Journal Entry – October 19th, 2021

The Temple and the Puzzle Box

I was mostly hanging around a temple (Shaolin themed I believe?) where I was required to perform some demonstration or training in the courtyard in front of the temple to honor the recent passing of our Sensei. Once the performance was over, I was allowed some time for rest before the next demonstration. In this time I came across a group of people chatting. Some of them looked like people I used to work with, but there was one brunette girl I took a particular liking to. She didn’t talk much (perhaps she was shy?) and mostly kept to herself. I didn’t speak much myself.

I eventually leave and return to the courtyard of the temple for another round of demonstrations. Once that performance was over, I encountered the same group of people on my way back to the previous area. This time, we each had been given a box that contained puzzles or challenges for us to complete, and each puzzle was personally catered to the individual. We all sat down together at a large table in another room that we had relocated to. It was clear that most of the group didn’t take the boxes seriously – they mostly chatted and joked before eventually getting up to leave.

After a few moments, the only ones left in the room were the brunette I had taken a liking to and myself. After remaining silent for a while, I finally initiated a conversation with her. She immediately became more chatty and lively, as if she had already taken a liking to me and was shy or she was waiting for me to say something the entire time. After chatting for a moment, she decided to put something onto the television in the room for us to watch together. The dream ended soon after.

Another detail about this dream involves the puzzle box I was given. I don’t remember what was inside of the box, but I distinctly remember what was on the underside of the lid when you opened it. There were four faces, each one uniquely different that were constantly morphing and changing their expressions. The first face was human, and no matter what emotion it was displaying, the face was always bruised. The second one was square and simple, almost like someone drew a face on a piece of tofu. The third and fourth faces I do not remember.

Sensei and the Mask Machine

I had a sudden urge to visit my Sensei (same one as the previous dream), so I drove to his house. It was night time when I arrived and I was wearing my haunt gear (dressed in all black and wearing a mask). Due to this, when I peeked around the side of his house and saw him in the backyard, he became hostile and began sprinting towards me! I removed my mask and quickly threw my hands up. He stopped when he recognized me, apologizing and conversing with me for a moment.

A group of men (his friends or coworkers?) eventually exit his home and join us in the backyard. I give them my mask and they place it into a machine of some kind. The machine malfunctions halfway through processing my mask, but it succeeded in changing it. I don’t know what it was supposed to do if it didn’t malfunction.

At first, I was wearing the Hoxton mask from Payday 2. After being processed through the malfunctioning machine however, it became a cheap plastic masquerade mask. After a few moments, one of the other men said that they would rather be doing anything else than “dealing with some kid.” I decided it was time to leave after hearing that.

The Collapsing Tower

I entered a large skyscraper/hotel type of tower with a group of people. I didn’t recognize anyone in the group, and one of us was the enemy. He wasn’t an imposter or anything like that. We all knew who he was, the fact that we needed to get some sort of information from him, and particularly that we couldn’t kill him. Either we weren’t allowed to kill him as per the “rules,” or we were incapable of doing so. He wore some sort of dark robe or hoodie, and he was cocky, manipulative, and quite perverted.

Our group steadily ascended the tower. Each floor had a different theme, and every time we ascended to a different floor, the previous level would collapse beneath us. If you weren’t able to find the next level in time, you would fall away with it. Our group steadily lost members due to this, as well as being killed off one way or another (I can’t remember the specifics).

At a certain point, a girl I had grown close to and myself had gotten sick of the enemy’s antics. We hadn’t been able to get through to him, and he had been causing problems for everyone the entire time. The girl and I hatched a plan and put it into motion. As soon as he ascended the stairs to the next level, she got his attention and flashed him. This was able to stupefy him just long enough for me to get a good hit on him.

I grabbed him by the back of his collar/hood and held him over the large pit at the center of the stairwell. I demanded the information from him, but all he did was laugh mockingly. We both knew I couldn’t or wouldn’t kill him. I angrily threw him backwards before progressing forward into the next level – a hospital themed floor.

At some point on this floor, one of the girls left in the group gets murdered and we find her body. This woman was the girlfriend of one of the other guys left in our group, and they had been doting on each other to the point that it was annoying everyone else. When her boyfriend finds her body, he loses his mind and flies into a blind rage. He begins attacking everyone indiscriminately, even kills a couple of people.

The details are lost on me, but I end up on the next level with the enemy, the girl I had grown close to, and maybe one or two other people. Afterwards, the next thing I remember is finally reaching the very top of the tower. I do not remember what I found up there, only the fact the woman I was close to and myself were the only ones that made it. I believe we didn’t exchange any words, we were just happy that we made it.

The next thing I know, I’m riding passenger in a car with my father driving and the woman in the backseat. We were driving on an interstate that cut through a large city, but an orange hue was emanating from it with pillars of smoke rising in the distance. Some of the buildings were on fire and there were emergency services everywhere! We could even see explosions erupting from some of the buildings. We acknowledge the chaos happening around us, and the dream finally ends as we drive into a tunnel.