Jacob had a surreal experience where he felt like he was living in a dream world. He witnessed strange events like cognac disappearing into wood and the wood forming a demonic face. He realized it was his 25th birthday, the same date a demon had told him his mind would be lost. His friend Jeff took him out for his birthday but they disappeared. Jacob then woke up to his parents crying and learned he had been in a coma for 2 weeks after a serious car crash on his birthday, making him question what was real.

1. The Day things went trippy
By Jacob Rablou

2. • It was a pretty usual Thursday morning, barely
managing to wake up after going to bed at 3 because
of procrastinating. Only something felt odd, it felt
somewhat surreal, as if it was all just a really really
good picture. Only you could move around in it and
interact with things, it felt like it was trying to
impersonate the real world. But I tried to reason
with myself and agreed with it being the hangover
from last night. The only thing that still didn’t make
sense was the sunrise and just how pretty it really
was. Whatever I thought, I went downstairs to get
breakfast noticing that none of the stairs creaked as
they always did. That was the tipping point when I
seriously felt as though something was wrong but I
had no idea what to do about it.
No Photoshop, picture from
my room last summer.

3. • It was spring break so the days felt long, and in remembering
that I became very uneasy, I began to panic even, I was pacing
around the house like a mad dog with no purpose in my mind
as to what I was doing. Until I walked unknowingly into a
table and knocked over a glass full with cognac only, when it
shattered the cognac seeped down through the hardwood
vanishing just before my eyes. Into the grains of the wood
becoming a part of the lines, I fell to my knees and hit the
ground until my fists bled, trying to get the liquor out, but it
was in the wood. I looked at it closely and it began to move.
The lines of grain slowly came together in the wood to form a
face. Some fiendish, sniveling looking demonic, satanic
creature made of what I can only describe as hatred from
hell.

4. • It slowly began to open its eyes, its pupils were glowing blood red
and its irises were nothing but flames coming outward from the
pupil. I froze with my gaze stuck on its eyes. I was scared to blink or
move my eyes, thinking that it would go away if I did not make any
move at all. By chest was hurting and screaming to me in pain and I
now I believe I had a minor heart attack of some sort as I my vision
began to be hazy. It slowly opened its mouth into a horrible grin,
barring its teeth and sniveling, its teeth were stained red for the
same reason you’d think they are. I could not hold my eyes open any
longer so I blinked. The instant I did it exploded into a red fireball
that was so big I flinched. When I looked back it was there again,
then it began to talk. “Hello boy!” It said to me with a snarl. I said
nothing, “Your future will be as dark as night, and your mind will
forever be tainted by ME!” I screamed back “Leave me alone!” at the
absolute top of my lungs. It uttered a deep laugh then said “Mark my
words, by the end of your 25th year, your mind will be lost and I’ll be
the only thing you ever see.” Then it broke up into a swarm of insects
that were flying towards me with red eyes. I closed my eyes and
covered my ears to escape the deafening buzz of the swarm.

5. • When I opened my eyes everything was gone and I was sitting there,
the glass broken, the cognac still gone and my knuckles ablaze with
red. I then cleaned up the glass, there were 20 shards of glass and
for some reason that number sounded fishy. I then went outside to
the chair in my backyard to think. The minute I sat down I heard a
bird screeching behind me, making the most awful sound. I
immediately turned around, nothing was there. Then I heard the
sound again on my left; I turned to face it but nothing. I heard it
once more behind me again but nothing. “Where are you!” and all of
a sudden I heard my mother say “it’s time to wake up.” Only, she had
a tremor in her voice. I immediately replied “Mom I am awake, what
is it?” as I began looking around. “Just, please wake up, wake up and
say something!” she began to cry very hard as if something terrible
happened. “Mom where are you?! I’m awake I’m out in the yard,
Mom!” I screamed but there was no response. I began to shake as no
one was around in the yard except me. I slowly and quietly sat back
in the chair, and when I took my eyes off the ground right in front of
me to look in the yard. I heard the screech again above me, but
before I could look up three birds fell from the sky with their throats
ripped out.

6. • I don’t think I ever ran that fast before in my life, I
ran back inside the house, slammed the back door
and locked it. I closed the blinds and sat down on
the floor with my back against a wall. My head was
hurting and my heart was beating too fast, I tried
to control myself and think. There were three birds
and 20 shards of glass. 3 and 20, what does that
mean I kept asking myself. I sat there for half an
hour thinking until it hit me, today is the 20th of
March, the third month and the twentieth day. Also
it was my birthday, the day I turn 25. But before I
could completely lose it and freak out my phone
rang. It was my friend Jeff Chang.

