Short Scary Stories

What The Happiest Dreams Are Made Of.

The following originally appeared in a train enthusiast subreddit on October 29th, 2015. The thread did not have an account attached to it, and the original post has since been deleted for spam.

"Hello,

Thank you for taking the time to read this message, and I hope you are indeed able to read it. This is probably one of the most surreal things I have ever written (to say nothing of the circumstances I'm writing it under), but it is undoubtedly one of the most important as well. If all goes well, this will be just one of several messages you should have received; the others are writing things, too, but we're not sure what will arrive intact, or even if your side has anything able to 'receive' this.

What you are about to read may seem odd, and understandably so, but please - keep an open mind, and in the very least read through the whole thing before passing judgement on my tale. I apologise for any terms or concepts that seems strange or bizarre to you - I have been informed this message could reach a number of worlds where such ideas do not exist, and so I will, at points, try to clarify some of the more important things others point out as 'issue concepts'.

My name is William Wolfstone, and I used to work as a law enforcement psychologist. A psychologist is a person who talks to people and tries to help them maintain mental health. As a law enforcement psychologist, it was my role to do this for police (you may call them 'guards', 'security' or something similar where you are). It was a role I cared about greatly, and had dedicated fifteen years of my life to. I was decent at the job, so much so I ended up being stationed in the capital city of my country. I was one of two psychologists who cared for the personnel who worked at the city's police headquarters.

This position also put me in one of the best places to see what unfolded, it turned out.

It began a few months ago, when one officer, whose name I don't feel comfortable noting these days, presented herself to me with what seemed like simple insomnia (inability to sleep). She couldn't say why, but she was certain she was having nightmares when she did manage to fall asleep (nightmares are bad dreams).

She couldn't really recall what they were about, just that the situation had been going on for the past month, and that almost every morning , she felt a sense of dread and unease that sometimes took the rest of the day from which to recover.

I didn't think much of it, to be honest; this officer was a minority in the capital (and certainly the police force), and in addition to those pressures, she had, a few months ago, undergone a traumatic series of events. Those events had turned her into a media curiosity (the media in this case being people who exaggerate news to make money), and from what she described, it wasn't uncommon for her to find the odd interview request or paparazzi awaiting for her when she got home.

So I chalked the insomnia and dreams up to simple general anxiety and some post-traumatic stress - I arranged fortnightly cognitive therapy sessions, referred her to a doctor for some anti-anxiety and sleep medication, and gave her my personal number should she need to speak to me at any time (sometimes people just need an ear available, and I was happy to accommodate).

But she didn't call me. And the first few sessions showed progress - although it didn't resolve the issues, the medication was helping a bit, she was getting full support from her family and friends, and she even found herself recovering from the dreams easier, although she still couldn't remember them. I figured she was drawing on the strength of character she'd demonstrated during those aforementioned events, and was on her way to 'willing' herself through the issues, and it would all be sorted in a few short weeks.

Then something curious happened - one day, there was a knock on my office door, and another officer wandered in. He explained he was my patient's partner and that he, too, had begun suffering from this insomnia. These dreams. His partner had insisted he see me immediately, although he didn't seem pleased about it.