The Reality-Shifting Nightmare: A Dream Horror Podcast "Dream A Little Dream"

0:00 Speaker 1: Hey guys, this is Crimson.

0:02 Speaker 2: And this is Swan.

0:03 Speaker 1: Season 3 is here.

0:05 Speaker 3: And we'd love to know what you think of the stories.

0:08 Speaker 1: Even if it's bad.

0:09 Speaker 4: So leave us a comment.

0:11 Speaker 1: Or give us a thumbs up.

0:12 Speaker 5: Thank you! With this key, you unlock the world to your dreams. What lies beyond could be the doorway to nightmare.

1:02 Speaker 5: Come in. Welcome. I'm your host through the doorway to nightmare.

1:10 Speaker 3: Do you dream?

1:13 Speaker 5: What are dreams? What are they made of? Are they glimpses into the past? Or are they forebearers of a frightening future?

1:26 Speaker 1: Don't you understand? I don't want to dream. Ever!

1:32 Speaker 3: But I don't understand, Maya. Why are you so afraid to dream?

1:37 Speaker 1: Because of what happens.

1:38 Speaker 3: What happens in the dreams?

1:40 Speaker 1: No. What happens in the real world. After I dream.

1:48 Speaker 5: Our mystery drama, Dream a Little Dream, was written especially for Doorway to Nightmare by Winslow Swan and edited by Crimson McKenzie. Our stars, Crimson McKenzie and Winslow Swan. It is brought to you in part by Swanage Press. I'll be back shortly with Act One. Act One Consider the world of dreams, an unearthly place where anything can happen, and usually does. Dreams can be fleeting, a brief memory of a time before, and then there is the horrifying world of the nightmare. No.

2:54 Speaker 4: No.

2:56 Speaker 1: Don't go near it. Please, Gerald. Don't touch it. Don't touch it!

3:09 Speaker 3: It is a very terrifying nightmare, Miss Hastings. But it was only a dream.

3:15 Speaker 1: Oh, Doctor. It was much more than that.

3:19 Speaker 3: Please, call me Ted. Or Theodore, if you prefer.

3:22 Speaker 1: Then why do you call me Miss Hastings?

3:25 Speaker 3: Well, that's your name, isn't it? Maya Hastings.

3:28 Speaker 1: It was.

3:29 Speaker 3: Oh, did you get married?

3:31 Speaker 6: Dr.

3:32 Speaker 1: Gilchrist, I've been coming in this office for the past year. You even met my husband once.

3:39 Speaker 3: I'm sorry, but I've never had the pleasure.

3:41 Speaker 1: It's happening. It's actually happening.

3:45 Speaker 3: Miss Hastings, what is happening?

3:48 Speaker 1: Doctor... You really don't remember meeting my husband, Gerald? Do you?

3:54 Speaker 3: Oh, is that his name?

3:55 Speaker 1: You know it is! Until today. I had the dream last night.

4:03 Speaker 3: Yes, where your husband touches a bright light and then just disappears. As I said, simply a nightmare.

4:11 Speaker 1: But it was much more than a nightmare. Don't you see? I dreamed that my husband, Gerald... Vanished without a trace. And today, no one remembers him. It's as if he's been erased.

4:26 Speaker 3: Miss Hastings, Maya, I know that dreams can seem real at times. Some of my nightmares have involved monsters and strange beings. But that's all that they are.

4:42 Speaker 5: Dreams.

4:43 Speaker 3: Dreams.

4:52 Speaker 7: Rain.

4:54 Speaker 1: So much rain. Haven't had rain in days. Maybe weeks.

5:04 Speaker 1: And so heavy. Lightning.

5:08 Speaker 6: No.

5:10 Speaker 1: Stop it. The lightning. It destroyed the courthouse. Stop it. Stop it.

5:19 Speaker 4: Stop it.

5:33 Speaker 3: Another nightmare, Miss Hastings? Yes.

5:37 Speaker 1: I thought we were in the middle of a heat wave.

5:40 Speaker 3: A heat wave? Oh, what I wouldn't give to see the sun again.

5:46 Speaker 1: What do you mean?

5:47 Speaker 3: Miss Hastings, it has been raining for almost a year. Don't you remember? Something about a shift in the polar caps. The first storm started almost a year ago.

5:59 Speaker 6: No.

6:00 Speaker 1: No.

6:02 Speaker 3: The lightning was so bad it destroyed the courthouse. There were almost a hundred people inside.

6:09 Speaker 1: No! It's not possible!

