Theater of the Damned

       I found myself in a mixed crowd of ordinary and ordinarily dressed people, and extraordinary persons, all of whom were dressed in everything from Medeaval to Edwardian garb. I've never seen so much velvet and brocade in one location. As we milled about in a large courtyard, I had the feeling that we were actually being herded or prepared for something, that put me on my guard.
       The theater opened and we made our way inside, we were carefully mixed in our seating arrangements, never more than two or three of us ordinary folks together in a row, and never more than five or six in a block. I thought that was peculiar, and started to notice things about the costumed guests. One of the things that I noticed is that they seemed cold whenever I bumped against one. There was a musty odor about some of them. I could swear that a couple of them couldn't, or at least didn't, blink. Their eyes lacked a certain sheen of wetness. I communicated my unease to my seatmate, but she seemed mesmerized by the handsome vampire looking fellow seated to the left of us.
       I noticed that several dozen of us ordinary folks were also looking mesmerized. The Edwardian fop next to me didn't appeal to me, but it was obvious from his conversation that he thought he should. I pointed out that it's a kilt, not a skirt.
       "But it's not plaid!"
       "Welcome to the 21st century."
       "Oh! My." He seemed to take in the thick socks and combat boots for the first time. He turned away and didn't say anything more, for now.
       I heard the sound of curtains opening behind me. I was now fairly certain that this was some sort of trap to catch us more ordinary folks. I turned around, and looked into the projection room that was opening up behind us. The technician made no effort to hide his vampiric nature, and looked quite surprised that I'd been able to avoid the hypnotic lights and music in order to turn around.
       I smiled a huge smile at him. He reflexively smiled back, revealing large fangs. His had flew up to cover his face when I pointed my finger at him and whispered "bang." His eyes grew large and he hurried over to the other side of the projector.
       I turned back to the stage as the main curtain drew open and I saw myself standing there, in ruffled shirt and silk and velvet and brocade. "Now that's a good trick," I thought. The illusion passed as the performer bowed and then righted himself to reveal a white-haired man of otherwise indeterminate age. He was, despite the white hair and red velvet coat, exactly unlike Santa Clause.
       He proceded to go on about being able to defy death. I leaned over to the woman next to me, "If they try to bite you, poke them in the chest with this." I pressed a long sliver of wood into her hand. "T-Rex, we need more, please."
       T-Rex slipped out from under my seat with a pair of bags attached to his harness. He crawled under the seat in front of me and vanished. I watched the performer on stage. He was sitting at a chair surrounded by Tesla Coils and book cases. He touched both metal pads on the arm of his chair. I tipped one of the coils so it was behind him, and a lightning bolt tore through him.
       It didn't kill him, of course, as he was already dead, but it did create a nice burned hole through him. A hole that was already healing. There were gasps from the audience and he covered up the hole in his chest with his coat.
       "An illusion, quite, shocking, no? I will have to have a little talk with my, wife, about setting up the furniture properly." He looked at me and I could hear him in my mind.
       "You are in our world now, there is no help from yours coming."
       I smiled my huge smile again. "I'm glad we're in your world, because in mine I could never have done this." I decided not to mention that T-Rex had opened up a nice large conduit to my world and I was fully aware that I was in the dreamlands.
       A hole opened up in the floor beneath my kilt, and T-Rex jumped out, dragging a gun case behind and with two bags full of old fashioned stakes.
       "Oh, My!" the fop next to me stood and made his way out into the aisle. T-Rex raced under the theater seats, slapping a stake into the hands of every ordinary person in the row as he went. (Talented cat, it must be those extra claws.)
       "I told you there was something different about this one!" came a shout from the top of the aisle behind me. The technician in the booth slipped around the projector and turned on the hypnosis lights again.
       I tossed a spray of holy water into the beam and there were gasps from the ordinary folks in the room who could now see their companions for what they were. There were also jets of gas from many where holy water had contacted undead flesh.
       "That can't work, you don't believe."
       "Ah, but you do." I stated flatly back, locking the barrel of my .306 in place with a click. I hastily dug a handful of hollow points into a stick of wood to fill their points with slivers.
       "You deserve to be one of us!"
