So, my dreams often play out like little movies and I always think I should jot them down.
I present to you: Dream 20260131
"PINK MOLD"
Three sisters (30's) had gone to help an older neighbor (70's) clear out some unwanted junk. As soon as the woman opened a large closet, the youngest sister was hit with the memory, she refused to go any closer and quietly whispered about a memory or recurring nightmare of a muffled voice and scratching/tapping.
The closet was about 8 ft deep and 5 ft wide maybe10 ft high. It was located off the kitchen with the door facing the sink area (counter, sink, counter, large windows above the area). The back wall of the closet had a small, narrow, horizontal window set about 7 ft up over looking the driveway. It was filled up to the window with stacks of magazines and odds/ends including childrens toys.
Noting the position of the closet the middle sister also recalled the memory of muffled tapping/scratching but added that it was metallic in sound. She had a sudden sinking feeling, the kind you get from your throat to your guts when you feel that something is wrong. The older sister explained the sounds as raccoons that would sometimes tear holes in random spots and climb into the walls of houses.
As the older woman continued to hold the door open, the middle sister warily stepped into the room and surveyed its contents. She was taking note of the supplies they would need to clear out the space. She picked up a couple of the childrens toys and remembered there used to be a little boy who lived in this house.
As soon as the middle sister mentioned the little boy, the older woman let out a yelp and rushed into the space. The middle sister backed out of the closet as the woman scrambling over junk and knocked over stacks of magazines revealing a tall metal filing cabinet that spanned the width of the room.
As the middle sister watched this scene unfold, all three sisters rememberd that there WAS a missing boy here about 20 odd years ago. The woman yowled the name of of the missing child as she clawed at the cabinet tipping it towards the door.
What felt like both a blink of the eye and an eternity passed as a sudden cloud of musty miasma rushed from the closet. The particulates in the air smelled and tasted familiar and medicinal. The woman exclaimed that her little boy was there!
The middle sisters mind was racing with scenarios: Was he murdered and hidden behind junk? no that wouldn't explain the sounds. Little boy gets into room, tries to climb the cabinet or fun, slips and falls behind it, too narrow of a space to move, too weak to move the cabinet, dies tragically. What about the stench of decay? Wouldn't someone have noticed?
The older woman screeches he's alive! (No thats impossible) She then exclaims NO! It's pink mold! (Oh Shit!?) The mold had the texture of a slime mold undulating it was a fleshy pink color like raw meat. All three sisters quickly rush towards the exit and say they'll be back with help and personal protecive equipment. They wanted to get the hell out of there. Away from the miasma, the taste, the smell, the horror of "pink mold".
The three head towards the exit as fast as they can, younger sister and older sister use the stairs. The middle sister was furthest from the exit so decides to jump over a railing instead of traversing the stairs.
As soon as she was outside, the middle sister saw that there were people in uniforms: firemen, police, business suits, button down shirts with bomber jackets, the look of stereotypical federal agents you see on TV, people in hazmat/cleanroom coverall jumpsuits...etc. The uniforms were all ushering people in the neighborhood into buses. A uniformed man grabs her and begins ushering her towards a bus.
The middle sister resists being ushered, bewildered at the sight before her. She rattles of the preceding events inside the house and tells the man the older woman is still in the house. What the hell is happening? How is there an evacuation? The sisters didn't have time to alert any authority about "pink mold" or the old corpse feeding it.
The uniformed man says they know about the mold. He mentions the sisters were lucky. They (uniforms) have been monitoring the woman for some time but had just gotten orders to act. The woman had been a scientist in charge of the development of biological warfare. She was let go from her job but it was only just revealed she had continued to experiment in the past 20 odd years.
Now that he mentioned it there had been an abnormally large number of mysterious wildlife deaths in the neighborhood. There were all sorts of rodents, sometimes a coyote. But isn't there always the unfortunate roadkill?
The uniform continued: the lady was a serial killer. There were unexplained human deaths linked by a pink mold (The lady was a damned serial killer!? Did she kill her own son? Was he a test subject? Oh fuck were the sisters exposed "patient 0"? Shit, does inhaling pink mold miasma cause death? Were uniforms allowed to be this forthcoming with information that sounds classified?)
As the middle sister was finally ushered onto a bus she noticed her siblings were on a different bus. Too late, doors closed. Only has herself to talk to about the events that just transpired. Should they have mentioned the noises 20 odd years ago? Would anyone have listened to three little girls? Would the noises have been dismissed as raccoons? The lady was a serial killer? What is happening right now?
The buses were taken to a large office park fenced off with heavy security. The middle sisters bus group was escorted to a small, windowless, clinical looking room. It was around 10:00am when the buses removed the neighborhood. What time was it now? No one had a cellphone. There were no clocks. Just a room full of concerned people and a folding table set up with some snacks.
What the fuck happened this morning and what happens next?
