The following is my dream from this morning. I promised I would write what I could remember of it. So, enjoy! ;)
I don’t remember who exactly was with me. I think Lydia [longtime
friend]…and possibly Kelly [sister]. I feel like there was someone else too…but
I am confused, because I really only remember the three of us. And I’m not even
positive if it was actually those girls…but we’ll go with it.
I was driving us, in my bright red car, down the Dixie Strip
--- which I have never been to, only heard of. I know that there are lots of
strip clubs in that area…and it’s a bad [seedy?] place. Lots of suspected
trafficking going on.
So that’s where we were, though its appearance was solely
from my mind. It looked rather industrial…warehouses and stuff. Rundown, but
not totally trashed; dark, though it was daytime. The buildings and just the
whole place lacked color; everything had a tinge of gray-brown. There were
hotels…and just…I don’t know. …Places.
We were there from some sort of organization…and I don’t know
exactly what our goal was. I don’t think we were there to actually rescue
girls; I think we were supposed to examine the situation and take notes --- because
that’s what happened later.
On either side of the road, and sometimes sauntering across
it in front of [and behind] my car…were girls. Girls of different ages and skin
colors, quite scantily-clad, most wearing lots of makeup to make them look
older. Standing in various somewhat-provocative positions, trying to get the
attention of the men.
And there were men. Not as many men as girls, but still a
lot. Some appeared to be the traffickers, silently and confidently watching the
scene, arms crossed over their chests and their backs against the walls. Some
were clearly buyers --- again, of all different ages and skin colors --- unashamedly
walking up to the girls.
The girls were in somewhat of a line; like, they sort of
lined the street, standing in slightly separate groups --- a few here, then a
couple feet away, another several girls…and so on. But, at the same time, as I said,
people were walking across the street too; it was all sort of chaotic, and not
at all safe to be driving through.
I’m pretty sure we went down the street once…then parked somewhere
above the street [like, in a parking lot overlooking it], and went back down.
I remember us walking through the crowd…searching the faces
of the girls we passed. Searching for desperate eyes, pleading eyes…for girls
that were definitely too young to be there.
At one point, we singled one out, and somehow got her alone
in one of the buildings. The building was odd, its shapes distorted. We seemed to be near
the corner of it, in a small area that I guess was a hallway; from that area,
different [very dark and narrow] hallways went off in different directions, at
odd angles. One kind of curved away to my right; the one in front of us was
actually a staircase that also turned as it went up, narrowing as it went. Beside
the stairs and to the left…I think that was a real hallway; possibly leading to
a basement; I think I remember there being a wall with a door just a few feet
in. So basically, that one didn’t go anywhere --- or at least anywhere good.
Further to the left were a few steps leading to a bathroom [which was also
strangely-shaped and bore steps inside it; I looked in it when we first came in
the building]. None of the openings to these things were even with each other;
the steps to the bathroom were a few feet further back from the other openings.
It was just weird. Don’t try too hard to picture it; none of this description
does it justice. Here is a rather terrible map…
Lydia --- if that’s who it was --- inspected the girl [who
was sweet and smiling] and took notes. She was trying to figure out how old the
girl looked, exactly, so she could write it down for, I guess, our report. I
was kind of like, “Who cares; she’s clearly super young.” She asked me how old I
thought the girl was; I figured nine or ten, or somewhere in there.
Suddenly, Kelly --- if it was her --- noticed someone
coming. [The doors leading outside were glass, and we could kind of see out
them from where we stood.] Kelly ducked into the area that led to the basement
and stopped, trapped; Lydia and the girl dashed a few steps into the staircase
and stopped, also quite trapped. I headed toward the person and met them before
they could go down the hallway and see anyone hiding there. The man --- who
looked kind of like President Snow from The Hunger Games --- was clearly a main
trafficker, and very suspicious of me and why I was in his building. I very
innocently asked him if he could tell me where a bathroom was. As he answered
me and led me toward it, his attention focused on me, I sensed/saw Kelly,
Lydia, and the girl understanding my plan of diversion. [My dreams are quite
movie-like; meaning, I am in my head, but the “camera” often pans to other people
in the dream to show what they are doing.]
