Location: Fairfax, VA
I can’t believe this whole nightmarish event only happened 4 weeks ago…
My name is Darren and my parents kinda just kicked me out, but it’s not like I’m homeless. It’s more like I’m living with a guy who I’m surprised isn’t. His name is Seth and all he does all day is sell boot leg DVD’s, action figures, and comics to unsuspecting people but in return for keeping my mouth shut, he lets me live with him.
It was about a week after I had moved in with Seth that I realized that he was not making enough to support the two of us, and so I had grabbed the news paper on the coffee table next to me to look through the wanted ads to see what jobs were available. I came across one that really caught my attention at the time and it was for government research involving human sleeping and lucid dreaming. Being the gullible person I was, I found myself thinking I was being paid to sleep and I was about 10% correct.
I signed a form that I tore off the bottom of the page that wanted my name, address, phone number, etc. and mailed it to the post office. The very next day I received a letter stating that the government acknowledges me as a subject for “Project Nap Time” and I still had no clue the horrors I would go through the very next week.
November 3rd 2017
A week had finally past and the day had finally arrived…
The day of this incident just felt… off. If that makes sense at all. I pondered it the whole morning and as I stood in the kitchen peering out the window, lost init. though I was snapped out of it by a knock at the door. I turned to the entry way and answered it while thinking maybe it was one of the government guys and not to my surprise, sure enough it was. It was two of them in fact and they both felt like they were rushing me to go with them which really put me off at the time but on the other hand I really needed money at the time, so I rolled with the punches and just sucked it up.
After about a forty-five minutes of pure driving with full, awkward, unbearable silence, we got there to a building where there was four others in orange jump suits waiting with agents that I assumed worked there. They escorted us in and told us that we will be paid a large, unstated, sum of money if we sign this contract. It stated that if we are to tell of this event and it is brought to their attentions, then they would be able to take every thing I owned and ban me from almost every thing that is needed to have a stable life. After that, the things I was not restricted from or striped of were to go to some donation organizations and soup kitchens. But being the broke fool I was, I signed it with only minimal hesitation.
After signing that unsettling form I soon found myself being led with the other four poor souls who agreed to be apart of this atrocity. The agents finally stopped with us close behind at an intimidating steel reinforced door with a key card panel to open and seal it, just like something out of a horror movie. One of the men stepped up and slid a security clearance card through. The door’s electric sealing bolts then unhinged and the heavy steel of it pushed out and slided to the right, opening. We were shown to what looked into a sound studio but five times the size of the ones I have seen before. There was a smaller door that closed behind us to seal us in the studio while some of the agents were standing behind a plexiglass sheet, they said to us over an intercom, “Welcome subjects one through 1-2-3-and 4 to this experimental research on a new form of lucid dreaming. Now I’m gonna go over the rules for your to follow as we go, ask any questions at will.”
Rule number one, no loud noises.
Rule number two, no sudden movements in the dark.
Rule number three, no self-inflicted or other variation of physical injury.
Rule number four, do not stray from the path or leave the group unless told to do so.
As he read off these odd rules we could all feel the tension in the room. We got very confused as we thought we were going to be asleep (though at the time I was not thinking about the lucid part of this dreaming experimentation). After they had listed these strange rules they began to start messing with the control panel which was infront of them behind the glass. By them doing so it caused the lights to dim and a very bright white light glow from the room the agents were in, only separated from ours by a ten by seven sheet of glass. We heard a small buzz and then a loud click and these puzzling sounds came from the intercom turning on its loud speakers so we could all hear with no chance of us missing a word. One of the men stepped into the room and handed us each a pill before hurrying out of the room with a panic in his step. through the intercom the men told us to ingest those pills and count back from ten while taking deep breaths as we release a gas into the air to help our bodies absorb the pills faster and ensure “safe travels”.
The safe travels part really scared me at that point but by then I had popped the pill and was already at seven but after that I had no recollection until I “awoke”, if I can even say that about what happened. All four of us soon found oursleves in a long and brightly lit corridor with large chalky, white pillars going as far as the eye can see on each side of the marble path before us. With slivers of darkness between each of them that seemed to go on for an eternity with no other walls in sight. We soon heard the agents from what seemed to be through the intercom but no such device was insight. They instructed that we all follow their voice if it was coming from up ahead, it was so we did as instructed which was our first mistake.
