Monkey Dream

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*2013 - I made a little alteration to the translation.

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I was dreaming. Ever since I was a child, I was sometimes aware, when I was dreaming, that I was in a dream. This time was the same. I was standing on the platform of a dark, empty railway station. What a gloomy dream, I thought. Then an announcement was made, in a dull, spiritless voice of a man;
"The train is approaching. If you get on it something scarrrry will happen to youuuu." It sounded nonsensical.
Soon the train came in. It wasn't a proper train, but rather like a monkey train (*1) you might see in amusement parks, and there were some men and women seated on it in a row.

I sensed something unusual about the dream, but decided to get on the train, just to see how much fear I could take. If I really found it too much I could always wake up. I was able to make myself wake up whenever I wanted, but the only time I could do that was when I was aware I was dreaming.

I settled in the third seat from the back. The air around me felt so realistically warm it was hard to believe this was a dream at all.

"The train is deparrrtiiiing," said the announcement, and the train started moving. My heart was pounding hard with both anxiety and expectation. The train entered into a tunnel soon after leaving the platform. The tunnel was illuminated with a mysterious purple-ish light.

This tunnel - I thought - is like the tunnel I saw on that "ghost train" ride in an amusement park I once went when I was a child. This thing I'm on too is just a monkey train. After all, this dream, like any other dreams, is just made up of pieces of my own memories. It doesn't feel scary at all.

Just then there was another announcement. "The next station is, Sliced Alive, Sliced Aliiiiiive(*2)."
Sliced alive? You mean like a fish? While I was still wondering, a loud scream broke out from behind. When I turned around, I saw the man in the last seat was surrounded by four ugly midgets ( 3*) dressed in rags.

Before my eyes, the man was cut into pieces with sharp knives just like what they would do to prepare for a sliced fish dish. An overpowering stench filled the air, and the man screamed and screamed until my ears began to hurt. Bloody intestines and various organs were pulled out of the man's body and scattered all around him. Immediately behind me sat an ashen-faced woman with long hair, but she seemed totally uninterested of what was happening behind her, in spite of the ghastly din it was making.

I for one was certainly unprepared for this turn of events, and began to feel scared. I thought I would wait a little longer and see what happened next, and then try to wake up. Before I knew it, the man on the last seat was gone, leaving behind only some dark, reddish blood and chunks of meat. The woman behind me was still looking straight ahead with a blank look on her face.

"The next station is Gouging Ouuut, Gouuuging Ouuuuut," the announcement said.
This time two midgets appeared and with something that looked like serrated spoons they began to gouge out the eyes of the woman behind me. The woman's face, which had been a total blank only a moment before, turned into a mask of great fear and pain; then came from her a piercing scream, which nearly shattered my eardrums. I saw her eyeballs pop out. The stench of sweat and blood was unbearable. I bent over, trembling with fear. This was it. I couldn't bear it anymore. Guessing from how things had been, the next would be my turn, since I sat in the third seat from the back. I was going to wake up - but not, I decided, before I check what the announcement would be next.

"The next station is Mince Meat, Mince Meeeaaaat."
This was the worst I could possibly expect. I could easily imagine what was going to happen. I focused all my energy on waking up from the dream. "Wake up, wake up, wake up....." This intensive praying was usually enough to escape from a dream.
Abruptly, I heard something buzzing and wheezing close to me. A midget crawled up into my lap and held up some sort of device and waved it towards me. It must be a tool to turn me into  mince meat. Still, all I could do was close my eyes tight and pray frantically "come on, please, wake up! Wake up wake up wake up wake up...!" The buzzing sound was getting closer and closer. Finally it got so close that I felt the wind pressure on my face. And just when I thought it was the end of me, everything became quiet and still.

I managed to escape from the nightmare. I was wet all over with sweat, and tears were streaming down my cheeks. It wasn't until after I went to the kitchen and drank tons of water, that I was finally able to calm down. The dream was real - too real; but it was just a dream, nothing more, I told myself.

The following day at school I told my friends about the dream. They just found it funny. It was only a dream, they said, and that was all.
Then four years passed and I became a college student. I kept myself busy with studying and working. So much had been going on in my life that by that time I had completely forgotten about the dream.

But one night, it started again.
"The next station is Gouging Ouuut, Gouuuging Ouuuuut," the dream began from that scene. Immediately, my memories came flooding back. Things carried on in exactly the same way as before. The two midgets were gouging out the woman's eyes. I started praying straight away ."Wake up, wake up, wake up!"

But this time, for some reason, I couldn't wake up as easily as the last time. "Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up....."

"The next station is Mince Meat, Mince Meeeaaaat," said the announcement. The time was running out. I heard the familiar buzzing, and it was getting closer and closer. "Wake up, come on, wake up wake up wake up!!"

