Dark Dream

Step by step, I walked through the narrow streets of the desolate neighborhood. Most of the buildings around me were in ruins, some even on the verge of collapse. A few street lamps were barely lit, casting a pale yellow light around. Finally, I stopped in front of a building that was said to have historical significance and looked like an inn. This was the place where I was supposed to meet the man I had spoken to on the phone.

As I stepped inside through the rusty and broken iron door, I nearly stumbled. "What kind of place is this?" I thought. A feeling inside me was telling me to get away from here, but I resolutely stepped forward and entered the courtyard. I climbed the steep stone stairs to the upper floor.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I knocked on the blue door in front of me. The sound of the lock coming from inside opened the door. Before me appeared a large and dark room. As I stepped inside, I felt a shiver as if I were entering another world. The room was dark and stuffy, the furniture scattered around. In the middle stood a simple chair.

I was greeted by the man who called himself "Hodja" whom I had agreed to meet on the phone. His hair and beard were tangled, his clothes shabby and dirty. He had no reassuring quality about him. A voice inside me was telling me that this man couldn't help me. I was about to turn and leave when he grabbed my arm and pushed me towards the chair, forcing me to sit down. He didn't greet me or say anything else; he just prepared to start praying.

The voices in my head whispered incessantly: "This man is a charlatan. How can he help you?" But I had no other choice; this man was my last chance.

The man began blowing and reciting over my face. I couldn't understand what he was saying, it seemed as if he was making it up. As he got closer to my face and touched me, a shiver rose inside me. Was this an assault? I couldn't speak, I was frozen.

My thoughts started to spin rapidly. I hadn't told my spouse or family that I was coming here. The voice inside me whispered: "What if he harms you? What if he rapes you?" Panic froze the blood in my veins. If those things happened, everyone would blame me again. At that moment, the voice in my head spoke softly: "Don't worry, I'm always with you. Even if everyone turns their back on you, I will never leave you alone. Just listen to me."

The man's bearded face came closer to mine. I felt nauseous, but I still couldn't move. At that moment, I had serious doubts about whether I was really safe here. The voice inside me whispered: "Run away from here! This man will harm you!" On one hand, I was struggling with the voice in my head, and on the other, I was unconsciously trying to protect my face with my hand.

My face started to hurt. I closed my eyes and tried to suppress the pain. When I opened my eyes again, the man suddenly stood up and silently left the room. I was left alone in the dark room, truly alone. For the first time in a long time, the voice in my head was silent.

I brought my hands to my aching face, something sticky clung to my fingers. When I looked to see what it was, I realized that my hands were covered in blood. Even in the darkness, the bright red color was evident. In shock, I started looking for a mirror in the room.

I went to the nails on the wall and found a broken mirror behind a dirty cloth. When I saw my face in the mirror, I was horrified. My face was covered in blood, my skin torn and peeled as if by a wild animal. I looked terrible. My eyes widened in fear, just as I was about to scream, I noticed a movement at the other end of the room. Suppressing my scream, I slowly turned around.

In the far corner of the room, which seemed strangely expanded, I noticed a slender silhouette with long hair. She was silently watching me. I hadn't heard any sound; how had this woman come here? My heart was racing, I wanted to scream but couldn't make a sound. My eyes tried to see the face hidden behind the hair, but the darkness completely obscured her.

As I continued to watch the trembling figure in the darkness, I noticed another movement in the other corner of the room. I turned my head and focused my eyes on the new arrival.

Another silhouette, walking slowly towards me from within the shadows, stood before me. As it walked, the room seemed to expand further, or perhaps the figure walked so slowly that it was maddening. He was large, with broad shoulders, and his long arms almost reached the ground.

As he approached, his form gradually became clearer. His face seemed merged with the darkness, and his eyes reflected a sense of disappointment. His steps barely made a sound, yet felt like a silent storm. Who were these people, and what did they want from me?

Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice. "I told you many times, why didn't you run? Why didn't you listen to me like before?" This time the voice echoed not in my head, but in the room. The speaker was the first silhouette that had appeared in the corner of the room. "Now you need to run, but this time from me," she said and lunged at me.

I took a deep breath and tried to fight off the numbness in my body. Who was I really, and what was I doing in this room? Perhaps it was time to face my inner darkness. As my anger and fear grew, my eyes searched the room for an escape route.

In the ever-expanding dark room, I noticed a shining door handle and rushed towards it. Grabbing it with determination, I pulled it down and ran out the door.

When I got outside, I found myself in a familiar street. As I slowed down in shock for a moment, I saw the door behind me open. The people chasing me had now become four and were quickly approaching me.

I kept running, out of breath. As I ran, the streets changed; familiar streets from different neighborhoods, even from completely different districts, were connected by alleys or bridges. As memories of my bad past resurfaced, I thought these events couldn't be real.

Just as I was bewildered by this chaos, the long-haired girl suddenly caught me. The touch on my shoulder felt calm and gentle, but I sensed that something was terribly wrong. Her face was completely unfamiliar, but her movements reminded me of someone I knew. For a moment, I felt like I could trust her, then I noticed the smile on her face. It was strange, twisted, and frightening.

My eyes darted to the other three; they were approaching us. Their faces and bodies were different, but their movements were identical, as if they had been copied from a single entity.

