I’ve become fond of writing dream sequences. Dreams the characters experience can heighten the story by adding extra layers of humor, suspense, surprise and horror. Dreams can also provide a creative shift in the main story, just like the dreams and nightmares we experience in our real lives. The following scene is a dream sequence my character Marla has in the forthcoming ‘Roach Cobbler’. I’m still in the revision and editing process so this may or may not be the final version. Regardless, I hope you enjoy.
Marla stood there watching the door after Jim was gone. He’s gone, just like that. Will he come back? Will he have to come back? Oh God I hope not, but he said he’d follow up. Just then, Marla realized how tired she was. She wanted to look around her apartment, mainly because something felt different about it. There was that calmness she felt again. Am I imagining this? Something felt finished, final, like maybe the tall white stranger Jim had actually gotten rid of them. But she didn’t want to feel too good yet. The bastards are still here, hiding for just a little while until this treatment wears off. I can’t take it I still have to leave, not just spend the night with Denny. I have no money, but have to find a way to leave here!
She went into her bedroom and looked at the bed. Her clothes were on top of it, the clothes she was taking to Denny’s. I’m so tired. I have to get a nap before I go. She went to the bed, pushed her clothes over and sat down on the side of the bed. She put her phone on the nightstand and looked at it; no new calls or messages. She kicked off her shoes, and then swung her legs up to the bed. It felt so good to her. I’ll just close my eyes a few minutes. She looked up at the ceiling first. They weren’t there. She closed her eyes.
***
Her eyes were still closed, but she felt someone sit down on the bed which caused her body to sink slightly. She tried to open her eyes, but they wouldn’t open. Wait! Open your eyes. I can’t! Marla kept trying, but they wouldn’t open. Am I that tired?
“I’m sorry,” his voice said.
Who is that? Try to open your eyes again. Marla was getting scared.
“I’m so sorry,” he said again. “I couldn’t help you.”
“Who are you?” she said.
“Don’t you know?”
“I can’t open my eyes.”
“Try harder.”
“I am.”
She was trying with all her strength to pry her eyes open, but suddenly they opened with no further resistance.
“Can you see me?” he said.
Her vision was fine. It was Jim, the exterminator, sitting on the bed right next to her.
“I thought you left,” she said.
He gave her an odd stare, and then got up, turned around and started walking toward the bedroom door.
Why is he leaving?
She looked up at the ceiling and gasped. The roaches were back up there, gathering around the light fixture; it was more of them and they were bigger. “Oh my God!”
She rose from the bed with her eyes glued to the ceiling. More roaches ran toward the light fixture, starting to cover it like a swarm. Her eyes bucked and her mouth flew open. She wanted to scream, but couldn’t. They started falling from the ceiling, heading straight for her open mouth. She was able to holler that time and jumped up, running from the bedroom, slapping her head violently.
“Jim, Jim help me!”
She ran into the kitchen, stopping in her tracks. Nobody was there. She yelled out, “Jim where are you?!”
There was no sound, not from a human. She could hear them and their legs crawling, but she couldn’t see them. The sound was terrifying and getting louder. Where are those bitches?! She could hear them in the walls and their thousands of legs disrespecting her apartment and turning it into their own.
“Jim help me!” she hollered.
She looked around the kitchen. The sound of their legs crawling was becoming deafening, and then she started to smell them. The stench was nauseating. She looked down at the cabinets below the sink, and then the cabinets above. She walked toward them, knowing that if she opened one of them what she’d find. But she had to do it. She moved up closer to the cabinets above the sink. Open the one on the left. She reached for it, gripping the knob. They in there. If you open it they’ll kill you. It will be over. I want it to be over!
“Jim where are you?!”
“Don’t open it Marla!”
She turned around quickly, hearing his voice, but he wasn’t there. She was still gripping the knob on the cabinet.
“Jim where are you why can’t I see you?!”
“Don’t open it Marla the roaches will kill you!”
She turned back to the cabinet, feeling more compelled to open it, and then heard her phone vibrating.
“Jim is that you calling me?”
She didn’t hear him say anything else.
“Jim are you here anywhere?!”
There was no other sound, but the sound of them she heard in the walls. Open it and get it over with. Let them take you they want you.
Her phone was still vibrating, getting louder. She opened the cabinet, ready to scream, but she didn’t. Nothing was there, no roaches, nothing but her vibrating phone, lying on the empty shelf. No roaches, oh God, no roaches! She reached inside the cabinet and picked up her phone. “Jim is that you?!”
“What?” he said, but it wasn’t Jim’s voice.
“Jim?!”
“It’s Denny.”
“Denny?!”
“Aunt Marla are you okay?”
“Wait,” she said, looking around. She was in bed, holding the phone up to her ear. She glanced at the nightstand briefly. It was a dream.
“Aunt Marla?”
“I….I was dreaming.”
“Dreaming? I woke you?”
“I thought I was napping.”
“Sorry,” Denny said.
“No it’s okay,” Marla said. “I’m so glad it was a dream.”
“What happened?”
“Roaches.”
Denny paused, “In the dream?”
“Never mind.”
“Hey, just wanted to know if you want me to pick you up tonight.”
Marla was slow to answer her nephew.
“Aunt Marla, you there?”