A Lesser Nightmare

I don't quite remember what led up to it, but I remember being out in front of my grandparent's house, either along the street or in a parked car, perhaps behind a car. A police car went past with its lights flashing, though no siren. It seemed to be in pursuit of another car, but neither were going particularly fast. There were several hispanic men in a car behind us, a red volkswagen bug, and they pulled out and started following the police car. They appeared to be armed. I noticed the street seemed different. It was wider, and looked more inner-city-ish. There were cars parked all along both sides of the street, and there were a lot more buildings, apartments, and hotels. The policeman had stopped his car and gotten out, pistol drawn. He was a black man of medium build with a mustache, and in full uniform. There were more young hispanic men coming up the street towards him, seemed to be a large gang, or a perhaps the start of a riot. They mostly carried sticks, clubs, and such, but a few of them had guns.

My dad had me take my mother, sister, and brother-in-law into our hotel (apparently we were at the shore on vacation now rather than at my grandparents' place), while he and my brother, both armed as well, were going to give back-up for the policeman, along with a few other upright men of varying race. I was frantically running through the hotel, looking desperately for our room, which overlooked this particular street. I entered one room that I thought was it, but an older woman was in it whom i did not recognize. "Sorry, wrong room," I said, and quickly ran out to continue my search. I entered another room at the end of the hallway, but found an unfamiliar older couple in it. "Your room's over there," the man said, pointing to an adjacent door. My sister unlocked the door and we went inside, and there found my mother in a bathing suit, apparently getting ready for the beach. It was understood / implied in my mind at this point that she was not present earlier. I ran to the window and grabbed a rifle, in hopes of offering sniper support, but when I got there it was already over. People were cheering, the gang had been defeated, though how, I do not know.

Time passed, and things began to settle down. I was about to go to bed, but I stopped to look out the window in my bedroom. It had started to storm, and and I could see the ocean. Suddenly an enormous wave rose high above the horizon. That's a big wave, I thought. Then it came crashing down, and the water came rushing toward the hotel, and filled up all the way to my window, which was on one of the upper floors. It continued to flow until the bottom two-thirds of the window was covered in water. I feared that the glass might break and that the water would come pouring in, trapping us in a completely flooded hotel room. I ran to my sister's room, and she was sitting on the edge of her bed, consoling herself by hugging her little dog tightly. All of the windows I saw were now completely covered with water. "We have to go up!" I shouted, and we started to gather the rest of the family. But that must have been enough of it, for the threat of the flood completely disappeared from my mind.

Everyone else had left, or was waiting out in the hallway. I was walking to the bathroom, and suddenly realized I could place my tongue under and inside of one of my teeth, into an impossibly large cavity. In the bathroom, I took a hold of the tooth, and with a light tug, I pulled it out, and dropped it in the trash can. I looked in the mirror at the gaping, bloody hole along the right side of my mouth where the tooth had been. Then I became aware that there were more teeth that had to come out, and tin gripping another tooth and pulling, something resembling a dental retainer came out along with both of my canines. "Oh no, those were my favorite!" I lamented. I looked again, and saw what appeared to be a metal wire around them, as though I'd had some preparative dental work done for a night brace, or some other bizarre apparatus. I gazed into the mirror again, and although these had been from the upper row of teeth, my whole bottom row were gone, and my lips hung kind of loose at first, then receded into the deformity of a toothless lower jaw.

I awoke after that, and earnestly thanked the Lord I still had all of my teeth..