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amistyshadow · 2 years

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Let me tell you about a dream I had a few nights ago.

Warning ⚠️ this has mentioned abuse and hinted kidnapping family deaths betrayal and murder along with some homophobia

I didn’t sleep well for almost the whole night I woke up at 2 in the morning, and just tossed and turned for the rest of the night until around 7am I could finally sleep. But when I did, I had this really weird dream.

The dream was about two families. The first family was a family just like you and me; there was a husband named Lucas, a wife named Care, they had three children. A son named Edward, a daughter named Lysa (with a y), and then there was the youngest, sweet little Andrew. The second family however… looked like a normal and esteemed family from the outside… but on the inside they were monsters. There was a husband named Marlin, but something didn’t feel right about him from the start, he was always smiling no matter what happened, like he was looking at you like you were a piece of meat. A wife named Stephanie, she was beautiful and an ex model, but she was very vain, cruel, and thrived off of other people’s misery, even if it was her own family. A daughter, Eve, and finally the youngest, a son called Matt.

The Dream starts off in an old cartoon style like; He-Man, Shera, and Scooby Doo. Cartoons that aired in the 1990s or in the early 2000s. The two families are very clearly shown to be enemies and not like each other at all. The cartoon starts out as normal, with a running gag of Marlin and Cheetos, but something doesn’t feel right… no matter how much Marlin expresses his distaste for the Howards, he never stops smiling. I’m always uneasy when Marlin is on screen.

The episodes start out normal with some silly gags here and there. But then after the first or second episode… things start to take a dark turn as the screen goes black. When the screen comes back; it’s not in the old cartoon version like it was before, it’s now in some pixilated video game with the main character being a middle school girl with pigtails. And the weird thing is, this girl isn’t a part of the Howards family or a part of Marlin’s family. Actually… she didn’t appear in any of the episodes… not even as a background character.

I guess I should have mentioned this sooner, but… I’m not me in my dream. I’m in this dark room, just looking at this old TV I remember seeing in the window of an antique shop once. When I look behind me, there’s this locked door with a dim light shining through the cracks. I look back to the TV that’s trapped in the lonely room with me. With hands that clearly aren’t mine, I reach out and pick up a video game controller, and start playing the game.

(Yes, I know these drawings suck, but keep in mind that this is the first ever time that I have ever attempted to make pixilated characters. So please be nice in the comments I know they’re crappy! 😂)

It’s not clear what the point or objective is until I walk the girl over to this sheet of paper on the ground. It says at the top of my screen; “4/16 notes”. This seems out of the blue but I continue to collect the girl’s notes. In each panel of the background; there’s a black truck of some kind with some guy inside. The man had a stubble beard, a red cap with the word “UPS” on, and a smile on his face. He was just sitting there staring at the girl in every panel. Wherever the player went the black truck was present in the background somewhere. Some people would be confused by this, but for some reason… I knew who it was; it was Marlin… Marlin was stalking this girl.

After I collect all of the notes, the top of the screen reads; “Time to go home; 0/1” When you go to the street that the girl lives on, that’s when it happens. Marlin’s truck pulls up and the girl stops, the screen cuts to black and all you hear is a blood curdling scream. What happened to her? I have no clue. I don’t know if he killed her, or if he kidnapped her.

When the screen pulls up again, we’re back to the old cartoon style episodes that we started with, but Marlin is less and less present in the scenes and Stephanie seems more and more aggressive when she harasses the Howards. After each episode, another mini game pulls up, and each time you play as a different victim of Marlin. One is an elementary school boy who gets lost on his way home from school. Another is a young, new, stressed out high school teacher. The third one is a high school delinquent. And the final one is another middle schooler, who is in 6th grade and was running away from bullies. All games end in the same way; with Marlin’s truck pulling up next to them and the screen turns to black.

After each mini game and before the next episode comes on; there are black text-boxes, and what they say vary. “My lord, thank you for sending another one of your meek little lambs. I will continue with your work my Lord. Thy will be done.” and; “Why? Why does she always get everything that I can’t have? Why does she get to have the life that I deserve?” along with, “What did she do to deserve the life that I was supposed to have? It was supposed to be me. She doesn’t deserve that life.” And; “I’ve seen your sign my Lord, I understand; you will receive another lamb soon. Thy will be done.”

After the fourth victim, things take a dark turn for the Howards. Sweet little Andrew Howards… has been found dead with his skull bashed in. His death devastated the family. Care became a shut-in, she locked herself away and barely left the house after the death of her baby boy. Every time Edward and Lysa leave the house, even if it’s just when they go to school, Care freaks out and begs them not to leave the house. Lucas is bitter, angry, and vengeful to bring his son’s murderer to justice. But at the same time he neglects what is left of his family.

I automatically thought it was Marlin… but it’s not him… it can’t be him, is what my head kept telling me. Stephanie is shown having a toxic and unhealthy relationship with her children and having insane expectations of them. The episodes get more weird when it shows Stephanie taunting Care multiple times. She is clearly very happy about Care’s depression. Eve and Matt have stopped harassing the Howards ever since Andrew’s death.

A year and a few months pass and Lysa’s sanity begins to wear more and more thin as her family falls apart by the day. Lysa has tried to stay the same, but everyone around her has changed. With her brother sneaking out of the house under their parent’s radars. Her mom growing more and more depressed and clingy with her son and daughter, along with developing schizophrenia. And as for her dad… he grows barely attached to his family because he’s too busy with his mind only set on revenge. Lysa is growing tired of no one acknowledging her existence and people not caring, she’s growing tired of her once perfect and happy family becoming more broken by the day.

