The Man in the Bricked In Room

This is a rough draft that is currently from one of my bizarre dreams.  I'm almost to the end of my actual dream and will need some input on where in the world I'm going with this story

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Somehow I discovered a man locked within a bricked in room. I'm fairly certain that I am discovering some inner power but because its so new, I have no idea how to control it or use it properly. I mean, am I to take it literally or is it like a symbol for something else? Since I'm clueless about how to handle what I've been seeing, this man in a bricked up room, I'm taking it literally.

With a certainty that I definitely didn't feel, I determined that this was indeed a vision and that its repetition indicated that I have to act!

Alex knew that I was going to do something that had the potential for being dangerous. He swore that if I didn't bring him along, he would just follow me. It wasn't that I didn't want him to come. It was just strange to not have a set plan but rather to act on my gut feelings or instincts. I had never done this but somehow it was all I could do. Head out and follow my "gut".

We got into my car later that night around 9pm. I felt that we needed to get on the highway as the man in the bricked up room was not near. The pull was toward the Hampton Roads Tunnel heading West, so we headed toward the tunnel. As soon as we came out on the other side, the pull was to exit and head South. Alex spoke up as soon as I started heading south because like me, he knew there was nothing but uninhabited scrub land. Granted, we had never gone down this road simply because everything that one wants is heading in the other direction. This direction was never developed. But I was being pulled in that direction, so that's what I did. After a half an hour or more I was about to admit that this was a silly idea. This attempt to just follow this newfound "gift?" was simply a desperate effort to stop the visions of this man in a bricked in room. During all of this time, we had yet to see any lights or any homes; Nothing. I said, "Alex, I'm sorry.." When I hear a loud Stop, you passed it, pull over. I looked at Alex. "Alex", I said, "Please please tell me that you heard something just now?". For a second I thought he had. He said, "Of course I did, you said..." I waved him off, "No, not ME!" I about shouted. He obviously didn't hear a thing other than me speaking.

As the road dipped, I pulled the car way over into some tall brush and shut the car off. Shaking my head, I explained to Alex what just happened. "But we haven't seen anything that remotely looks like ANYTHING out here. Its also pitch black, I'm going to use my camera flash so we don't break out necks out here." "No Alex", I quickly whispered grabbing his phone before he could turn on the light. I threw his and mine in the car and quietly locked the doors. He is used to my weird behaviors but I'm pretty sure this was the weirdest I had ever been.  He yanked my hood as a reminder to make sure we were both as camouflaged as possible.  We stood outside the car trying to acclimate to the darkness.  Wow, was it quiet!  This quiet didn't seem natural, it seemed like the countryside was holding its breath!  Creepy!  Still perplexed, Alex whispered while trying to look around, "WTH, there isn't a fence or anything in the way of security, are you sure this is it?"  "I don't know why Alex, " I said as I gingerly walked back down the road with him by my side, "Its different now, its confusing because I was certain that this was where the man was...  but now I'm certain that we need to be here but I'm feeling that the man in my vision is NOT here."  I'm really starting to feel a bit nuts but I kept on my initial path and tried not to make sense of it all.  It was about this point in our adventure that I realized how grateful I was to have Alex with me.  Even if he was on the verge of whining, his stickwithme-ness was priceless!

We walked for ten minutes or so, I couldn't be certain without my phone, but I'm guessing about ten minutes, until we came upon a car width depression in the grass.  It wasn't a driveway by normal standards, but it sure seemed different than the weeds and stuff that we had been trudging through.  The depression led us off of the road to the left.  We followed it slowly.  The moon was now able to help us a little now that our eyes were more attuned to the dark.  I felt as though there was a magnet in my chest being drawn down this path.  That's the closest description that I could think of using trying to describe this pulling that I felt. That said, its still not an adequate description but there you have it.  I felt more than saw something looming ahead.  Grabbing the back of Alex's hoodie to halt him, I pointed up ahead and leaned closer to whisper in his ear.  "I'm pretty sure there is a building over there" I said while pointing up ahead and a little to the right.  The depressed grass head off to the left, so we stepped back into the taller weeds.  Two steps into the weeds, we could feel the ground change from dirt to cement.  Well, cement covered in weeds.  But, it was a change.  It didn't feel like anyone was around.  Heck, it felt like we were the only two people on Earth it was so desolate feeling!