A dead silence descended. I somehow managed to escape again. With a huge relief I was about to open my eyes when I heard: "you are going to run away agaiiiin? But the next time is goiiing to be yourrr laaast." It was the voice of that announcer in the dream. When I opened my eyes I was back in my own room.

The last voice wasn't part of the dream. I heard it in the real world, there is no mistake about it. Why me? What things have I done to deserve this? Since then I have not had the same dream again; but I know that if I ever dream it again, I will die, probably by a heart attack or something. It might appear to be a heart attack in the real life, but it will be  "mince meat" in the other world.....

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Notes:
1* - A "monkey train" is how some people call a toy train in Japan. There used to be a famous toy train in Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, run by a real monkey (actually all the monkey did was just sit on the train and nothing else). You can see a picture of the original monkey train here. The monkey train of Ueno Zoo was banned after people started vociferating about "animal rights." The monkey train is now gone, but the name lives on by itself.
2* - The original text is Ike-Zukuri (or iki-zukuri) and it could be literally translated as "live-making or live-arranging." It is a fish served alive and whole, slices of flesh having been cut and put back in place (kensyusha's new college Japanese-English Dictionary, 5th edition). Go here to see what it looks like.

3* - I've got nothing against little people. In fact, I measure only about 5ft that I might be called a midget myself.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow, that was fantastic! It was creepy and very interesting. Ive always been interested in dreams and how they work and always wished i could control my dreams (and at least remember them more often!). The last part also interests me because I think about how dreams are affected by things that happen in real life, and its scary and intriguing at the same time. Thanks for the story Saya! :D
Anonymous said…
Yeah, I totally agree with bryan, it's creepy AND interesting...I guess that dreams are affected by real life, but real life can also be affected by dreams. Sometimes we have to change our habits in order to stop bad dreams.
Thanks bryan and debbie for your comments!
This story is a famous one on the net. It's a long story and I struggled quite a bit to translate it, but I feel it has been worth it! I'm glad you enjoyed the story!
Anonymous said…
What if I get that dream too?I am no good at waking myself up as I am usually not aware tat I'm dreaming!I almost always wake up after I'm killed.Mostly by my classmates or teacher...AAAARRGGHHH!!But I like this one.
Anonymous said…
that wasn;t scary.
MY elbowssssssss are scariiiiiier =\
Anonymous said…
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Anonymous said…
Very creepy and surreal. I like this one very much. And good job on translation (it is very long isn't it?) Although, I always thought the term was gouging out the eyes, not gorging? And shattering eardrums, not shuttering? But ignore my petty annoyingness. It's a good story!
Thanks Galactic for pointing out the spelling mistakes! I appreciate it very much. I mean it.
Anonymous said…
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Anonymous said…
I usually know when I'm dreaming and, to some extent, I can control my actions in a dream. But I can't wake myself up. After reading this, I think I'm going to start practising that. Or drink a lot of instant coffee.
Anonymous said…
Oh lawd this one creeped me out like crazy
Anonymous said…
That story was pretty stimulating! I have to say though, if that were me, it wouldn't have been much of a story, because if I heard what she did, I wouldn't have gotten on that train! :)

I have had a few dreams that were like that, but if I feel something is off, I listen to my intuition and give whatever it may be wide berth!

Thank you Saya for this blog it has lots of creepy crawlies. Btw- I saw that vid of the "Sunflower Dance" and it scared the hell out of me!
inventor-r - Oh! I'm so glad you liked the Sunflower Dance! It was so unpopular! lol
Thank you dear for your comment!
Shadow said…
I actually had a dream almost exactly like this when I was a child but without the voices. Weird...
Bev said…
What a cool story.
Anonymous said…
Woah! I loved that!
Legi said…
what a shocking story,
i wonder if we are really killed in a dream we die in the real world. I've been close to being killed, i mean, i've been shot and things but i always wake up breathless before dying in a dream.
This story makes me remmember the Yume Nikki Game
Anonymous said…
I go by the name Uitinla
the mind is a very powerful thing, i have the unique ability to remember my dreams in very vivid detail, i could tell you how everything looked, felt, smelled, even the layout of where i was.
anyway, i actually have tried an experiment, and through my experience, i am confident to say that dying in your sleep while dreaming your dead is very likely. when i was dozing off into sleep, while i was still somewhat conscious, i imagined iw as swimming, then i imagined my foot got tangled, and i couldn't breathe. i remember my heart beating rapidly, and i felt my throat and lungs tightening, i remember looking at the clock b4 my experimenting, it was 12:12 at night, and i ranged the time it took for me to doze off at about 20 mins...when i gasped for air and looked at the clock...it was 1:40am. i cant explain this time lapse, but i assure you i will not do that again. but...i also say that the its possible to die in your sleep but nothing will happen to you in real life. i have had a couple of dreams where i have died, BUT i have noticed i was either brought back to life, or i was standing separate of the event of my death in my dream and watching. so...knowing this...brings up interesting perspectives...^__^
Unknown said…
I often have dreams where I die - it is very real and very frightening, and if I don't die I'm just being chased, or something very scary like monsters appear.

