Reading Time: 3 minutes That Christmas week I spent immersed in the Friday the 13th beta had come to life all around me. I remember yelling “Tommy!? Tommy!?!? Where are you???”
I can’t remember the last time any game took over a part of my psyche…
The other night (or day, depending on how you look at it), as I was fighting the good fight against insomnia and catching a few z’s, I had a very vivid dream. I was on pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, somewhere mid-route, and encountered one of my favorite celebrities. We sat down and had a long chat about life and random miscellany. Favorite foods, movies, music, and discussing how we’d chosen to take this journey and our individual reasons for doing so. Eventually the conversation took a deep turn and she began to open up to me about issues she was dealing with in her life and career. She revealed to me she was very sad and lonely, and had been struggling mightily to keep herself in the game, and in life essentially. Due to my own experiences with severe depression it’s in my nature to reach out and help someone who is suffering, and I offered my perspective. We discovered among our common vernacular a sense of rapport, and philosophical understanding. The convo became very personal, inspirational, and touching. She began to tear up and sob happily as we shared a couple laughs and a warm embrace. She didn’t want to let go. I could feel her sadness and was happy to be a lone beacon in what she described as a sea of black and icy abandon. Making it more special was the realization that this was someone I had spent years admiring and appreciating, and now, here she was in my arms and listening to me as I relished the opportunity to do something meaningful for her. In a way, it reminded me of the time I talked someone down from killing themself in real life, and I’ve no doubt the endearing memory of that night was lending itself to this vibrant excursion deep into my own psychological abstrusity. It was the type of dream that only comes along once in a great while. The kind that is so vivid and lifelike, where the word surreal often gets reversed, and we wake up wiping away real tears and remaining absorbed in that lucid reverie the majority of our day. This was my dream, and it was easily in the running to make my all-time top 3 favorite, most inspirational dreams I’ve ever had.
I kid you not…… right when our eyes are dead-locked and we’re almost nose-to-nose, and this innocent, platonic connection between two peregrinos along The Way of St. James was about to step toward something more, the entire dream flashed without warning and there I was inside a freakin’ cabin, hearing Jason Grabs Rope blasting in my ear, and staring at Part 3 Jason through a jagged hole in the front door as he mercilessly hacked away at it with his ax! That Christmas week I spent immersed in the Friday the 13th beta had come to life all around me, and in a moment of sudden cognizance, I remember saying out loud “you gotta be f’in kidding me!” Fully aware Mr. Voorhees showed up right on cue, as soon as he felt cause and reason, I frantically searched for a weapon. He was almost through the door and my fight-or-flight response screamed FIGHT. Interestingly, I found a pitchfork. Must’ve been summoned by my memory of the old NES game. As soon as he came through the door I skewered him with it, leaving it wedged in his stomach. He was stunned, but blocking the exit. I raced toward the window and despite it being open, when I jumped through it, it shattered and I took damage. Dream glitch! Outside, I hobbled toward the neighboring cabin and began to open the window. I could hear Jason’s morphing sound behind me. He was in pursuit and I only had a couple seconds. I made it into the cabin and the door was already barricaded. Yes! Time to search for health spray? Nope! He was raging now and walked right through the door. I tried to out-maneuver him, but I was still weary from that imaginary glass shatter. He grabbed me by the throat and hoisted me up. Pocketknife! I stabbed him in the neck and took off again. I remember yelling “Tommy!? Tommy!?!? Where are you???” Immediately I replied to myself; “Oh yea……you killed Thom Mathews at Days of the Dead, remember? He ain’t gonna bother helping you.”
Still hurt, but somehow regaining my strength, I spotted the car and realized I had the keys. I made a mad dash for it, but nope…… you guessed it. Right when I looked down and reached for the car door I saw a machete rip through my chest from behind, kinda like the Alien does with its tail in Alien: Isolation. What’s funny is I didn’t wake up in a sense of urgency or adrenaline rush. I simply woke up smiling and shaking my head and said something to the effect of “obviously, I need this game in my life.”