Five feet in we found a low lying building.  It reminded me of those buildings that you see around like pump houses or something.  Just a bomb shelter feel to it.   This building had a non descript door on the side, another on the back and two small windows.  Now I felt certain that the man needing rescue was definitely not here.  What was so confounding was the knowledge that I HAD to get inside this building and I was running out of time!  That front door had a deadbolt.  Nothing too challenging but it would not be ideal in case there was some type of security that checked on this place.  It could have been a storage place or something.  The building didn't seem very important if that makes sense.  While I'm stuck in my head trying again to make sense of this non sensical situation, Alex was taking action.  I scrambled to see what the crash was and saw that he had gotten a rock and busted the small window in the back.  He reached in and unlatched the window.  While climbing in he whispered that he didn't see any security system so he took the chance. "Open the door for me, k?" I asked but just as I finished the sentence, the back door was opening.  The room was illuminated by various LED lights.  It appeared like a plain office and also, there was no indication of any sort of alarm.  I was reminded of a trucker dispatch office that my Mom once worked in.  No Frills.   Alex clicked on a small desk lamp and it didn't seem to be anything to worry about as it only illuminated the desk top.  My brain clicked at the same time that lamp did and I grabbed a pen from the pen holder.  There was a pad of sticky notes that I also grabbed and wrote down a seemingly random phone number.  Again, this number had been sounding in my head for the last ten minutes or so but I only started to pay attention once it got so loud that I thought surely Alex could hear it to.  Once I wrote , I could 671-921-4720 I could see it was a phone number and it felt like that is why we had to come to this place.  Which, I gotta tell you seems pretty dumb as I could have called from my own phone in my own house!  But, I digress.  Nothing seemed to be happening in or out of this small building but my heart rate was running!  I quickly picked up the non-descript phone and dialed the number.  "Listen" an unfamiliar mans voice said on the other end of the line. "Hello?" I said, "I think I'm here to help a man in a bricked in room but I'm j..".  "Stop talking and listen." He said briskly, "Get out now! You are in Danger!" I didn't even get the word "What" out of my mouth before I heard someone at the front door, testing the doorknob.  All we had time to do was to hunker down on the far side of the desk.  A woman flung open the front door.  "I know you are hiding, stand up now and I won't shoot you through the desk." She spoke like a pissed off principal but of course a school principal would never say those words I know, it was more her control that she used while speaking.  So we did what you would expect.  We stood up.  As we were slowly standing up, Alex mumbles, ""Look cold and follow my lead."  Thank God he had a plan because I was drawing a blank.

