okay so this is a dream I’ve started to have a few times, but it never went this far before.
It starts off with me in a very dark damp cold place. it’s fully enclosed, but massive. everything is either concrete or rusting metal, and you pretty much can’t see any floor.... because it’s flooded. I am in this little alcove in the wall. it’s shallow and rectangular and pretty much empty except for me and a few miscellaneous items like what appears to be the remains of what once was a teddy bear, a broken mug, and some kind of hand mirror... with the reflective bit gone. There are Things floating in the water occasionally, for the moment I don’t care much about them, they are just things, I know not to go near them, I know I can’t breathe when one comes too close. It seems as though food and drink aren’t important here because all i do is sit and wait and rot for days, and weeks, and months, and maybe years... it feels like years. it’s probably years. after a time there’s Someone, they’re making their way to me through the water, they are being followed by one of the Things. i know they’re dead already. the Things have noticed them, they may not know it yet, but they’re dead. I watch their progress as another Thing begins to follow, and then another. I watch and watch and watch. I’m not worried about them bringing the Things to me, they won’t make it that far, and I’m not worried about the Things getting them, we’re all dead already... And yet. I take the piece of my broken mug and i hurl it as hard as I can against a wall some ways off. it shatters and clatters, pieces crashing into something that sounds like glass before splashing into the water below. it’s much louder than I thought it would be. The Things break off from their pursuit of the Someone and go search for what made the noise. The Someone makes it to me, I watch as they haul themselves out of the water and collapse in the small space of my home. It’s a little boy. He has curly hair, and is wearing a blue jacket, and has something around his neck. He joins me in my slow decay in the alcove. We watch as more and more Things arrive to search for my broken mug. I miss my mug. after a time... maybe a day? The boy thanks me. He sounds bright and hopeful.... it seems very very wrong in this place. He sees the remains of what once might have been a teddy bear and says excitedly “You found My Teddy!” He takes it. I don’t mind. We talk sparingly. He asks if i know what his name is, he says he’s forgotten. I tell him I forgot mine a long time ago. we wait in silence for a time before i tell him he looks like a Timothy. Tim loves his new name and tells me he knows how to get out of this place. He tells me he knows how to leave. Tim gets up and splashes in the water. A thing notices. I figure Tim has realized the only way out is to die, and the only way to die is to decay or to meet the Things. He’s not wrong, but I was content to decay for a while longer. He could have at least asked. The Thing gets closer. And closer. And closer.
I am not looking forward to watching the Thing deal with Tim. I’ve seen it before. I saw it lots in the beginning. Every survivor remembers what it’s like to watch the Things. Tim doesn’t seem to care. Maybe he doesn’t remember? The Thing reaches a shallow bit, there must be a wall under the surface of the water. It stands and I see it. it’s body is a dark muddy grey. its hands are black, its mouth is wide and grinning with teeth like needles, too many. surely they shouldn't all fit in its head. there is metal welded or bolted onto its body in some places, its eyes are like goggles. the others I’ve seen have metal plates instead of mouths, claws instead of hands, scales instead of skin, darkness where there should be substance. Tim doesn’t care. Tim is smiling. Tim is waiting now, just waiting. standing in the shallow water. I remind myself not to breathe. If I don’t breathe I don’t have to meet the Thing and I can continue decaying. It was nice to know Tim, but everyone meets the Things eventually, and I’m not very surprised Tim is meeting one this soon. The Thing reaches him, and I watch. I watch as Tim evades its lunge, as he avoids the crushing grip of the Things reaching hands, of its snapping jaws. Tim moves around behind it and there is an awful moment. I am filled with fear and horror and repulsion and sadness as the thing arches its back, it goes rigid and there is utter, horrifying, silence. it falls into the water and sinks, and sinks, and sinks. I wonder if there is a bottom to the water, or if the body will just sink forever. Tim is smiling at me. he tells me “see? you just have to turn them off”. there’s another Thing coming, he tells me not to worry, he tells me he knows how to get out. Again I watch the thing come, this one is different. it doesn’t have hands, it probably used to, but there is just.... rot where they should be, bone, and ligament, and metal. its mouth is empty, its chest open, its rib cage broken and sharp, reaching toward Tim. Again I watch as Tim ‘shuts it down’ again the terrible silence, the fear, horror, repulsion. Again I watch its rigid body sink. And there is Tim smiling at me. Until he’s not. There’s a hand around his leg and he is being pulled under. I watch as Tim claws at an edge, trying to keep above water, I watch as he fails. I look down at the mass of fur at my feet that could have once been a teddy bear. it has a blue ribbon and a pendant that proclaims its name to be.... Tim.
