So, I don't normally do this but I just wanted to bring up this really bizarre dream I just recently had because it really stuck with me for some reason.
I don't dream that often [or at least remember most of the ones I have] but every once in a while I have a dream that's so vivid it just kinda sticks with me, so I just wanted to get it off my chest, see if anyone can relate in anyway.
Anyway here goes.
Basically in my dream I was Jin from BTS [Well, every dream I'm Jin from BTS, that's totally normal for me].
But basically I was working for NEXT clothing, a new store that opened up in the city centre.
It was my first day on the job and I was eager to impress, but on my lunch break my manager basically hands me the keys and asks me to lock up when I leave.
I thought it was a bit strange that she asked me to lock up the break room when I was done but I thought little of it and locked the break room, much to the annoyance of every other employee who wanted to use it, but I just said I was told to do it and got on with my shift.
Come the end of my shift and it was closing time, everyone has already left and I was asked to lock up, seeing as how I was the last one out.
I locked the doors, took the cash out of the registers, vacuumed the carpets, checked to see if nobody else was still in the building and went to lock the doors, but that's when I noticed a strange crowd of people hanging around the entrance wanting to get in.
I tried to explain the store was closed but that's when I discovered I couldn't close the doors properly, and with enough force they would easily come open, regardless of whether I locked them or not.
Before I knew it customers had already re-entered the store and were browsing around, trying to exchange or return items or asking me to fetch things in another size.
I'm trying to politely usher the customers out of the store and remind them that the store is closed but for every single customer I ushered out, 5 more would take their place.
Before I realised it, customers were coming in from the back entrance, the side entrance and whenever my back was turned, the main entrance.
The entire place was flooded with busy customers wanting to shop, despite the store being closed, so I reluctantly called my manager to explain the situation. What she said to me on the phone however made my blood turn cold.
As soon as I tried to explain that there were customers still in the store who wouldn't leave, she immediately under no uncertain terms said to me "stop whatever you are doing and get out of there. now!"
I hesitated and it was at that time I realised all the customers looked completely dead.
They had pale gray, blotched skin full of sores, they had no faces but holes with nose slits and glowing blue eyes, they were cold, with no discernible features.
My manager was on the phone urging me to turn and run but I just couldn't do it.
The workaholic in me just refused to even process or acknowledge the situation or even draw any attention to it.
Dead or alive, the customer is always right, so I just rolled up my sleeves, re-opened the tills, turned all the lights back on and just stayed in the store until midnight, serving every single customer until they eventually left satisfied.
By that point the manager had come back to check on me, I handed her the keys and told her I resigned right then and there.
I was more pissed that she knew the store was haunted and didn't tell me than the fact I had to work the entire shop floor by myself serving undead customers, but hey. A jobs a job.
The next day however, I ended up getting a job as a... I'm not sure what you call it exactly.
You know those people you call when a pet owner is abusing an animal?
Vet control? Something like that?
Y'know, if you witness a neighbour abusing or starving his dog, that sort of thing.
You call a hotline to make a report and these specialists come to your door to make sure you're not abusing the animal.
Those kinds of people.
Well that's basically what my new job was.
I had received a complaint about a dog owner who was abusing his three dogs so I was sent to investigate the home situation.
The man was out of the house but the door was wide open so I went inside and heard his dogs howling.
He had 3 beagles chained up in the conservatory. They were barking but were more scared than angry.
They had been starved and beaten for days so I let them all loose and tried to find some food for them.
I couldn't find anything so I just ran a cold tap over some plates and set it down for them to at least drink, but that's when I noticed a prime steak on the kitchen counter covered in barbecue sauce.
I went to inspect the steak and was about to give it to the dogs but I noticed a strange sound coming from within the steak, it sounded like a soft wheezing.
I was confused by this so I went to inspect the steak further, and to my shock, could hear a baby's cry coming from within the steak itself.
I dug my fingers in between the steak, trying to find the source of the crying and to my absolute horror found a tiny baby chick, barely days old, trapped inside the steak.
It had been starved, tortured, burnt to a crisp and could barely open it's eyes or breathe.
It's feathers were gone and it's body was burnt black with lumps and boils all over it.
I tried desperately to keep the bird alive so I took little pieces of the steak and tore it into a floss like substance and was desperately feeding it to the baby bird, trying to keep it alive. It was intense.
I then realised I fed it too much and was holding it upside down, trying to make it spit out the food so it wouldn't choke, only to try feeding it again. It was a nightmare.
I dunno why that stuck with me so hard, but it's surprisingly not the strangest dream I've had where I was Jin from BTS.
This dream I'm about to tell you has always stuck with me and was easily one of the biggest existential crisis's I've ever had in my entire life because I literally thought I was going to wake up dead from it or become a permanent vegetable.
But here goes.
I've been dying to get this off my chest.
Basically, in this dream I dreamt I was Jin from BTS [Again, all my dreams are this, that's nothing abnormal for me].
But in the dream, I was somehow living in the world of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
It was 1940's Hollywood. We lived in a world where cartoons and humans co-exist and it's considered normal, I was a lowly, single bachelor living in a one bedroom apartment, recently divorced and working as the sound check guy for Maroon Cartoons.
Every day would start exactly the same. I'd get up at 8am, make breakfast and listen to the radio while reading the papers.
I'd get a divorce letter from my ex-wife in Malibu, expecting alimony payments, a postcard from my parents in Florida and a letter from the bank about an outstanding bill.
