Dreamscape

In the realm of a dream...

The dreamer stood on the sand under the crystal blue lake. Shifting patterns of light played across the lake floor creating a myriad of colours that wafted over the bleached sand. She felt the warm current flow gently past her pale skin, caressing her, swirling upwards to play with her long hair. “Upwards,” the dreamer thought, “towards the sun and sky.”
Her body began to rise towards the surface slowly. She closed her eyes and hugged herself in anticipation as her body broke through the surface of the water and rose into the air. A droplet of water ran down her leg and gathered on her toe, and for a moment it seemed to hang in midair before falling, forming ripples on the once perfectly calm surface. The dreamer opened her eyes and tried to shield them as she gasped at the sudden brightness of the sun unobscured by the water. Lowering her arms, she saw the still blue surface of the lake, the blue sky and fresh green hills in every direction. Fluffy white clouds rolled past lazily in the sky as the dreamer rose steadily faster towards the heavens. She burst through a cloud leaving a trail of vapour and savouring the feeling of water droplets against her skin once more. As she left the clouds far behind, blue faded to black and stars could now be seen. Between her and the sun stood the moon in eclipse, light radiating outward around the edges in a beautiful ring. The dreamer blinked and now saw the entire galaxy below her, a cluster of beautiful jewels slowly circling around a bright centre. She felt a chill and closed her eyes and hugged herself to keep warm.

But warmth would not come. She opened her eyes to find herself in a gloomy forest. The sun had long since set and a silver mist sat heavy in the air. She felt that something was hunting her. The dreamer felt fear for the first time. She heard a howl from the trees and looked to see where it came from, but in the darkness she couldn’t see anything. Without warning, a grey wolf leapt at her from the left. She screamed as she fell, trying to face the danger. It was almost upon her when time itself seemed to slow down to a stand still. Then the wolf began to fade away as if being sucked back into the darkness, along with everything else. She tried to run but her legs wouldn’t respond, as if she were paralysed. Trying frantically to crawl away, the darkness sucked at her very being and slowly drew her in kicking and screaming. The darkness enveloped the dreamer and threatened to drown her in her own terror. But not wanting to give into her fear, she hoped for some way to escape this dark hell. The dreamer heard a pop and turned around to see a small ball of light just in front of her face. She reached up to grasp the light and as her fingers closed around the ball; it burst, radiating outwards and piercing the darkness, forcing it to subside.

The dreamer found herself standing in the middle of a desert with mountains just visible in the moonlight on the horizon. She looked up to see a thousand sapphire moons in varying phases of their glory. As she appreciated the beauty, she felt a strange urge to howl well up inside of her. Unthinkingly, she opened her mouth and let out a howl that echoed with an ethereal sound. Vertigo struck her and she clutched her head as she fell to her knees. Time speed up as the clouds raced across the sky and the wind battered her. In that maelstrom the dreamer had a moment of perfect thought. A memory surfaced of herself and another preparing for some kind of ritual. Their faces were masked with those of animals.
“It is the ritual of the sands,” the dreamer said.
“That is why you must be out here, to hear the call,” the other argued.
“The call will be strong enough anyway.” The dreamer replied.
A memory that had never happened, of that the dreamer was sure. All at once the vertigo stopped and time returned to normal mere moments before dawn. In font of her she could see a green crystal hovering just above a pedestal. Curious, she walked over to pick it up when four ravens came out of nowhere and landed on the pedestal, blocking her way. She looked over to the east where the sun was starting to edge over the horizon and the ravens took off and flew in that direction. The dreamer looked at the crystal once again and took it from its place above the pedestal. Shifting patterns of green glowed from within the crystal as she looked into its core. At once she knew what she had to do. Quickly pocketing the crystal, she began to walk to the east.

It only seemed like a few steps before she had reached a war-torn city. Rust and ruins lay everywhere. Her feet crunched on the rubble as she walked up to one building and looked inside. It was completely bare. The dreamer now began to feel lonely. Letting out a sigh, she walked slowly back outside. A loud cracking noise could be heard and the building she just walked out of began to sway and tip sideways towards her. She ran as fast as she could but she felt something hit the back of her head hard, knocking her out cold.

The dreamer found herself looking at herself in what looked like a glass coffin on a surgical table. Several doctors sat around drinking coffee.
“She has radiation poisoning,” one doctor said as he took a sip.
“Isn’t it ironic that her name is Hope but she has none to survive?” said another as he laughed.
The dreamer didn’t understand what was happening until she saw her body inside the coffin decay at an accelerated rate. Flesh and bone melted into a white liquid on the bottom of the coffin. The dreamer was horrified at what she saw and felt incredibly sad. She wept as the last remains of her body melted but the sadness was quickly replaced by a burning fury as she noticed the doctors laughing. Laughing at her death. The white liquid inside the coffin began to take form as a body enveloped in flames. The dreamer’s consciousness was once again inside her body and all she felt was the seething hate inside of her. She let out a cry and leapt towards the nearest doctor unhindered by the glass coffin but found herself somewhere else.

The dreamer suddenly realised that she no longer felt angry. She quickly checked her body and found that she had returned to normal. Looking around at her surroundings she saw that she was in a dimly lit large stone hall filled with rows upon rows of mirrors. She walked up to the closest mirror and noticed that they did not reflect light, but instead absorbed it. Seeing something out of the corner of her eye, she quickly turned to see someone run across the row and through a mirror. She raced after him and stopped just before the mirror he went through. Taking a deep breath she stepped through the mirror.

In front of her on a catwalk high above the ground stood the person she was chasing.
“It appears you have become self-aware,” the man said coolly.
“Was it you that did those things to me? You made me feel angry, afraid and alone!” the dreamer accused.
The man shook his head, “I didn’t make you do anything, those were already there. I merely altered the dream.” He looked back to the dreamer. “I have to go, now that you know.”
With that he leapt into the air and faded from sight. The dreamer was left alone to think. She never realised that she was capable of such terrible emotion, but maybe that is the way of all human beings. A subtle thought came to mind: what if it was her ego that had not allowed her to become aware of this darker side? Now that she was aware she would never be able to forget, her soul was no longer hidden. The thought made her shiver as she felt her body become heavy and her eyes began to droop. She began to wake.

...the waking world awaits.