Sometimes I don't know I'm sleeping and I wake up just in time; other times I know I'm asleep and wake myself up by forcing my eyes open, and when that happens I stay still, or look around, fidget after a while and in some dreams I'm crying really, really hard and it feels super real -- and I wake up with tears running down my face.

Other times during my dream it'll feel super real, like I control my movements and everything and the worse thing is when I stop being able to move fully - aka everything is super slow and my limbs won't move me around or simply will not move even though I really want them to, and this is probably because I am waking up. In this case I know it's a dream and it's so, so frustrating and terrifying and even if I'm not crying in the dream I'll often wake up with tears in my eyes. It's freaky. Really freaky.

During all of my dreams it is very vivid and realistic but as soon as I start waking up or wake up I can barely remember it; it's foggy and when I try explaining it to someone it is very difficult.
Haravanda said…
Woahh... such a scary story, it reminds me of something. When I was small, similar case did occurred to me in the dream, except that the location was my own house and the forbidden place was the third floor of the house. I was on the second stair, looking both at the stair leading down the first floor (which was really dark) and the stair to the third (which have some green light reflection). A voice kept calling out as I was there, if I remembered right, it was something like :" Don't go up there, it's scary" (and guess what? My physical body was ACTUALLY sleeping on the third floor) but I think that had something to do with our culture for number 4 was considered in my country a lucky number while number 3 is a bad one (but at that time I had no knowledge of that fact). As I heard the voice, I usually follow them and stay away from the line so guess I'm kind of safe (I was around 6 that time but dream like those haunt me forever). I usually don't wake myself up as my conscious mind blend too much in the events, the only time I did was to avoid a certain ghost thought :D
Oh, and thank you for posting this :D
Aneesa Atif said…
Well, I m Aneesa from Pakistan...
This is the best story so far on this site, seriously...!!! I can imagine as though I have seen that dream, and still a chill runs down my spine when I think of the mince meat death, phew...THANK GOD, I didnt have such a dream yet, or else I would have died of fright. Anyways, looking forward to see more such kinda stories from u SAYA... KEEP POSTING !!!~... LOVE YOU ...~!!!
Anonymous said…
Saya, this story,made me cry... and im 13... (this makes me glad im an anon)
but, anyways, its one of my favorite stories here and i really find dreams very interesting and appreciate your work and effort; well, i hope you can find many more creepy stories for us Saya! and i have always wondered, how can you read, see and hear sooo many creepy, odd and disturbing stuff and still be (or seem) such a sane person?
@Aneesa Atif: Cool, you're from Pakinstan? o interesting. Sorry my reply is late! I love you too and take care! <3


@Anon (27 Oct 2013): My dear girl, you shouldn't be here! This is an adult only site :D Seriously, I get worried when a young person like you come here and read these disturbing stories! Please don't cry! I hope you're alright now.

Do I sound like a sane person to you? haha

The famous psychiatrist Carl Jung once said, "show me a sane man and I'll cure him for you."

Those people who are "sane" have sacrificed a lot to be labelled as sane, my dear. It's the curse of being a conformist.
Unknown said…
I have a weird dream where I go into the roof of an abandoned building and fall, but unexpectedly I keep on doing that all the time. Is that healthy or is there something wrong with me?
Unknown said…
Talking about lucid dreams. I have some experiences. Not some ALOT MOSTLY EVERY NIGHT. We know the feeling when its only a dream, but mine if I dream something I could control it sometimes wake up before I die. But do you know the feeling that sometimes you cant escape the dream. Its like when i wake up i thought i was safe but when i sleep again im still in the same dream no matter how many times i do it, its still the same. Sometimes i dream something then after manny months or years the dreams came back. And sometimes when i dream and after many months or year i dream it again but its like its creating another chapter or 2nd part of it.

I really like this story and I actualy read it yesterday in some fanfic. Then later at night in my dreams it came but not the actual things that happen in that story. But its more like the aftermath of this story of what happen to those people who died in there. The fact THAT I WAS AWARE OF THE DREAM. Then when i wake up and sleep again THE DREAM WAS STILL THE SAME. even though i change my position but im glad that i can wake quickly (though i dont wanna cause theres something creepy in my room). But I really do like the story. :))
BlindEye said…
Hi. I loved you story.

Now, would you let me use your story in my foro? I will share your link and all that
BlindEye said…
Hi. I loved you story.

Now, would you let me use your story in my foro? I will share your link and all that