Paradox

1 March 2005. It's 5.20am and I'm at Gan's house now. I just woke up from a most incredible dream I ever had. In jumbled pieces, here am I trying my best to recollect every part of the dream. It's a dream within dream within dream....

I was with dad, stepmum, bro, mum and her family on a holiday vacation. We were staying in a hotel. We had decided to pay the casino a visit. Tagging along with us was a strikingly beautiful aussie babe, who, in the dream, was my mum's cousin! She had a name in the dream which I forgot, so I'll call her Andrea.

The casino was a bright room which resembled a function room instead of a gambling den. Together with Andrea, we were at the table that deals with dice guessing. When I was supposed to be enjoying myself with the company of an aussie babe, she had, however, turned me off as she was somehow irritating me and it cost me my bets. Although it was a mere $20 that I had lost, I was damn bloody pissed off. After the casino the gang headed for a australian meal which we were recommended. Carrying the bad mood out of the casino with me, I told them I'm not joining them before returning to the hotel room.

Dim yellow lightings and seemingly lavish carpeted, the corridor of the second floor was of a typical high class hotel style. Even the door of the room appeared to be of high quality material. I unlocked and went inside the room. The queen sized bed sits by the curtain by the side of the room. It felt like a deluxe class suite. Bags and stuffs packed in carriers laid across the carpeted floor. After I settle down on the bed in satisfaction, a large group of 20 over university students soon enter the room. I could not recognise any one of them unfamilar faces. Neither do they know me. One by one they came in, and before soon they were all sitting around the floor playing cards. They know but ignored my existence. It appeared to me that they had assumed that I must be another friends' friend, and nobody bothered to go find out.

I turned to look at the room key I left on the cabinet beside the bed. I realised that the key tag number was 230. I had clearly remembered the room number on the door while I was opening it. It was different. On top of this, the room number that I was told by the staffs was also different. Baffled, I called the 'guardroom' and the manager answered. I reported of the strange happenings and asked for an explanation. He went in to a state of panick, and repeatedly asked me not to leave the hotel and begged me to forgive him for the blunders. He said that similiar incidents had been frequent happenings recently. A handful of people had complaint and he was looking into salvaging the issue. The manager sent a staff to me. In the usual waiter kind of attire, the guy led me to the room, which was 'supposedly my correct room', the 3rd level. This time round, the numbers on the key tag and door tallied. Expecting a similar kind of room as the one before, I flung the door open only to come into a small room painted with black walls. The walls were filled with graffitis. By the wall on the right, there stood two cupboards, and a couple of single sized beds. Like in the previous room, there laid a lot of bags on the uncarpeted floor. I recognised the belongings: dad's bedsheet was in one of the bags.

I waited for the rest to come back after I settled in. Soon Andrea came back to the room. She commented that I had missed a damn wonderful meal. She said that if i put wallet near the door on the floor, that would be a high chance that thieves would stretch his hand in to steal it. Then I posed a challenge to her, betting that such incident would be impossible. I placed my wallet near the door. Shortly after the placement, indeed, a hand suddenly appeared from the gap underneath the door. Shocked, I tried retrieve my wallet. However, the hand was still scanning around the floor, searching for it. I took a peek under the door. Suddenly the man on the other side put his face under the door to meet me in the eyes. It was a terrible fright.

(I forgot what happened next. The next thing I remembered was...) A lot of people from the hotel died, including Andrea. I remembered that she somehow died tragically. All of a sudden, when I was not given any time to react over the deaths, I woke up only to figure that it was all but a dream.

The next scene followed... I met mark at the same hotel and told him of the strange dream that I experienced. Around the hotel, I saw all the same people again. I went to the public toilet. I faced the mirror to wash my face. From the reflection I stared as a guy came in. I recognised him as one of the university guy I met in the room 203. One by one again, more people visited the toilet and I recognised almost 10 of the approximately 15 people hanging around. I knew there was something wrong. They had all died in my dream. I gathered them all and told them excitedly that I had met them all in the dream, warning them that something bad will happen to them. They tried to relax me, telling me that it was merely a dream. But I knew something will happen.

The next scene was the hotel lobby. Suddenly all the people in the hotel started to walk like zombies. I asked them what happened and they claimed that they were being food poisoned. Andrea came to my mind. Instinctively I was sure she was going to meet with some fatal trouble. I began to search for her franctically. Still inside of the hotel, I walked past an entrance of a pub to see May. She appeared to be affected by the poison. I wanted offer my help to her, but the urgency to locate Andrea did not allow me to do so. May signalled to move on, as she tried to dig her throat with her finger to trigger the vomit.

I receive a phone call, a blur and distorted one. In a very soft and timid tone, the caller introduced herself as a good friend of Andrea, and she wanted to look for her. She knew Andrea was into some kind of trouble. She claimed that she could not speak up loud because she was a patient in a hospital planning to sneak out. I trusted her words, and waited for her at the car port of the hotel. It was already late night. While I waited I saw the bodies lying around... They belonged to the group I had warned in the toilet earlier. All dead.

She arrived in a cab. Together we franctically looked for Andrea. We came to an garden near the hotel. Under the dim moonlight, there was a woman kneelin amongst a heap of headless bodies. In her hand, she held Andrea at her neck, still alive, in a choking position. She wielded a kantana in another hand. Still at a distance, we shouted our lungs out as we ran forward, calling for her to stop what she was about to do. While we were dashing forward, she beheaded her. Two streams of blood fountained out of Andrea's neck. Her body hit the floor with a thump. I soon arrived at the spot. Remaining in kneeling position, the woman had an evil and satisfied look in her face. I snatched the kantana over from her hand and sliced her head in a vengeful anger.

The next thing I realised again was that it was a dream. Puzzled and amazed by the dreams that I dreamt, I had met Gan and Robert in a kopitiam. I eagerly relate to them about this incredible dream within dream. I started telling the story from all over again, with the scenes re-enacting in front of my eyes again.

Halfway through, the scene changed back to the black hotel room on the third floor as I opened my eyes, staring into the celing. I was alone. I sat up and stared at the two cupboards. They were opened and empty. I felt that there must be something lurking somewhere in the dark room. I was petrified over everything. Fucking disorientated. All the talking to Gan and Robert, it was yet another dream, I thought. Before I know it, I opened my eyes wide again. This time I am at Gan's house, on Gan's bed, alone. I could not differentiate dream from reality.

I took a while to be convince that I'm back in the real dimension. It was hard to believe what had happened was a dream. It was realistic. Seconds after I opened my eyes, a lightning striked, and it seemed to hit this very block. The thunder clapped so loud I used the pillow to cover my ears.