Under the boardwalk

Date: 1/21/2022

After having less than $100 to my name my dumb ass goes to the thrift store. I don't buy anything but I run into Haley, and we walk back to wherever home is together. The route is a boardwalk, but not just a regular boardwalk. It's basically an obstacle course made of wood with different levels and areas and dead ends. Sometimes you're running on top 10 feet above the ground, other times you're crawling on a lower level with only 3 feet of space above your head. We get to one spot with little lanterns hanging from the ceiling and a TV playing something silent. There are two rows of benches facing the TV with several people sitting and watching, as we got closer we realized the people had creepy makeup on. They looked like paper machě masks but applied directly to the face with paint that looked like porcelain dolls. My stomach dropped. One male begins to interact while the others stay silent and turn their heads to look. A couple of them tilt their head. I have an entire conversation with the guy where I agree to take a picture on his phone of them as he claims to be the makeup artist. As I approach to grab his phone he drops it and grabs my thigh, and suddenly I am frozen and cannot speak above a painstaking whisper. Haley is nearby but around the corner because she was too creeped out. Good choice on her part. I try to call for her to get me away from here but I cannot raise my voice. I tell him to let me go and somehow he did I guess? I run as fast as I can, worried they will follow. Back by the thrift store or something, there is a train getting loaded up. It's the kind of train kids ride in at a theme park. The kids are being taken away for some reason, it's implied that they are in danger here. They can pack their belongings in the seat with them, which is small so they're limited on space. Many choose some clothes or stuffed animals. I help them put their things in the train as another train, even smaller pulls up behind me (where did those tracks come from). That train is for the boys. I didn't notice that the train I was loading was all girls until now. A lot of the clothing the kids have looks as though it is from the 1800s. I wander off. By the boardwalk I see that creepy boy again, this time without face paint. I ask him if he forces those people to stay. He claims he does not and that they want to be under his spell. (Yeah ok bud). He explains that when he is made of some kind of metal and that when he touches them they become like him (when he chooses, which is why I didn't) and that he is immortal. The people who become like him are not immortal, and they donate their life force to him when they die. He claims to protect them; he takes in the outcasts. He does not harm them. They have no one else which is why he didn't choose me, i have people who would miss me. Something about this guy is enthralling. No wonder those people joined him. I don't know if anything else happened, I woke up and I forgot a lot as I was writing the first segment here.