It was dark... It was quiet... Nothing seemed real, or even there to begin with... A faint ringing was in the air of wherever it was that this place existed, and it was beginning to annoy the person currently experiencing this world's environment. Coree reached out, and although he could make out the details of his hand well enough, he still felt strangely blind, not capable of grasping onto a single item in front of him. He could see what it was he was trying to grasp, but it was like the damn thing was tricking his senses, making him miss it so clearly with each swipe of his hand. Moving past annoyance, he slowly started getting agitated at the whole situation. Not only did he not know where he was, but he seemed to be losing his body's proper motor functions as well. This meant that it would be a pain trying to find the exit by touch alone...
"What the...fuck..." he said out loud in a soft, confused tone. His voice sounded strangely distorted under the weight of the eerie darkness that surrounded him. It took him a little while, but he eventually arrived at the conclusion that he must be dreaming. That had to be it, after all; there was no such area on this Earth that could harbor such an unnatural darkness, and it was just too outlandish to believe he was actually in another realm of some kind. It was as if this darkness was a living, breathing creature, purposefully obscuring his view as best it could, just for the sole purpose of annoying the hell out of him. It was heavy, suffocating and smelled pretty foul to boot. He also felt the odd sensation that he was submerged in some kind of liquid, making him feel uncomfortable. He'd had enough of it, that was for sure. Deciding it was time to wake up, he struck himself across the face, the result being a loud smacking sound that seemed muffled, yet also some how echoed within his own mind, leaving him with a slight sting in his left cheek.
The pain was real, he felt it in full. And yet, he didn't wake up from this shitty dream... He smacked himself a couple more times with a frustrated "Come on...!", until he finally gave up with a sigh, his movements slow and sluggish. He gave the area around him another look, squinting his eyes to see if he could make out some from of a door or window -- something that screamed to him 'Hey, over here! This is the way out!', but the further detail he tried to make out, the deeper the blackness of the darkened air seemed to increase, not letting him find what he was looking for.
"Tch, god dammit..." he said, feeling a bit hopeless at the moment. He tried taking a step forward, only to find that his equilibrium was choppy, nearly causing him to fall over. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, righting his balance once more. "Shit. What's up with this place...?" Asking no one in particular, he looked around again, almost hoping that someone would give him an answer. What happened next was both strangely enlightening, and very creepy. He had hoped some one had answered him...but it was instead, some thing...
"Just take a look around, boy~" replied a very raspy, mocking voice, clearly not one your average human being would make. "Reaaaalllly look~..." The unknown voice repeated itself, as if trying to hint at something important. Coree felt the presence of another life form, or rather...something so strong, it gave off the feeling of no life at all, which made Coree shiver a little.
"Who are you...?" asked Coree to the bodiless voice, while at the same time squinting once again, trying to see what it was this thing was trying to point out to him. Nevertheless, he still couldn't make out anything other than what was lying directly in front of his feet, and even that was difficult... "I can't see shit, man... Help me out, here." Coree was now asking for some assistance from his dream's apparent antagonist, feeling that, since it's his dream, he should be somewhat in control...right? Wrong. A shrill cackle of a laughter entered Coree's ears. He had never heard a more wicked sound in all his life.
"Help you?" parroted the voice, sounding amused. "Now why on Earth would I do something like that~?" A simple question, and one that Coree couldn't answer with certainty.
"Uhhh...because this is my dream? And I'm ordering you to let me wake up...?" he said, obviously unsure of himself. This answer resulted in yet another laugh from the voice. Coree felt whatever it was draw in closer to him, right beside his ear.
"Hehehe... Whoever said this was your dream, boy~?" Before Coree could respond however, the voice continued on. "THIS...is my dream. You're nothing more than my guest of honor at the moment." Coree felt his chest tighten at those words. This nightmare was effective, for sure. It was doing its job beautifully, as that sentence truly scared him. If it was not his dream, then what hope did he have of ever escaping its confines?
Without even thinking about it, Coree looked down at his feet for a second, almost looking back up, but something that caught his eye forced him to do a double take, now creasing his brow out of noticing just what it seemed to be... The voice gave another laugh, and said "There you go~! Start with what you can see~..." After that, the voice went silent once again, leaving Coree to inspect whatever it was that was laying in front of his feet. He knelt down on one knee, looking the object over a few times before reaching for it, clumsily, until his hand touched its cold, slimy material. He cocked his head slightly, his brow still creased as he brought his face closer to what revealed itself to be a dead body.