6:20 Speaker 5: John Irving once wrote, Of all the things you choose in life, you don't get to choose what your nightmares are. You don't pick them. They pick you. I'll be back shortly with Act Two. Maya Hastings has been having nightmares that have seemingly been having an effect on the real world. But what is reality?

7:07 Speaker 1: Doctor, I think that I'm losing my mind.

7:11 Speaker 3: Miss Hastings, please calm down. It's going to be all right.

7:15 Speaker 1: No, it isn't all right. Don't you understand?

7:19 Speaker 3: I understand that you are under some sort of a strain. Now, let's just look at this logically.

7:26 Speaker 1: There is no logic to any of this.

7:29 Speaker 3: Please, please calm down. Now, you say that you had a nightmare in which your husband somehow vanished.

7:37 Speaker 1: Yes!

7:39 Speaker 3: And the next day it appears that you not only did not have a husband, but have never been married.

7:44 Speaker 1: But Gerald was real!

7:47 Speaker 3: Alright, let me finish. Then you say that you dreamed the rain and the destruction of the courthouse?

7:55 Speaker 1: Doctor, I saw the courthouse yesterday. We've been in the heat wave for over a month.

8:01 Speaker 3: Miss Hastings, it has been raining for almost a year. Now, in my professional opinion, I believe that you're simply mixing up your nightmares with reality.

8:15 Speaker 1: Doctor, I just want the dreams to stop. Can't you give me something that'll do that?

8:22 Speaker 3: Well, I think that a mild antidepressant and something to help you sleep will be better.

8:29 Speaker 1: And what happens when I drink tonight? What will be changed then?

8:33 Speaker 3: Maya, just take the prescriptions and I'm sure that everything will be fine.

8:44 Speaker 4: Mother?

8:44 Speaker 1: Father? What's happening? What are all these people doing in the house? So many of them. I can hardly move. Wait. What's going on? Oh my god! They're... They're decaying? Becoming corpses? What?

9:14 Speaker 6: No! No!

9:15 Speaker 3: No!

9:16 Speaker 4: Ah, Maya.

9:26 Speaker 3: So good to see you. It's... It's nice to have someone to talk to again.

9:33 Speaker 1: But I've seen you every day for the past week. And what about your other patients?

9:39 Speaker 3: Well, except for you and Mrs. Smithers, who only wants to talk about her dog, I have no other patients. The war took care of that.

9:51 Speaker 5: War?

9:52 Speaker 1: What war?

9:53 Speaker 3: Oh, now please, Miss Hastings, you do remember the war. the chemical bombs that were dropped, the retaliation by our own stupid government that wiped out almost six billion people. It took my own parents.

10:09 Speaker 6: No.

10:11 Speaker 1: I only dreamed them dead.

10:13 Speaker 5: Another nightmare?

10:14 Speaker 3: Well, I can fully understand. I still have nightmares about the people in the street, the blood pouring out of them, making the roads red.

10:27 Speaker 1: Doctor, yesterday I came here and told you that I dreamed a storm. Last night, I dreamed that a multitude of people died, and now you're telling me that a war took them away?

10:39 Speaker 3: Miss Hastings, I can no longer feed this fantasy of yours. You cannot dream things into existence.

10:49 Speaker 1: But apparently I can.

10:50 Speaker 4: I have.

10:52 Speaker 3: Fine. Then just dream all of the people back into the world.

10:56 Speaker 1: I wish that I could. I cannot control what I dream.

11:03 Speaker 3: Perhaps you can.

11:05 Speaker 1: What do you mean?

11:06 Speaker 3: Well, maybe if I hypnotize you and then give you a dream, perhaps that will do it.

11:14 Speaker 1: Do you think that's possible?

11:16 Speaker 3: Well, I believe that it is worth a try.

11:18 Speaker 1: So you do believe me?

11:19 Speaker 5: I don't know.

11:20 Speaker 3: Let's just wait and see.

11:23 Speaker 1: Doctor, could you suggest that I dream of nothing?

11:33 Speaker 5: Maya?

11:35 Speaker 3: Can you hear me, Maya? Yes. You are completely hypnotized.

11:41 Speaker 5: Do you understand?

11:43 Speaker 3: Yes. The only thing that you can hear is my voice.

11:49 Speaker 2: Yes.

11:50 Speaker 3: In a moment, I'm going to suggest a dream. It will be pleasant and soothing.

11:59 Speaker 5: Oh, wait.

12:01 Speaker 3: I can't tell her to dream of nothing. If what she is saying is true, what would happen to the world?

12:12 Speaker 1: I see you, Doctor. You're standing by a large grandfather clock.

