Scarlet Dream

This short story is an experimental genre using Freudian dream theories.

Scarlet Dream

David suddenly woke up feeling a dampness under his stomach. He was fast asleep in his snowy bed with an extra layer of cushions for an added feeling of comfort. He opened his eyes and ran his hands along the lining of the white silk linen. He found the dampness just under his lower abdomen and sat up right straight to examine the reason for such an irritation. David had been lying flat on his stomach all this time and now having discovered a reason for discomfort wanted to get rid of it and return to his death sleep soon. He felt so tired that he almost thought of not getting up and checking why was it damp. This exasperation made him wonder why was it even damp. Finally braking off from the grasp of slumber, tried to turn on his back and get up. As he tried to turn himself on his back, felt this shooting pain in his lower abdomen, the exact spot of his body which was lying above the dampness. David almost yelped out in pain and quickly grabbed his abdomen with his hands. He held it tight and turned on his back. Now in a much more comfortable position and the shooting pain rendering him completely awake gave him a better chance at exploring the reasons of the inexplicable incidents. He realized that the room was dimly-lit which made it very difficult to see but even worse there was a light which was flickering on and off but in an almost slow rhythmic manner, as if it was programmed to fade in and out at a very agonizingly slow pace. It was scary for him. But his bodily pain was just too much to make him any more scared, and he remembered that he had to find out what was wrong with him before anything.

David pulled his night shirt up slowly to avoid any further shooting pain; carefully examined the area for cuts or bruises or any other sources of injury, but he did not find any. He looked around and found his mobile phone lying beside him. He grabbed the phone and turned it on to get some light. He was surprised to see that the phone screen showed his brother’s number in the dial but it looked as if he only had typed in half the numbers and couldn’t finish typing them all; or perhaps at one point he dropped the idea of calling his brother altogether. He thought “why would I have my brother’s number on the dial! I haven’t called him in ages! What possible reason could I have to…” The pain shot through his body like his whole body was being crushed under a giant roller. He turned on the flash of his phone camera and pointed it to his source of discomfort. He looked at it hoping to find the problem, but oddly enough he found something which he couldn’t make any sense of. He saw half an inch of incision made in his stomach and probably this is what was causing all the discomfort. As he looked even closer, he saw a dark viscous fluid flowing through the half inch gaping hole. David brought the light closer to the incision, and could see the fluid to be almost slimy, dark grey in colour; but it was not blood as he thought it would be. He brought his finger close to the disturbance; wanted to touch it and get a closer look at it. He wanted to touch it but felt fear and pain at the same time. The mixture of these feelings made it almost impossible for him to move his whole body. He felt numb, sleepy; extremely sleepy. He felt as if he had not slept for years at a stretch and wanted to forget everything and just close his eyes and go back to sleep. He almost dozed off, when suddenly he heard a loud music from somewhere. He opened his eyes again and looked around. Nothing.

So where was this music coming from! The music got louder after a few seconds, and now that it was louder, he felt it coming from somewhere very close to him. He listened to the music and thought “I know this music, I like this song so much that I have it as my ringtone.” The music went on for some time and stopped and then started again and then stopped again. He couldn’t keep up his concentration much at a stretch. He wanted to stop thinking about everything and go back to sleep.

David thought “no I cannot stay like this. I have to do something or call someone for help.” He tried to get up but he couldn’t. He felt as if something was holding him back with a mighty force. It took him all the power he had to relieve him from the clutch of this devilish force and get up. He got down from the bed and looked down at the bed. He saw in horror as one quarter of his white linen had turned black because of the dark fluid oozing from his sudden wound. He groped for the switch that would turn the light on. He tried to take a step but in vain, as if the devilish force had got him again and he couldn’t move. It took him all the might he had to take one single step. But with each step he took, he felt as if the earth was falling further down from his feet in one fell swoop. He felt as if the ground below him was opening up and taking him down with it. He felt his heart pound like a drum beat, almost as if someone else was hitting something outside. He placed his left hand on a wall beside him to support him and keep him from falling. He staggered on towards the switches. Just as he was about to reach the switch, he saw a light towards the end of the room. At first he couldn’t understand what it was or from where it came. But as the unbearable brilliance of the light incising through darkness, he saw his brother standing in the doorway. David thought “oh! thank God!” He called out “Noah, help me please, I think I am hurt.” But his brother did not respond. David now screamed his lungs out and cried: “Help me god-damn-it!” Noah remained silent, staring at him with blank eyes, as if he had no soul. David now tried to move towards the light his brother was holding. He tried to move as fast as he could but each step was proving even more challenging than the one before. He pulled himself together and moved on fighting the pain, the fear and the anger. He again heard his heart pound like a drum beat. He thought “my heart beat is so loud perhaps even Noah can hear it.” He slowly tried to reach closer to his brother. The journey was that of pain and suffering but there was salvation at the end of the journey. There was life at the end of the road.

When he finally reached his brother, he fell to his knees and finally his body surrendered to the exhaustion. As he fell, he heard a loud hard cracking sound as if all his bones had broken from the fall. As he lay on the floor looking at the ceiling, he heard Noah call out his name. He saw Noah calling out his name and approaching him slowly. David now closed his eyes and opened them again to see his brother standing right over him. Noah looked scared and helpless. But everything was different than before. David saw the familiar sight of his home along with the face of his brother, Noah. David looked down towards his abdomen and saw his body was fiercely losing the scarlet life force from his abdomen. Noah’s tears were falling on David’s face now and he said “I knew you would always save me.” David thought this was all perhaps a bad dream and finally closed his eyes one last time.