Unthreading The Mind

Introduction

I have not written any fiction or poetry for a while, but think this nightmarish image shared by the excellent Enchanted Booklet on Facebook would be good to fall into:

The music is "Insanity" by Oceanic

Unthreading The Mind

She couldn't remember when the dreams started. When they did, they were just dreams.

She was in a grey place, the sky was overcast, and there was a cloudy mist permeating the air.

She was by a water fountain which had a strange human-shaped tap pipe in the middle, and it was dripping.

In the distance was a village, and in the beginning she could just see the shapes of the houses, with their roofs, chimneys and windows.

But that was then.

Each night her dreams were darker, the mist was colder, and she started to see faces in the houses, not in the windows, the houses had their own faces, and they looked malicious, like they wanted to harm her, but they were houses and they couldn't move, and it was just a dream.

She turned away from the village, and then she heard a strange, disconcerting ululation. The houses were singing a song in which she thought she heard the words "We Want You To Die", but they were not clear, and she was scared.

She knew that and closed her ears and wanted to wake, but she couldn't.

During her waking hours, the dream stayed with her. She started seeing faces in all the buildings she passed, even her own house. Her mind was being unravelled like the threads pulled from a fraying old blanket.

She was frightened to go to sleep and frightened to stay awake; she could not find any escape.

She rang The Samaritans, and spoke with her doctor, and they made her feel a little more hopeful. They told her that there was nothing wrong with her, but she needed to face her fears, and they would be here for her.

The next night, she decided that she would walk towards the village of houses with faces and face down her fears.

As she walked into the village, they looked at her, and the singing stopped.

She said, "Why Do You Want Me To Die?"

There seemed to be a deep intake of breath.

"Why do you think that? We wanted to meet you"

The Houses

"You were singing 'We Want You To Die'"

Her

"No, No, We were singing 'We Want You Today'. We don;t see many people here and we love hearing tales of the human world, we just wanted to meet and talk, we didn't want to frighten you and we are so sorry that we have upset or hurt you. Will you tell us about your world?"

The Houses

"I have been so scared, I thought you wanted to kill me or steal my sould, because there is nothing like you in my world. I am so glad that you are friendly and I will tell you anything you want to know, and you must tell me about yourselves as well. Now I am not going to be scared of my dreams, and also I won;t be scared of building and houses in my world"

Her

"This is wonderful, we ahve a new friendship. We were a village like any other but then the people left for somewhere else, but we all kept our memories, and houses last a lot longer than humans. Every house in the village has its own story and you can visit us all in your dreams, and we will all want to know about your world too"

The Houses

"This is so wonderful, and I look forward to how we have discovered a beautiful friendship, and to treasuring it so much. I like you all"

Her

"And we like you too"

The Houses