hang the witch

I was in this town hall type place and there were rows of people sitting and watching a trial of some sort. The woman at the front of the room said, "The jury finds the defendant guilty. The penalty is death. Hanging is scheduled for tomorrow at nine a.m."

I found out later that the woman judge who announced that the man would be hung was also the man's girlfriend. Along with everyone else in the town I watched the guards put a noose around the man's neck and the judge stood there crying, looking at the man and saying, "I'm sorry."

Later in the dream, I found myself in jail. Then I found myself at a trial, just like the one I had watched. It was decided that I was to be hanged. I didn't know what I was guilty of. I kept crying and asking everyone what I did wrong.

The next day I stood in front of all the townspeople, trying to brace myself for death. The guard asked me if I had any last words and I said "I don't wanna die!" I was crying my eyes out. I was incredibly scared. I kept asking them what I did wrong and telling them I didn't want to die. The judge looked at me and said, "I know. No one does. I'm sorry."

So the guards put the noose around my neck and kicked the chair I was standing on from under me. Everyone left the room and I was just hanging there, waiting to die. Then I realized I could still breathe and it would be easy to get out of the noose. So I made sure no one was watching from the next room and struggled out of the rope. Then I snuck quietly out of the front doors of the town hall. I had escaped death. I ran far away from the place and somehow found my car and got in it.

I was constantly paranoid that the cops would find me and hang me again, with better results than last time. So I put duct tape over my license plate so no one could see the numbers. And I dyed my hair blonde and wore huge sunglasses everywhere I went. The last part of the dream I remember is seeing my mom in some coffee shop. She hugged me and said, "I thought you were dead." We were both crying. Then we noticed there was a cop a few tables away from us and he looked right at me. Then I woke up.

It's kind of like the short story by Stephen Crane called Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge. And the Twilight Zone episode of the same name. But different ending of course.