Only a Nightmare
“Where am I?” I remember thinking as the world slowly began to appear out of the dark. Bashfully and not completely my surroundings began to show. Light fixtures coming into view first. Then lamp posts and walkways. Railing began to swerve around what seemed to be a queue line. It was still very dark but I could hear the sound of a roller coaster moving on its track, the harder I looked the more I could see. There was nobody riding it though, nobody operating it either. It felt eerie being there alone, it was as if everyone had disappeared and the rides were now operating themselves. I began to search for someone.
I felt like I had been wandering around in the dark for ages, as if I had been in this semi dark world my whole existence.
Suddenly a large beam of light flashed up into the sky and I could see the light shine upon a large disk like ride moving up a large pole shaped tower.
“I’m at work!” I shouted out, beginning to recognize myself and my existence. “I’m at Knott’s!” I knew that ride for sure, it was called the Sky Cabin and it was the first ride I had learned to operate in the park. I used to load people in that cabin so they could get a good view of the park from above. You could see the entire city from that high, and on a clear day you could see all the way to the ocean.
I remembered most everything now, thinking it must be really late at night. Plus, there was nobody around, so the park must be closed by now. Then I remembered my wife Michelle.
“She must be waiting for me so we could drive home together!” I thought.
I didn’t want her to get worried so I decided to leave.
Suddenly something sprinted past me… a young boy headed towards the sky cabin. The boy stopped just for a moment to look back at me and smile. He was wearing no more than sandals and a loin cloth. He waved his hand and motioned to me to come with him before continuing to run towards the sky cabin.
I ran after the boy trying my best to keep up, eventually he stopped in front of the sky cabins queue line entrance, his head looking up as he watched the sky cabin rotate at the top of its tower.
Once I caught up with him he paid no attention to my arrival, instead he just stood there, starring at the ride.
“Hey buddy.” I greeted him, but he didn’t reply. He continued to stare, his eyes fixated on the sky cabin as it slowly rotated back down to its loading dock.
“Where are your parents?” I asked.
Still no reply. It was like he couldn’t hear me.
“Come on….” I said. “It’s time to go home.”
“Time to go home?” The boy finally replied. Looking at me with wide eyes.
“Yes” I answered. “Time to go home.”
And with that the boy took off heading into the sky cabins queue line and up its spiral stair case, I followed him up the stair case which was a long way up in my dream.
After climbing what seemed to be thousands of spiral stairs I finally arrived at the rides loading dock.
When I got there I couldn’t see the boy but I noticed the rides entrance doors were wide open, and the lights were on.
I called out to the boy but he didn’t answer back.
…Suddenly a gut feeling.... Something was telling me not to go inside the sky cabins entrance.
Slowly a darkness began to grow inside the cabin. The lights began to flicker and go out. A darkness had overtaken the ride. I knew that whatever was inside this cabin was bad, something evil, something sinister.
Suddenly a voice whispered from the void.
“Come back to me Miko.” It said.
I took a step back from the entrance. The voice made me uneasy. I had heard it somewhere before and knew that it was foul.
I called out for the boy once more. I felt bad for him and feared this dark void would get him, but then the darkness shot out of the cabin attaching itself to me, binding me.
It began to drag me into the cabin with it. This thing, whatever it was, was much more powerful than I and I could do nothing to stop it, only squirm and scream as my helpless body was dragged into the darkness.
“This is it.” I thought to myself. This was the end of me as I began to fade into the void.
“Come back to me Miko.” The voice whispered again as my existence faded away.
“Come back, so that I may consume you...”
After having that dream, or should I say nightmare, I would wake up in a sweat, and the dream would fade away from my memory almost as fast as it came. I would try my best to remember as much as I could, I would even try to write it down in a note pad beside my bed, but little of it would remain with me. All I knew was that it was a dream about the theme park and that it had something to do with my past.