Belly of the Beast

Date: 1/6/2020

I was in a large Victorian mansion with a party of people I don’t know. It’s never clear why I am there, but we all sit down for dinner together. The host of the party is a balding, middle-aged man with a deceptively kind demeanor but a sinister presence. He is a widower and a large portrait of his deceased wife hangs on the wall behind us. She’s blonde and beautiful. I am seated next to a young girl who looks more like a doll than person and she chats with me sweetly, until the Man sees her and calls her a servant girl and begins to berate her in front of everyone for joining us. I’m shocked to watch him grab her and plunge his fist into her face, knocking out several teeth and spraying blood all over our food, which he then expects us to eat. The girl barely cries though and simply leaves the table. He then sits next to me, seemingly taking an interest in me though we’ve never met. I explain I’m in town to do a live showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show where I am to play Frankenfurter. He’s intrigued and wants to support me by buying me an authentic costume. I’m too scared to say no. The dream fast-forwards to the night of the production. I’m in full costume and nervous as I forget all the songs but he reassures me I’ll be fine. He then touches my hair. “You’ll need a wig.” He says, pulling out a box and handing it to me. I don’t open it yet, expecting just a basic curly black wig to cover my long red-dyed hair. Once he leaves I realize he’s given me a long blonde wig. The hair is identical to that of his dead wife’s and somehow I realize that he killed his wife and his strange infatuation with me means he plans to kill me. I rush around trying to find another cast member. I find the one who is playing Rocky and hug him. “What’s wrong?” “I need a new wig, I can’t go out like this.” I say through tears. “Hey,” he crouches down further (as I’m fairly short and he is over 6ft) “it’s okay we have plenty. And we will protect you. We are family.” He kisses me on my head. Finally the show starts and i go on stage, but it’s a small, intimate stage, probably no more than 15x10 feet, and I nail my first number wearing a curly black wig. The Man is in the front row and I can see he’s angry at me. He keeps trying to catch my eye but I refuse to look at him. After the first number I go backstage up into a loft with the other actors. Already I can see the Man looking for me backstage. He’s storming around, calling my name. Rocky holds me and the others are confused. I explain what I saw at the mansion, the painting, the servant girl, and the wig he gave me before the show. They all agree to hide me and keep me safe from him. Fast forward to the end of the show and the cast changes into normal clothes (though for some reason our clothes were reminiscent of a cross between the roaring 20s and Victorian. Somehow we ended up in a hotel and we were being chased by the Man and Fat Man who somehow was even scarier.