The original draft was written on a mechanical typewriter, single-spaced, with no right margin. It was based on a dream I had shortly before writing began, during the summer between 8th and 9th grade, which itself had been inspired by Beyond and Back.
All spellings, punctuation, capitalizations, strings of exclamation points, etc. are as in the original.
NUMBER 3 IN THE DREAM SERIES!!!
CHAPTER ONE: 'TILL DEATH DO US PART...
Boy, what a hectic day that was! I was certainly glad to be out of Lincoln for awhile. I could go to Mr. Kessler's class and check out the scene. AS usual, the day was going smoothly.
In the middle of the day, around 12:30, it was litterature time. This, for some strange reason that day, was to some extent boring. For this reason, I put my head down on the desk, and my eyes faded heavy. Just as soon as my eyes started closing, I started feeling really weird. And for a good reason, too — I saw the brightest light that would ever be seen. However, it didn't seem piercing — it felt soothingly warm, and "asked" me to follow it. I did this, with very little restraint, as if I were being pulled. When I came past this, I ended up at Lincoln jr. high school. Strange, though, I expected to be at some kind of door or gateway. Nevertheless, I started lokking around the place, to adjust to being dead.
My first encounter was with Mr. Runyon. No, he wasn't dead, but I did try the old theory of passing through another body. Well, it sort-of worked. I mean, I passed my hand through him, but he felt a weird sensation in his shoulder, and thought he felt something passing through him (surprisingly). MY second sighting was of Vriana Dean; that dead girl. Finally, I saw (you'll never guess unless you look ahead!) — Demond Garland - dead! It was almost unbelievable!! I couldn't believe he had died without anyone (including me) knowing about it!!!
I don't think I even realized why he was dead; he never was! He never even had a deathly existence; he was supposed to be alive, but he was never even there. Ant that moment, I walked into Kreuter's homeroom. I, at that time of day was supposed to be in her homeroom. During the time of my walking to her homeroom, I felt really weird — but I felt normal! I was too normal!
I walked into Kreuter's homeroom, and was constantly walking around the room. The people there didn't seem to know of my death, and their eyes sometimes even seemed to follow me around. I walked up to Kreuter and tried to convey through some mediumish force that I was here; whispering silently "I'm here, I'm here!", spraying my hands towards her face, and walking slowly towards her. Finally, I had a knowtion to try to pass my hand through her shoulder....
CHAPTER TWO: LIFE AFTER DEATH...
I swung my arm around towards her shoulder, attempting to make a karate pass through it. It was about at the point of her shoulder, when it made contact!!! And it made contact hard! But before Ms. Kreuter could reply with "hey!", I cried out, "I'm solid! I'M SOLID!!! SOLID!!!!" I ran down the main hall, through the outdoor basketball courts, and past the bike rack. I was almost out of the front gate, when it hit me. "What in hell am I doing???!?", I said to myself. "Why and how did I come back to life? I was dead, so how can I be so energetic? It just doesn't make sense."
After about 10 minutes, I decided I needed a place to think about this. A place nearer to nature, since I didn't feel this was a real natural death. I walked towards the north edge of Santa Monica, Where I knew of a Natural-type pond area.
At last, after walking for about 20 minutes, I came upon the pond myself, but I was not alone. There, along with me, was Mr. Hurst (I don't think all those rumors about him were true).
"What are you doing here?", I asked.
"Contemplating," replied Hurst, "I've been wondering why in hell I died and got reborn."
"It happened to you, too???!?", I asked, anxiously.
"I didn't even know that it had happened to you. You see, I've almost caught these murderers, but I'm scared of the consequences if the catch me first. They've been constantly playing tricks on people, making a temporary death simulation, and making people think they're all right. But now, they've convinced everyone they're good guys, and are beginning to really kill people. I have a feeling they were contemplating on you to kill after they had their holographic fun. It's obvious they were almost caught, and had to give out on you. But now I'm sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that their next victim is going to really die."
"YOU mean this was all a holographic plot? A laser-ous syndrome? Oh, my god! They've got to be stopped!!!" I didn't even wait for Mr. Hurst's reply. I simply got up, and darted down towards Santa Monica....
CHAPTER THREE: MURDER BY DEATH...
I finally, after an exhausting 7-minute run, came into Lincoln. I could tell they weren't there, and never had been. However, I knew that they would be at Mr. Kesslers' class to pick off the next visitor. I went in to the main office, and checked out who was next to go to Mr. Kessler's class. It was David Thomas!!! I knew him as one of the better one of the people I knew. I had to prevent his murder!!!
I ran as fast as I could down to Washington, and Mr. Kessler's class. I finally reached their pick-up point. They were about to kill David! With a new burst of strength, I darted over to the murderers. Unfortunately, one of them saw me coming, and came at me with a knife. However, he was a total rank amateur, and I was able to dodge the swing. The knife missed me, and drove a ½-inch deep into the ground. Thinking quickly, I removed the knife from the ground, but with such speed that I accidentally slit the front of one of the murderers (along with his throat), killing him. Seeing this, the other murderer was so damn scared, he ran as fast as I had come. David Thomas was safe.
David was still in a holographic sleep, so I simply turned off the lasers, and he woke up. The next day in period 1, Mr. Kramer asked, "Where were you yesterday"???!?
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