Date: 12/2/2016
By Fitful
A man was investigating a supervillain. A cop, ordinary. The dream was from my perspective. He was investing despite disbelief from everybody this villain even existed. Everybody assumed it was stress. A month ago his brother had died. Or longer, a year maybe. He was in therapy, and went dutifully. But he was crazed with finding this villain. Perhaps he blamed him, but more likely he needed something to obsess over. Something to keep him going. Something to keep him living. The dream detailed the investigation, clues picked up, little things, like a metal star on a little girls bedroom floor, a symbol of dust, a skull, a blue lantern. All led to something big. He didn't know what but he collected all these clues, even as he went to therapy, battled the flashbacks, and began dating someone, a woman. It was the end of the dream which made everything worth while, he suddenly began piecing things together, and finally realized his entire investigation had been done in the span of a few seconds, as his brother was killed right in front of him, his mind playing out the scene in slow motion. He just hadn't been able to expect it. Each clue was a fraction of a second where his mind latched onto things he was seeing as he fell, like a blue lantern hung off a rooftop in Chinatown, either he had been shot or his brother had been. Or both. Only he had survived. Maybe. It leaves it open to interpretation. The last scene of the dream, the woman he had been seeing, just kept exclaiming over how sweet and constant a guy was he, that she hadn't excepted it. And that almost felt like an insult, as if he hadn't actually done it out of virtue but ignorance. She said he was young, naive, and that was why he didn't demand anything of her, and kept all of his promises. He had been hurt enough to do so.