Chapter 3

Later that day, I hated the thought of what I might see, but I could not keep myself from checking the TV late news to see if my dream was being reported. Oh, my God, there it was! A very large office building down town had been visited by the serial killer. A total of six people, two men and four women, had been killed in the same way as had the doctor and the receptionist.

Again, the police were baffled because the corpses had all had some internal organs apparently eaten, but they could not figure out how one person could have done that much damage. Was this the aftermath of an attack by some group like the “Manson family?”

I was torn up by the thought that I might somehow have caused these murderous attacks. I was afraid to talk to anybody about the situation because I was afraid of being called crazy and stuck away in some institution for the insane. On the other hand, if things continued like this, I might really go crazy. Over the next few weeks, people, especially Mom, noticed a change in me.

Finally I got some relief by speculating that whatever was turning the monsters loose in our town was also causing my migraines. Therefore, I was not causing the monsters to show up, but I was trying to fight them in my dreams. Oh, hell, I knew that I was just trying to relieve myself of blame, but I had to do something. Maybe I could make myself believe that cock-and-bull story. If I did, I might feel like the good guy instead of the bad guy.

Next time, I was going to try to relieve my headache with the Vicodin that I had been using before the new pain killer was prescribed. As best as I could remember, I did not have these God-awful dreams with the Vicodin. I still had nightmares, but they were the more normal kind of nightmare.

The problem was that only one Vicodin took so long to work and never really killed the headache, so I was going to try two of them at one time to see what would happen. I prayed to God to keep the monsters from showing up the next time.

Oh, shit! If the monsters didn’t show up, then it could have been my fault because I took the new pain killer and let the monsters in to kill all of those people. What was I going to do?

The pressure built up in me to the point of nearly making me explode. I had to tell somebody what I suspected so that I could get some kind of help. After two weeks of suffering with the mental pressure and pangs of guilt, I did break down enough to talk to Mom. She was not the perfect person to go to for advice, but she would not condemn me out of hand. Maybe her love for me and vice versa would see me through.

I did decide to approach the subject through the back door, as it were. I waited until she and I were the only ones home before I said anything. “Mom, I wonder if I have been watching too much TV. I was really bothered by the reports on the TV news about the serial killer and those people being partially eaten. What do you think?”

“Honey, I have no idea what you are talking about. When did this happen?”

“In both cases, it was when I had my last two really bad migraines and took the new pain killer. Not long after I woke up, I remember sitting in the living room with you and Dad to watch the late news on TV. In both cases, the reports started off with stories about very gruesome murders taking place down town. One of the attacks took place against Dr. Sorenson and her receptionist.

“A few weeks later, the second attack took place in the Anderson Insurance building a little farther down Main Street. Six people were killed that time, and the police still don’t have a clue as to who did it.”

“Judy, that’s not possible. The last times when you took the new pain killer, you slept almost around the clock clear until you woke up for breakfast the next morning. It sounds to me like you are confused by a continuation of your nightmares. To my knowledge, the city of Fairfield has never had a serial killer problem.”

“Oh, my God! I have been worrying about nothing! All this time, I thought that the nightmares I’ve been having were somehow causing a rash of monsters attacking people in Fairfield. What a relief it is to hear you say that. Now I can relax and take the super painkiller that does such a good job on the migraines. I can live with the nightmares now that I know that’s what they really are and how long they last.”

“Yes, Honey, I suspect that you are having trouble because all of those hormones running through your body are fighting with the super pain killer. Oh, it’s so frustrating that I can never remember how to pronounce its name! Just relax and put up with the inconvenience of a nightmare in order to get rid of that migraine. I think that the exchange is worth it.”

“So do I, Mom. So do I.” I could feel the weight of the world lift from my shoulders at what Mom had just said. Those nightmares were so lifelike that I never realized at how long they lasted. Okay, now I could stand them because I knew that they were not real.

****

My next migraine was not so bad when it came six weeks later, but I decided to go with the new pain killer. Now that I knew that all of those bad things were really just the product of a crazy dream, I could take the small problem to conquer the big problem.

This was another one that happened during school, and Mom came to pick me up as soon as the office called her. I was ready by the time she got there, so we just headed back to the car. Uh-oh, the headache picked up in intensity with every step I took to get to the car. I couldn’t make it all the way to the car, and Mom had to bring the car to me.

This was a different manifestation of the headache. This time, I did not see a jagged circle forming. Instead, there was a white disk in the lower right quadrant of my vision, and it began to enlarge on the way home. It took only about 10 minutes for Mom to get us home, and the white disk was already blotting out all of my vision. Functionally, I was blind.

When the blindness was added to the pain of the headache, I was totally scared to death. This was the first time that I had been completely blinded by the migraine, and I had a Hell of a time getting into the house and to my bathroom. On top of everything else, I had to pee. Well, I didn’t make it! My bladder turned loose before Mom had a chance to pull my panties down, much less for me to sit down on the toilet seat.

Mom stripped me in the bathroom and had me stand in the shower while she sprayed me with the shower head on the flexible hose. Talk about a weird feeling as that water hit my crotch and legs. She rinsed me down and dried me off before leading me to my bed. At least, I was able to crawl into bed on my own. I lay down and Mom covered me with a sheet after she managed to get a thick towel under me and some cotton panties pulled up to cover my pussy.

By this time, I was very nearly unconscious from the pain, but I was awake when Mom finally did get back to me with the pain pill and a small glass of lemonade. She left and came back with a cold pack for my forehead, and that helped a little bit, but pain had continued to grow. I think that I fainted before the pain pill had a chance to work because I seemed to wake up already in the dream.

This time, I was on a big open field, and I was naked. That included no shoes. The field was covered with grass something like a lawn, but the grass was not the kind you would choose to lie down on. It was like walking on a fuzzy mat with tiny needles woven in. The spikes did not penetrate the skin enough to cause bleeding, but they did produce a painful sensation wherever I stood. Walking or running did not help, either.

Needless to say, I was not armed. I couldn’t even find a rock to throw, and I was going to need a weapon pretty damned soon. A few hundred yards away, there was a herd of cattle with long horns hooked so that the points pointed forward. I didn’t have time to count the cattle, but there had to be at least 25 or so in the herd. I can’t imagine what prompted it, but the cattle all stampeded toward me.