Bleeding edge

The Change

Harsh white lights. Black dots dancing in my vision. People in white coats. The slight sound of dripping water.

The entire scene seemed rather unnatural.

 I was sitting on something that felt like a hospital bed. The bed was present right in the center of the room. Men and women bustled around me, but never spared a glance in my direction.

A woman with gold rimmed spectacles perched on her nose and a stark white coat brushed past me. Before I could ponder over how her touch seemed familiar, a barely muffled scream tore through the silence. The sound of more hurried footsteps floated to my ears. 

A slow smile stretched across my face as I recognized the place.

A number of  new computers had dotted the once clear room. On looking around for the second time, I realized that everything seemed a little hazy at the edges. It felt like a dream or like I had been drugged. The realization didn't come as a shock. In fact it had quite an opposite effect.

Drug addiction is something which is expected of the kind of  person who wants a relief from the world around them. It confuses reality with things we can have only in our dreams. 

I had spent all my life getting confused between the two. 

Thus, it was only once I had been reminded of the effect of drugs did my eyes open to see the bigger picture. 

 I was addicted to my nightmares. And they were slowly eating me from the inside.

I woke up with sweaty palms and a sharp throbbing pain near the base of my neck. 

"These aren't signs of a good nights sleep, are they?" I wondered aloud, all the while smiling wryly.

That was, until the full impact of my dream hit me. The blinking lights, the people in white coats, the  water, everything I saw in the dream could mean only one thing.

Something had changed.

For the sixteen years of my life, I had been seeing a similar kind of dream every night. However, that wasn't the only aspect that scared me. 

I saw the nightmares every month on a fixed date. I saw them on the twelfth.

This time, I had witnessed another nightmare. A nightmare which seemed to have changed my perception on the dreams. I called it a nightmare, but it wasn't like the ones before it.

I wasn't the victim of a murder.

The dream did not end with me dying in the hands of a hound.

The 'She' that was mentioned all the other times did not make an appearance.

The only clue that linked this dream to my previous nightmares was the recognition and familiarity of the place. It was the same place which was the slaughterhouse to all the earlier victims in my nightmares. 

A place that made me feel safe for a reason beyond my understanding. 

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Hey to all of you reading this!

I hope this chapter sent the wheels in your mind turning! Elsie's nightmares will start making a little more sense soon enough. Sean was not present in this chapter because I wanted to make sure that enough depth was given to the Sci-fi portion of the story!

What are your views on the 'familiar touch' she felt? Any thoughts?

Don't forget to comment and/or vote! Constructive criticism is also welcome!

This chapter is dedicated to foodtimesfood due to her fear of Elsie's nightmares! ;P

-Annagems