Written by Jonathan Wojcik
NIGHTMARE MENAGERIE 2018, PART IX
Guest Art by Joshua Evans!
TALL
Posted by Glitchrr36:
"I have one with a kind of indistinct monster that from what I remember was only able to be described as "tallest" "foggy" and "hungry." I think it was overall humanoid, and extended up out of sight on an infinite black void with a single street lamp. I remember waking up and thinking it lucky that I can't actually make sound or move in my dreams, because it would have noticed me."
"I have one with a kind of indistinct monster that from what I remember was only able to be described as "tallest" "foggy" and "hungry." I think it was overall humanoid, and extended up out of sight on an infinite black void with a single street lamp. I remember waking up and thinking it lucky that I can't actually make sound or move in my dreams, because it would have noticed me."
There's not a great deal one can say about this dream, but in a good way. It's straight to the point, a nice fundamental sort of terror facing a raw, primal sort of foe...a bigger thing that wants to eat you. Even the setting with the singe street lamp communicates such a distilled and efficient sort of dreadfulness.
THE UNDERWATER REAPER
Posted by Derpy Pirate:
" I had this dream in Late June of this year.
It was part of a much bigger story (basically, a man was friends with a female dolphin, but the dolphin became heartbroken and split up with him when he discovered that she could kill with her echolocation and became afraid of her), but the character I found the most interesting was the Underwater Grim Reaper.
,br> He was pretty much just an octopus that stole a parka from a drowning victim and wore it like a grim reaper cloak with his tentacles sticking out of the bottom, but he would appear to people underwater whenever they were about to drown, and thus became feared by anyone who went to scuba dive."
" I had this dream in Late June of this year.
It was part of a much bigger story (basically, a man was friends with a female dolphin, but the dolphin became heartbroken and split up with him when he discovered that she could kill with her echolocation and became afraid of her), but the character I found the most interesting was the Underwater Grim Reaper.
,br> He was pretty much just an octopus that stole a parka from a drowning victim and wore it like a grim reaper cloak with his tentacles sticking out of the bottom, but he would appear to people underwater whenever they were about to drown, and thus became feared by anyone who went to scuba dive."
It's hard not to instantly love any cephalopod or cephalopod-like character, isn't it? Especially the concept of an octopus as the ocean's very embodiment of death. I never would have thought of that myself, yet it feels like a perfect fit. Cephalopods are kind of the sea's most versatile hunter-killers and octopuses are even venomous. All of them! Did you know they all were? Science wasn't totally aware of it until maybe this decade. Every octopus has a toxic beak!
THE BOSS
Posted by Lukas Reimer:
" Okay, I have one more dream I HAVE to share. I promise this is the last one. This story concerns a bizarre entity known as "the boss." The dream followed an average joe in some nameless, New York-like coastal metropolis attending a buisiness meeting. What made it most bizarre, however, was the meeting itself. It took place in a normal conference room on a high floor of the office building, and behind the end of the table near the window sat "the boss." He was a bizarre, giant lump of purple flesh, with a bright green border, and was extremely wrinkly. He had the texture of gelatin, and was devoid of features except for a single rectangular metal border with a rivet in each corner in the center of his chest, like on an air vent, except without the grating. There were several unstated rules about the boss that had to be followed
A. You cannot speak directly to the boss.
B. You cannot look directly at the boss.
C. You cannot say the boss's name.
D. You cannot touch the boss.
E. You cannot raise your voice in the boss's presence.
F. If you wish to ask the boss a question, you have to whisper it to his assistant (again, without saying the boss's name,) who will write it down on a slip of paper and insert it into the opening on the boss's chest.
The "meeting" consisted of everybody sitting at their chairs motionlessly, heads hung downwards to avoid seeing the boss, with absolutley no noise except the ticking of the clock. Occasionally, this silence was broken with somebody asking the boss's assistant a question, and the assistant (who seemed much more comfortable in this situation) writing it down and inserting it into the boss, who would emit an ominous rumble like churning gears before...doing nothing. There didn't appear to be any point to asking the boss questions, as no answers were ever given.
