Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-36013915-20180629060821

When I was 15 on a hot Sunday morning I decided to walk down my neighborhood. I noticed that my neighbor was having a garage sale. I did not know who he was even though I lived in this neighborhood for years. I went to check it out and I saw lots of goodies like; old PS1 and N64 games and a few broken Transformers toys all the way from the 80s. I went to my neighbor so I can pay for them, but at the corner of my eye I saw a box of shirts. I went to check the shirts out. All I saw were worn out dusty shirts that were either torn up or stained to the point of it not coming off. Until I saw a shirt that caught my attention... a shirt with an unusual static pattern. I have never seen a shirt with a pattern like this, but as a teen who thought Evanescence was a good band went to pay for the shirt. I asked the owner how much it costs, but all I got was him gazing blankly at the shirt. I asked again and he finally answers. He said the shirt was for free in a startled and shaken way. I was confused, but I shrugged it off. I finally went home not knowing how massive of a mistake this is.

I went to my room, taking out the things that I've bought and I display them on my shelf. Until I kind of felt gravitated towards the shirt all of a sudden. I put it on, and I felt like I was being sucked in. It was the most comfortable experience of my life. I took it off to see what's it's made out off. To my surprise I did not see a tag where there's supposed to be one. I looked all over, but still no tag or any writing that indicates what is it made out off. I didn't even know the company that made the shirt. I smelled the shirt to see if it was still clean, and it smelled like a bouquet of flowers that were freshly picked. I put on the shirt cause I had nothing else to wear. I lay on my bed and I fall into the deepest sleep of my life. I wake up in a place that is just a void of endless static. I walk endlessly until I see a small black mass floating in an irregular pattern above me. I jump up to grab it. I managed to grab it after many tries, and I held it not knowing what to do with it, I didn't even know what this is. I hear a faint whisper emanating from the small ball shaped mass. I bring it closer to my ear, but before I even get to hear what it was saying, I wake up from my dream, and I felt nauseous and I had a feeling like I wanted to vomit, but I couldn't. I stumble from my bedroom to my kitchen to finally start my day. Like the idiot teenager I was, I wear the shirt to school, 'cause it still smelled and looked clean even after a long sleeping session. I thought I could impress my friends by wearing a shirt that looked like a broken TV.

At the bus, I started to write the dream on my dream diary that I kept. I was trying my best to make sense what that dream was, but I put all that aside to see if I can get some comments about my shirt. After a long bus ride I finally get off, and I make my way over to my morning assembly. The day went on normal, I got the comments that I expected to get and nothing unusual happened. Until the 2nd to last class things started to happen. I felt sleepy, so I slept. Until I wake up to the whole room covered in nothing but static. I was trying my best to wake up, but no luck. I Felt like I was dead when I was sleeping. I felt cold in the static filled room. Until the same black mass appeared in the middle of the room. I felt tempted again to grab it, but I had a feeling of dread in my mind also. I managed to grab it, and I hear the same whispering coming from the black mass. I put it closer to my ear, and I finally heard the whispers. All I heard were my name over and over again. I was finally awoken by my teacher, but after I woke up I started to convulse. I collapsed to the ground moving erratically. An ambulance was called, and I was admitted to the doctor. Still convulsing, until it miraculously stops after a while. When it stopped I felt like my whole body was being drained of everything. I couldn't talk properly, and my muscles felt weak. The doctor finally came in with my results. They didn't know why it happened. They said it wasn't a stroke or anything that was wrong with my brain for that matter. They just told me to just rest for the whole week.

After a week has passed I started to speculate what caused my sudden seizure. I spent hours thinking of the causes, but nothing. After a while I got tired of thinking what caused my violent convulsions to happen. So I went out to walk down the neighborhood as usual, and see if my friends are out playing. Something caught my attention though. My neighbor who sold me the shirt was gone. Everything on his front lawn was gone. His garage sale, garden decorations, and his car were all gone. All I saw was a For Sale sign. I asked around the neighborhood who that person was and if they knew that he was moving. My neighbors didn't even know who he was, they didn't even know that he was moving out. I had so many questions on my head after that. No one knew who he was, and him just suddenly moving without anyone noticing felt chilling to me. Until I pieced together everything, the dreams, the shirt not even having a brand, and my mysterious neighbor. I concluded that it was all the shirt, but it felt so outlandish to accuse a shirt of all this. Even as a 15 year old, I even thought of it as strange that I'm thinking a shirt is the cause of it all. But after all that, I did finally throw away the shirt. No more dreams after that and my illness finally went away.

I am 23 now. I've repressed this memory for years, until I managed to stumble across my old dream diary, and the memories came flooding back. Even today I still lay awake at night questioning if it was really the shirt. 