Oneirology

Chapter one

The throbbing of music in the air finally stopped, and it was just the drunken laughter and comments. As the last customers left Cherry's, Reese flopped down on one of the chairs that were littered around the dancefloor.

Although he was the head bouncer, he let the others deal with the final customers, and the dancers took care of themselves.
Reese was starting to get sick of the job, the only thing that made it worth it was the nights when his favourite dancer was on, normally he would convince her to stay a little later with ease, she needed the money after all, but he'd talked to her before the night started, and he'd seen how dark the circles under her eyes were and told her to get some rest. He wanted to stay in her good books afterwards, and that got him bonus points. He closed his eyes and just allowed himself to relax for a moment.

"You okay for lock up?" one of the older bounces, Zyler, tapped Reese on the shoulder, clearing itching to go home. "I can lock you in so you'll just need to lock up the back entrance and check everything's off. I need to be home earlyish tonight."

Reese sighed and pushed his long red dreads away from his forehead. Joy. More time at this place. "Yeah, whatever man." Zyler gave a thumbs up and he was gone, the telltale sound of a door locking preceding him.

Reese sighed again and got up, he would make the rounds as quickly as possible. He started away from the tables and dance floor, heading to the bar. Maybe he would take a swig of something strong as compensation for the hour he was being made to work. It was so dark the cameras wouldn't be able to see and that's if they weren't operating.

He had just reached the bar and while making a customary check to see the taps were off and nothing was left open when out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement.

Reese spun around. The dance floor lights were on. They were fainter than when customers were using it but they were on. He frowned.

"Alright which punk is doing that." He advanced to the light. "Zyler if this is your idea of a joke I'm gonna break your legs." Something moved in the dark to the side of him and he hastened his pace to the dance floor, needing the light.

"Who's out there?" He called, the changing colour of the dance floor lighting the world around him. "Come on, who. You know this is trespassing." Something wet hit his hand from above. Reese glanced up hesitantly.

Nothing.

Great a trespasser and now a leaky roof. He needed to stop watching so many horror movies. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

Then shape moved in the darkness again. More dark wet dropped down. It hit the dance floor this time. Distracted he looked down. What was that?
He couldn't tell what it was, in the dark, it was too hard to tell.

It was practically pouring down now and from what he could tell the thing in the dark was coming closer. The world swam and he didn't realise how light-headed he was until his knees hit the floor. It was coming closer.

Reese bent over. The black was coming from his face. His cheeks were wet and sticky. He coughed and as he did so a hand grabbed his neck from behind. He was thrown back and the dark figure was pushing something into his mouth.

Reese tried to resist. He wanted to but he couldn't. The dark liquid was still spilling from his face and he was too weak. He tried to cough up more liquid but it was stopped. He could only see the dark figure above him. As everything faded to black, the figure hissed out, "That's what you get. Murderer."

~~~

The heat was stifling in Normal, Illinois. The August sun was beating down on the tarmac in the cul-de-sac, making it something akin to lava.
The same neighbours waved to each other, the same kids played in their front yard, dogs barked, birds chirped, everything was normal in Normal.
People pass through Normal every day, many not even stopping for a pit-stop, but one car did.