The Gum Man

Date: 3/21/2020

In my dream I’m one of those really “difficult” teenagers, throwing things and screaming n shit. So my family decides to send me to live with a stricter family for a while (kind of like that british tv show ig). In this other family I was staying with, it was actually the family of a guy a grade below me named Vinnie. I’ve met his dad irl and he was mostly the same in the dream, but he doesn’t have a mother. In my dream, he had one. But the mother and father were never in the same room, and the mother looked exactly like mine but with sharper features and was generally meaner. She looked like a witch but without the getup. The dad was just as he was in real life. Calm, watchin sports on the tv. So instantly I become an older sister character for Vinnie (bc his real life sister doesn’t exist anymore ig). The first night I tuck him into bed, I get a good look at his room. Dark, no lights, just a mattress on the floor and a blanket on top. Not even sheets. But hanging from the ceiling in the corner of the room was a man upside down; bandages covering his face and body but he was cocooned in pink bubblegum covering both him plus the ceiling and floor around him. So I ask Vinnie, what is this some sick art project or something? And he replies so nonchalant, “No, that’s the gum man. He comes down at night.” I tell him that the gum man isn’t real and that he’s going to be ok. But as I was saying that, the gum man slowly started to move down towards the floor. I said my goodnights to Vinnie before the gum man’s feet landed. I raced to my room, and locked my door. I figured he couldn’t get through a locked door and I’d be fine, so I guess I should now take a bath. So I’m in the bath, and I see this hand reach over the tub’s rim. Covered in bandages and a faded pink. I hear a voice, almost as if it’s coming from above my head, say “you cannot get rid of me. you cannot tell anyone about me. i am here indefinitely. i am more real than you will ever be.” I looked above my head but no one was there. It handed me two identical necklaces: black round beads with other symbolic beads or engravings. It felt wooden. He continued, “wear these, or” he abruptly stopped. I put on the beads. The hand slowly slipped away from the rim of the tub, and I heard footsteps down the hall, walking away. The next day I’m walking with Taylor and Kamryn. We’re all discussing what we should get for lunch after school, as it’s Friday and that’s our routine in my dream. Taylor suggests some smoothies but Kamryn whispers to me that she wants something more chocolatey like cookies. I’m still troubled by the gum man so I interrupt their discussion to tell them about what had happened the night before. I showed them the beads. I told them I never wanted to go back to that house again, and that I wanted to go home. Then I woke up.