Mr. Misty-Eyed | Josh Dun

dream sequence | twenty-six

Wind whipped around me, forcing my clothes to billow in its freezing hands. Involuntary tears filled my eyes as the strong gusts swayed me back and forth.

My feet stumbled across the slick surface, but as the ice below my feet shifted and broke away, I halted my actions. I held my arms out to either side of me, balancing my trembling body as best I could. I should have been used to this by now. I should know how to survive this. But I don't.

The ice cracked around me, snow falling from the bleak sky above as I stepped forward. The wet, misty haze that settled around me made it hard to breathe, but I continued forward. I stepped in the direction my mind seemed to be pulling me and as I slid carefully over the ice I could make out the grey splotch of land through the fog.

I heaved myself on, breathing like I had just sprinted a mile. The air that surrounded me thinned out the closer I moved toward the shoreline. There standing out against the grey trees and white snow stood my shadow. He swayed with the wind, unlike myself, letting it blow him around.

He waited for me and as I finally came to stand in front of him, I stopped. I stood carefully on the thin ice, making sure I was balanced so not to break it. My eyelashes fluttered in fear and my body moved forward once again without my consent as my shadow beckoned me to follow it.

"Come," He whispered. "Come with me."

My chest was tight and my breathing rapid as I moved through the thick forest, leaving the icy lake behind me. My shadow weaved in and out of view and I squinted through the growing darkest in hopes of catching a glimpse of him.

The dark forest was all too familiar and yet I never felt comfortable there. My forehead creased and my heart rate quickened as the trees began sparse like we had traveled from out end of the forest to the other in only minutes.

There through the darkness I could see the slight glow of a lamp. It illuminated the frost that climbed up the glass of the foggy window it sat behind. A cabin. A shack. Rotted and broken, the wood siding falling from its place and onto the snowy ground.

My shadow peaked itself around the corner of the tiny building, its hand grabbing at the air in front of it as he called me forward. We met at the entrance of the abandoned home, the front door hung crooked on its hinges, leaving a large crack between it and the doorframe.

Everything was silent. No wind, no snapping branches, just the sound of my uneven breathes and the deep chuckled the bubbled up from my shadow's throat.

"Come," He said again as he placed his hand against the door and pushed it open.

The lamp that had been set inside the house was nowhere to be seen. I took a hesitant step away from the entrance when I realized that I couldn't see anything inside the building. It was pitch black, like it was its own separate dimension.

My mind began to race at all the possibilities that might lay in wait inside for me and at just that thought, I continued to back away, holding my hands up in defense. My eyes were wide, darting in every direction as my shadow began to laugh at my actions. It was then that I turned on my heels to run.

A cold hand grabbed at the back of my neck and I yelped in pain, gasping for air as I fell back against the snowy ground unable to breathe. I choked on nothing as the cold hands wrapped their way around me, tugging my body back toward the house.

"No!" I screamed out, but it only sounded like blubbering sobs.

"Come," My shadow laughed as the darkest from inside the house drug me in through the open doorway. Everything went black as the door slammed shut tightly behind me.

"Come inside and see."

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