I slowly went up the stairs to the bathroom, the President Snow guy watching
me. I tried to keep myself unemotional and seemingly innocent. I shut the door
almost all the way --- and through the crack, I saw Kelly, Lydia, and the girl
sneak out behind him. I flushed the toilet to make it seem like I’d peed, then rinsed
my hands to make it sound more realistic…and came out, smiling and thanking
him, planning to hurry after them.
He didn’t seem entirely fooled. He still looked suspicious.
I struggled to conceal all nervousness, tried to pretend I didn’t know anything
about anything; that I had simply been there, alone, to use the bathroom.
I casually walked outside past him, and calmly-but-quickly headed
toward where we’d parked the car. I no longer saw my friends or the little girl…but
every time I glanced back through the crowd, I saw that creepy old man,
watching me.
Fear rose in me, and the sense of danger intensified. But I tried
to keep up the façade, in case any part of him had been tricked. Though I was
quite sure, even in that moment…that he knew I was his enemy. That he knew that
I knew. That I was trying to dismantle what he was trying to build.
The street seemed to have changed direction; the building we’d
gone in had been on the previous left-hand side of the road; now it looked like
the building was at the head of the road, like the road led to that building.
Either that, or the road had become a huge concrete lot, with buildings on
every side of it.
I kept walking, peering back and getting chills each time
our eyes met across the distance.
I turned a corner at some point, past different buildings…obscuring
me from his line of sight. I think then I started running. I am not sure if I couldn’t
get to my car, or if I was looking for the girls first, or what…but I ended up
heading in a different direction from where the car had been. I think. I’m not
sure. I’m almost thinking I saw it at one point, and saw no way to get there.
But I ran for a little bit on that street, and then slowed
back to a walk. I’m pretty sure that when I looked behind me again…he was there…standing,
watching.
I hurried on, visibly a little more nervous now.
He kept following me, always just standing there whenever I peered
over my shoulder. I never saw him coming toward me; he was just behind me each
time I looked, and often the distance between us seemed the same. The only time
I appeared to actually be getting away from him was before I went around the
corner.
…Anyway, somehow, I ended up on some type of balcony. There
was a small building before me, the roof of which was only a few feet away. [The
edge of it was below me, but the peak was higher than where I stood.] When I looked
down, he was on the street right below me, looking up at me. I don’t think he could
have reached me had he tried, but he was still very close. Still just staring.
But his intent…was beyond clear. He definitely knew who I was,
what I was doing there…and he saw me as a threat.
I hesitated for a split second, then climbed over the
railing and jumped to the roof, flew up and over it, and dropped to the ground
below. [This somehow separated us, as if by a wall; had I stayed on the
balcony, I would have been on his side of the street. On the other side of the building/roof,
I ended up on a different street, and he couldn’t just cross behind the
building. He had to go around a different way, and so I had a head start.]
…I hit the ground and ran.
The new street had fewer buildings, was wider, and felt more
open. I’m not sure if I saw them up ahead, but somehow, on that street, I met
up with the girls again. For a moment, the man was nowhere in sight.
And then…he just appeared. I think he might have said something
then; or maybe he still didn’t have to say anything. But the threat of him was
more than words could convey.
I don’t know what happened then, exactly. I don’t know if he
tried to attack us…or if he grabbed the little girl and tried to take her back…or
what. But I think something happened to show that he meant to hurt us, that we
were in acute danger.
I’m not sure if I took his gun from him when he brandished
it…or if I had had a gun all along.
But I somehow got him face down on the ground, sort of
stunned/immobilized, though trying to regain his strength. And I stood over
him, pointing the gun at him, with the girls on the other side of him, facing
me.
I shot him twice in his right shoulder…then, knowing that
that would only slow [and anger] him and not stop him, I shot him several times
in the head.
He did not move again.
I think I looked up at the girls on the other side of him.
…And then I woke up.
…Annnd…such are my dreams.
Ze aiinnd!
