The Dream

Last night I had a dream. I stood in an earthy cavern, unsure of my reason for journeying to the depths in witch I was surrounded. There was no light except the weird glow of phosphorescent moss and the odd slug or insect that evolved this ability over perhaps millions of years. The eerie incandescence illuminated the cavern in hues of sickly greens and blues, casting an unsettling aura over the stone and earth that encompassed me on all sides. I knew not the way out of this subterranean grotto, and in my confusion only pressed forward unconsciously into the depths. My feet moved of their own accord, drawing me down a hewn pathway further and further into the rocky underworld. Soon, the vegetation and fauna had disappeared from the world around the lingering path, the suffocating darkness enveloping me in a cruel embrace, pressing with a maddening force upon my psyche.



As I drifted, sounds became known to me that had not existed before. It was not the buzzing of insects and dripping of water into otherwise stagnated pools that had caught my attention previously. The sounds crept towards me from the depths of the shadows, a sinister call from the darkness. The raspy tones of something slithering and snaking over the stony expanse just beyond my vision breached my senses. Stone and earth shifted, moaning in despair by being assaulted so by whatever was running over its surface. No matter how I focused in the darkness I could not identify the culprits of such unsettling and entirely unearthly cacophonies in the shadows. Yet I dared not deviate from the path for I knew, though not how, that only madness and death awaited me should I seek to do so.



In the distance, the sounds seemed to be amplified. It was as if whatever was intruding on the area around me congregated further ahead in a devil’s communion, and the path carried me ever forwards towards whatever unholiness awaited me. The raised stone under my feet then began a steep climb towards a summit of deeper blackness. I could hear now that what I thought was a congregation of the beasts around me seemed to actually be a much different being, a creature of immense size and weight writhing over the earth. The rasping sounds gave way to the scraping and crumbling of a being dragging its enormous body over the stone in the distance in front of me. Terror began to set in, maddening and overpowering terror. And yet, my legs still carried me forward, towards the great being, towards the abyss.



The path stopped abruptly at the edge of a small raised platform at the zenith of the climb. I walked forward, my vision now used to the blackness enough to see a few feet in each direction. At the center of the platform was what appeared to be an alter of sorts. Set into the stone face were markings I have never come across before, that were of an altogether bizarre nature. Letters and pictograms that were entirely alien greeted me as I gazed upon their roughly hewn visage, the details worn away by the years. The central markings appeared to show the focus of whatever worship was performed at this sinister site. It appeared to show a creature that was circular in shape but beyond that, the details were too worn to make any other observations. However, it was what was beyond the alter that struck an unfathomable fear into my very being. Massive stone doors set into the walls of the cavern oppressed my vision, driving absolute terror into my soul, beyond which originated the sounds of the colossus heard from further down. The doors had the same style of markings as the alter, and were worn away just as smoothly. I drew towards the mysterious gateway by some unknown bodily possession. Every stimulus screamed for me to turn away and be rid of this unholy place, yet my body would not obey my own commands. With every step my panic grew and with it the cacophonous volume of what I can only call the “lesser beings” in the cavern around me. The doorway loomed In front of me, each strange marking adding to my horror, yet none as terrifying as the middle symbol. It was the exact same as that of the alter, simply a round “something” and yet it was causing me to be driven mad with fear as my widened eyes focused upon it desperately willing it to release me and be gone. I was only a few steps from the door when the hulking being I knew lurked on the other side stopped moving, the sound of it’s presence being extinguished. I froze as all sound fell away from the cavern, silence enveloping me along with the darkness. I could not move or even breathe for fear that those doors would open, forcing me to gaze upon whatever monster lay beyond. Suddenly a rumbling split the silence. The creature was moving towards the doors. The rasping and groaning of the thing sliding across the earth grew nearer and nearer and before long it was only feet from me, the only thing sparing me from its unknown form being the two hulking slabs of the portal in front of me. It stopped again just beyond the gateway, each of us feeling out the others presence. I’m sure it could feel my terror, just as I could feel it’s indifference towards such a miniscule and insignificant being washing over me in waves. Then it spoke.



It is not a language known to man that spewed from beyond the doors. It was as incomprehensible as those of an animal but as old as time. Each sound invoked power and fear from the world and with every syllable visions appeared in my mind. I saw creation, the universe spread out before me from infancy. I saw countless civilizations rise and fall throughout time and space, each one as insignificant as the one before it. I saw the past and the future, the darkness and the light that spread over the cosmos with a will of its own. And finally I saw it. A ball of what appeared to be made of a million writhing snakes or at least similar creatures that shone with the brilliance of a thousand suns. Beneath the wriggling exterior, was a formless shadow, a blob of the abyss itself, darker than the blackest of nights. I knew that both the light and the darkness were of the same being, and that I was afraid, truly afraid. Then from the depths of the darkness and light, a single eye opened and gazed upon me and my terror reached new heights as it began calling me, beckoning me forward towards it. It called to me, calling my name. I could not understand its language, but I knew above all that it was my name that it was speaking. It drew towards me and soon enveloped me, all the while repeating my name… My name…



I awoke drenched in sweat, the fear still fresh in my mind. It was like no dream I had had before. And the name. It was not my name, but my father’s name. I cannot describe the terror I am experiencing. Many will think I will have gone mad reading this, and they will soon be right. I can barely hold myself back even now. I write this because I know my fate and go now as my father and his fathers’ fathers before him, being dragged against my will to that accursed place. I go to commune with the Gods.