First Weird Dream of the Year

And, in typical fashion, I can only remember the last couple of bits:

A chase around a massive, yet derelict (or not, it seemed to switch between depending, perhaps, on character perspective) hotel, which seemed to have its own on-site hospital, because the particular chase I remember was between a seriously injured woman - crawling either because her legs were broken (hence her presence in the hospital?) or because she was paraplegic - and an evil, spectral and, above all, able-bodied version of herself. It was one of those situations where, due to its presentation, I can't be sure if it was playing out as part of a movie or a videogame, but there was a bit where she was crawling toward a lift, only to see it leave her floor with a passenger (possibly referring to the bit in Inception where Ariadne has invaded Cobb's 'prison' for Mal, runs back to the lift while he's distracted, and heads to the 'basement' alone). She immediately dragged herself down one of the dingy staircases running either side of the lift shaft (featuring some neat impossible geometry, where the two staircases curving around the sides somehow don't intersect or interfere with the lift shaft!), then almost literally flies through a bunch of doors toward her room in the 'hospital' area. At one point, she collapsed to the floor and looked behind her, to see her twisted twin shambling after her at the centre of a whirlwind that's wrecking the doorways in her wake. When she finally reached her room, getting herself into bed (and trying to look innocent, as if she'd never left the room) was enough to dispel the monster.

I have flashes of other, slightly similar circumstances from other points in the dream - the opulent hotel in its heyday; a massive central foyer overlooked by many balconies, all brightly lit with chandeliers; chases between other people and other monsters, all ending badly, and one involving the lift in a way that suggested all chases were happening concurrently - but can't remember enough to flesh out the 'story'. What I do remember is that, after a movie, I was walking toward another lift (or was it the one from the chase sequence?) discussing the events of the film. Just as I got into the lift, I had been talking about the alternate ending posited by a post-credits sequence that was removed from the final theatrical edit. Just as I was about to reveal the 'true' ending, "They all got to the airport and..." I was shushed by one of the actors from the film - Bradley Cooper, strangely - who, taking on the quiet, warbling tone of someone concluding a particularly chilling ghost story, said "...and they all got headaches..."

I don't believe that was the ending I was about to reveal... My dream-self felt he was talking about the next Hangover film...

In other news, after a pretty fantastic weekend, I'm back to work now, for three months on contract with one of my regulars... It's going to be interesting... And I've just remembered that I failed to procure a new notepad for this most auspicious occasion...

Nuts...