I Scream, You Scream

Whether it be an old hobby or artistic cravings, staying at home as much as we all have has stirred up something from the past in everyone. I don’t mean to be a downer, but for me, one of these things has been frequent vivid nightmares. They’ve morphed into being something regular to me, so don’t worry! In the spirit of halloween, here is one of my more chilling dreams (adapted from my notes app, for accuracy). 

It starts when I open my eyes. As I begin to register my surroundings, I see that I’m in the cabin of a diesel truck with my brother, JJ. I can tell that something is wrong, because he is not looking at me, and is extremely hunched forward in his seat. I keep looking around and realize we are in a deserted 7/11 gas station parking lot, somewhere in the woods that I don’t recognize. I only see one road, and it seems to wind through the woods forever. 

I turn my head back to my brother to ask him if he knows where we are, and he is already staring at me. Eyes bloodshot and wide. Mouth gaping. Like he is trapped in a scream. Frantically he whispers to me, “We need to get out of here. Now.” 

The air outside is chilly and the sky is a monochrome grey. The lights of the gas station are the only illuminating light I can find. I can feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up as I exit the truck and hear another vehicle approach as I turn around. 

It’s an ice cream truck. It parks in the middle of the long road, and it’s fit with a huge cone on the top. All the windows are blacked out, and that sickenly-sweet song is playing. I feel my stomach churn as it completely fills my ears. My brother is already walking towards the back of the truck to get in. Every sense in my body is telling me not to get inside, but I know JJ is scared and I have never seen him like this before. So I follow him in, only stepping in the prints his footsteps leave. 

As the back door closes with a click, the sweet song in my ears immediately replaces itself with ambulance sirens. I know now that we need to leave, so crawl to the front seat not completely making out what is surrounding me, however knowing something is there.

I sit myself in the empty driver’s seat, and without thinking, I start to drive, the pounding in my chest beginning to reach my ears. The road is winding, and minutes start to feel like hours. Maybe they are turning into hours, but this stretch of mile is beginning to look familiar…

The piercing sound of the sirens is becoming louder as I see lights in the distance. My face instantly drops, my palms get sweaty, and I feel nauseous. 

I see the same 7/11. I see the same diesel truck. I see two familiar-looking teenagers leave the diesel cabin, making strides towards the ice cream truck that I am currently parked in. 

As soon as I hear the door click closed, I start to scream for them to leave but nothing is coming out. I turn to my brother in the passenger seat and see the same face I first saw in the diesel cabin, his scream plastered on his face. 

I’m still screaming when I look behind my seat, and my doppelganger is already crawling towards me. I assume they are coming to drive, but instead they reach up and pull a string, while staring right into my eyes, gaze unmoving. A suspended light turns on and illuminates the back of the truck. It looks like a normal ice cream truck with freezers. But something still feels off. My doppelganger slides the door for one of the freezer open and points. With my pulse in my throat I look inside. 

It was two more sets of my brother and I, our faces frozen in screams.