I never dream and when I do I never know that it isn't reality. As with all dreams we start in the middle of the story...
I am at the bottom of a hillside with a corner grocery store at the top.
There are many sets of stairs with flat between. The stairs are sturdy but not solid, in that you can see through each one as they are just 2 by 12s inlaid in rising beams. The setting is a tamed forest. All manner of vines, ivies, and other creepers populate the hillside with trees interspersed. The sun is setting and shadows are growing.
Someone or something compels me to reach the top and retrieve an item from this grocery store. There are many sets of stairs, 7 to 12 at 12 to 20 wide steps each. No two sets of stairs are laid out the same as each takes a slightly different path and grade up the hillside.
My first ascent I take each stair one at a time and after a time I reach a girl just one short staircase away from the entrance. She stares oddly unmoving out towards the open air. She is the only person I notice on my approach. As I pass her on the inside of the stairs I am called away and distracted from entering. She looks at me as I turn.
On my second ascent I am not upset with having to go back, but it is the second attempt and so I take some sets of stairs two at a time. I am winded slightly as I reach the top and find the same girl in the same position. As I pass her on the inside she looks at me again. I am distracted again from my goal. I don't remember her face.
On my third ascent I take all stairs two at a time because I am just trying to complete my goal of retrieving the grocery item. I am winded at the top and encountered no one again except the statued girl. The hair on my body raises. This time she is not looking out but directly at me though I can not see her face, only a blackness somehow masked, though there is no hood or cowl to conceal.
I try to hurry past her. I feel a pull. I whip around to see her outstretched arm which has contorted her body unreasonably. In my turn and realization I fluidly backhand her. Her face feels solid as wood and my hand bounces off her with a sharp pain. Terrified, I turn and run. I throw open the door and run inside the grocery store. As the door swings shut behind me I find myself in an decrepit garden shed hardly 6 by 8. This is how it ends.
I try to hurry past her. I feel a pull. I whip around to see her outstretched arm which has contorted her body unreasonably. In my turn and realization I fluidly backhand her. Her face feels solid as wood and my hand bounces off her with a sharp pain. Terrified, I turn and run. I throw open the door and run inside the grocery store. As the door swings shut behind me I find myself in an decrepit garden shed hardly 6 by 8. This is how it ends.
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This is a mostly unedited version I wrote at 3AM before I could go back to sleep.