The Archidream: Beware the Wow Man...

Every now and then, I have the delightful pleasure of dreaming of the CREEPIEST THINGS NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN. And they only get scarier as I come up with more.

Example 1:

Several hooded figures with distorted faces during sleep paralysis (all in different occasions) -- they all want to strangle or suffocate me. But that's normal with sleep paralysis. lol

Example 2:

The harvesting scarecrow -- think of the child-eating monster from Pan's Labyrinth, but in scarecrow form. Now imagine trying to climb/jump up onto a 5-ft-high platform while it's running towards you at top speed. Since it's a dream, of course you move slower than you want to, and you feel like you're about to die.

Example 3:

The Wow Man.

-----------------

The dream began with me walking across the schoolyard of my grade school (I've been dreaming of my school ever since it closed right after I graduated). I was making my way towards the parking lot on the other side of the open gates, and there were other people around me, most if not all of them adults. Everyone else was behind me, so I was the first to approach what I was squinting at from a distance.

Still somewhat far away, I saw what looked like a human figure sitting/crouching on a rolling platform made of wood, as if it was being transported from one place to another and was left there and forgotten. Whatever it was, it squatted with its entire body facing the church to my right. I would have to walk right in front of it in order to get to the van that was parked.

Closer still, I could see now that it was incredibly skinny and abnormally tall -- even in its current position, it was well over Matt's height. It was huge.

Then I saw its skin. Its entire body was like a tree.

While it still had a somewhat human-like form, I saw that this thing's skin was like tree bark. A flake fell off as I continued to close the distance between us. Whatever this thing was, it was covered in different shades of gray. Now that I think of it, it could easily have been mistaken for ashes/scabs, because there was a skeletal form to the creature, and it seemed deformed.

But I saw its hands and feet: they were made of dry twigs. There were many of them, and they were long and crooked. Its "hair" stood up on the top of its head, with shards and spikes that looked like a broken, dead branch.

And then I saw its face.

I was told that the Wow Man, as it was commonly named, was a dangerous creature. It was called that because of its legendary cry that was otherwise indescribable.

"Be careful," someone said to me, "Don't get too close."

The face scared me more than what I'd already seen.

It had a long, thin, jagged face, with at least half of it being comprised of its open mouth. It was very slack-jawed, with a gaping mouth that made the creature look like it was petrified mid-scream. There were no eyes, and there was no nose. Just voids, holes that looked like they could house nests for small birds. There was nothing inside.

It sat there, unmoving, on the platform.

"Be careful," someone said to me, "Don't get too close."

I didn't know what was considered "too close," so I inched forward in hopes that I could get past it without doing anything wrong.

And I didn't get TOO close, but I knew (a little too late) that it was close enough-----

Once I crossed that invisible line, everything around me

stopped.

even time.

Everything around me was overcome in a sweep of gray tones. It started from the tree demon and spread outwards, around me, behind me...

But I was still moving.

Well, I was frozen because I was in shock, and I was fucking TERRIFIED.

While time was stopping, even though that happened very quickly, the Wow Man turned its head towards me incredibly slowly.

I was told that the Wow Man, as it was commonly named, was a dangerous creature. It was called that because of its legendary cry that was otherwise indescribable.

As it turned its head, there was a sound that emanated from it, like a combination of noises that it made from just moving, and its voice coming through the frozen face's mouth. It was a very low sound, almost too low for people to hear; it hurt my ears, it was so loud.

Very slowly, with a low, booming voice that was painful to hear.

"B-wwwwwwhhhhhhhhooooooooooooaaaaaaa---"

The Wow Man.

There were several voices I heard at the same time, all coming from one source.

And so I cowered, a mere 10 feet away from it.

I shut my eyes as tightly as I could, and covered my ears, shaking with fright.

And when I shut my eyes, I heard it "scream" my name (it was fast, but slow -- like dreaming the same thing in different ways, but at the same time, so they almost seem to overlap impossibly).

Even when I didn't look at it, I couldn't escape.

With my eyes shut, I could still see it attack. Without ever moving from where it was perched, it pounced.

I saw twig fingers coming towards me, but I couldn't blink because my eyes were already closed. I felt like it was inside me..

And then the twigs twisted around and changed so that I saw this:

jul 19 28

(I understood it as Jul. 19-28 -- I was destined to die sometime then)

I could still hear the tree demon's cry, but it was finally starting to fade.

It resonated, reaching me in sound waves so that the moan was broken up into what became a low, slow laughter.

And then even that faded, but I could still hear it.

I opened my eyes then, looked up, and saw that Alex was there. Time was ticking again.

While I was under the Wow Man's attack, Alex was battling it.

Now it lay there in a heap, looking more dead than it did before.

I was so scared; I didn't know what else to do but run -- I was far too close to it. So I sprinted into the parking lot, far away from everything. But I was so weak from what happened to me that I had to stop.

Turning around, I saw that everyone else who was walking behind me was still frozen. Everything was "back to normal," and the world was full of color again, even if the sky was overcast. But I could tell by looking at all the strangers standing there, that the same thing was happening to them. All they could see was a gray world and dates in their minds. Some of them fell to the ground and didn't get up. Others were able to recover.

I ran into the van, locked the doors, and sat there curled up with my hands over my ears (I could still hear the din).

And every time I blinked or closed my eyes, all I saw was

jul 19 28