7. • “Hey buddy, look I know it’s your birthday so
let’s go out and get some brunch on me. What
do you say bro?” he inquired. “Uh, something
has me preoccupied right now…” I said trying to
sound calm. “Come on man, it’s your birthday
today, screw everything else lets go. Also I’m
already kinda at your house haha.” He said
cheerfully insisting. “Okay, but give me a few
minutes.” I said. I quickly ran upstairs to the
bathroom and splashed some cold water on my
face, it felt like it helped so out the house I
went.

8. • Jeff had recently bought the new BMW M4 with
a turbo kit and 430 horsepower, in all black, it
was immaculate. I hopped in and we sped off
to the restaurant, Joe had turned the corner of
my street and stopped completely setting the
car for launch. Then, in an instant he floored it
leaving a cloud of burnt rubber behind us. We
burned it 0-100 in no more than 4 seconds, but
Joe then told me that it was a dual clutch 7
speed transmission instead of the 6 speed
transmission of the M3, the model that it is
replacing.

9. • We got there very fast hitting 150 kmph as our top speed on
the freeway before we almost got pulled over. It was funny
however because we sped right past the cop and didn’t stop,
he turned on his lights but saw that we were not slowing down
so he didn’t pursue. We ordered the same thing we always do,
the original breakfast. Bacon, eggs, ham, toast and crepes
with hash browns and Fruit smoothies. The restaurant was busy
as it always was only it was much more quiet than it should’ve
been. Jeff Chang didn’t agree though, he said it was as loud as
always but I knew he was wrong because every other time he
was listening to music while we ate. The bill came around as
usual, 20 dollars each with tip included, we had a small
argument as he wanted to pay for me too. He paid in the end
because he told the waitress it was my birthday so she
wouldn’t let me pay, point is it was nice of him. He then took
out an envelope and handed it to me saying happy birthday. I
opened it and a 50 dollar gift card to B.C. Liquor stores fell out
just as he said “Booze money”. But then I looked up to see the
inside of the card and the thing from the hard wood grains was
there.

10. • I screamed and looked up to see that not only
was Jeff gone, but so was the entire
restaurant, the world itself in fact had
disappeared and I was in total darkness.
Everywhere I looked was nothing, it was like
being out of the universe. Then there was a
flash of light brighter than the sun then all
was dark again. Then another flash, then
nothing, then I woke up.
Where’d he go?

11. • It all turned on like a surge of electricity,
the whole world came crashing down on me,
taking me back into existence. It was an
experience human nature cannot fully
understand. My mother was screaming and
my dad had already lifted me up and out of
the bed, he had tears in his eyes and he was
shouting a thanks to god for bringing his son
back. He then gently put me back down in
the bed and they both just looked at me,
scratching their eyes as if it was all a
figment of their imaginations that I came
back out of it.

12. • I smiled back to their ecstatic faces and asked “What the hell
happened?” They both cut each other off then my mother let
my dad tell me since she was still crying of joy. “My boy you
were dead, then in a coma, then asleep for 2 weeks!” my dad
said with the biggest sound of pride I’ve hear from him in my
life. “How?!” I asked nervously. “You and your buddies went out
for drinks on your birthday and you were in a car crash. The
paramedics said you weren’t breathing for 10 minutes due to
severe blunt trauma to the chest. They then defribulated you
four times before you took your first breath, but you wouldn’t
wake up, all you had was a faint pulse and barely any brain
activity.” Said my mom with tears still running down her face.
“They said your chance of survival was 5-7% son. But you went
head to head with those odds and won!” added my dad. “I still
don’t get it though. When was the crash and how did it
happen? I don’t remember anything.” I asked. “It was two
weeks ago today, on your birthday, you and your friends went
out that night and on your way home some drunk retard T-
Boned you guys on your side of the car really bad. Doc’s say you
took almost all the force of the impact.” He said with disbelief
in his voice. “What about my friends?” I asked suddenly scared.
“They got nothing except some small cuts and minor
whiplash.” Said my mom. “Who was driving?” I asked. “Jeff
Chang was, sucks for his new M4, it’s a shame a brand new
beauty like that was totaled.” Said my dad as we both
chuckled.

13. • I told them about my dreams and they explained
that my subconscious conjured everything up and
that it wasn’t real, but a good imitation of reality.
“But son, on a serious note, we thought we’d lost
you, I had to go to work every now and then but
your mother, she never left your side.” Said my
dad. I looked over to my mother, she stopped
crying now that she saw I really was awake. She
came over to me and gave me a hug and said
“Don’t you ever leave us again.”
•