The Dreadful Dreamer's Collection

How You'll Pay- September 21, 2024

The parking garage was poorly lit by strings of safety lights which lazily swayed, creating shadows against the chapped, worn red brick walls. My father called and told me that the one mechanic who owns some of the parking spaces had availability, but he warned that he was a sly man. We deliberated, and ultimately chose to park in the spaces which he had available. So there the car stayed, and upon my arrival back to my vehicle, I encountered the greasy mechanic in his powder blue jumpsuit. He smirked as he pushed on by, and I noticed that he had placed a paper on my windshield. I curiously unfolded the paper and was horrified by what I saw. The stained carbon copy paper informed me that the mechanic was suing me for $50,000. The reason made no sense, and as I began to call my father the world went dark.

I woke up in a hospital bed, my ears arriving to the scene before my eyes. I listen to the dialogue around me as I kept my eyes shut.

"She had an asthma attack! Your parking spaces are the only ones close enough to the elevators! She has a medical condition!"

My heart rate was high and it was difficult to breathe. I decided to come to and look my visitors in the eyes. The mechanic and my father were there, and while their presence haunted me, my legs were shot with awful pains that blurred my thoughts away from the situation.

"My legs..." I mumbled and pulled aside the hospital bed's comforter. Below my hospital gown there were tiny holes piercing through my legs, causing my skin to rise in some instances. Dried blood capped each heap of injured skin. It wasn't until this moment that I realized I was in a hospital bed in the middle of the parking garage. Had any of these cars seen? How many of them have come and went?

"Since you can't really pay the $50,000 I decided I could use you in an experiment instead. It's a fair trade-off." The mechanic lounged back in his folding chair and lit a cigarette.

"I can't feel my legs, can I walk?" I studied the awful designs. He inhaled his smoke and nonchalantly nodded.

I threw my legs off of the side of the bed and stood. The pain was intense and some of the holes had opened up, draining blood in pretty patterns down my legs.

"We need to keep you for observation." The mechanic called over his shoulder.

The pain was aching and I felt weak. I needed to leave. The floors and floors and rows and rows were disorienting to me, but I made my way through each one trying to find my car. The blood and pain, the asthma attack and hospital scene...it was all too much. I found a large Dodge perked up on obnoxious monster truck wheels. I climbed inside and drove down the way I came.

In between the nooks and crannies in the walls, there were people, perhaps dead or drugged, in some sort of other dimension. It felt as though the cracks in the walls were portals. What parking garage is this?

I drove down to the mechanic's level and rammed the truck into his expensive little sports car, repeatedly, until it was scarcely recognizable. I grinned as his looked on in disbelief. Who really had to pay?

*I have no clue what happened to my 'father' in this dream so don't ask because he was not at the ending.