Eventually somebody screwed up and mentioned the boss's name while whispering his question to the assistant. As soon as he said it, his face dropped and his fear was obvious. He looked, wide-eyed in terror, as the boss emitted gurgling noises before stretching open his vent-like orifice and creating a massive, vaccuum-like suction force that sucked the guy in as he screamed. Everybody was horrified by this (except the assistant) but nobody dared move or say anything out of fear of meeting the same fate.
Hours went on without the sky changing for some bizarre reason, and eventually some businesslady got fed up, slammed her hands on the table and screamed "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US?!," looking directly at the boss. As with the previous rule-violator, she was inhaled screaming much the same, and again, nobody could or would do anything to help her.
At some point, the protagonist broke one of the rules. I don't recall which one it was, but he did something wrong. He got sucked in too, and the "camera" followed him as he fell endlessly downwards in an empty black void with giant, floating "shadow people" that bore bizarre, psychedelic patterns, and they all stared at him with blank, meaningless eyes. They reached out for him in the darkness, and as their cold 2-dimensional fingers touched him with a loud, chorus-like "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH" becoming increasingly frantic, I woke up. "
" Okay, I have one more dream I HAVE to share. I promise this is the last one. This story concerns a bizarre entity known as "the boss." The dream followed an average joe in some nameless, New York-like coastal metropolis attending a buisiness meeting. What made it most bizarre, however, was the meeting itself. It took place in a normal conference room on a high floor of the office building, and behind the end of the table near the window sat "the boss." He was a bizarre, giant lump of purple flesh, with a bright green border, and was extremely wrinkly. He had the texture of gelatin, and was devoid of features except for a single rectangular metal border with a rivet in each corner in the center of his chest, like on an air vent, except without the grating. There were several unstated rules about the boss that had to be followed
A. You cannot speak directly to the boss.
B. You cannot look directly at the boss.
C. You cannot say the boss's name.
D. You cannot touch the boss.
E. You cannot raise your voice in the boss's presence.
F. If you wish to ask the boss a question, you have to whisper it to his assistant (again, without saying the boss's name,) who will write it down on a slip of paper and insert it into the opening on the boss's chest.
The "meeting" consisted of everybody sitting at their chairs motionlessly, heads hung downwards to avoid seeing the boss, with absolutley no noise except the ticking of the clock. Occasionally, this silence was broken with somebody asking the boss's assistant a question, and the assistant (who seemed much more comfortable in this situation) writing it down and inserting it into the boss, who would emit an ominous rumble like churning gears before...doing nothing. There didn't appear to be any point to asking the boss questions, as no answers were ever given.
Eventually somebody screwed up and mentioned the boss's name while whispering his question to the assistant. As soon as he said it, his face dropped and his fear was obvious. He looked, wide-eyed in terror, as the boss emitted gurgling noises before stretching open his vent-like orifice and creating a massive, vaccuum-like suction force that sucked the guy in as he screamed. Everybody was horrified by this (except the assistant) but nobody dared move or say anything out of fear of meeting the same fate.
Hours went on without the sky changing for some bizarre reason, and eventually some businesslady got fed up, slammed her hands on the table and screamed "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US?!," looking directly at the boss. As with the previous rule-violator, she was inhaled screaming much the same, and again, nobody could or would do anything to help her.
At some point, the protagonist broke one of the rules. I don't recall which one it was, but he did something wrong. He got sucked in too, and the "camera" followed him as he fell endlessly downwards in an empty black void with giant, floating "shadow people" that bore bizarre, psychedelic patterns, and they all stared at him with blank, meaningless eyes. They reached out for him in the darkness, and as their cold 2-dimensional fingers touched him with a loud, chorus-like "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH" becoming increasingly frantic, I woke up. "
I love this one SO much. This mysterious, nondescript lump of a thing that's somehow "THE BOSS" and so harshly enforces respect for its authority. That we actually know what it's like on the other side of its metallic vent is a real treat, and still leaves us with some juicy story questions.
PAST NIGHTMARE BEINGS:
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