Meanwhile Edward has been sneaking out of the house to hang out with some bad friends, with him growing into a rebellious teen towards his helicopter parents. I don’t remember how, but I do remember seeing Edward being bloody and bandaged. But it wasn’t his dad, or his sister patching him up, it wasn’t his mom or his “friends” either… It was Matt. But those were just flashes.

And I don’t remember exactly how it played out… but Edward and Matt had been seeing each other. As in “SeEiNg” each other. Yes… I was slightly surprised as well. Especially when my dirty mind went so far as to… uh… well… I didn’t see anything but I did see them in a bed… under the sheets with each other… so basically they-

Yeah… that 🤭👆

But while having a healthy relationship with Matt helps Edward improve his mental state enough to where he starts to feel like his old self again, he had completely forgotten about his little sister, who was suffering just like him. After Lucas finds out about Edward and Matt’s relationship, (and I don’t know if this is actually what happened) he apologizes for being absent and the only time when he’s present in the kid’s lives, he’s strict and is always hard on them. But… it’s too late.

After Lysa and Edward had a fight… the screen fades to black… when it comes back on; Lysa is in the 8-bit pixilated mini game, just like all of Marlin’s victims were before. Now we play as her, but this time; there’s no black truck in the background, there’s no Marlin. Which is interesting because this is the first time we play as an 8-bit character, but there is no objects to collect, no task no objective, no truck… No Marlin.

The 8-bit character that is Lysa is shown crying and sad, the player wanders aimlessly around, until they go to a spot on the map that wasn’t accessible to the player when they played as all the other characters before. In the area, is a bridge, it starts to rain and as she walks along the bridge; a text-box appears for Lysa’s speech. “Why did you have to die Andy?” *walks across bridge* “I miss you as well… but your death has broken our home…” *walks across bridge more* “…and mama…” *walks more* “… and dad…” *walks a few more steps once more* “I can’t even recognize Eddie anymore…” Lysa stops and faces the bridge railings, all of the sudden the screen glitches as another text box appears, as Lysa goes closer and closer to the edge of the bridge until she is stood on the railing of the bridge. “I don’t think I can take this anymore… I’ve always been too weak for this world…” *the screen flickers* “Home doesn’t even feel like home anymore…” The screen flickers more, and as it does, Marlin’s black truck pulls up to where Lysa is… then it cuts off.

When the screen turns on again; it cuts to a missing poster of Lysa Howards. This is all really confusing to me, because out of all of Marlin’s victims, Lysa is the only one to get a missing person poster.

It was chaos in the Howards house. If not for Matt; Edward would have become a shut-in like his mother. Care was sent to a mental hospital, after multiple attempts of taking her own life, and Lucas was convinced that his little girl’s disappearance was Marlin’s doing.

Speaking of Marlin; at his home he is shown to be an extremely religious man and it is also revealed that he and Stephanie only see each other as business partners instead of husband and wife. Stephanie is revealed to be unhappy with her life and her deranged husband, always envious of Care who had everything she could only dream of having. Marlin also sheds some light onto the way he sees his victims to his daughter, Eve. He views all of his victims as necessary sacrificial lambs as offerings to his lord. He doesn’t believe he is doing anything wrong and is acting as a holy man.

Marlin and Stephanie both find out about Matt and his relationship with Eddward. They beat him while yelling homophobic slurs at him. Eve stands up to her parents and tries her best to protect her little brother. Now this part… I don’t really remember, but one thing lead to another and by the end of it… Marlin ends up accidentally killing his own daughter. Now Marlin sees this as a major sin, especially when she was not an offering, and whatever threads of sanity he had left is gone.

Matt had ran away to his partner. Talking about how desperately he wants to end this cycle of abuse. Matt and Edward weren’t present anywhere else in my dream after that. But I do remember that Lucas and Marlin had some kind of epic showdown in the 8-bit mini game style again. With the player having a boss fight.

By the end of it, Lucas announces that he will murder Marlin like he had murdered his son. Marlin then gives Lucas a confused look as he laughs and breathes out, “I was never the one responsible for your children Howards… not even little Lysa.”

Flash into the future; Lucas Howards is arrested for the murder of Marlin Devon, who’s body was not present at the scene. According to the news; he was also charged with kidnapping and murder of Andrew and Lysa Howards, along with Domestic Violence against Care Howards who is still in mental treatment to this day. Even though there wasn’t nearly enough evidence to back up the claims… Lucas was found guilty, (the aud- diditly dang- dacity!) as the screen fades to black.

When the screen cuts back on, you’re back in the 8-bit style world playing as a little girl who has Matt’s eyes and Edward’s hair. Text boxes appear, showing that Matt and Edward are calling for the little girl named, Abby. Abby goes with her Dads as the player makes them walk to the same spot on the bridge where Lysa had disappeared all those years ago. Where her body has still never been found. Abby drops the flowers at the bridge as the music stops… and a black truck pulls up. The screen turns to static with a text box reading… “Thy will be done…”

#weird dreams #Matt Toros #Eve Toros #Marlin Toros #Stephanie Toros #Lucas Howards #Care Howards #Lysa Howards #Edward Howards #andrew howard #what happened to this family?#For some reason this story sounds familiar #digital art #my art lol #how do i do tags???#my ocs

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