It felt as if the walking had gone on for days until we came across four smaller pillars that were about groin high and had four polished stones atop them, one red, one pink, one green, and one blue. The men, that we still had no clue how they, were communicating with us commanded us to each take one of these polished rocks for our safety but no one was buying into that these rocks were gonna save us, but it was the only thing to do at that point and being defenseless, so it was worth a shot.
Subject 2 stepped forth and took the first stone which was pink and he soon complained about feeling hot, sort of like there was a rash under his skin that would not fade.
Subject 3 took the green one and as she did started to cough and needed to breathe but was ultimately fine.
I went next and grabbed red and it had no effect on me which relieved me and scared me at the same time.
And finally subject one grabbed the last one which of course was the blue stone and he began to feel ill and ran over to one of the pillars and slammed his hand against it, bowed his head and proceeded to vomit. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that there was no food in this vomit and actually it only contained stomach acid and the bones and flesh of small animals to which his reaction was telling us frantically that he would not eat little creatures like that and he began to have a panic attack but we soon calmed him down which brought us all a little comfort in this strange “dream”. This whole part of our experience was almost enough to make me spew but I held it down and we all continued as instructed.
After about three hours more of walking we made it to another set of shorter pillars but this time there were only three and had instead of the stones this time it had three shurikens, one bronze, one gold, and one silver. Everyone was very frightened about taking one of these objects from the pillars but out of sheer stupidity I took the bullet and grabbed the silver one. It made my throat go very dry and I was unable to speak for a moment before spitting up a puddle of blood before a wave of calm feeling flushed over me which was very confusion for me and the rest of the people I was with as they were constantly asking why was I not freaking out right now? I simply replied with a simple, “Its OK…” which worried them more but before this little Q and A continued the agents demanded we hurry it up and grab the others.
Subject 1 snatched the bronze one… he just… hobbled into the corner… and… we knew he was not himself any more… he looked up and growled… like a ferral beast before he darted off into the creases in between the pillars not to be seen for a while.
Subject 3 turned back to the shurikens, almost in tears but picked the last one up with bravery… but before she could inspect it, it began to glow with odd symbols seconds before it darted up and spun up her arm and slashing her wrists in the process. I unzipped my jumpsuit and took off the under shirt beneath to wrap around the wrists to cover the wound to try to slow the bleeding. It somewhat worked but it was all we could do for now. Subject 2 without a shuriken had felt a terrible feeling of paranoia and urgency to get away from every thing and every one. We started off again on the path with subject 2 about ten paces behind with almost paralyzing fear, subject 3 with her slashed wrists and me who is perplexed why I was not injured or dead.
We continued to walk onward down the hall for what seemed like about half an hour. This time when we came to the pillars there were only two, one a white sash, and on the other a grey sash. This time subject three picked the first item with not a spec of hesitation in her eyes which concerned me at that point, like she didn’t care what it could do. She grabbed the white sash and draped it over her shoulders and neck but the odd thing was it didn’t have any effect on her and that made me even more afraid. And when the white sash did nothing but sustain life in subject three registered in subject twos mind as the grey must “counteract life” or kill off the wearer and with the immense paranoia that subject two was feeling he made the choice to lunge at the white sash to wear but I could only think to grab at the sash as well to save my own skin not even thinking logically that it may hurt me. But the moment subject two wrapped the grey sash around him self he just… went still… deathly still… then a smoke arose around him while slowly lowering to the ground and fading to expose a pile of bone shards and bits of ash piles. All we could do was stare onward to the next pillar which was almost in sight at the time and do everything in our power not to breakdown.
It was about fifteen minutes of walking before the next stop was insight and before we could make out the out line of it. We heard a buzzing and then a click and a new agents voice came through the non-visible intercom and said, “That there was only one object on this last structure (which we assumed it was a pillar at the time) there is an apple behind the back of its head that you need to get if you want to get home…”
We both looked at each other in puzzling thought but before we could ask him what he meant. He said that there was a large problem – someone or something was in our way that could cause a major threat… and we could not fend it off long enough to get to the object so he was gonna send us something to help us. We were told to stand as still as humanly possible and hold our breath as he sent these supplies and once we were in place and our breath held in as tight as possible we heard a thud behind us. We both turned to look and there was an old bridle oak box. I looked at subject three and she looked back and then we both crouched down to pry it open and once done we found it full of straw and in one of the clumps was a clearly visible pistol with “In God We Trust” etched into the barrel with four bullets in the corner of the box. I loaded the gun and handed it to subject three knowing she would have to be a better shot than me because when I say anyone would be a better shot then me, I mean anyone!
