Where Dreams are Lost: The Second Nightmare: Eight Nightmares, #2

By Stuart Tudor

Within the carcass of Detroit's prosperity, something dark has arisen.

 

James, Harvey, and Alice have all lost their jobs-  victims of the 2008 financial crisis. Listless and scared for the future, they explore an abandoned shopping mall along with their friend Latisha, in the hopes of going viral on YouTube. Their adventure takes a turn when a mysterious fog takes them to another world, where pain, fear, and loss manifest, and their dreams blur with reality.

 

How can one escape a place that doesn't want them to leave? James and his friends might just be rats in a maze.

 

Where Dreams Are Lost is the second entry in the Eight Nightmares Collection, a collection of horror stories about the dreamlike, the surreal, and encounters with the fantastical. Where Dreams Are Lost is rated R for gore, homophobia, suicide, death, homelessness, poverty and implied drug use. Reader discretion is advised. 

 

In this story emotional hell turns into a physical reality and the characters are tortured by their guilt and shame, as horror scenes come to life in abandoned mall.

The lines between nightmare and reality are so wonderfully blurred and left me properly shaken. Well done.

 

C.W Malan: Goodreads

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stuart Tudor
• Release date: Oct 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215634240

Stuart Tudor

I am a South African speculative fiction author. My current project is Eight Nightmares, a collection of eight horror stories. So come with me and explore the dark together!

Book preview

...due to cost-cutting measures, you are being let go from your current place of employment (C&T Carpet Cleaning). 

Good luck with your future endeavours.

Yours sincerely,

Joe Lackey.

James had lost count of the times he had reread that email. A numbness took hold of him. He was without a job, and there was nothing he could do about it. Finally, his eyes burned under the strain, and he shut them to gain some respite.

James? James! A concerned voice penetrated the heavy dread that had begun to consume him. Are you okay?

I...I... James ran a hand through his long brown hair, I just lost my job. The words were leaden, in tired recognition of reality.

A pause occurred before Harvey produced a low, Oh shit.

Another moment of silence permeated the room. The small apartment was beginning to become an expensive and hostile beast to James. His rapid heartbeat became louder as he dwelled on what had transpired.   

James, are you still there? Talk to me! Harvey’s voice shot through the phone, reaching out to his friend.

James sat frozen to the spot in front of his computer screen, tears running down his face. How the fuck am I going to pay off my debts? How the fuck am I going to eat? His voice broke over the words.

James, listen to me, Harvey’s voice soothing over the phone. 

I can’t do this, James said. You don’t know how to do this! 

We all need to escape right now, James. You know what Alice has been going through?

Yeah...

None of us should be alone with our thoughts right now. So I suggest we stick to the plan and head to the mall to explore it. It could be a fun distraction, and we might get a good story out of it, Harvey said, but if you don’t feel up to that, which is fine, we can always hang out at Latisha’s place.

She’d be up for that?

Yeah.

James inhaled deeply, considering the options, and shook his head. No, I don’t want to be reminded of her success right now. He switched off his computer and made his way towards the door, grabbing a camera and flashlight as he passed. See you at the mall, bro. A weak smile grew across James' face. 

As he was about to leave, James saw his framed degree in literature. A degree that had taken so many years of harvesting in the field, now a rotten-useless piece of fruit.

I couldn’t even hold a crummy carpet cleaning job down. How could I have ever gotten a job in a newspaper? James thought.

James, there is something I want to tell you. There was a breathless recklessness to the statement that made James’ heart speed up. 

Yeah?

I can’t say it over the phone. some desperation came into his voice.I will tell you when we’re there. See you soon.

Wait! Don’t go. Let’s stay on the call. Maybe Alice wants to chat?

James reached his car. It sat laden with freshly fallen snow, waiting for him on the curb, trash bags and dog shit decorating the grounds of the apartment complex. The cold cut through his thin clothes as he walked, waiting for Harvey to respond.

Sure, dude, let’s do it!

The smile he heard in Harvey’s voice infected James as he climbed into his car, out of the cold, dark evening in Detroit.

Maybe this is the moment? James thought, turning on the car as he did so.

The wonder was short-lived as a lump crawled and dragged itself back into his consciousness. The debt, debt