Cult Classic

I had two different dreams about being in a cult.

I walked into an old house with me ex. I am not sure why we were at the house, I think it appeared to be some sort of boutique. We were invited to sit down at a big table with 4 other people. We were all chatting when I started to get a really weird feeling. Something just felt off about the people. They were dressed like they were on soap operas from the 70's. One of the women had big poofy blonde hair and was wearing all purple. I started to feel like I wanted to leave so I went to the door and called my mom. The people were not happy that I wanted to leave so I waited for my mom to get there. My mom and sister arrive and somehow I was able to leave, but my ex wanted to stay. He said "I'll be out in 2 minutes, it will be really quick." As we were leaving there were protesters outside the house, teenagers wearing all black with black eye makeup. They were yelling, "It's a fucking cult!" and holding signs. My mom, sister and I got in the car and started to drive away, but I said we couldn't go far because we needed to pick up my ex. We decided to drive around the block and we'd quick pick him up as we passed the house again. As we were driving we say my ex running. I couldn't tell if he was looking for us or just running. He was acting really strange, though. He would stop and kind of twirl and move around like maybe he was dancing? I kept watching him from the car as my mom was driving farther away from him. He had almost zombie-like dance moves. We drove out of his view and my mom announced that she was almost out of gas. Then the car stopped right before East Wash (in Madison). I was nervous about how close we still were to the house and my ex. We started discussing a plan of how to get gas.
And then I woke up.
When I woke up this morning I remembered both of my dreams really vividly, but now I can't remember if I just blended them into one or forgot the other one completely. But I remember waking up thinking it was really strange I had two different dreams about cults.

Lost My Car in a Dark Garage

I was at Anna's sister's wedding. Anna was the maid of honor, and as I watched her walk up the aisle before her sister, I grabbed my camera to take pictures. It was running out of batteries, so I kept turning it on and trying again, and I got a few mediocre shots out of it.

As I was taking the pictures, I remembered that I was supposed to play a song for the wedding and I didn't have my music with me. Since my music was at my parents' house and the wedding was just a few blocks away, I thought it would be fine for me to leave and run back to their house to get it. I assumed I'd get back to the wedding with no problem.

Then all of a sudden, I was in a giant high-rise parking garage. It was dirty and dingy and dark and scary with a million stairwells, several on each floor, so I couldn't keep track of where I was going. I held my keys tightly in my hand and kept pressing the lock button, which makes my car's horn honk. I could hear it very faintly in the distance. It was very high-pitched. As I climbed the stairs, the sound got harder and harder to hear, so I figured I should go back down. Whenever I got inside a stairwell where I'd be going down the stairs, I was able to jump down the whole thing with my fingers just lightly grazing the handrails. It was sort of like flying, but more so jump-falling in an organized fashion. Make sense?

I searched and searched everywhere, but I could not find my car. I did come across a man wearing a busted up tuxedo. He looked like some kind of cartoonish magician or the villain from an old movie. Crooked mustache, wilted flower in his boutonniere. He was digging through piles of junk, boxes of random things. He implied that he could help me find my car. I searched through the piles with him for a few minutes, turning up some of my own belongings. Then he led me to the base of a stairwell where three other people sat; two grown men and one little girl. "Stay here for 15 minutes," he told me. "Whatever you're looking for will show up."

I sat on the dirty floor and realized the two men and little girl were about to watch a movie. I thought it was probably be too scary for her. I also realized that the tuxedo guy was the owner of the fancy hotel that the parking garage was suddenly attached to, and I wondered how he had time to search through garbage when he had a fancy hotel to run.

Eventually I ended up in the lobby of the hotel, all dirty and standing out in the light of the giant chandeliers. I had not found my car or my music, and I was sure the wedding was long over, but Anna was there and still very nice to me. Hey, thanks for being a good friend, Anna!

Thin Ice

I dreamed that I was in a big house in what seemed to be a kids playroom. I was putting away toys and talking to someone. For some reason I had to leave and went outside. I was in the middle of a big warehouse district at night, there were big lights around the buildings. The house I was in was actually a factory of some sort and it was located next to a big lake. It was winter and starting to snow.

I started walking out onto the frozen lake that was covered with snow. I was talking on the phone to someone and telling them about Wisconsin winters. I was explaining how the lakes freeze and you can walk out onto the ice. I laid down in the middle of the lake in a pile of the fluffy snow talking. I told the person on the phone that you have to be careful when you are on the lake because certain parts do not freeze all the way. As I was talking I started to feel my body sinking a little. I realized I was laying on a part that was not completely frozen and my leg started to sink into the water. I started moving, carefully, to try and get to a part that was more frozen. I noticed the weather was getting warmer and warmer and the snow around me was melting fast. I was crawling- trying to get to the edge of the lake as fast as I could. All around me the ice was melting and sinking into the water. I crawled to the edge just as I was sinking into the water. I pulled myself up by the roots on the edge of the bank that was full of trees. I was able to stand up facing the lake and hold onto the trees with my arms to keep from falling in. I watched as the water kicked up huge waves.

A storm was starting. The waves were huge and crashing all over. The waves were picking up cars, that seemed to be coming out of the water, and throwing them into the air. They would come crashing down and water would splash everywhere. The wind was so strong that cars were being thrown around and one came flying towards me. I was able to move away quickly holding onto the trees as I walked. I thought to myself that I was stuck there because I forgot to take this little plastic toy with me that I had been holding onto in the kids playroom. If only I had that little toy then I could call for help. But then I realized I had my cell phone. I looked around at the edge of the lake and across thinking there was no way someone could come get me. I looked to the right and saw there was nothing to walk on if I tried to walk that way. To my left I could hold onto the trees and walk along the edge of the bank. I started walking along the edge holding onto trees as the waves crashed and flung cars around behind me. Once I got most of the way around the lake the bank turned into a brick walkway and widened. I was able to easily walk by the crashing waves and cars and back to the warehouse.

I woke up from my dream right when I opened the door to the warehouse.