. It looked sort of magical.
My uncle saw that I looked bored and took me upstairs to meet his kids. They were sitting in a big room, that seemed to be the brothers room.
Timothy, Dorothy, remember your cousin Jasper?
Hi Jasper! They both said at the same time.
- hi guys.
My uncle smiled and left us. Its so uncomfortable when grown ups leave their kids in a room, and think that the kids will just bond without worries. Normally we do, even if we are 16 years old.
I looked around, I saw drawings on the walls. That I presumed they had drawn. Somehow Timothy and Dorothy looked very different. Not just older, but also tired and sort of like if they were drug addicts. Timothy was skinny and had had homeboy hat on. He had blond curly hair. His sister Dorothy had black hair, looked a bit bulky, and had a big dark gray sweater on.
So, its been some time since last time, hasn’t it? I said, as a desperate ice breaker.
Timothy didn’t say a word, he just stood up walked to a wall, and hanged up a new drawing. The drawing was really good, it was a shadowy drawing of a horse drowning in a large sea. It was sort of deep view, since you saw this picture and you wonder how did the horse end up in the middle of nowhere.
Dorothy: He likes to draw a lot.
Jasper: Timothy is really really good, I said.
Timmy: Its Timmy man! Timmy said.
Jasper: Oh right, i remember now, i said and smiled. We laughed and started talking again, like if we had reconnected.
We used to meet for Christmas, and spend a couple of days playing in the snow. They always came over to us for Christmas.

Chapter 2 - Its time Jasper, dead night

That first night, Timmy and Dorothy quietly woke me up in the guest room. They took me to their room. On the table I saw three glasses of water. We sat down, and Timmy pulled up some pills. He took one, and gave the other two pills to me and Dorothy. I was confused, but not really. They did look like drug abusers, especially Timmy. It was hard to say no, but I smiled and said “thanks guys, but I’m okay.”
Dorothy: “no don’t worry Jasper, its not what it looks like, you can trust us.”
Jasper: I don’t know you guys. This isn’t really my cup of tea. I’m more of a fresh mint kind of a guy.
Timmy smiled.
Timmy: hey dude, its cool. Its not like that. I want to show you something.
Dorothy: WE, want to show you something, Dorothy added.
Timmy explained that they were sleeping pills, that had really strange side effects. Especially if you don’t fall a sleep.
It wasn’t that I wanted to try drugs for the first time, it was just that i felt sort of safe. I figured that if there would ever be a good time to try drugs, this would be the best way. So I agreed, and I was scared, I didn’t want to become a drug addict, but I suppose I felt for the group pressure, at least that is what I would blame my decision on.

I took the pill. And Timmy told me to just relax, but not fall asleep. Which was really hard because obviously these sleeping pills were making me sleepy. I couldn’t stop yawning. I wasn’t feeling high or anything specially good, just really tired.

Nothing happened for a whole hour, except more yawning. They were not yawning. I was starting to get a bit upset about the whole thing. I started to think that they had given me aspirins and fooled me into thinking that I was getting high from drugs.
I suppose that a large factor of my drug taking decision came from the fact that most grown up I need were on some kind of drug. Most grown up seem to be on some sleeping pill, or pain killer, or anxiety relieving pill. That line, where medicines become dangerous drugs is probably written somewhere, but it feels like it is a invisible line.

But I was so disappointed. There was a part of me that wanted to feel something different. But I was just tired. I was just about to yell at them in a hazy voice. And get up to go back to bed, but then something hit the window. Like if someone had thrown a rock at the glass. But it sounded strange. Sort of soft and slow.
“its time Jasper, dead night.” Timothy said.

Chapter 3 – big moon, high noon

We walked down the stair to go outside. But things seemed different. The house was very dark, but it was like a bright light was shining through the house. The colors looked faded. Almost colorless. I figured this was the side effect of the sleeping pill.
We went outside, and there were two boys standing and smiling. They were Timothy’s friends. One of them had long black hair, and looked sort of Goth. And the other one had a hood on and all i could see was his smile.
The bright light seemed to come from the moon, that seemed a lot larger than normal. And everything looked so quiet and slow. The sky was black, no stars, only big furry clouds slowly moving.

