City of Dreams

"There is nothing like a dream to create the future." ~ Victor Hugo

Kana tucked her hand under her arm and drew her feet together, she laid on her left side, the burns made it impossible for her to sleep on the other. She remembered her guru's instructions, she chanted and tapped her third eye three times. This time she would get it right.

She woke in the same place as before, glancing up at the eighty story grey skyscraper in a street filled with people doing nothing purposefully. She detested the small minded pettiness of their existence. She didn't have sympathy today. Remember to keep control of your thoughts and focus on positivity, her gurus words echoed mournfully. She remembered love and brought herself back to forgiveness, they couldn't help it.

They weren't real anyway she reminded herself. Kana put her right arm through her left shoulder. At least she was still real. A man in a pork pie hat and grey overcoat. stopped and stuttered, "Can I help, what's happened I..." she thought she'd have some fun and slowly dragged her arm from it's position. "I'm just stretching," she said, with a deliberately freaky glint in her eye. He faltered forward and ran in to the grey metropolis. She giggled. "Oh no not again!" The grey people faded and the building disappeared.

Kana awoke with her hand twisted awkwardly under her left side. "Damn, I lost my focus again!" She was struggling with this assignment, She should have been in control of her dreams by now. Long Shadow, her guru contained his quiet despair. He had been sent from dimension 5791 to balance an event here to prevent an event there of catastrophic proportions and it all depended on her, she still didn't have the reality of that.
The time before last in her dream training he had taken her to a land of fire. They walked through searing heat that would crisp skin in seconds like a pig on a spit. He had left her, left her in fire alone, she had freaked out, she had burned. When she reproached him he said it was the only way to learn and that this was a serious thing and should be treated as such. He had said her mind made the fire real within the dream. She was taking it more seriously now. The scars on her side itched and tingled.

When she had finished an hours meditation she lit the sacred lamp of dreams, lay on her bed, tapped her third eye three times and sank in to a moments oblivion. Standing on the same grey side walk she planted her feet as a tree and planted roots, this time she was planning on being here a while. The grey sky scraper seemed taller and the people even more hurried than before. She wanted to practice her skills. She looked across the road there appeared to be a mugging taking place. How convenient she mused, she dashed across the busy street, a cab hooted, a lorry rumbled and a cyclist raised his fist and swore. She looked on them all as surreal TV characters manufactured by her subconscious, this was just a playground. She grabbed the hooded youth by the scruff of his top he turned violently knife in hand stabbing at the air, wanting to make it flesh. She moved too fast for him. "Ahnankla" whispered Kana, he felt his mind go woozy and feint like an HB pencil drawing, his limbs followed. "What the.." He dropped the old ladies bag as he rose majestically in to the air, Kana rose with him. "Now then, don't ever do that again - I will be watching you." The look on his face was hysterical, the disbelief stuck in shock and horror, she could not help herself and started laughing. "Oh!" again everything faded and she was once more back in her bed still laughing.

The next day she spoke with Long Shadow, she felt he would be pleased she had managed to practice her skills and had stayed such a long time. His gloom proceeded him and suffocated her smile. "That was a real dimension not a dream world, you were seen, on camera. They are not ready for such knowledge. I have many things to put right now because of your mistake, not just there but the other places that will be affected. This will reduce our time together." He handed her a small book. "There is little time. You must now learn the dream world form the real world. This is not easy as they look the same."

Kana took the small red book carefully and gripped it tightly She tentatively looked about her with new eyes.


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