Insight - The End

The Deadream Alone
Nightmares Are Real

As I found myself standing once again in the dank musty air within the vault, I heard a soft whisper, “Lance.” “Lance, are you okay?”


I opened my eyes and found that I was back in the ‘One Headlight’ with my friends and lovers. I shook my head as if I was trying to shake something off of me and I said, “Yeah, I’m okay, I think.” “I just had the weirdest dream, vision or I’m not sure exactly what, but I’m okay.”

Kieran looked at me with her chin cocked down and her lips pursed and pouted, “Did you go somewhere without me?”

Diane shot her an angry gaze and said, “Not unless I’m with the two of you.”

“Look” I said, “We’ve been at this for hours and I’ve got to wrap it up, so here’s the big finale!” I said as I raised my hands above my head and waved them about.

“The world is full of torment, pain and agony.” I started with a grim look on my face. “The world is a hell of our own making, a putrid sea of fear, loss, loneliness and hopelessness.” I continued looking at each and every one of them directly making eye contact before moving on to the next person. “It is a place where we trap ourselves in a hell of our own minds’ making and it’s not until we realize this that we can be take the first step to being free.”

“We condemn ourselves to hell on earth through our own feelings of guilt, a sense of loss, whether real or imagined, and our inability not to be able to see past or move past those things that bind us into hell.”

I took a deep breath and continued while pointing a finger at Diane. “Guilt, fear, loss, loneliness and the pain that we imagine entombs us into the very fabric of the hell we have created and binds us to it.” I paused for effect and then continued. “We cannot escape it on our own.”

“Some of us suffer from not acting on desires that we have in life, some suffer because of social edicts, some suffer because of shyness and still others suffer because they try and superficially cover the ugliness and loneliness that they feel within themselves with the trappings of false beauty, impiety and the appearance of wealth on the outside.” I sighed, shook my head again and continued. “We try to be something that we are not so that others cannot see the darkness that is really lurking deep inside of us.”

Diane interrupted, “Like when someone says that they are ‘Real?’”

“Yes.” I said. “That’s a good example.” I looked at Nancy and said, “Remember the part of the story where Alice is bragging about how ‘real’ she is, well that’s just a cover for all of her insecurities, irrational fears and her sense of abandonment.” I paused and sipped my soda. “And I think that I just realized how all of that mess gets handed down from generation to generation.”

“Sometimes hell is what you don’t do and then you get swallowed up by shadow creatures from within the recesses of your own minds making.” I continued.

“Wonderland is hell of someone’s making that will be passed down from generation to generation.”

I stood up and said, “I hope you all enjoyed the story.” I turned and took Diane’s hand and continued, “But my lady and I have places to go and things to do!” I turned and looked into her eyes and winked. “So, we will be on our way now.”

“Kieran, do you need a ride home? We’ll be glad to drop you off if you want.”

Kieran simply nodded her assent and bounded in right behind Diane as we left the ‘One Headlight’ arm in arm.

The Curse

The Deadream Alone

In the blackness that enveloped the room, I heard not a sound except for a sickening ‘crunch’ as the armor protecting the scorpion cracked and splintered under the weight of my heavy boot. And as I imagined the blood and venom oozing out of the crushed shell and soaking into the soil below, I notice a faint red glow trickling out from beneath my boot.


A heady aroma overtook me and I became dizzy. I leaned back against the wall to keep myself from falling and through my dizziness I thought I saw the soft red glow spread across the floor and up the wall until the entire room was softly glowing. I turned and saw a thin red line trailing out the door of the vault and it was moving towards the entrance of ‘Wonderland.’

In my haste I quickly turned and started to run after it, but I was overpowered by a noxious green mist and sulfurous odor drifting up and out of the remains of the scorpion which I had crushed into the ground. I looked about and found that the mist was now completely filling the vault area and it was wafting out into the caverns beyond the door.

My head swam and I felt faint as I sought to steady myself against the wall filled with the numbered drawers.

As I leaned against the wall, I notice that one of the drawers was now glowing brighter red than the surrounding ones and I looked to see the inscription therein. ‘Jack Ridge Road’, I read aloud and as soon as those words came out of my mouth, I was transported to another place.

I know not if I was actually physically transported to this place or if this was merely a vision brought on by the noxious fumes filling the vault but, whatever was the case I found myself in a house. I could see a wide open living room with a large window and a fireplace overlooking a large covered patio, a table and a few chairs were strewn about on it. Across the short yard was a cedar fence with a single tall full tree to the left beyond its protected boundaries.

Between the fence and the porch was a large in ground pool with three little girls playing in the yard. They were laughing and giggling as they ran about playing a makeshift game of ‘tag, you’re it’. The grass that I could see was a deep green color as were the needles on the pine tree.

As I stood there transfixed by the sight, I noticed the sky turn gray as did the grass, the pine tree and everything else that I could see, even the interior of the house. Everything suddenly froze in time and space. The birds stopped in midflight, the girls stopped in mid-run and the cat walking across the window ledge was frozen in place with one paw up in the air.

Then, much to my amazement, I saw a soft red glow ooze out from under the fence and slowly spread across the yard, leaving a blood red path in its wake which leads back to the vault.

It wound its way around one of the girls ignoring her as though trying to avoid her at all costs and slowly it proceeded to the other two girls and it enveloped them in its eerie red glow.

Then as suddenly as it all began, everything started to move and all the color came back into the world. The sky was azure blue, the pine a dark green and the cat had reverted back to his tabby colors. All was as it should be, except for the faint red glow in the two girl’s eyes.

I heard a voice echo in my mind as I found myself back in the vault, “all is as should be, and the curse is passed from generation to generation as it has been and as it will be, until the end of time.”

Next: Escape from Wonderland