12:21 Speaker 3: Maya, listen to me. You are going to dream.

12:25 Speaker 1: The clock is starting to speed up. Going faster and faster.

12:33 Speaker 5: Maya, you must listen to me.

12:35 Speaker 1: You are aging. Faster and faster.

12:39 Speaker 6: Maya.

12:42 Speaker 5: Stop it.

12:43 Speaker 1: Faster and faster and older and older.

12:46 Speaker 3: Stop it.

12:48 Speaker 1: Faster and faster and older and older.

12:51 Speaker 2: Stop it.

12:53 Speaker 4: Stop it.

12:58 Speaker 5: John Lennon once said that he believed in everything until it was disproved. Who is to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now. You be here when I return with Act Three. What dreams may come, asked Hamlet, But when dreams become nightmares, what horrors may invade the mind and the world?

13:49 Speaker 1: Doctor? Are you alright?

13:54 Speaker 2: Do I know you?

13:55 Speaker 1: It's Maya. Maya Hastings. Remember?

14:03 Speaker 2: Are you the new nurse?

14:05 Speaker 1: I was your patient, remember? Yesterday I saw you. You hypnotized me. Yesterday you were a young man, only about 30 years of age.

14:19 Speaker 4: My dear, I'm 87 years old. I'm in this hospital because my body is failing me.

14:29 Speaker 1: I didn't mean for this to happen.

14:34 Speaker 2: Who did you say that you were?

14:36 Speaker 1: I was your patient. I was seeing you about my nightmares, don't you remember?

14:41 Speaker 2: Oh, I've had some horrible nightmares, but they eventually go away. I wouldn't worry about it.

14:53 Speaker 1: No, Doctor, you don't understand. My nightmares really are changing reality.

14:59 Speaker 2: I seem to remember a young girl who did have some nightmares... But that can't possibly be you.

15:10 Speaker 1: Somehow I'll make all of this right. It seems easy enough. Self-hypnosis. I just have to relax myself. I have a recording of myself telling me to dream.

15:34 Speaker 7: To dream.

15:39 Speaker 1: Is the only way I know of.

15:56 Speaker 7: Maya, you can only hear my voice. You're in a deep sleep. You are about to dream. The only way to make things right is to dream back the way things were. The only way is to dream yourself out of existence. It will be the last dream and nightmare that you will ever have.

16:28 Speaker 1: The End.

16:41 Speaker 3: Yes, Miss Fairchilds. Didn't I have an appointment this afternoon?

16:46 Speaker 5: No? Are you sure?

16:48 Speaker 3: I could have sworn that someone was supposed to be here at two. Well, I can't remember her name.

16:58 Speaker 5: I remember that it.

16:58 Speaker 3: Was Maya something, but it's all I can remember. It's all I can remember. I'm sorry, Miss Fairchilds. Did I call down to you, or did you call me? What was I asking about? You don't remember either. Oh well, must not have been important. Just send up the next patient, will you please?

17:27 Speaker 5: Maya Hastings was never heard from again. In fact, no one even remembers having heard or seen... A Maya Hastings. She simply did not exist. I'll return shortly with a final word. The author George Packer wrote, Pay attention to other people's nightmares. because they might be contagious. And as the curtain closes on our little drama, ask yourself, what dreams may come to you? Our cast included Crimson McKenzie and Winslow Swan. The story was edited by Crimson McKenzie, and the entire production was under the direction of Winslow Swan.

18:34 Speaker 5: And now, a preview of our next tale.

18:39 Speaker 6: The rules are very simple. Follow them, and you both will be able to walk out of that room.

18:45 Speaker 5: Just who the hell are you? What is this place?

18:48 Speaker 1: Tim, what does he want?

18:50 Speaker 6: You will notice that the only thing in this room is a table with a telephone. There are two buttons, a red and a green one. When the red one rings, Mr. Dalton will answer. The green one is from Mrs.

19:04 Speaker 5: Dalton.

19:05 Speaker 1: What do you want? What do you want?

19:10 Speaker 6: You will talk to me directly on the phone. The one rule to follow is, no matter what I say, you will not tell your spouse.

19:19 Speaker 5: We don't keep secrets from each other, you maniac.

19:22 Speaker 6: Are you so sure about that, Mr. Dalton?

19:25 Speaker 5: Doorway to Nightmare is brought to you in part by Swanage Press. This is your host, inviting you to return with us through the doorway to nightmare for another adventure into the world of your terrifying imagination. Until next time, slumber peacefully. Epilogue The Butler Did It