What we found behind a coolly ominous gun, (I think it was a 9mm, its not like I can freaking google it at the moment, but I'm going with a 9mm), was a seriously uptight woman, wearing a black suit.  I mean, Really?  Its late at night and this woman looks like she's on her way to the office.  Also, It became clearly apparent that we weren't as educated in what is and what is not a security system as there in no way this  woman just happened to come into the "office" with a gun at the ready.  So much for our B&E going unnoticed!  Can I say now that I have never been so scared!  I'm not kidding, I was shaking and it wasn't from pretending to be cold!  There was no need to pretend to be cold, I was for real about to fall out from fear.  I'm not ashamed to say that I'm fairly certain I looked pretty pathetic, if not mentally challenged, as I stood there.  And Alex, where did this calm guy come from?  This cool as a cucumber Alex began speaking calmly and pleadingly, "Ma'am, we are so sorry to be in this place without permission.  It was sort of an emergency situation.  We aren't burglars or hoodlums, really.  You see, some idiot kids, well not kids but late teens, sort of threw us in their trunk!  They let us out eventually but it was way out here in the middle of nowhere!  I swear!"  OMG, he had tears in his eyes and I was starting to believe him.  But, Mrs. stone face didn't blink an eye.  Seeing that she wasn't moved at all but was getting red in the face, he continued quickly before she could make a decision that was certainly not going to be in our favor.  "We did knock" he said.  "When no-one answered the door I tried the door knob and thought we had been given the gift of a miracle." she looked dubiously as he stammered, "The door was unlocked!  That's what was the miracle."  "Ma'am we were scared because its really dark out there and those jerks might have come back for us."  "Truly, we didn't come here to cause trouble.  We don't even know what this place is.  Heck, I doubt we could even find our way here again, ever!"  Finally, she started to look around while keeping that dang gun pointed at us.  The area wasn't large so she was able to easily keep us in her peripheral.  It seemed to me that the gun wielding woman might be wavering.  She seemed to be resolved about what she thought we were doing there.  She used her left hand to start pulling on her desk drawers that were solidly locked and she appeared satisfied that they had been left unmolested.  I was still shaking, but the sweat dripping from my forehead may be a dead giveaway to my anxiety as I looked at her desktop.  I took the sticky note with me when I hid but I couldn't remember if I moved anything else when I made the call.  My eyes landed on the pencil that I had used laying to the right of the phone.  Truthfully, I was trying to summon tears.  It was the only thing that I could think of but damn if I wasn't as dry as the Sahara due to fear.  She stood quietly studying her desktop.  Apparently, she too saw the pencil or some other microscopic change in the topography of her desk.  My inner voice gets all cocky asking me how damn anal was this woman?  Not the time for an inner dialogue!  Moving suddenly, she grabbed me and demanded, "Who did you call?".  I was amazed to realize that I did not wet myself because this was a whole other level of fear!  As she started to shake me, I couldn't summon up one single word.  Alex again came to the rescue.  He blurted out, "We were trying to call our friend to come pick us up.  The call didn't work, I think its cause I forgot to put in an area code first.  I was about to try again when we heard the door handle.  We hid because we were afraid it was those guys again!"  While he spoke, she let me slide down the wall onto the floor.  Its a good thing because I am not sure I could stand anytime soon.  She waved him over with the gun indicating that he should sit next to me against the wall.  I grabbed Alex's' hand so tightly and I gained a small bit of composure.  Well, I think I did at least.  He was like a living dose of Xanax to me or lavender if you prefer.  Thank God he was with me but I felt horrible to have dragged him into this situation.  That calm disappeared quickly as the Witch went to pick up the phones handset.  I can only guess that she was going to hit redial and find out that we did reach someone.  We both jumped as she slammed the phone down.  Through her gritted teeth she growled, "F_ ing Secured Lines!  (What was this place anyway)  Now I'm certain that this place is someplace that we were going to wish we had never crossed paths with.  Summoning words in a last ditch effort, I plead, "Ma'am, we really just stumbled on this place.  We don't even know what this place is.  Ok, we lied about the door (as she was eyeing the broken glass) but that's because we didn't want you to be angry.  We can pay you back to fix the glass.  It shouldn't cost that much, its just a small pane... "  words were just projectile vomiting into the room and I could clearly see that it was NOT making our situation any better.  Tired of wasting her time with us, she stated matter-of-factly, "Enough Bullshit".  I'm pretty sure that is what she said, as she barely finished saying shit when she shot of two shots.  I got the first letter of Alex's name out before all was black.  She really was a cold hearted bitch!

Imagine my head throbbing surprise to find myself not dead!  That is about the only thing that I knew for sure.  Groaning brought my attention to another truth!  Alex was also not dead!  I gotta say this.  I've seen people being depicted as being tranquilized on T.V. and well, I had it in my mind as some sort of a slow motion slumping to the ground.  Well, I wasn't awake to see it, but lemme tell you, I did not gently go down! That after-thunk is NOT a small trivial thing.  My body wasn't as concerned at the area that I was shot because my body was wondering when I fell down a few flights of stairs.... again.  Yeah, I am often called Grace, but its because I am the opposite of graceful.  But, whatever, so I'm an accident waiting to happen.  This time it wasn't MY fault.  Now that I'm wondering about how I feel, its dawning on me that while I was out, that biatch must have kicked me a time or two.  I am certainly regretting my proximity to that desks sharp corner.  But what's another scar.  Based on the meandering I'm doing in my own head leads me to the possibility of a concussion.  As I pull my thoughts out of my own head and into the room, I see Alex sitting up rubbing his eyes.  I'm not jealous, but he doesn't look that bad!  He looks like he is waking from a Nyquil haze and not sore at all.  I bet that he slumped and I hit every piece of furniture on the way to the floor!  

