today's dream

[felicula]

I was in some sort of an institution. There weren't many lights. In some ways it reminded me of the estate house in "28 days later", in other ways it reminded me of the abandoned asylum in Utica, NY. The building was somewhat sparsely occupied, but there were enough other people in it to come across quite a few if I was exploring.

I encountered a young girl, and watched her stare intently at an older man. I could feel almost a subsonic vibration all around that became very uncomfortable for me, even though I wasn't its primary target. The man's mind seemed to short out, and he crumpled to the floor dead. The girl smiled with seemingly innocent contentment, though the emotion never touched her eyes. When she laughed, it sounded anything but innocent.

I can't remember whether she told me or someone else did, that she had been here before. She'd returned with the intent to see everyone in it dead.

For a time, I followed her surreptitiously. I watched her kill people, one by one, and sometimes two at a time with her psionic destruction. I had the feeling that she possessed the ability to finely control the power to cause anywhere from the faintest pain to the most excruciating. The death she caused here hurt her victims immeasurably before they passed on.

Things switched. Now she was following me. I twisted and turned through the labyrinth of hallways at a brisk walk, only pausing to turn around if I'd passed another person. Inevitably, the girl's footsteps would stop as she took the time to kill them before resuming her persuit. Several times I felt the same odd sensation of her using her gift. She never succeeded at catching me with it, though.

We ended up in a room with only one exit. The paint was peeling off the brick walls, and one small, dingy window implied that this was one of the attic cells. I was faced by two individuals. On one hand, the girl practically seethed, seated on a bare, striped mattress to my right. A handsome Death was standing in front of the window in front of me, but slightly toward my left. He wasn't skeletal at all. He had a sizeable but proportionate build. He was swarthy though somewhat sinister, and would have been taken for Gothic in an urban setting with his black trench coat over all-black clothing.

I was given a choice between the killer and Death.

I looked at Death and told him, "I'll go with you. If I choose her, I'd end up with you anyway, though by much more unpleasant means." He laughed warmly at it. Rather than scared of him, I felt comforted. For some reason, he and I ended up dancing there, as the light faded out. At one point, I felt the same unpleasant quavering of the air that let me know that the young girl was trying to kill me anyways. Death wouldn't let her.

It was interesting to dream about Death as a lover, especially contrasted with the much more sadistic little girl. The only actual killing was perpetrated by her. Death didn't actually take any lives. It was as if Death received or embraced those who had died, rather than having killed them himself. It makes me wonder if she had succeeded in killing me anyway, with Death simply holding me apart from the pain. I had a very positive perception of Death even though I'd been apprehensive of both of them with I'd entered the room.