Timmy: Okay Jasper man, this is gonna blow your mind bro. THIS is like nothing you have ever heard of, honestly man.
Jasper: where are we going?
Dorothy: don’t worry, we are just going for a death-stroll in the night.
And then she started laughing, actually they all started laughing. Probably some internal joke.
But I felt anxious, like if something was wrong. Something about the pill. I felt sort of light in the body, and rather upbeat.
Jasper: guys guys, wait. I don’t know. Something is wrong.
They stopped and looked at me.
Dorothy: don’t worry, I promise you, you are alright. This a normal reaction.
Timmy: you are gonna feel better soon, trust me.

we were walking up a big hill. And i was a bit behind. I think i was worried that they would throw me over the cliff or something.
Timmy: Dude, hurry up. You gotta see this.
I got up, and I saw a spinning horse carousel! It was so strange to see it. It was very bright and colorless. But it was spinning slowly. We got on it, and everyone picked a horse to sit on. So there we were, 16 year old teenagers, high on sleeping pills and riding a some abandoned carousel ride that for some reason was colorless and started to work again for no reason.

I suddenly saw the shadow of someone sitting on a bench. And I loudly whispered to the others. Timmy told me not to worry. He said that things are not what they appear to be. And he was right. That person was just sitting there. Then I saw another person walking by the bench. It was far away so I couldn’t really see their faces.
Somehow I really did feel like if something was different about this night. It all felt like a dream or something. It didn’t feel real. The colors seemed so strange.
Timmy told us all to get off.
Timmy: I’m going to show you something
He walked towards the two people we saw earlier. And the closer we got the more terrified I got. They were hollow. I mean, they looked like ghosts.
Timmy: they are ghosts man, but don’t worry cause they wont bother you.
The guy sitting on the bench said: “what a nice day”. Timmy told me to talk to him. “its alright he said, go on man.”
Jasper: Hello sir.
The ghost: what a nice day.
Jasper: my name is jasper what is your name?
The ghost: what a nice day.
It was pointless, the ghost was obsessed with the idea that it was a nice day.

The guy standing above him said nothing. He was sort of slow, and yelling mumbling words. he didn’t really seem to be alive. he just stood there and shouted into the air. For some reason he reminded me of my father, with the exception that my father didn’t ever yell.



Chapter 4 – colors fade, moonlight shade

We walked through the towns main street. All the windows had signs and products that seemed really old, like 50 year old. Vacuum cleaners from the 50s, old radios, old telephones. There were a few ghosts walking, or looking into the windows.
Timmy and the others just seemed to be amazing with everything they saw. I asked Dorothy if it was all a dream.
Timmy: no, its not a dream, this is something else, the land of the dead. We don’t know what it means, or how those sleeping pills work. But here we are, for whatever reason.
Everything looked so strange. I saw a clock, that didnt seem to work. It would however show a different time, every time I blinked, or looked away.
I saw a white tiger walking down the street. Timmy told me not to worry. He told me that the tiger had once escaped from the zoo, and it was a big hunt for it, but nobody ever found it. It seemed to have found its way to whatever place this was.
The moon lit up everything, but at the same time every color seemed to have faded, like a light of time.
Dorothy told me, that Timmy had been up all nights for a couple of years, just cruising the net, not being able to sleep, or not wanting to. So his parents asked a friend who was a doctor to give him sleeping pills.
And one night he was forced to take the pills, but refused to sleep. And that is how he discovered this weird dream world. He later showed this world to Dorothy and his two friends.
Suddenly Timmy stopped, and so we all stopped walking. He looked at a old news stand. Where the front page told about the horrible cooper mine accident. 5 people were buried alive.
Dorothy whispered to me, that Timmy had always blamed himself for the accident. I asked why. She told me that Timmy had seen the accident in this world, before the accident actually happened.
We came across something strange. A staircase in the middle of the road, that went all the way up to the cloud. I asked: “what the hell is that?”
Timmy passed me by, looked up and said: “staircase to heaven” and smiled.
Regardless of what this place was, it was obvious that at night time, everything seems so different. There is no life. Its like a dead night land. Everything has changed, yet everything is still the same as in daylight.
I saw a empty alley, and in the end was a opening to a forest. And there I saw a bit of a car. Looked like a abandoned police car. I wanted to explore it, but Timmy told me that we had to go, before the boat would leave.