I'd leave the house at 8.30am, walk just across the street to Maroon Cartoon studios, punch in, do a mundane job of basically fixing the audio levels in all of the Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman cartoons, as well as for commercials featuring cartoon characters such as Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny or Felix the cat.
It was mundane work but I'd do my 9-5, punch out around 5.30pm and take the red car to the local jazz bar, drown my loneliness in booze and head home for the night. Rinse and repeat.
Where the dream got weird however is that, I would notice the other members of BTS in my everyday life but couldn't for the life of me picture how I knew them or recall how I knew their faces.
I would see J-Hope every morning as the postman, delivering his rounds. "Hey Mac, usual bills."
I'd see RM as the disgruntled red car driver who would snap at me whenever I stared at him awkwardly. "Hey Mac, you getting on or what!?"
I'd bump into Taehyung in the street when crossing the road. He'd be wearing a suit and tie and off to some important meeting.
I'd see Jungkook on the steps of some apartment building smoking a cigarette like a gangster, who would give me a death stare if he caught me making eye contact for too long. "Hey buddy, you gotta problem or what!?"
I'd see Jimin at the jazz bar as the bus boy collecting glasses, and Suga would be the bartender serving cocktails. "Hey fella, what'd'llit be?"
I'd see them every single day but would freeze up speechless, trying desperately to recall how I knew them or from where but for the life of me could just never seem to.
It drove me to absolute madness.
It was at this time however that I started to notice something wasn't right.
Every single day was exactly the same, right down to the letter.
I'd wake up at 8am every single morning. The exact same announcements would be on the radio. I'd read the exact same newspaper, receive the same outstanding bill, the same alimony letter from my ex-wife, who at this point I had no recollection of even who she was or what she looked like.
I'd receive the same postcard from my parents, who by the way should both be dead, and to make matters worse, are both British.
My job would be exactly the same. I'd control the sound levels for the exact same Roger Rabbit cartoons, over and over again.
I'd hear the exact same conversations by the water cooler. Porky Pig telling Marvin the Martian that his wife's making him take karate lessons and Bugs Bunny mentioning how him and Lola were planning a honeymoon in Pasadena.
The exact same conversation every single day, by the exact same minute on the clock.
I'd punch out and bump into J-hope. "Hey Mac, usual bills."
I'd get on the red car and there'd be RM. "Hey fella, you getting on or what?"
I'd cross the road and bump into Taehyung, Id see Jungkook on the steps smoking a cigarette, I'd see the exact same familiar faces everywhere I went.
I started to go crazy, started to feel I was stuck in the Truman show. So I tried to change up my routine.
I'd hop on different red cars but every single time RM would be the driver. The exact same driver, no matter which bus I went on.
I'd try playing hooky off work and would venture down a road I've never walked before but would somehow end up right in front of Maroon Cartoon studios.
I became desperate. I ran past the studio and just kept going, but somehow I'd end up back at my apartment, despite running in what I thought was a straight line.
I started to hyperventilate and would run in the opposite direction, somehow bumping into Taehyung again, seeing RM in the red cab, J-Hope delivering mail and would end up right outside the Jazz Bar. Jungkook across the road smoking the same cigarette, people and traffic going by. Nothing out of the ordinary.
I'd keep running, refusing to accept these three streets as my reality, but reality would work against me.
I'd make a beeline down roads I'd never been to but still somehow end up outside my apartment. I'd run in a different direction and somehow end up outside Maroon Cartoons. I'd keep running and somehow end up outside the same Jazz Bar, over and over and over again.
I began to panic, the walls were caving in, the sky was going black, I could hardly breathe.
It was like realising you're stuck in The Matrix but can do nothing about it.
I became aware at this point I was dreaming but was worried I wouldn't be able to wake up.
I started to forget things about myself, I couldn't even remember my own name, my own life. Any single thing about myself or even what time period I was actually supposed to be from.
This 1940's nightmare had become my reality and it was terrifying me.
I was worried I was going to become a vegetable, stuck in a coma until I starved to death, trapped in this 1940's world that seemingly never ended and I could never escape from.
A prison based on my favourite movie built just for me.
I knew at that moment, this is where I die. Stuck in a recreation of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, forever destined to live out the same day forever until I die or become a vegetable.
I panicked, I couldn't breathe, the walls were caving in, I couldn't even say or recall my own name.
This is where I was going to die, I just knew it...
By sheer willpower alone however, I managed to force myself to open my eyes and got a glimpse of the real world.
It was only temporary but it worked.
The world itself was fighting back, trying desperately to keep me trapped but I fought back, I fought hard to try and open my eyes again and after 30 whole minutes of trying, managed to open my eyes to the real world again.
I was completely paralyzed from the neck down. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move, I was terrified to even blink.
What scared me the most however, I couldn't even remember my own name or tell if this world was real or if the 1940's simulation I was stuck in WAS the real world.
I just couldn't tell anymore.
It took me an entire hour just lying in bed and staring at the ceiling to even remember my own name or have the courage to even try and get out of bed.
I thought I was going to die in my sleep that day.
I thought to myself over and over, "this is where I die". I am literally going to die as a BTS member, trapped in the world of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, destined to live the same day on repeat over and over again until I lose my mind...
Man, that was the single most terrifying existential crisis I had ever experienced.
I seriously, without a doubt thought I was going to die in my sleep.
I couldn't even walk right for hours, remember who my parents were or anything about myself other than the fact that I wasn't from 1940's Hollywood and that Cartoons were not real people who live amongst humans.
It was such a fucking head trip thought, I honest to hell thought "This is the moment where my life finally ends. I am never leaving this place. I'm gonna die trapped here!"
Man, was it scary...
