Dream Journal

Killing Ghostly Zombies in the Afterlife of Death

Everything about the room was strange, yet I'd known it forever. I knew the room's design inside and out, but it never once looked like this. The entire room was perfectly placed, the stained rocking chair beside the makeshift gas heater, and the television against the back wall. Even the newspapers on the buffet and the table from earlier today were there. Black Friday had just been yesterday, I remembered. Beside me stood my sister, looking just as clueless as myself.

Yes, this was our home. Though it was alien in every way. The walls, the floor, my sister, even the air, had been tainted red. It looked like smoke, maybe a hologram. Either way, it seemed to be an illusion. And jutting out of the belly of the living room where nothing had stood for the longest time was a hallway.

Just inside the hallway the air had turned black and white, like an old horror film. My sister and I headed into the room that we just noticed, and immediately recognized the three boys who stood there- Phillip, Austin, and Dylan. Our three second-cousins. Phillip quietly played a video game with his legs tucked up under his arms, his eyes glazed over with drowsiness. Austin stood on an enormous, open stage with wrap-around gold railing, digging deep into a glowing refrigerator. Dylan sat Indian-style on the floor, making strange sound effects as he played with some army toys.

A puzzled look must have come across my face, because immediately all three of the boys looked at me strangely. My sister had gone from my side, disappearing around a wall that stopped short at the back of the room.

"You're here too?" Dylan asked, dropping his toys. But he didn't dare come any closer to me.

"I had no idea." Austin grumbled as he popped out of the fridge, an entire loaf of bread hanging from his mouth.

"Where are Aunt Sue, Uncle Rich, and little Justin?" Phillip asked, not bothering to look away from the hypnotic television screen. I shrugged. I hadn't thought about where my mother, father, and litle brother might be. But I had the feeling that they weren't here in this eerie place, when I needed them most.

"They must have made it," Austin said, ripping a piece of the bread out of his mouth, "must be sad for them."

I took a step closer to Austin, though he just stared. He didn't say or do a thing. Neither did his brothers. I walked up the stairs, standing beside him on the stage, and looked out at the place. In the corner, near the wall at the back of the room, was Phillip, playing his video game on a swirled-looking television. I could hear the noise, though it was muffled, and the picture on the screen wasn't a picture at all. Just an alternate of colors and flashing. The heavy air here seemed to dull my senses greatly, though the voices were as clear as a bell.

"Do you like our house?" Phillip asked, "I know you haven't seen it until now." I nodded. It was a nice house, though in this place it looked like a scene from a horror movie. And the boys as well.

"We notice your house is over there, too," Dylan noted, pointing toward the big, open hallway slicing through the room that looked very out of place.

"It looks like a dump," Austin said with a smirk. I frowned at the comment, but was too caught up in everything to care. By now, my sister had come waltzing back out from behind the wall, and pulled on my shirt.

"Aunt Becky is here too, in the bathroom," she said. The bathroom? I thought. Sure enough, my Aunt Becky came waddling out from where my sister just returned.

"Normally I would say 'by now I'm sure the boys have told you where we are'," she said, looking over all of them, "but their brains have turned to mush since we got here." she smiled a crooked smile.

"This is the Afterlife, you know," my sister said to me. I found a little sense of comfort in that her eyes were the same blue-grey color even in the black and white atmosphere. A puzzled look must have crossed my face again because immediately, I was answered by my Aunt.