Video Journal 5 - Virus

Video Journal #5 - Virus is the 5th video in MLAndersen0. It was posted on January 26, 2011.

## Description

ive had this word stuck in my head for the past 3 days

i want more sleep

## Transcript

*The video begins in the same room as the first three video journals. The room is well lit and Michael is sitting at his desk in the same place as he usually sits.*

**Michael**: Hey. Um, it’s January 25th, it’s 9:21pm. *[nods slowly]* Um… I’ve slept a lot since uh, since Friday. *[plays with a coin in his right hand]* Friday night. Um. When I first got out, I wasn’t taking my medicine too much. I mean, I did that first night but I didn’t sleep very well, so I kinda just… *[glances down at his desk]* cut it out and then after I got home Friday, uploaded the video, I don’t know—I tried it again, just, you know, quetiapine… and uh, *[pauses to think]* I took it again and I’ve got about forty hours in the past three days. Uh, so I’m a bit… out of it. It’s a lot of sleep. I’ve uh, been dreaming a lot though.

*Michael puts his head against his palm and plays with his earring for a moment.*

**Michael**: Like I was saying, I… haven’t had any for a while. So that weird one… But uh, *[Michael is silent for a moment]* I was dreaming about my parents. *[smiles]* This park we used to go to as a kid, it was right down the street, and this… big red slide and a tire swing. Me and my brother used to go on it—he was there. All these kids that I remember: Tommy and Eric from down the street and… *[starts playing with his earring]* I don’t know, it was… it was nice.

*Michael looks directly at the camera, smiling a bit.*

**Michael**: Um… *[pauses]* then it—then it stopped. Everyone uh… everyone kinda disappeared. And they—they disappeared. I could still—I could still hear them. Like, they were all still playing… *[pauses again]* I don’t know. T—*[sighs]* The first time, I started to be dragged… dragged like… *[gestures towards the back of his neck]* like by the back of my shirt like my dad used to do… when I was in trouble. And it… was just dragging me across the playground, through the gravel and up into the grass and I was… clawing and clawing at the grass but I couldn’t get a grip on it and it… turned hard under my fingernails *[looks at his hand]* like cement. And I was still clawing at it and it was ripping my fingernails out and… *[faint tapping noise]*

*Michael looks seriously at the camera.*

**Michael**: And I was back in that alley. The alleyway. And it just let go. I—I looked behind me and I couldn’t see anything, I was like… I was being pulled by some—some invisible force and... I was back in the alleyway and… the grandfather clock was there still. But it was… *[pauses]* it was taller. It was taller and the blank face of it was more pronounced and… I don’t know, it still had those… *[sighs]* those clock arms that were not spinning right, they were coming out of it and… the pendulum. And I can move this time. So I got up and started walking towards it.

*Michael swallows, sighs, and then leans his head so his hand is in his hair. He scratches at his head.*

**Michael**: I reached out to touch it, *[puts his hand down again]* just like my first dream. Um, but I was the one walking towards it—I could control that. As I got closer and closer, it felt like it was *[chuckles]* like it was talking to me? *[puts his other hand in his hair]* Just one word repeating over and over again. It was dull… at first, and then the closer I got… it was just repeating over and over again like it was drilling into my head. *[pokes his forehead, then drops his arm]* I don’t know. I woke up and *[sound of a coin dropping onto the desk]* I don’t remember doing it, but uh…

*Michael reaches for something to his left, out of sight of the camera. He picks up a journal and rustles the pages noisily.*

**Michael**: My dream journal…

*Michael sighs and brings the journal up to the camera. There are several marks along the edges, and VIRUS written in large black letters that take up most of the page. The word VIRUS is underlined and written roughly, likely with a permanent marker. Michael holds the journal in front of the camera long enough to examine the page, and then he drops it back to where it was on the floor.*

**Michael**: I don’t know what it means. *[clears his throat]* But uh… I went to the… went to the bathroom after I woke up an hour ago and… I came back and… I—I don’t know *[leans back in his chair]* I gotta show you, with the camera.

*Michael takes the camera and gets out of his chair. He walks to the door of the room and opens it. As soon as he enters the hallway outside of the room, a strong ringing/buzzing noise can be heard. Michael walks to another door and opens it. As soon as he enters the new room, the noise stops. The new room is a bedroom with blue curtains and an unmade bed in the corner. Michael approaches the bed. On the pillow is a red dreamcatcher and a red tie.*

**Michael**: *[sighs]* I don’t remember writing that in my dream journal. And I sure as hell don’t remember this, but uh… I don’t know. *[sighs again]* I don’t feel safe. I’m going to go crash with my brother, I think.

*Michael turns around with the camera to face the open door of the bedroom. He shuts the door, picks up an orange flashlight, and turns off the light. He turns back around to the room. Michael turns on the flashlight and points it at the curtains, at the wall above the bed, at a closet or bathroom door, and back around the room. He slowly approaches the window, turns off the flashlight, and moves the curtains so he can see outside. Outside, there is a car on a faintly lit road and snow on the ground. The video ends as Michael covers the window with the curtains again.*