"Sh--SHIT!!" he exclaimed, falling backwards and flat on his ass, his chest heaving up and down at an alarming rate. Almost immediately after falling back, he felt his palm land on yet another slimy substance, which instantly made him recoil and shoot his head back at its direction, shifting away from what was likely a second dead body. The voice was laughing incredibly loud, the cackle pounding against Coree's eardrums. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS DREAM?!" he cried out to the voice, which only kept on laughing as the area around Coree slowly began lighting itself in an ocean-like blue tint, revealing more and more bodies that were mostly piled together; each pile growing in size to that of mountains. And that was when Coree realized just where in the world he was upon seeing a familiar face. A face which he had not seen in person for 2 years. The face of his dead girlfriend, along with several others he was beginning to recognize; their bodies grouped together with her own, all of them, naked and battered. Coree was currently under the surface of the water where so many people had taken their own lives just 24 months ago...
Realizing this, his body reflexively feared for suffocating due to lack of oxygen, but his fear was swallowed whole by what his eyes took in next... Suddenly, a vicious looking creature with no noticeable human features for a face moved into view, its razor-sharp teeth formed into a tight grin. It opened its mouth and moved straight for Coree's face with insane speed. "Holy-- FUCK!!" was all his voice could muster as the darkness of the creature's mouth closed around him, just before he woke up in his stifling trailer, in bed, with his alarm clock destroying his senses. He was sweating profusely as he wiped his face out of reflex, breathing heavily. "Shiiiit...!" he gasped, looking around his familiar surroundings. "That was the worst one yet..." He sat up and turned off his alarm, resting his head in his hands, trying to recover from his rude awakening.
For the past couple of weeks, Coree had been having reoccurring nightmares similar to this one. However, none had been so vivid, so terribly real, unlike this one... He was beginning to question his sanity, his mind naturally linking the dreams with that of what his late friend and lover once told them they both had from time-to-time. Perhaps he was relapsing into another depression of some kind? Either way, it was too coincidental to be significant. He had to be placing the idea of that creature into his subconscious simply because David and Carly had mentioned it to him... Yeah, that had to be it.
After recovering from the after effects of his nightmare, Coree started his day. He ate a small breakfast, checked out the news on his small flatscreen television, brushed his teeth, took a shower, got dressed in his usual plaid-like button-up shirt and regular jeans, and set out for the day. He had a lot to do, and that nightmare set him back an hour. He drove his bike into town to run a quick errand for a friend of his by the name of Nizhoni Benett; an older cousin of Coree's late best friend David Benett. Coree naturally began conversing with Nizhoni on a regular basis after he became a mechanic 18 months ago, as though both live rather close to one another, the path to their respective jobs sort of just intersecting with one another.
Nizhoni had asked him to bring her some crab -- for God knows what reason -- the next time he was in town, as the guy whose job it was to land those suckers owed Coree for fixing the guy's car one time, so Coree could easily get such a pricey load of crab for little to no charge at all. Being a nice guy, Coree naturally accepted his friend's request. She probably needed them for some crazy remedy or something. Either way, he now had a bushel of around 20 crabs in his hand as he jogged down the street, passing by who thought to be Adriana Ryker, someone he knew through his parents mostly, despite seeing her at school once in awhile, back when he was a student.
His bike was currently parked back at the shop, as he was on break, so he didn't have to worry about some asshole messing with it while he took a quick run over to Nizhoni's, which wasn't too far from his current location. After arriving, he slowed his jog to a stop, noticing that he wasn't the only person who had business with Nizhoni. Her cousin, Jimmy was there, along with a cute little blonde which he didn't fully recognize. He held the bushel of crabs at his side as he brushed the hair from his forehead and spoke up.
"Hey, Jimmy. Your cousin in? Because she'd better be after asking me to haul these fuckers down here..." he said, giving the crabs in question a look, indicating them more openly. Needless to say, it would really suck if she wasn't there, as he simply didn't have anywhere else to put 20 crabs at the moment, and it was likely already looking pretty strange to see Coree Aramon carrying around a bunch of seafood...