Ewwww, as I began to take a visual inventory of my woes, I see a friggin dart hanging out of my shoulder.  I'm immediately pissed off. "SHE SHOT ME!" I try to yell but have to hold my head in place while it reverberates my yelling.  Bad idea that.  There is something about the way that cold as ice bitch shot me AND Alex without a by your leave.  I know, NOW, that it wasn't a bullet.  Perhaps I should be grateful, but I can't summon up one ounce of anything but rage at her.  I think that I could rip her apart by my bare hands, well not until this headache is gone and I can stand  up, but just the same, "her ass is grass!".  "What?", Alex said.  "Are you ok?", I asked him quietly.  The head pain wouldn't allow anything louder.  "This isn't a bricked in room, so I know we aren't there, right?  But Pris, where are we?"  "Holy Crap! Don't be so Loud!" I cried holding my head.  Yet another clue that he gracefully took his tranquilizer with little damage.  But it did cause me to look around.  Truthfully, if we were under attack, I would be a goner.  I have never been so oblivious.  Normally, I'm a lot more aware dang it.  But Alex is right, this is not our normal sort of situation and we better figure out how to get home before we get in trouble.  Wait, what am I thinking?  We need to figure out how to get out of wherever we are so we can remain not DEAD!  As I look at Alex, I can finally see just one Alex. Its progress. Its not that I'm unaware that we could still be in a dangerous situation its just that I'm having a hard time summoning up the energy to even bother.  Hmm,  what is that called? Defeatist? No, uh..  Damn!  Do you see what I mean?  Instead of summoning some survival instincts, I'm analyzing my lack of whatever it is I need to get us out of this.  I should at the very least, figure out what THIS is!  "Pris" Alex says. I open one eye and attempt to glare at him.  I am coming around because I recall that he called me Pris earlier.  I vowed to kick his ass if he didn't lose the nickname that he has always thought was apropos for me.  It makes zero sense to me.  I've asked him to call me almost anything else that would remotely relate to something real about me.  I'll get into that more later if we make it to "later".  "Alex...", I sigh.  "I know, I know but Pris, we aren't tied up or anything like that!" He said urgently.  "No Shit Sherlock" I blurt out feeling better by the minute.  I am somewhat dismayed that Captain Obvious couldn't come up with a more helpful observation. Alex, ignoring my interruption, continued, "No no listen, don't you think it's a little weird, considering that we were knocked out and brought here,  but she, or they, didn't bother to tie us up?  What do you think that means?"  My thinking ability was slow to start, but it was beginning to start.  "Well", I said "that is kind of messed uh" the door opening shuts me up mid-word.  I went from Fight of Flight to Calm in a freakishly fast.  This guy was not in cahoots with the woman in black.  I have no idea how I knew that because I have never seen this guy in my life!  I heard Alex whisper, "What the Heck Pris"? and I knew that he also felt that weird conflicting sensation.  It was like your about to drop into the loop on a roller coaster one second and the next, your singing some mantra with a Tibetan Monk!  In my gut I knew this guy was the dude on the phone and my new "intuition" thing was working its magic and was sort of speaking to his wuwu magic.  I really have got to get a name for this new intruder in my brain!  Alex and I were way chill and just lazily looking at each other when I shook my head in an attempt to clear it and act appropriate to this situation.  I'm starting to feel like we are in a twilight zone!  Alex had come over to sit on the edge of my bed and had a stupid grin on his face.  "Alex, Wake Up!"  He looked at me as though I just kicked a puppy.... Ugh.............  

  -Sheryl