Chapter 5 - high tide, shallow ride

We went to the docks. Where now a bright shining fairy boat had was waiting. On it were ghosts sitting, most of them were looking at their hand wrists. And other were looking out the water. We got on. A ghost gave us all a ticket. The tickets were blank, and sort of hollow.
Timmy and the others sat on a bench inside of the fairy boat. I stood outside, and looked towards the horizon, I saw a puffy looking thunder cloud far away, I could see that it caused a lot of waves in the water over there. It was a very odd sight, I could literary see a thunder storm from a long perspective. It was definitely a dream. How else would you explain it?
The fairy boat started to move slowly from the dock. People stopped looking at the wrist watches and looking out the water, and started talking to each other instead. I could hear them perfectly, but i could not understand what they were saying. They were sort of mumbling. Like if they were pretending to talk.
I saw a couple that didn’t talk, they were still looking out the water. They had rain ponchos on and I was getting closer to them, to listen to what they were saying. But before i was close enough I noticed that the thunder storm i had seen earlier from a distance was now extremely close. The fairy boat started to rock.

The storm was like a tornado, things started to fall on to the boat, vacuum cleaners, wardrobes and other things that would normally not be flying above water.
A large car landed and crushed the couple.
Dorothy yelled my name, and waved me to come to them. I tried, but i fell on the slippery floor, and as the boat was rocking, i was sliding across the floor, and as the boat tilted I flew up in the air and was going right into the waves outside the boat.

Chapter 6 – Above the floor, lost no more

My parents woke me up. I was all sweaty and still in my clothes. I was so wet. For a moment there, i wasn’t sure if it was a dream or not.
I was so tired, and felt strange in the head. Like if I had been through a accident or if had been on drugs or something. I started to put two and two together. I was probably so high that I had imagined the whole thing.
A hour later we were in the car, I didn’t get to say goodbye to Timmy and Dorothy. And from what little words i could gather from my parents, they had a big fight with my uncle, and he had asked them to leave. Apparently they did not like the idea of charity in the cold hearts of my parents.
I felt so tired, and hung over. I remembered the entire dream, the carrousel and the fairy boat. It was hard for me to accept that it was all a dream. But it must have been, what else could it have been?
After about 3 hours of driving. It started to rain, and I could hear a soft thunder roar behind the clouds. The rain become stronger and stronger, and the clouds let the thunder out.
My father got stopped by a police officer for driving to fast.
The police officer said, its such a nice day, arent you going a bit fast sir?
My father got off with a warning, but when the police officer drifted off, we noticed that one of the tires have blown. My father became very angry. He started to yell mumbling words in the air. He walked away a few feet, my mother went after him to try and calm him down.
I sat in the car, starting to feel better. I had accepted that it was all a dream. I started to feel in my pockets to find a piece of chewing gum or something.
But I could only find a piece of paper, that I threw out the window. Bored and annoyed with the whole thing, i walked out in the rain. And I saw the piece of paper lying on the ground. Out of curiosity I picked it up, since i could not remember what it was. It was blank on both sides. It was the ticket, from my dream. Suddenly I saw that my parents had stopped to argue, and they had both put on rain ponchos. Something awful clicked in my head, and suddenly I saw a car drive right into them.
The storm followed me from the dream, and killed my parents.

Good night, dead right….


Written by: Tomas S
10-08-27