The game.

I didn't dream much of anything last night (as I slept hardly any), so I thought I'd share with you guys a fairly interesting (or at least I think it is) dream that I had in high school.

It started off with my friends and I lounging around in the new-ish apartment of one of our older friends. We were sitting in the tiny-ass living room on the hodge-podge furniture that every college student acquires over time, drinking and talking about some game that my friends were really excited to play. I had never played this particular game before, and was fairly uncertain as to what the game actually was. Or were it was. Or how to play. Or really anything. But my friends seemed really excited, and said that it would be a lot of fun... so I believed them.

One by one my friends started wandering into the kitchen and after four or five, I realized that it must be pretty cramped in there (it was TINY). I stayed in the living room as small/crowded spaces make me unhappy and it didn't sound like they were having any more fun than we were, so it didn't really matter either way. People kept wandering into the kitchen. Finally it was just me and some person I didn't know sitting in the living room and I asked, "do you have any idea what they're doing in there or how they all fit?". He gave me a sly look and said simply, "that's the game". He then went into the kitchen. I sat for a moment trying to reassure myself that if the game was really as fun as everyone was saying, then maybe I'd be able to get over the fact that there were tenish people in a kitchen that wasn't big enough for two to cook at the same time.

I got up and walked into the kitchen. It was completely empty, which was mildly startling. There were no signs of anyone, except for a virtual reality-type helmet sitting on the counter. With the resolve that only those in dreams feel, I put on the helmet.

And found myself in a grocery store. A fairly empty grocery store. What. The. Hell.

I wandered around for a bit, trying to find my friends and after row upon row finally came across my technical director from theatre in school. He was holding a giant axe. And he was blindfolded. Again: What. The. Hell. In trying to get a better view of what was going on, I walked into a more open space at the end of the aisles and an arrow landed solidly in the aisle I was closest to, a mere foot from my head. Upon hearing the noise of the arrow hit the shelf, my tech director launched himself at me, wielding the axe as only someone with a true proficiency could.

I turned and RAN. While running, I thought to myself, "this is only a game right?". My friend Lee was hiding among the fruits and veggies and I tucked into his hiding spot with him to get the low down. "What the fuck is going on?"

He explained to me that in the "game" we were playing everyone had one boon and one bane. So my tech director was extremely proficient with killing machine axes, but was blind. The person that shot the arrow at me was good with bow/arrows and had something else that kept them from winning... etc. He wouldn't tell me what his boon/bane were, and insisted that I had something going for me as well. I was pretty sure that I was just me, with nothing any different from normal. Bummer. He continued to say that the goal of the game was to be the last person alive.

I was fairly certain that dying in the game meant dying for real. And was terrified. I convinced myself that if I could just get out of the grocery store, I'd be fine. I'd find a way to end the game and get out. What the heck were my friends thinking, a game like this... without any warning at all.

In my wandering, cautiously now, through the grocery store, I came across my, at that time, boyfriend, lying on the ground legs with his legs bound an in a straight jacket. He looked at me and said "you have 30 seconds to get out of my range". I knew that he'd be able to kill anyone that was close enough to him, and that was why he was bound.

Again, I RAN. This time finding the front of the store. I launched myself outside, in case anyone was posted by the door trying to kill people leaving. The grocery store was in the middle of a field. No parking lot, no cars, no signs of civilization at all. It didn't matter, I kept running until I felt like I was a safe distance away and passed out under the only tree in the field.

I woke up, in my bed in an extremely bizarre mood. To this day, this dream was one of my most vivid detailed. I'm fairly certain I won't ever forget it. I still wonder what my boon and bane were.