Burning Man - a nightmare

No, not that one. This burning man is an entity in one of the most bizarre and frightening dreams I've ever had. This dream was set back in the early 90's when I had a roomate named Alice. She and I were both hairdressers back then.

The dream began with Alice driving us home from a hairshow. We were on the interstate. It was late, we were exhausted and there wasn't another car in sight. We were doing everything we could to stay alert on that last long, dark, lonely stretch of empty road.

I started telling creepy stories, thinking the adrenaline would energize us. I told the one about the man with the hook and the "parked" teenagers... The escaped mental patient...The babysitter who gets a spooky call from inside the house........all the classics. We were becoming very creeped out - but we were wide awake.

Before too long we heard a strange noise. It sounded like something had hit the front wheel well of the car. We looked at each other and laughed sort of nervously for a second, each of us thinking we'd imagined it. It only took another second though, for us to realize we'd both heard the sound. Then came the inevitable discussion. "What do you think it was?" "Should we pull over and take a look?" " Do you think it's safe to stop out here?"

Just a short moment later, I noticed a strange tiny glow emanating from that part of the car. As I watched, it grew and I realized it was the flicker of a tiny flame. Before I could say a word, Alice had noticed it too and she immediately began slowing down.

As the car's momentum slowed, the flame grew exponentially larger. Almost immediately, it blossomed into a fireball. Suddenly, I realized it was more than just a ball - it was shaped like a head - and it was attached to shoulders. Furious eyes suddenly blinked open and stared through the windshield with an unquestionably evil awareness and intent. The shoulder moved and an arm and hand came into view, slapping down onto the hood of the car with an audible thud. Then the other hand. This impossible... thing was climbing up onto the car!

By now the car had almost come to a stop, but Alice knew we had no chance against this thing if we stopped. With no other choice, she floored it. The car lurched forward and the creature was thrown against the windshield. At this close range we could hear the sound of the flames and the terrible, high-pitched, mewling sound the creature was making.

Rather than being reduced and devoured by the flames, this abomination was becoming more substantive every moment. It was actually being created by the flames. I could see bones, with bloody and grisly muscle and flesh knitting to them as I watched in horified fascination.

The car was slewing all over the road because Alice's vision was quickly becoming completely obscured by the detritus being smeared on the windshield. Without any warning the creature's fist smashed straight through the screen! The glass shattered, some of the pieces falling in on us and some staying upright, creating a jagged hole through which this burning arm was thrust, reaching for my face. The putrid stench of burning flesh permeated the interior of the car and blood and filth dripped and slewed all over me while the creature clawed and tried to grab me.

Thinking quickly, Alice slammed both feet down on the break pedal. The car went into a sickening spin and the creature lost it's grip and was thrown free of the car, but not before the jagged window glass dug into it's charred flesh and ripped the arm from it's body. I screamed in agony and terror as the severed limb landed in my lap, smoking and leaking a steaming viscous fluid all over me. I rolled the window down as quickly as I could, grabbed the now smoldering mess and jettisoned it from the car.

The creature had fallen onto the blacktop of the road and was self-illuminated as it tumbled end over end and finally rolled to a stop. It lay there in a crumpled burning heap. Still. Unmoving. We sat there, watching it burn. Trying to process what had just occured. To take stock of our injuries. And there were no words. The only sound was the popping and crackling of the fire and the soft inhalations of our stuttered breaths.

The fire shifted, the way a fire will as it consumes it's fuel. Or so we thought. Quite slowly, and to our utter disbelief, this monster (for what other label truly fits?) got it's remaining three limbs working and, with the grace of a dancer, rolled to it's feet and rose to it's full height. It stood for a moment with it's head bowed as if gathering it's thoughts. Then the head came up and it turned and looked at us. It turned on it's heels and began stalking back toward the car.

Screaming, Alice threw the car back in gear and jammed her foot down on the gas pedal. We took off, both of us looking back over our shoulders. The creature was running after us, but thankfully, it wasn't as fast as the car, and it began to drop back, appearing smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror. The last we saw of it, it was dashing into the treeline on the side of the road.