       "Perhaps, but none of these deserve to be dinner."
       "You know you can't shoot me with that."
       "Yep, that's why I'm handing it to her." And I passed the rifle to the woman on my left, who'd already dusted a couple of vampires around her. I took her stake in exchange.
       "Blood and fire!" The vampire on stage started to turn back into me, then began to shift into a winged form.
       "Shoot him first." I whistled for T-Rex, I wanted to get him out from under foot before the real melee started. "Welcome to the 21st century."
       A shot rang out. Then I realized that the woman didn't know anything but look through scope, pull the trigger, and I had to show her how to operate the bolt. I used some form of telekinesis to keep the vampires away while I showed her what to do. It only holds four rounds and one in the chamber, she'd have to reload. I knew there was a larger clip for it, but T-Rex hadn't brought it.
       "Aim for the flying ones. We'll handle the ones on the ground." I told her. She was still partly mesmerized, but was responding to my commands. I knew that T-Rex had gotten stakes to nearly everyone, but I also knew that the undead were still likely to take a few of us with them. T-Rex vanished and then returned moments later with more vials of holy water. I sent him to put one in the lens slot of the projector.
       The hypnotic cone spraying across the middle of the room seemed to sap the strength of any human that entered it. I was using my phantom arms to keep the vampires away from my rifle shooting companion. I found that I was not even able to jab the stakes into the vampires, though I could hold them at bay, and fling them around. Others had to make the fatal jabs.
       The hypnotic cone suddenly changed to a bright cone like a shaft of sunlight. I shouted out for everyone to make their way into the cone of light.
       Violent and scary dream from that point on, lots of injuries, limbs ripped off. T-Rex could teleport small (stake and vial sized) objects about a meter or so. He got really good a popping up a vial of holy water directly into the path of a charging vampire. I really don't think they were prepared for such a talented familiar. (Or perhaps they'd never fought against a foot high creature who could pad silently a full speed under rows of theater seats and show up nearly anywhere.)
       The cone of now 'Holy' light weakened any vampire or undead who stepped into it. Interestingly, my own telekinetic abilities were also damped by it. I had to step out of the cone to make use of my ability to grasp and move things. It was like having a second set of arms and hands that could stretch to anywhere I could see.
       Being outside of the cone made me a target. Having an extra set of arms gave me a bit of an advantage, and seeing the vampiric 'What just grabbed me?' expression was priceless.
       Once we had the upper hand T-Rex and I opened up a portal home, and, though it wasn't home for everyone, it was safer than being here, where I could tell there would never be a sunrise, and we would always be hunted. We moved the injured across first, my magic hands lifting them under the shoulders and lowering them through the hole. I could only evacuate the injured between shoving vampires back into the aisles and down into the orchestra pit. Or, my favorite. T-Rex would flip a vial into the air and I would shatter it, then I push a vampire through the resulting cloud of vapor. Steam and screams and vampires running away or turning into gas and fleeing. I wished we had some lighters, but perhaps it was best that we didn't, burning the place down around our ears might not have been a winning strategy.
       The battle continued, and I knew it would continue a long time. I didn't think that I could jump through my own portal, so I was going to be stuck there it seemed. T-Rex arrived with more ammunition and I filled the hollow points with wood slivers as my rifle woman kept shooting. The theater was empty, at last, but I could hear large numbers gathering outside. I used my abilities to pick up as many stakes as I could, moving them into a pile close by once my cargo pockets were filled. T-Rex made another trip and brought back a couple of bags of more stakes, and he pulled through a long steel shaft with wooden points on both ends.
       "Where in the world did you get this?" Then I recognized the steel shaft as a length of pipe that had been stored in our garage for many years. I wondered why I'd kept hold of that.
       I still don't know who made the wooden points for it, but was glad to have it, seeing as how I didn't seem to be able to use a firearm. I wasn't sure the dream logic would allow me to stab a vampire either though. I also woke up wondering where T-Rex was getting vials of holy water, I mean, who would give holy water to a witch's familiar? If you steal holy water, is it still holy? Who broke up all the scrap lumber into pointy stakes? Who makes panniers for a cat? Why can't I hit things with a firearm in my dreams?