We were only about fifteen steps away from what appeared to be a statue instead of a pillar that resembled the statue, “The Thinker” when a low, fridged howl could have been heard in this now widening hall (It could be considered a room at that point) and from out of the dark slivers between the pillars emerged a barely recognizable subject 1 that had grown large predatory features such as sharper nails and a dark layer of matted fur to blend in to the darkness amongst the pillars and make it easier to sneak up on prey and at this point we were the prey.
Subject 3 shot of one shot at its feet which it leaped up to dodge, she shot once more which also missed but only by luck as it slid between the beasts torso and forearm. It landed and before a third shot could be rung out, it lunged and pounced on subject 3 while mauling her viciously. She threw me the gun and told me to shoot it, and without hesitation or a single thought that this might be a bad idea. I fired a round at its direction. It missed the beast and hit subject 3 dead center of her forehead.
She was dead. I killed her. I began to tear up when the intercom powered on and the agent who had driven me to this wretched place to begin with began to talk to me in his distinct voice that if I do not hurry then her death would have been for nothing! and I would be responsible for every ones torment! so I snapped out of it and ran.
As I sprinted toward the statue the beast saw my attempts to escape my fate to it and so it with extreme speed raced towards me to kill me as well but I was much closer than it. I put smacked my hand against the statues shoulder and gripped it with great force to propel myself around to the back of this hunched statue to see a golden platter with an apple on it but this appeared to be stone and as I lifted it. A message carved into the metal stated, “to undo the damage dealt will stop to pour, bite into its rotting core.”
I thought to myself that I was gonna bite into stone and that was never gonna happen but when your being chase by a corrupted acquaintance. S**t happens, and your just need to stop being logical and take risks, and so I did by cracking into the apples first layer of stone and cracked the ends of my teeth in the process. I shed a tear of pain and upon opening my eyes and looking in that tear drop. I saw the beast no more that three feet away from the droplet and I panicked but that was just enough jolt to get through the stone and into what felt to be a tissue and by then the stone had broken the teeth completely.
My next action happened in less than a millisecond but felt like an eternity. I looked into the beasts eyes for a final time and all I saw was red but soon realized it was the red hate in which was infused into subject 1’s being. I shut my jaw harder than I think physics could explain just to take a chunk of that atrocity of a fruit and hit the rotten core. The smell and taste was enough to make me pass out and before I could even feel the ground beneath me, I awoke on a sheet in the studio and I was alone.
I looked around at the other sheets for the others but in the place of where number 1 should have been was a pink polished stone, a bronze shuriken and a large amount of human blood. In the place of subject 2 was a blue stone, a grey sash, and a pile of dusty white pieces of bone. In the place of subject 3 was a green polished stone, a golden shuriken, a white sash, and two slashes where her wrists should have been. There was also a crease in the sheet and thinking back on it know that crease. It was exactly where the bullet penetrated her skull. But finally, I looked to my right hand, a red polished stone, in my left hand a silver shuriken, and in my mouth was the taste of dust, how raw beef smells and pure rotting.
I vomited right there before two men with clip boards that wanted to ask me some questions. they offered me a chair but I declined because of the fear of vomiting once more which they understood and the lights were turned up and three other men were behind the glass with a micro phone, a voice recorder, and a pad of paper just begging for notes. After about forty-five minutes of questions and a six-hour physical examination, I was given a room for the night to see if I was stable, which I was and that was the decider on whether I could leave that day or not. About a good forty minute drive and I was home and had nothing to do but get by until that check came in mail which it did six days later and was enough to allow me to move out, pay off all debts, and get me a starter car for that matter. But… there will never and I mean NEVER be enough money you will give me to forget the poor lost souls of The Nap Time Experiment.