Breaking free from the woman's hands, I started running again. Finally, a door appeared before me, suddenly materializing in the middle of the street. In a panic, I threw myself at the door and rushed inside. When I entered, I realized I had returned to the room where the teacher had performed his dubious rituals on me.

Hodja and his bizarre assistant, who seemed almost translucent, were looking at me with fear in their eyes. The air in the room was heavy and filled with tension. The horror on their faces was another sign that I was not truly safe here.

The echoes of footsteps coming from behind the door prompted Hodja and his assistant to quickly brace themselves and defend against the blows coming from outside. But after a while, the door couldn't withstand the pressure and fell with a loud crash, and my pursuers burst in.

Hodja and his assistant were prepared; they grabbed large sticks and beat them until they were dazed, then dragged them into the room where the teacher had previously left me alone and locked them inside.

My head was spinning, I was trying to make sense of the bizarre events, but it felt like there was an important missing piece I couldn't fully grasp. This situation prevented me from calming down. The faces of the teacher and his assistant, despite appearing victorious, still showed signs of worry and fear in their eyes.

The room fell silent again, but this silence was unsettling. More than anything, I wanted to learn the truth behind the horrific events I had just experienced. Hodja took a deep breath, turned to me, and began to speak with a trembling voice. "We are trying to protect you," he said, "But there are things you need to understand."

Just then, a terrifying scream erupted from behind the locked door. The sound was so powerful and frightening that it pierced through my ears. The beings behind the door were coming to their senses.

While Hodja and his assistant looked at each other in desperation, I stood in the middle of the room, not knowing what to do. Was I now safe, or had I fallen into even greater danger? In this uncertainty, all I could do was listen to the whisper inside me and look for an escape route. But it was still silent. The appearance of that strange female silhouette had caused it to disappear. I realized I missed it.

Hodja, gripping his stick tightly, walked towards the room. His assistant came up to me and, trying to calm me down, made me sit on the chair. "My name is Ari," she said. Then, looking at me with concern, she asked, "What have you done to yourself, your face?"

"I didn't do it, you did! He did!" I shouted, pointing towards the direction Hodja had gone. My voice trembled with the tension in the room.

As Hodja stepped further into the dark corners of the room, the whispers and moans from inside grew louder. The assistant's hands trembled on my shoulders, her fear mingled with mine.

"What's really going on here?" I thought. I noticed the horror in Ari's eyes; he didn't know what to do either.

Just then, I heard it again. The whisper inside me had returned: "Run! Run now!"

Ari, wobbling like jelly, stood in front of me, Hodja visible behind her, ready to open the door.

"No," said the strange being, "We helped you. We took them out of you. They're very solid now, which is why we can contain them. They can't enter you again while they're in this solid form."

"What are they, and what are you?" I asked, my voice trembling.

Ari tried to stay calm as she looked at me and replied, "We are beings from another dimension. We occasionally live inside you. You've been hosting the most dangerous of my kind all this time, doing whatever they wanted." Then she added, "How did you manage for so long?"

I stared at her in bewilderment. What was this strange creature talking about? In front of my eyes, images of my family and friends, who were angry at me for reasons I didn't understand, flashed, but the images disappeared suddenly. At that moment, I heard that soothing whisper in my head: "Don't believe her, she's lying."

Seeing me silent, Ari took another step closer. "Now," she said, whispering, "you're going to take back your life. But you need to cooperate with us for that. You're not alone anymore, you need to be strong to deal with this darkness."

Just then, Hodja returned from the room, drenched in blood and sweat, his clothes torn.

The comforting voice in my ear said, "Leave this place immediately." Turning to Hodja, I said firmly, "What kind of nonsense was that? You had strange people follow me, what are you trying to achieve? I'm leaving."

The shock and sadness on the faces of the teacher and Ari were evident. They both looked at me, their expressions chilling. In a faint whisper, Hodja asked, "How many were there?"

I repeated what the comforting voice had told me: "Three."

"But how?" the teacher muttered to himself. "Then we must have caught them all." He looked at me with puzzled eyes, as if expecting an explanation from me, but I didn't understand what he meant.

The sweet female voice in my head soothed me: "Everything will be much better once we leave here. We'll forget today and leave it behind. Your face will heal quickly."

I realized how much I had missed it during our brief separation. The soothing tone of its voice calmed my inner fear a little, but the harsh reality hit me again. In this dark room, I couldn't distinguish what was true and what was false. The confusion in my mind prevented me from understanding the creature's words. The voice in my head spoke again, "There are no foreign entities; I am you, and you are me."

Turning to Hodja, I shouted, "What nonsense are you talking about!" my voice trembling. "You're charlatans; you're not helping me at all! There's no entity inside me; it's all nonsense!"

"I want to get away from you as soon as possible," I continued firmly. "Hodja assaulted me under the guise of prayers, then you had three strange men follow me. You also made my face like this. I'm going to the police. I'll report you."

The shock on the faces of Hodja and Ari turned to fear. The teacher, with trembling hands, wiped his eyes and took a step back.

As I headed for the door, Hodja tried to stop me once more, but this time I was determined.

I slammed the door and left the room, the voice inside me still echoing in my ears.

"Stay calm, everything will be alright."