Malthusian Nightmare

Date: 12/8/2022

I was sitting with some coworkers in a ground level foyer of wherever it was we worked. It was like a historic department store that had been split up into a strip mall. We were talking about how the place was supposedly haunted when I saw something moving upstairs...There was a flight of stairs that led to a row of giant windows across the front of the building, and there was a window facing inside the building from the landing of the stairs. It was like a supervisor lookout point or something, as well as access to the windows to operate the curtains or change decor, etc. What I saw was a flash of someone crossing the interior window, but we were the only ones there... At that point, just about everyone had left and it was just me and this girl I worked with. I think we were waiting for her ride but I said fuck it, I'd take her home so we could get out of there. On the way to the car, there was a whoosh overhead as whatever we had seen inside flew over us and into the woods across the street from the parking lot. In the window, it had looked like a woman, kind of a stern looking headmistress type. But when she flew into the woods, she looked like she either had a long pink cape or she had turned into something else entirely, like a bird or something. The moment it reached the woods, it turned into a little boy, maybe 11 or 12, and before we could react, he ran across the street into traffic. We could barely even scream before he disappeared entirely. Then just as quickly, the thing was flying overhead again and took off hovering over the road. We jumped in my car and began following it. We went from the city streets to back roads until we weren't sure if we were even following it anymore. We turned a sharp curve and dead-ended at a field, and peeking through the trees was the facade of a small castle-like school. In front of the school was a group of kids, all about 11 or 12 like the boy we had seen. The woman we saw in our workplace was on the steps, giving this speech about how all she had wanted to do was her job but she had been condemned for teaching sex ed in her school and lost everything. She wanted to teach pregnancy prevention because 'the last thing the world needs is more children... They just thought I was a pervert. Psh!" Meanwhile, my coworker and I were inching closer to her. She noticed and began to laugh, maintaining eye contact with us. She sauntered over to us and said, "What's your name?" My coworker wouldn't answer but I was outraged and shouted my name at her, seeing red. "You happy?! Now, what's your name?!" And she just laughed. "That's a need-to-know basis." I took a step back and realized my coworker had disappeared...as well as the children. "I'll rid the world of you, one at a time..." I took off running back toward the road but couldn't find it. I was turning in circles trying to see which way we had come from, and suddenly I was in a canvas tent. I ran around trying to find the door but with no luck, I pulled up the bottom of the canvas wall and ducked underneath it, only to find myself still in a tent. I kept ducking under the wall only to continue this loop of an endless tent, and finally woke up breathless. Wtf.