Two of my friends (whom I will call Jacob and Billy) were visiting my house. They were trying to convince me to join them in playing a persistent game that involved "building the ultimate weapon." They showed me the website; it was very poorly done and showed that you start the game by choosing one of twelve base mythical creatures with strange named like "Bumblebuzz in Purple". They were illustrated by incredibly bad CG images. I wasn't interested in spite of their constant insistence.
Jacob and Billy donned black hoods and cloaks and went to the top of a hill with a bunch of other players, similarly dressed. There was a large oak tree in the center of the hill with black bark and no leaves. I watched their odd chanting for a bit, then left.
I went to a big lodge with a massive porch that went out onto a lake. It was in the height of summer but everyone on the porch seemed to be getting ready for snow sports like alpine skiing. They all struck me as childish and juvenile. I went down the porch steps to the water and talked to the boat man, a hideously ugly but sweet old man who had a returned dislike for the porch kids.
Then three girls came down from the porch and started harassing the boat man. I'll go easy on details; suffice it to say they framed him for doing unspeakable things. The boat man pushed me into the water to protect me from implication and I swam away, backwards and facing up but about ten feet under the clear green water. I saw the boat man hauled away in chains with the girls still pointing and sobbing.
I got out the other side of the lake into a maze of boulders, rubble, and hedges. For several minutes I hid from tourists who were walking through the area taking pictures. I saw a young couple walking hand in hand toward where I was hiding; I hastily scaled a brick wall and flung myself into a crater on the other side. Then I looked up and saw that the girl had noticed me. We made eye contact and for a tense instant I thought she would shout out my position. But she just kept walking.
Later I found myself in a large open log building in the center of a town. Two of my friends (I don't remember recognizing them specifically) were getting married but lamented the lack of a minister. I said I'd help. Somehow I summoned one. The minister entered in authentic 1700s garb with a crude 4-foot wooden cross in one hand and a massive Bible in the other. He looked very young - barely older than me.
I got a sinking feeling that what had happened to the boat man was about to happen to him. I had helped in the plot. I felt awful. The minister began the ceremony. Suddenly two policemen in sky blue uniforms burst into the room and shouted: "Freeze!" I looked around, trying to confirm who they were looking at. They both drew guns and put them in my face. I was handcuffed and hauled out the building; there was laughter inside. I was thrown down onto the curb and looked up to see writing on the side of the squad car, which said something like: "Scare your friends for great fun!" I realized these weren't real cops; they were just playing around.
This is so illegal, I thought; but I tried to play along.
There was a male cop and a female cop; the male had a huge black mustache. "Don't worry," he said, fake-kicking me in the groin. "We're just putting on a show for your friends inside."
I heard more laughter in the log building; apparently everyone thought this was hysterical. The male cop raised his baton and swung down toward me, stopping an inch from my head. I reacted appropriately. Then I felt a spasm of panic and looked up at the squad car to see my own blood splashed against it. What had been a joke had suddenly become very, very real. I was handcuffed on the sidewalk and about to be beaten to a pulp while my friends watched and laughed, thinking it was all a joke.
Before it became a nightmare, I woke.
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