The Horror of It All

As I walked along the street, a pack of dogs approached me, snarling and barking at me. They came very close to me and were very threatening except for one dog was only a little bit aggressive even though it was so big it was almost like a bear.

I arrived at the end of the street and there was my ‘office block’ and every thing about it looked almost the same as I remembered, including the location. I went inside dreading being reprimanded or even fired. But, nobody seemed to care and I settled down to ‘work’ just like the day some days before. I panicked again about being very, very late with my invoicing of the company for my ‘work’ done. I visited the canteen and ate a hearty meal. But, after ‘work’, I did not go to the precinct on the uneven roof of the ‘office block’. Instead, I made my way along the main street because I wanted to go for a walk before returning to the tavern.

I suddenly found myself in a dusty area in the middle of a piece of land but still surrounded by buildings and streets. Yuk, there were lizards on the floor. They were bothering me. They were running over my feet and I recoiled in revulsion as one or two of them got on my body. I brushed them off and started treading on them squashing them to death. Then, there was a big ugly insect, which I also squashed with my foot.

I walked away from that waste ground and down a side street. Soon I came to an area of derelict buildings similar to the ones I had seen in Birmingham before. I was walking around that area, not a soul in sight when, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted movement. I turned around and it was a pride of lions! They spotted me and came running after me. I ran as fast as I could. All the lions, except one, gave up chasing me. The remaining lion was a female and would not give up its chase. I ran into a derelict building, up rickety stairs and then outside onto some flimsy wooden scaffolding, very high up. The lion followed me and was on the scaffolding getting close and closer. I was right on the edge, I looked down – it was very, very far. The lion was only a few feet away and I jumped. Instinctively, I made powerful breaststroke swimming movements with my arms and legs and I could fly again! I flew away leaving the lion helpless on the scaffolding.

I landed on another piece of waste ground. There was a mound of earth with a hole in it. I felt an uncontrollable urge to go into that hole. I went into the hole and walked down a narrow spiral staircase. Why was I doing such a stupid thing? Everything could collapse and bury me at any moment. I suddenly felt very claustrophobic, but I arrived at the bottom of the staircase and there was a big room with lockers and cupboards inside. I opened one of the lockers and it was full of sweets, so I helped myself to them. I ate some and put the rest in my pocket for later. There were corridors leading off the room. I walked along and explored some of them, but they were devoid of objects and people.

I went back up the spiral staircase and made my way back to the main road. It had started to get dark, so I started the long trek back to the tavern. I reached the tavern and opened the tavern door. Before entering, I looked behind me and, sure enough, there was the usual countryside – no ‘office block town’. There were the five men, all in their usual seats at the table in the top left-hand corner of the tavern, next to the bar. As usual they were quietly playing cards. They did not even look up as I went and stood at the bar. The barmaid, going through the motions of working, turned around. I looked at her pretty young face and then remembered the pig-faced version and looked down at the sawdust-covered floor. She gave me my tankard of ale, I stretched out my handful of money and she took the customary five pence from it. I thought to myself, “I’ll try to cheer people up with the sweets I got from inside the underground room in ‘office block town’.” I put my hand in my pocket to try to retrieve the sweets – they had disappeared. I drank my fill in silence and returned to my bed in the castle. I lay myself down in the bed in trepidation of the next four days and nights and finally fell asleep.

For the next four days and nights it was the same old story – getting drunk on mead in the day, staying drunk in the evening whilst behaving insanely in an attempt to confuse, perplex and defeat the evil, haunting ghouls. There were also the intermittent breaks of visiting the toilet, heating and eating of food and drinking of stream water. And there were also the snatched late night sleeps thanks to the sedative effects of the alcohol.