I dive into the water, it’s cold, and dark, and.... calm, it’s mostly empty except for the occasional piece of litter, twisted metal, or drifting Thing, they look so serene. Tim is being pulled down. the Thing is fast but I am too. I catch up and I find the back of the Things neck, and I pull. it _hurts_. But I know what I’m doing, I pull at nothing, dragging its life from its frame, I am filled with revulsion, and sorrow, and regret. But it’s too late for regret. The thing is rigid, and sinking, and Tim is free again. we surface. Tim laughs. He tells me I’m a natural. He tells me he knows how to get out. I notice again that he has a cord around his neck, he pulls on it and holds it up triumphant. Tim has a whistle. I know now that I am dead. I will not have the chance to decay because what is about to happen, will be as close to the Beginning as I have ever allowed myself to get since. Tim blows his whistle and tells me not to worry. He knows how to get out.
The noise is loud, and long, and it hurts. It has been a very long time since I’ve heard so much noise. once it’s finished there is a few seconds of silence and shock, nothing moves, nothing happens, the sound of the whistle is so... wrong in this place, it takes some time for the world to recover. Once it does though, the Things begin to come. All of the Things. Every single one begins to make its way to us. There’s so so many. Time tells me not to worry. He knows how to get out. He tells me he knows a game, he tells me I’ll like this game. Its follow the leader. Tim dives, and I follow. Below the surface is different now, there’s many many Things swimming towards us. I follow Tim. I don’t remember too much about this part, but I do remember there is a stairwell with a rusted hand rail. i grab for the hand rail and it breaks off in my hand. I don’t let it go. Tim takes us further, and further down. The Things are clamoring against each other to reach us. we keep just ahead of the mass of Things, sometimes Tim or I will shut one off before continuing. Letting the rigid bodies join the mass of frantic Things. Eventually we reach a big hatch, like in a submarine. I open it and go through.
I am in a city, there’s no water, it’s dark, but that’s because the sun is down, not because there is no sun. I can see the sky. there are trees, and light posts, and bricks. Tim is not with me. I can hear a party in the distance, I move toward the noise, going up and down flight after flight of stairs. eventually I reach a building, it has a glass ceiling. there are balloons, and streamers, and people in ball gowns, and makeup and suits. there is food, so so much food. everyone is indulging. it’s loud and bright and so so wrong. I ask someone where I am, and they tell me I’ve reached the Up Top, and to grab a plate and join the party. I ask if they know about the other place. They say ‘of course we do! why do you think we’re celebrating?’ I ask why and they tell me ‘because we’re not the in with the stupid retches that got themselves caught Down Below!’ they laugh. I hate them. I ask if they tried to help the ones trapped Down Below. they tell me not to be stupid, they got themselves trapped, those in Up Top shouldn’t have to help the idiots who got themselves trapped. I move on, asking a different person, they tell me the same thing, and again, and again, and again. I think of Tim. I think of my broken mug, and the remains of what once might have been a teddy bear. I look at the tables laden with food and drink, at the people who tell me the party never ends, that they deserve to indulge because they aren’t the ones suffering. I miss my mug.
I leave the party filled with hate, and longing for the slow decay that i had myself indulged in for far too long. I make my way back to the Hatch. I miss Tim. I open the hatch and step aside as Things begin to come quite calmly from the water beyond. I remember not to breathe and they pass me by, heading toward the noise of the party. I wait and I listen and I watch as Things keep coming, taking over this world of skies, and trees, and bricks. I listen as the sounds of the party are drowned by screams, I watch as the things begin to run. I wait until there are no more screams, until there are no more things. Tim is standing just beyond the open hatch, his hair floats gently in the water, and I see a small teddy bear clutched in his hand. I tell him not to worry. I tell him I know how to get out. I tell him I know.
